SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UTILIZING AUDIO ENCODING FOR MEASURING MEDIA EXPOSURE WITH ENVIRONMENTAL MASKING

• US 20120239407A1
• Filed: 12/28/2011
• Published: 09/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Arbitron Inc. (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Lynch, Wendell, Tenbrock, Michael, Neuhauser, Alan, Jain, Anand, Krug, William K. Krug
• Granted Patent: US 10,008,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/500
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal

Abstract

An audio beacon system, apparatus and method for collecting information on a panelist'"'"'s exposure to media. An audio beacon is configured as on-device encoding technology that is operative in a processing device (e.g., cell phone, PDA, PC) to enable the device to encode an environmental sound and transmit it for a predetermined period of time. The acoustically transmitted data is received and processed by a portable audience measurement device, such as Arbitron'"'"'s Personal People Meter™ (“PPM”), or other specially equipped portable device to enable audience measurement systems to achieve higher levels of detail on panel member activity and greater association of measurement devices to their respective users.

Claims

1. A method for measuring and communicating media exposure, comprising the steps of:

receiving data in a user device from a computer network;

obtaining first characteristic data from the data in the user device;

generating a predetermined sound in the user device in response to receiving the data, wherein the sound comprises environmental audio;

encoding the sound with second characteristic data; and

transmitting the encoded sound to a remote location for media exposure processing.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first characteristic data is obtained from one of a site ID, URL page, URL file and timestamp.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein a unique identifier is appended to the first characteristic data.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the second characteristic data is one of a unique user device ID, a household ID (HHID), a portable device ID (PPMID), and another timsestamp.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the data comprises audio data, and wherein the second characteristic data is encoded to the audio data at a constant level.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the encoding is performed by embedding the second characteristic data within the sound where the second characteristic is audibly imperceptible within the audio data.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the data comprises non-audio data, and wherein the second characteristic data is encoded into the sound at a constant level.

8. A method for measuring and communicating media exposure, comprising the steps of:

receiving media data in a user device, said media data comprising audio data;

obtaining first characteristic data from the media data in the user device;

sampling at least a portion of the audio data in the user device, wherein the sampled portion is processed in the user device to be subsequently formed as an audio signature;

generating predetermined sound in the user device in response to receiving the media data, wherein the sound comprises environmental audio;

encoding the sound with second characteristic data; and

transmitting the encoded sound to a remote location for media exposure processing

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the first characteristic data is obtained from one of a site ID, URL page, URL file and timestamp.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein a unique identifier is appended to the first characteristic data.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the second characteristic data is one of a unique user device ID, a household ID (HHID), a portable device ID (PPMID), and another timestamp.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the second characteristic data is encoded to the sound at a constant level.

13. The method according to claim 8, wherein the encoding is performed by embedding the second characteristic data within the sound where the second characteristic is audibly imperceptible within the audio tone.

14. A method for measuring media exposure in a processing system, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving first characteristic data related to data that was accessed at a user device;

receiving second characteristic data related to the media data, the second characteristic data being different from the first characteristic data, wherein said second characteristic data is formed from previous acoustic encoding performed on an environmental sound generated at the user device in response to the user device accessing the data; and

correlating the first and second characteristic data to determine a level of media exposure.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the first characteristic data is obtained from one of a site ID, URL page, URL file and timestamp related to the media data.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the first characteristic data further comprises a unique identifier related to the user device.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the second characteristic data is one of a unique user device ID, a household ID (HHID), a portable device ID (PPMID), and another timestamp related to the user device.

18. The method according to claim 17, wherein the acoustic encoding of the second characteristic comprises embedding the second characteristic data within the sound at a constant level where the second characteristic is audibly imperceptible within the audio data.