Methods and apparatus to count people in an audience

• US 9,918,126 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2016
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (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:
  US15/210,321
• Publication Number:
  US 20160330517A1
• Time in Patent Office: 607 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 21/44222 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 21/44224 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:

in response to a control signal received at a portable device a threshold period of time after a person logged into a people meter different from the portable device, collecting, by executing an instruction at the portable device, location information and proximity information associated with operation of the portable device, the collecting beginning after detection of the control signal, the location information indicative of a location of the portable device, the proximity information indicative of whether the person is near the portable device;

generating, by executing an instruction at the portable device, presence information based on the location information and the proximity information, the presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device; and

transmitting the presence information to a data collection facility.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the presence information is first presence information, and further including comparing the first presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter, the people meter associated with the media presentation device.

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

4. The method as defined in claim 2, further including flagging the second presence information as suspect when the location information indicates the portable device is remote from the media exposure environment and the proximity information does not indicate the person is near the portable device.

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; and

if the location of the portable device is outside the media exposure environment, determining that the person is absent from the media exposure environment when the person is near the portable device.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a secondary data generator implemented by a portable device to collect location information and proximity information associated with operation of the portable device in response to a control signal received at the portable device a threshold period of time after a person logged into a people meter different from the portable device, the secondary data generator to begin the collecting after detection of the control signal, the location information indicative of a location of the portable device, the proximity information indicative of whether the person is near the portable device;

a presence detector implemented by the portable device to generate presence information based on the location information and the proximity information, the presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device; and

an output device implemented by the portable device to transmit the presence information to a data collection facility.

9. The apparatus as defined claim 8, wherein the presence information is first presence information, and the presence detector is further to:

compare the presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter, the people meter located in the media exposure environment; and

flag the second presence information as suspect when the location information indicates the portable device is remote from the media exposure environment and the proximity information does not indicate the person is near the portable device.

10. The apparatus as defined claim 8, wherein the presence information is first presence information, and the presence detector is further to:

compare the presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter, the people meter located in the media exposure environment; and

adjust the second presence information based on the comparison.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the presence detector is further to adjust the second presence information by increasing a people count of the media exposure environment 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.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 10, wherein the presence detector is further to adjust the second presence information by decreasing a people count of the media exposure environment when the person is logged in to the people meter and the first presence information indicates the person is not located in the media exposure environment.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, 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; and

if the location of the portable device is outside the media exposure environment, determine that the person is absent from the media exposure environment when the person is in proximity to the portable device.

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

in response to a control signal received at the portable device a threshold period of time after a person logged into a people meter different from the portable device, collect location information and proximity information associated with operation of the portable device, the collecting beginning after detection of the control signal, the location information indicative of a location of the portable device, the proximity information indicative of whether the person is near the portable device;

generate presence information based on the location information and the proximity information, the presence information indicative of whether the person is present in a media exposure environment associated with a media presentation device; and

transmit the presence information to a data collection facility.

15. The storage medium as defined in claim 14, wherein the presence information is first presence information, and the instructions further cause the portable device to compare the presence information to second presence information collected via the people meter, the people meter associated with the media presentation device, the second presence information being based on manual inputs to the people meter.

16. The storage medium as defined in claim 15, wherein the instructions further cause the portable device to adjust the second presence information based on the comparison.

17. The storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the portable device 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.

18. The storage medium as defined in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the portable device to flag the second presence information as suspect when the location information indicates the portable device is remote from the media exposure environment and the proximity information does not indicate the person is near the portable device.

19. The storage medium as defined in claim 16, wherein the instructions further cause the portable device 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.

20. The storage medium as defined in claim 14, wherein the instructions further cause the portable device 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; and

if the location of the portable device is outside the media exposure environment, determine that the person is absent from the media exposure environment when the person is in proximity to the portable device.