Methods and apparatus to estimate demography based on aerial images

• US 9,547,866 B2
• Filed: 06/08/2015
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Terrazas, Alejandro, Himmelfarb, Michael, Miller, David, Donato, Paul
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Nirav G
• Application Number:
  US14/733,711
• Publication Number:
  US 20150269598A1
• Time in Patent Office: 589 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/176 Urban or other man-made structures

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to estimate demography based on aerial images are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing a first aerial image of a first geographic area to detect a first plurality of objects, analyzing a second aerial image of a second geographic area to detect a second plurality of objects, associating first demographic information to the second plurality of objects, the first demographic information obtained by a sampling of the second geographic area, and comparing the second plurality of objects to the first plurality of objects to estimate a demographic characteristic of the first geographic area based on the comparison.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

analyzing, by executing an instruction using a processor, a first aerial image of a first geographic area to detect a first plurality of objects;

generating, by executing an instruction using the processor, a first signature based on the first plurality of objects;

analyzing, by executing an instruction using the processor, a second aerial image of a second geographic area to detect a second plurality of objects;

reducing an uncertainty of estimated demographics in the first geographic area by;

associating, by executing an instruction using the processor, first demographic information to the second plurality of objects, the first demographic information determined based on ground truth data associated with the second geographic area, the ground truth data obtained by a sampling of the second geographic area;

generating, by executing an instruction using the processor, a second signature based on the second plurality of objects;

comparing, by executing an instruction using the processor, the second signature to the first signature; and

estimating, by executing an instruction using the processor, second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the comparison and the first demographic information.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further including classifying the first plurality of objects.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the first plurality of objects include at least one of a swimming pool, a first type of structure roof, a green space, a distance range to a reference location, a landmark, or a roadway width range.

4. The method as defined in claim 1, further including requesting the first demographic information from a database, the first demographic information including at least one of government census data, private census data, manual survey data, or manual sampling data.

5. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the estimating of the second demographic information of the first geographic area includes imputing the ground truth data of the second geographic area to the first geographic area.

6. The method as defined in claim 1, further including determining a density of the first plurality of objects, the estimating of the second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the density of the first plurality of objects.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second demographic information includes at least one of household income, population density, population age, or a family size.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the generating of the first signature based on the first plurality of objects includes cropping the first aerial image to a portion of the first aerial image corresponding to the first geographic area.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

an object detector to;

analyze a first aerial image of a first geographic area to detect a first plurality of objects in the first geographic area;

analyze a second aerial image of a second geographic area different than the first geographic area to detect a second plurality of objects in the second geographic area;

generate a first signature based on the first plurality of objects; and

generate a second signature based on the second plurality of objects;

a database to associate first demographic information to the second plurality of objects, the first demographic information determined based on ground truth data associated with the second geographic area, the ground truth data obtained by sampling of the second geographic area; and

a demography estimator to reduce an uncertainty of estimated demographics in the first geographic area by estimating second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the first demographic information and on a comparison of the second signature to the first signature.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, further including an object classifier to classify the first plurality of objects based on features in the first aerial image corresponding to the first plurality of objects.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the first plurality of objects include at least two of a swimming pool, a first type of structure roof, a green space, a distance range to a reference location, or a roadway width range.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the demography estimator is to request the first demographic information from the database, the first demographic information including at least one of government census data, private census data, manual survey data, or manual sampling data.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, further including a density calculator to determine a density of the first plurality of objects, the demography estimator to estimate the second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the density of the first plurality of objects.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the second demographic information includes population income, population density, population age, or a family size.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 9, wherein the object detector is to crop the first aerial image to a portion of the first aerial image corresponding to the first geographic area.

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

analyze a first aerial image of a first geographic area to detect a first plurality of objects;

analyze a second aerial image of a second geographic area to detect a second plurality of objects;

generate a first signature based on the first plurality of objects; and

reduce an uncertainty of estimated demographics in the first geographic area by;

associating first demographic information to the second plurality of objects, the first demographic information determined based on ground truth data associated with the second geographic area, the ground truth data obtained by sampling of the second geographic area;

generating a second signature based on the second plurality of objects;

comparing the second signature to the first signature; and

estimating second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the comparison and the first demographic information.

17. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to classify the first plurality of objects.

18. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 17, wherein the first plurality of objects include at least one of a swimming pool, a first type of structure roof, a green space, a distance range to a reference location, a landmark, or a roadway width range.

19. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to request the first demographic information from a database, the first demographic information including at least one of government census data, private census data, manual survey data, or manual sampling data.

20. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to estimate the second demographic information of the first geographic area by imputing the ground truth data of the second geographic area to the first geographic area.

21. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to determine a density of the first plurality of objects, the instructions to cause the processor to estimate the second demographic information of the first geographic area based on the density of the first plurality of objects.

22. The tangible computer readable storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to crop the first aerial image to a portion of the first aerial image corresponding to the first geographic area.