Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to identify media presentation devices

• US 9,124,920 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2011
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielson Company (US), LLC
• Inventors: Besehanic, Jan
• Primary Examiner(s): MIAH, RAZU A
• Application Number:
  US13/172,550
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007236A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,525 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 705/14.44, 370/392
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8352 involving content or source identification data, e.g. Unique Material Identifier [UMID]

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to identify media presentation devices are disclosed. A disclosed example method to identify a media presentation device includes intercepting, using a processor in communication with a local network, a data packet comprising a source identification, the data packet being addressed to a destination in a wide area network and originating from a media presentation device in the local network, identifying a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification, and storing the device type and an indication of media exposure.

Claims

1. A method to identify a media presentation device, comprising:

intercepting, using a processor in communication with a local network, an outbound data packet including a source identification, the source identification being a User-Agent field in the HTTP protocol, and the outbound data packet being addressed to a destination in a wide area network and originating from a media presentation device in the local network;

identifying, with the processor, a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification;

monitoring, with the processor, for an inbound data packet destined for the media presentation device, the inbound data packet representing a response to the outbound data packet;

identifying, with the processor, media presentation information based on the inbound data packet;

storing the device type and an indication of media exposure; and

storing the media presentation information in association with the device type.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein identifying the device type includes comparing the source identification to a source identification database.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further including identifying a first source identification as having a same device type as a second source identification different than the first source identification.

4. A method to identify a media presentation device comprising:

intercepting, using a processor in communication with a local network, an outbound data packet including a source identification, the outbound data packet being addressed to a destination in a wide area network and originating from a media presentation device in the local network;

storing, with the processor, a media request entry including a request origin and a request destination based on the outbound data packet;

determining, with the processor, whether an inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry by determining whether at least one of an origin of the inbound data packet or a destination of the inbound data packet corresponds to the request origin or the request destination; and

identifying, with the processor, a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification;

storing the device type and an indication of media exposure; and

storing information representative of the inbound data packet when the inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry.

5. An apparatus, comprising:

a local network interface to intercept an outbound data packet originating from a media presentation device in a local network and addressed to a destination in a wide area network, the outbound data packet including a source identification and a request, the source identification including a User-Agent string in the HTTP protocol;

a source identifier to monitor for an inbound data packet destined for the media presentation device, the inbound data packet representing a response to the outbound data packet, and the source identifier to identify a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification;

a usage tracker to identify media presentation information based on the inbound data packet; and

a database to store the device type and an indication of media exposure and to store the media presentation information in association with the device type, wherein at least one of the local network interface, the usage tracker, the database, or the source identifier is implemented using a logic circuit.

6. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, further including a wide-area network interface to forward the outbound data packet to the wide area network and to receive the inbound message data packet including media requested in the request, wherein the local network interface is to forward the inbound data packet to the media presentation device.

7. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, further including a source identification database to store a plurality of reference source identifications, the source identifier to compare the source identification to at least one of the plurality of reference source identifications to identify the device type.

8. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the source identifier includes:

a message parser to identify contents of the source identification; and

a device identifier to identify a device based on the contents.

9. An apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein the message parser is to identify media based on auxiliary data included in the outbound data packet, and the database is to store the media identification in association with the device type.

10. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the source identifier further includes a message comparer to compare the outbound data packet to the inbound data packet to associate the inbound data packet with the media presentation device.

11. An apparatus as defined in claim 5, wherein the usage tracker is to generate the media presentation information based on a plurality of media requests.

12. A tangible computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions, which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

intercept an outbound data packet including a source identification, the source identification being a User-Agent field in the HTTP protocol, and the outbound data packet being addressed to a destination in a wide area network and originating from a media presentation device in a local network;

identify a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification;

monitor for an inbound data packet destined for the media presentation device, the inbound data packet representing a response to the outbound data packet;

identify media presentation information based on the inbound data packet;

store the device type and an indication of media exposure; and

store the media presentation information in association with the device type.

13. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions cause the processor to upload the device type to a data collector to determine media presentation device usage statistics.

14. A computer readable medium as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to identify the device type by comparing the source identification to a source identification database.

15. A tangible computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

intercept an outbound data packet including a source identification, the outbound data packet being addressed to a destination in a wide area network and originating from a media presentation device in a local network;

store a media request entry including a request origin and a request destination based on the outbound data packet; and

determine whether an inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry by determining whether at least one of an origin of the inbound data packet or a destination of the inbound data packet corresponds to the request origin or the request destination;

store the device type and an indication of media exposure; and

store information representative of the inbound data packet when the inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry.

16. An apparatus, comprising:

a local network interface to intercept an outbound data packet originating from a media presentation device in a local network and addressed to a destination in a wide area network, the outbound data packet including a source identification and a request;

a database to store a media request entry including a request origin and a request destination based on the outbound data packet;

a message comparer to determine whether an inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry by determining whether at least one of an origin of the inbound data packet or a destination of the inbound data packet corresponds to the request origin or the request destination; and

a source identifier to identify a device type of the media presentation device based on the source identification, the database to store the device type and an indication of media exposure, and the database to store information representative of the inbound data packet when the inbound data packet corresponds to the media request entry, wherein at least one of the local network interface, the database, the message comparer, or the source identifier is implemented using a logic circuit.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 16, wherein the source identification includes a User-Agent string representative of the device type.