Methods and apparatus to detect content skipping by a consumer of a recorded program

• US 9,743,135 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2016
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2003
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Media Research, Inc. (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Feininger, William A., Brown, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): CHIO, TAT CHI
• Application Number:
  US15/156,498
• Publication Number:
  US 20160261913A1
• Time in Patent Office: 462 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2007/1739 the upstream communication being transmitted via a separate link, e.g. telephone line
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440281 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. by frame skipping television signal recording using magnetic recording on tape for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6175 involving transmission via Internet broadcast-related systems characterised by the transmission system being the Internet H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6187 involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/93 Regeneration of the television signal or of selected parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to detect content skipping by a consumer of a recorded program are disclosed. An example disclosed apparatus includes a segment identifier to identify a first number of times a media segment was fast-forwarded and a second number of times the media segment was rewound; and a recapture identifier to determine whether the media segment was recaptured based on a comparison of the first number of times and the second number of times.

Claims

1. An apparatus to detect portions of a recorded program that were not played back in real time, the apparatus comprising:

a time stamper to record a plurality of recording times associated with a recorded program, respective ones of the recording times indicating times of day at which respective sections of the recorded program were recorded;

memory to store the recorded program;

a presentation time retriever to, when triggered;

retrieve a first one of the recording times associated with a first one of the sections of the recorded program being played back;

retrieve a second one of the recording times associated with a second one of the sections of the recorded program being played back;

store the first one of the recording times in association with a first playback time of the first one of the sections;

store the second one of the recording times in association with a second playback time of the second one of the sections;

a detector to compare the first one of the recording times and the second one of the recording times to calculate a recording interval, and

a non-real time content identifier to identify a portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time based on a detected difference between the recording interval and a playback interval, at least one of the time stamper, the memory, the presentation time retriever, the detector, or the non-real time content identifier including hardware.

2. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the presentation time retriever is triggered periodically in response to expiration of a time period.

3. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein the time period is 2.7 seconds.

4. The apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein the time period is adjustable.

5. The apparatus as defined in claim 4, wherein the presentation time retriever is further to:

shorten the time period to achieve more accurate identification of portions of the recorded program that were not played back in real time; and

lengthen the time period to achieve less accurate identification of portions of the recorded program that were not played back in real time.

6. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the presentation time retriever is triggered asynchronously in response to detection of an event.

7. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the presentation time retriever is triggered by periodic expiration of a time period and asynchronously in response to detection of an event.

8. The apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time corresponds to an advertisement and the advertisement was advanced faster than real time.

9. A method of developing usage data with respect to a recorded program, the method comprising:

storing, by executing an instruction with a processor, recording times associated with sections of the recorded program, the recording times representing times of day at which respective ones of the sections were recorded;

playing back, by executing an instruction with the processor, first and second ones of the sections;

in response to a trigger;

storing, by executing an instruction with the processor, a first one of the recording times corresponding to the first one of the sections in association with a first playback time of the first one of the sections;

storing, by executing an instruction with the processor, a second one of the recording times corresponding to the second one of the sections in association with a second playback time of the second one of the sections;

comparing, by executing an instruction with the processor, the first one of the recording times and a second one of the recording times to generate a recording interval, and

identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time based on a detected difference between the recording interval and a playback interval.

10. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the trigger occurs periodically in response to the expiration of a time period.

11. The method as defined in claim 10 wherein the time period is adjustable.

12. The method as defined in claim 11, further including:

shortening the time period to achieve more accurate usage data;

lengthening the time period to achieve less accurate usage data.

13. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the trigger occurs in response to detection of an event.

14. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the trigger occurs in response to expiration of an evenly space time period and in response to detection of an event.

15. The method as defined in claim 9 wherein the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time corresponds to an advertisement and the advertisement was advanced faster than real time.

16. A tangible machine readable storage device disk comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

store recording times in association with sections of a recorded program, wherein the recording times represent times of day at which respective ones of the sections were recorded;

in response to a trigger;

store a first one of the recording times corresponding to a first one of the sections in association with a first playback time of the first one of the sections;

store a second one of the recording times corresponding to a second one of the sections in association with a second playback time of the second one of the sections;

generate a recording interval by comparing the first one of the recording times and a second one of the recording times, and

identify a portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time based on a detected difference between the recording interval and a playback interval.

17. The storage disk as defined in claim 16 wherein the trigger occurs in response to periodic expiration of a time period.

18. The storage disk as defined in claim 17 wherein the time period is adjustable.

19. The storage disk as defined in claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the machine to:

shorten the time period to achieve more accurate recording interval;

lengthen the time period to achieve less accurate recording interval.

20. The storage disk as defined in claim 16 wherein the trigger occurs in response to detection of an event.

21. The storage disk as defined in claim 16 wherein the trigger occur in response to expiration of a time period and detection of an event.

22. The storage disk as defined in claim 16 wherein the portion of the recorded program that was not played back in real time corresponds to an advertisement and the advertisement was advanced faster than real time.