Method and apparatus for identifying individual members of a marketing and viewing audience
First Claim
1. Apparatus for identifying predetermined individual members in a plurality of monitored areas:
- memory means for storing a plurality of predetermined identification signals, each of said predetermined identification signals corresponding to one of the predetermined individual members;
transmitter means for transmitting a unique predetermined identification signal associated with each of the predetermined individual members;
receiver means for receiving said transmitted predetermined identification signals;
said receiver means provided in each of the plurality of monitored areas, said plurality of monitored areas including at least one retail establishment monitored area and at least one television viewing monitored area;
means coupled to said receiver means for storing said received identification signals,first processor means for comparing each of said received identification signals with said stored predetermined identification signals to identify each predetermined individual member; and
second processor means for correlating each said identified predetermined individual member at different ones of the monitored areas.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus are provided for identifying predetermined individual members of a television viewing audience/marketing group in a plurality of monitored areas. A plurality of predetermined identification signals are stored each corresponding to one of the predetermined individual members. A transmitter device for transmitting a unique predetermined identification signal is associated with each of the predetermined individual members. A receiver device in each of the plurality of monitored areas receives the transmitted predetermined identification signals and applies the received signals to an associated memory device used for storing the received individual member signals. A central processor periodically retrieves the stored individual member signals from each memory device. The received predetermined identification signals are compared with the stored predetermined identification signals to identify the predetermined individual members and further processed to correlate each of the identified individual members at different ones of the monitored areas.
420 Citations
19 Claims
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1. Apparatus for identifying predetermined individual members in a plurality of monitored areas:
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memory means for storing a plurality of predetermined identification signals, each of said predetermined identification signals corresponding to one of the predetermined individual members; transmitter means for transmitting a unique predetermined identification signal associated with each of the predetermined individual members; receiver means for receiving said transmitted predetermined identification signals;
said receiver means provided in each of the plurality of monitored areas, said plurality of monitored areas including at least one retail establishment monitored area and at least one television viewing monitored area;means coupled to said receiver means for storing said received identification signals, first processor means for comparing each of said received identification signals with said stored predetermined identification signals to identify each predetermined individual member; and second processor means for correlating each said identified predetermined individual member at different ones of the monitored areas. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for identifying predetermined individual members in a plurality of monitored areas comprising the steps of:
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storing a plurality of predetermined identification signals, each of said predetermined identification signals corresponding to one of the predetermined individual members; providing a transmitter device associated with each of the predetermined individual members for transmitting a unique predetermined identification signal; providing a receiver device in each of said plurality of monitored areas for receiving said transmitted identification signals, said plurality of monitored areas including at least one retail establishment monitored area and at least one television viewing monitored area; comparing each of said received identification signals with said stored predetermined identification signals to identify each predetermined individual member; and correlating each said identified predetermined individual member at different ones of the monitored areas. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A marketing data collection system comprising:
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a plurality of remotely located monitoring stations, each monitoring station for collecting and storing predetermined operational data in a monitored area;
wherein at least one remotely located monitoring station monitors an area of an entrance to a retail establishment and wherein at least one of said remotely located monitoring stations is a television audience measurement station and monitors an area proximate to a monitored television;transmitter means for transmitting a unique predetermined identification signal associated with each of the predetermined individual members to be identified; each of said remotely located monitoring stations including; means for receiving said transmitted predetermined identification signals and for storing said signals as part of said operational data; a central computer arranged for communication with each of said monitoring stations for receiving said stored predetermined operational data;
said central computer including;memory means for storing a plurality of predetermined identification signals, each of said predetermined identification signals corresponding to one of the predetermined individual members; means for comparing each of said received identification signals with said stored predetermined identification signals to identify the predetermined individual member; and means for correlating each said identified predetermined individual member at different ones of the monitoring stations.
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Specification