Satellite positioning system enabled media measurement system and method

• US 20070156324A1
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Published: 07/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RDPA, LLC
• Original Assignee: RDPA, LLC
• Inventors: Baker, James, Burke, Kay, Percy, R., Percy, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 7,408,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/117
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 1/02 using radio waves G01S19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/34 Power consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2205/002 for traffic control, mobile tracking, guidance, surveillance or anti-collision
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0027 of actual mobile position, i.e. position determined on mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0294 Trajectory determination or predictive filtering, e.g. target tracking or Kalman filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/52 of users
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

The present invention is directed to utilizing monitoring devices (200) for determining the effectiveness of various locations, such as media display locations (150) for an intended purpose (media display exposure). The monitoring devices (200) are distributed to a number of study respondents. The monitoring devices (200) track the movements of the respondents. While various technologies may be used to track the movements of the respondents, at least some of the location tracking of the monitoring device (200) utilize a satellite (105) location system such as the global positioning system (“GPS”). These movements of the respondent and monitoring device (200) at some point coincide with exposure to a number of media displays (150). Geo data (movement data) collected by the monitoring devices, is downloaded to a download server (300), for determining which media displays (150) the respondent was exposed to. The exposure determinations are made by a post-processing server (400).

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of location planning, comprising;

obtaining geo data representing the paths of travel traversed by a plurality of monitoring devices within a geographic region, at least a portion of the geo data derived from a satellite positioning system (“

SPS”

);

selecting desired traffic characteristics for an optimal location;

establishing traffic characteristics for a plurality of locations based on said geo data;

comparing said established traffic characteristics to said desired traffic characteristics; and

determining if at least one of said plurality of locations has traffic characteristics that match said selected desired traffic characteristics.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said geo data includes line segments between geo data locations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.

5. The method of claim 1, including:

selecting desired demographics for said optimal location;

establishing demographics for said plurality of locations based on the identity of the users of said plurality of monitoring devices;

comparing said established demographics to said desired demographics; and

determining if said at least one of said plurality of locations has demographic characteristics that match said selected desired demographic characteristics.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said geo data includes line segments between geo data locations.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.

9. A computer-readable medium containing computer-executable instructions for performing the method of any of claims 1-8.

10. A method of location planning, comprising:

employing a plurality of monitoring devices for determining the paths of travel followed by a plurality of respondents, each of the respondents associated with a respective one of the plurality of monitoring devices, each of the plurality of monitoring devices utilizing a satellite positioning system (“

SPS”

) to independently track the movement of the related respondent along the path of travel followed by the respondent, each of the plurality of monitoring devices generating geo data that represents the path of travel followed by the respondent;

storing the tracking as geo data;

collecting the geo data from each of the monitoring devices; and

analyzing the collected geo data to determine the traffic characteristics of one or more of a plurality of locations by matching the geo data that represents the paths of travel followed by the plurality of respondents with data representing the location of the one or more of the plurality of locations.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize radio frequency positioning to track the movements of the respondents.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize an accelerometer to track the movements of the respondents.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize a gyroscope to track the movements of the respondents.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize an altitude sensor to track the movements of the respondents.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of respondents are categorized according to demographic characteristics.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the geo data that represents the path of travel followed by a respondent is stored in the monitoring device associated with the respondent.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the geo data stored in the monitoring devices is collected by downloading the geo data to a computing device.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein the geo data includes partial geo data.

19. The method of claim 10 wherein analyzing the collected geo data also determines if the traffic characteristics of at least one of the plurality of locations match desired traffic characteristics.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.

22. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of respondents are categorized according to demographics and wherein analyzing the collected data also determines if the demographics of the respondents whose paths of travel match said one or more of the plurality of locations also match desired demographics.

23. The method of claim 22 wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

24. The method of claim 23 wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.

25. A method of location planning, comprising:

employing a plurality of monitoring devices for tracking the paths of travel followed by a plurality of respondents, each of the respondents associated with a respective one of the plurality of monitoring devices, each of the plurality of monitoring devices utilizing a satellite positioning system (“

SPS”

) to independently track the movement of the related respondent along the path of travel followed by the respondent, each of the plurality of monitoring devices generating satellite data that represents the path of travel followed by the respondent;

storing the satellite data;

collecting the satellite data from each of the monitoring devices; and

analyzing the collected satellite data to determine the traffic characteristics of one or more of a plurality of locations by matching geo data based at least in part on the satellite data that represents the paths of travel followed by said plurality of respondents with data representing the location of the one or more of the plurality of locations.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize radio frequency positioning to track the paths of travel of the respondents.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize an accelerometer to track the paths of travel of the respondents.

28. The method of claim 25 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize a gyroscope to track the paths of travel of the respondents.

29. The method of claim 25 wherein the monitoring devices also utilize an altitude sensor to track the paths of travel of the respondents.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein the satellite data that represents the path of travel followed by a respondent is stored in the monitoring device associated with the respondent.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the geo data stored in the monitoring devices is collected by downloading the geo data to a computing device.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein the satellite data includes partial satellite data.

33. The method of claim 25 wherein analyzing the collected geo data also determines if the traffic characteristics of at least one of the plurality of locations match desired traffic characteristics.

34. The method of claim 33 wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

35. The method of claim 34 wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.

36. The method of claim 25 wherein the plurality of respondents are categorized according to demographics and wherein analyzing the collected data also determines if the demographics of the respondents whose paths of travel match the one or more of the plurality of locations also match desired demographics.

37. The method of claim 36 wherein the plurality of locations identify potential business locations.

38. The method of claim 37 wherein the potential business locations are potential media display locations.