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Description  |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed to surveying an audience to determine whether it
is tuned to a given radio station and, more particularly, to a technique
which utilizes an apparatus carried on the person of individuals acting as
test subjects that is responsive to unique signal transmitted by the
selected radio station and automatically stores information indicative of
a radio near the test subject being tuned to the radio station of
interest.
It is important for a number of reasons to survey an audience to determine
to what extent it is tuned at any given time to a particular radio
station. Advertisers are, of course, interested in determining the number
of people exposed to their broadcast commercials and to characterize their
listeners by economic and social categories. Broadcasters find the
statistics regarding audience size and type beneficial in setting their
advertising rates.
Prior art techniques for obtaining such information involve primarily the
following approaches. People within the range of the radio station are
contacted by phone and interviewed regarding their listening habits. Each
person is questioned about the radio stations which that individual
listened to during the previous, say, twenty-four hours. However, this
technique is suspect because it is subject to recall errors as well as
possible bias introduced by the interviewer. If specific radio stations
are mentioned to the person being interviewed, the suggestion may elicit a
positive response when tuning to that particular station actually did not
occur. Another technique involves keeping diaries by persons agreeing to
act as test subjects. Diary entries are to be made throughout the day to
keep track of what stations are being listened to. The diaries are
collected periodically and analyzed. However, this approach is prone to
inaccuracies because the test subjects may fail to make entries due to
forgetfullness or laziness. Thus, it can be readily seen that the
recall-dependent approach first described above is unsatisfactory because
people may not accurately remember what radio station they listened to at
any particular time and, also, because of the potential problem of
suggestive bias. The diary-based approach is likewise unsatisfactory
because people may not cooperate and be as meticulous as required to
obtain the desired record-keeping accuracy.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the primary object of the invention to provide a radio audience
surveying technique which is implemented automatically without the need
for a deliberate record-keeping act by a test subject.
A further object of the invention is to provide a radio audience surveying
technique which is accurate yet relatively simple and inexpensive.
These and other objects of the invention are attained by an apparatus for
surveying an audience tuned to a given radio station transmitting
designated programming on a predetermined frequency along with a survey
signal characteristic of that given radio station. When the programming
signal and the characteristic survey signal are detected and audibly
reproduced by a radio set, a first means detects the audible sounds
reproduced by the radio set. A second means is included for detecting the
reproduced survey signal to generate a store signal in response thereto. A
memory means is coupled to the second detecting means for storing a signal
indicative of each detection of the survey signal.
Another aspect of the invention is directed to a method of surveying an
audience tuned to a given radio station transmitting designated
programming in a predetermined frequency along with a survey signal
characteristic of the given radio station. The programming and the
characteristic signal can be detected and audibly reproduced by a
conventional radio set. When this occurs, the method comprises the steps
of: detecting the audible sounds produced by the radio set, detecting the
reproduced survey signal to generate a store signal in response thereto,
and storing a signal indicative of such detection of the survey signal in
response to said store signal.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The drawing is a schematic block diagram of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
To conduct the survey, persons are selected by the surveying organization
based on certain criteria. These criteria can be, for example, age,
income, geographic location, sex, and level of education. The broadcasting
organization and/or advertisers may require an analysis of their listeners
which is broken down into one or more of these categories. The individuals
who are approached to be test subjects are merely asked to participate in
a test the details of which are not explained. Each person is told only
that requirement of the test is the wearing of a certain article of
clothing. Additional information is preferably not supplied in order to
avoid predisposing or prejudicing the individual test subject toward or
away from the aims of the survey. For example, if the individual were told
that the survey relates to a radio survey, then this might result in more
time and attention being paid to radio listening than would be normal for
that person. Even worse would be the situation were the individual told
the particular radio station involved in the survey. In order to avoid
this problem, each individual is given an article of clothing to wear on a
regular basis. For example, such an article of clothing might be a watch
for men or a bracelet for women.
The drawing depicts in block form a conventional transmitter 1 for emitting
radio frequency signals at one of the frequencies to which radios are
tunable on either the AM or FM band. Details of such a transmitter are
well known in the art. Accordingly, it is not deemed necessary to provide
the circuit and structural specifics of this transmitter nor any other
such details connected with a radio station.
Connected to the circuitry of transmitter 1 is circuit 3 which generates a
survey signal utilized for a purpose to be described below in greater
detail. Suffice it to say at this point that circuit 3 generates a
modulating signal transmitted on the carrier airwave emitted by
transmitter 1 so as to be detectable by radio which is tuned to the
frequency of the particular radio station of interest. The survey signal
is emitted at preselected time intervals, as discussed below in further
detail. Its most significant feature lies in its being unique to that
particular radio station. Its transmission and subsequent playback by a
radio set characterize the set as being tuned to that particular station.
Transmitter 1 broadcasts its signal over the airwaves in standard fashion.
These signals are picked up by a conventional radio set 4. If the radio is
tuned to the radio station of interest, then the signals broadcast by
transmitter 1 will be reproduced by the speaker (not shown) in radio set
4.
Up to this point, the description has involved only well known electronic
units in widespread use, except for circuit 3. To implement the objects of
the invention, further circuitry which will now be described is provided
in miniaturized form housed in a compact enclosure of some type capable of
being readily worn by an individual, as mentioned above. This compact
circuit configuration is referred to below as the portable signal detector
unit 5.
Portable signal detector unit 5 is shown in the drawing as including a
microphone 7. The microphone is a conventional transducer capable of
picking up audible signals from any conventional radio set 4. Sensitivity
of the microphone is selected so as to pick up sounds emanating from radio
set 4 only if it is within a distance of several feet. A very sensitive
microphone is not appropriate because it may pick up sounds which are in
the background rather than those which are being listened to by the test
subject.
Resulting electrical signals will be input from microphone 7 to detection
circuit 11. Detection circuit 11 is designed so as to be responsive only
to the survey signal generated by circuit 3. Detection circuit 11 can, for
example, be designed to be responsive to a certain sound pattern. It may,
thus, respond to a certain sequence of musical notes of various length,
frequency, and duration. A design requirement of circuit 11 might be that
all the notes are detected within a certain time period. Also, each of the
notes can have a time threshold. Analog and digital circuitry for
providing these functions is old and well known in the art and, thus,
further details are not deemed necessary.
Correspondingly, circuit 3 is arranged to produce the sound pattern built
into detection circuit 11 for broadcast via transmitter 1. In fact, some
radio stations already do have characteristic sounds unique to one
particular station. An infinite number of possible sound patterns is
available. However, it is, of course, preferable to keep the survey signal
from being intrusive in terms of length and repeat frequency. In this
connection, repetition of the survey signal should be frequent enough to
provide meaningful test results. One would suppose that, say, once a
minute would be ideal. However, this is clearly too intrusive. Preferably,
taking all circumstances into account, once every 15 minutes would provide
adequate information while not materially distracting or irritating the
listeners. Circuits to produce desired sound patterns are old and well
known in the art and, thus, further details are not deemed necessary.
When detection circuit 11 senses a signal which matches what it is designed
to consider as the survey signal from circuit 3, it produces a store
signal which is input to memory 13. Memory 13 may be a standard and well
known IC memory circuit into which information is input into sequential
designated addresses when an actuating signal, such as the store signal,
is applied to it. This is a standard, well known part and its operation in
this fashion is conventional. Thus, no further details about it are deemed
necessary.
The information which can be stored in the memory 13 can be of several
possible types. Preferably, it is the time of day which is provided to it
by time circuit 15. Thus, the time is constantly applied to a suitable
input line of memory 13. Storage of the time, however, only occurs when
the appropriate store signal is received from detection circuit 11.
Alternatively, only the incidence of the signal obtained from detection
circuit 11 might be stored in memory 13 rather than the time. This
requires considerably less memory but, of course, is not as informative.
In this case, time circuit 15 might be eliminated.
Portable signal detector unit 5 can be accommodated in any small article of
clothing which a person normally wears. For example, a male test subject
might be given a wristwatch into which the various components 7, 11, 13
and 15 have been installed. Time circuit 15 is, of course, an inherent
part of the watch. Many electronic watches have been developed which
include a memory. Alarm-type watches include a tone producing transducer.
This transducer can be replaced with a microphone to detect rather than
generate sound. The remaining circuitry is implementable on a small scale
and can readily be inserted into the conventional watch. For a female, the
circuitry for portable signal detector unit 5 can be inserted in a
bracelet, a decorative pin, or a necklace pendant.
The information stored in memory 13 can be retrieved in one of several
ways. For example, the portable signal detector unit 5 can be collected
at, say, monthly intervals. The contents of memory 13 are then dumped into
another suitable memory from where it can be organized and analyzed as
needed.
Various devices are currently available which are capable of performing the
tasks discussed above. For example, Seiko markets a microprocessor-driven
timepiece which it calls the Datagraph 2001. It includes a 2K RAM memory
which can readily be adapted to store the above-described information. In
addition, this Seiko product comes with the Datagraph 2301 interface
module capable of transmitting data between the Datagraph 2001 and a
computer terminal.
Information obtained in the above-described manner will indicate to what
extent the test subjects were tuned to the particular radio station of
interest. Only a passive wearing of the article is required. If microphone
7 picks up sounds from radio set 4, this means that the test subject is
close to the radio and is likely to be listening to it. No deliberate
action whatsoever on the part of any test subject is required in order to
record the event. Moreover, no skewing of the test results can occur due
to any suggestions because these individuals need not be informed about
the purpose of the test. They are merely given the article of clothing and
are asked to wear it. No more needs to be said. Consequently, the test is
completely accurate in terms of fully recording one's radio listening
habits, and the test is conducted under natural, real life conditions.
This technique can also provide valuable information about the type of
person listening in. It lends itself to careful selection of the test
subjects in terms of, for example, income, education, family size, etc.
Information available about such test subject can be combined with the
stored tuning habits information so that the resulting data can be
analyzed together and refined into various categories of listeners.
If the time of day is recorded when a store signal is generated, an
analysis can be made for the benefit of the advertiser. That time can be
correlated against the time when a given commercial was broadcast.
Statistics can, therefore, be provided regarding the size of the audience
to which the commercial was exposed. Such time information is also
valuable to the broadcasters because it reveals the popularity of the
shows put on the air by that station. This information can be used to set
advertising rates as well as to rearrange the programming as necessary.
If only the incidence of tuning is recorded, the broadcasters will have
some indication as to the extent to which people listen to their station.
However, no correlation to commercials and programming can be made.
It should be apparent that although a preferred embodiment of the invention
has been described above, various modifications can readily be made. All
such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the
invention as defined by the following claims.
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