Methods and apparatus to count people in an audience

• US 9,426,525 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2013
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen & Company Incorporated (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Soundararajan, Padmanabhan, Srinivasan, Venugopal, Topchy, Alexander
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheleheda, James R
• Application Number:
  US14/144,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20150189378A1
• Time in Patent Office: 966 Days
• Field of Search: 725/9, 725/10, 725/11, 725/12, 725/13
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44226 on social networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44231 Monitoring of peripheral device or external card, e.g. to detect processing problems in a handheld device or the failure of an external recording device configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network H04L12/2823; monitoring the status of connected device in data switched networks H04L43/0817
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to count people in an audience are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing location information collected by a portable device indicative of a location of the portable device. The method also includes analyzing proximity information collected by the portable device indicative of when a person is near the portable device. The example method further includes generating presence information based on (1) the location information and (2) the proximity information, the presence information being indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

transmitting a control signal to a portable device a threshold period of time after a person logs into a people meter separate from the portable device, the control signal to cause the portable device to begin collecting location information and proximity information associated with operation of the portable device after receipt of the control signal;

analyzing, with a processor, the location information collected by the portable device to determine a location of the portable device;

analyzing, with the processor, the proximity information collected by the portable device to determine whether the person is near the portable device; and

generating, with the processor, first presence information based on (1) the location information and (2) the proximity information, the first presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further including comparing the first presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the second presence information is generated based on manual inputs to the people meter.

4. The method as defined in claim 2, further including adjusting the second presence information based on the comparison.

5. The method as defined in claim 2, further including adjusting the second presence information by increasing a people count when the person is not logged in to the people meter and the first presence information indicates the person is present in the media exposure environment.

6. The method as defined in claim 2, further including adjusting the second presence information by decreasing a people count when the person is logged in to the people meter and the first presence information indicates the person is absent from the media exposure environment.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further including, if the location of the portable device is within the media exposure environment, determining that the person is present in the media exposure environment when the person is near the portable device.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the proximity information is based on usage information indicative of usage of an application executing on the portable device.

9. The method as defined in claim 8, further including estimating at least one of an identity of the person or a demographic characteristic of the person based on a type of the application executing on the portable device.

10. The method as defined in claim 8, further including identifying the person based on a user account associated with the application, the usage of the application involving the person logging in to the user account.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, further including transmitting a second control signal to the portable device to request the location information and the proximity information from the portable device.

12. The method of claim 1, further including suppressing a prompt from the people meter requesting confirmation that the person is present in the media exposure environment if the first presence information indicates the person is present in the media exposure environment.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a secondary data coordinator to transmit a control signal to a portable device a threshold period of time after a person logs into a people meter separate from the portable device, the control signal to cause the portable device to begin collecting location information and proximity information;

a location determiner to determine, based on the location information collected by the portable device, a location of the portable device at a time after the portable device receives the control signal;

a proximity determiner to determine, based on the proximity information collected by the portable device, whether the person is in proximity to the portable device at the time after the portable device receives the control signal; and

a presence detector to generate first presence information based on (1) the location information and (2) the proximity information, the first presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device.

14. The apparatus as defined claim 13, wherein the presence detector is further to:

compare the first presence information to second presence data collected via the people meter; and

adjust the second presence data based on the comparison.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the presence detector is further to:

if the location of the portable device is within the media exposure environment, determine that the person is present in the media exposure environment when the person is in proximity to the portable device.

16. The apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the proximity information collected by the portable device includes usage information indicative of usage of an application executing on the portable device.

17. The apparatus as defined in claim 16, further including an identity estimator to estimate an identity of the person based on a type of the application executing on the portable device.

18. The apparatus as defined in claim 16, further including a characteristic estimator to estimate a demographic characteristic of the person based on a type of the application executing on the portable device.

19. The apparatus as defined in claim 16, further including an identity estimator to identify the person based on a user account associated with the application, the usage of the application involving the person logging in to the user account.

20. The apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the portable device and the media presentation device are associated with a panelist of a media measurement panel.

21. The apparatus as defined in claim 20, wherein the person is not the panelist.

22. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the threshold period of time corresponds to a duration of time after which the people meter is to generate a prompt requesting confirmation that the person is present in the media exposure environment.

23. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

transmit a control signal to a portable device a threshold period of time after a person logs into a people meter separate from the portable device, the control signal to cause the portable device to begin collecting location information and proximity information associated with operation of the portable device after receipt of the control signal;

determine a location of the portable device based on the location information collected by the portable device;

determine whether the person is in proximity to the portable device based on the proximity information collected by the portable device; and

generate first presence information based on (1) the location of the portable device and (2) the proximity of the person to the portable device, the first presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment including a media presentation device.

24. The storage medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to compare the first presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter, the second presence information being based on manual inputs to the people meter.

25. The storage medium as defined in claim 24, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to adjust the second presence information based on the comparison.

26. The storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to adjust the second presence information by adding the person to a record of people detected in the media exposure environment when the person is not logged in via the people meter and the first presence information indicates the person is present in the media exposure environment.

27. The storage medium as defined in claim 25, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to adjust the second presence information by removing the person from a record of people detected in the media exposure environment when the person is logged in via the people meter and the first presence information indicates the person is absent from the media exposure environment.

28. The storage medium as defined in claim 23, wherein the proximity information is based on usage information indicative of usage of an application executing on the portable device.

29. The storage medium as defined in claim 28, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to identify the person based on a user account associated with the application, the usage of the application involving the person logging in to the user account.