Systems and methods for gathering audience measurement data

• US 9,100,132 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2009
• Issued: 08/04/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Kolessar, Ronald S., Jensen, James M., Lynch, Wendell D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lau, Tung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): SUN, XIUQIN
• Application Number:
  US12/611,220
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049474A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,100 Days
• Field of Search: 702/189, 704/500, 386/46, 709/231, 700/94, 725/9, 379/413
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for gathering audience measurement data relating to exposure of an audience member to audio data. Audio data is received in a user system and is then encoded with audience measurement data. The encoded audio data is reproduced by the user system, picked up by a monitor and decoded to recover the audience measurement data.

Claims

1. A method for adding information to audio, the method comprising:

accessing an audio signal segment in a processing device capable of reproducing the audio as sound, the audio signal segment including first audience measurement data embedded into the audio signal segment;

embedding second audience measurement data in the audio signal segment in the processing device, the second audience measurement data being different from the first audience measurement data, and the first audience measurement data and second audience measurement data exist simultaneously existing in the audio signal segment simultaneously; and

transmitting the audio signal segment for reproduction.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the audio signal segment includes streaming media.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first audience measurement data and the second audience measurement data include portions having frequency characteristics enabling separate detection of the first audience measurement data and the second audience measurement data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second audience measurement data is embedded according to one of an asynchronous or synchronous positioning relative to the first audience measurement data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the embedding of the second audience measurement data includes forming a data set of frequency-domain data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the embedding of the second audience measurement data includes producing frequency-domain data based on the audience measurement data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the frequency domain data is processed to embed the audience measurement data as frequency components having predetermined frequencies.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the frequency domain data is processed to embed code components of the audience measurement data according to a frequency-hopping pattern.

9. The method of claim 1, further including decoding the audio signal segment by forming and processing a data set therefrom to extract at least one of the first audience measurement data or the second audience measurement data.

10. A consumer electronics device, comprising:

an input to receive an audio signal segment in the device, the audio signal segment including first audience measurement data embedded in the audio signal segment;

a processor to embed second audience measurement data in the audio signal segment, the second audience measurement data being different from the first audience measurement data, the embedded first audience measurement data and the embedded second audience measurement data to exist in the audio signal segment simultaneously; and

a speaker to reproduce the audio signal segment as sound.

11. The device according to claim 10, wherein the audio signal segment includes streaming media.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the first audience measurement data and second audience measurement data include portions having frequency characteristics enabling separate detection of the first audience measurement data and the second audience measurement data.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein the processor is to embed the second audience measurement data according to one of an asynchronous or synchronous positioning relative to the first audience measurement data.

14. The device of claim 10, wherein the first audience measurement data and the second audience measurement data includes data sets of frequency domain data.

15. The device of claim 14, wherein the first audience measurement data and the second audience measurement data include frequency domain data.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor is to process the frequency domain data to embed the second audience measurement data as frequency components having predetermined frequencies.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the processor is to process the frequency domain data to embed code components of the audience measurement data according to a frequency-hopping pattern.

18. The device of claim 10, further including a decoder to decode the audio signal segment by forming and processing a data set therefrom to extract at least one of the first audience measurement data or the second audience measurement data.

19. A method comprising:

accessing an audio signal segment in a consumer electronics device capable of producing sound from the audio signal segment, the audio signal segment including first measurement data acoustically embedded into the audio signal segment;

acoustically embedding, with the consumer electronics device, second measurement data in the audio signal segment, the second measurement data being different from the first measurement data, and at least portions of the first measurement data and second measurement data existing in the audio signal segment simultaneously; and

producing sound, via the consumer electronics device, based on the audio signal segment.