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Claims  |
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We claim:
1. An audience measurement system for identifying a program which is
broadcast from a signal source and to which a household receiver in a
household is tuned, the audience measurement system comprising:
reference receiving means for receiving a broadcast of the program at a
reference site;
program signature extracting means operably coupled to the household
receiver for extracting a program signature from the program;
reference signature extracting means coupled to the reference receiving
means for extracting a reference signature from the program;
signature comparing means for comparing the program signature to the
reference signature to create a first program-identifying tuning record
corresponding to the program;
household code reading means operably coupled to the household receiver for
reading an ancillary code of the program received in the household;
reference code reading means coupled to the reference receiving means for
reading the ancillary code of the program received in the reference site;
and,
code comparing means for comparing the ancillary code received in the
household to data stored in a code-program name library to thereby create
a second program-identifying tuning record corresponding to the program,
and for comparing the ancillary code received in the reference site to the
data stored in the code-program name library to thereby create a
program-identifying broadcast record corresponding to the program.
2. The audience measurement system of claim 1 further comprising a people
identifying means for identifying individual people in a monitored
audience.
3. The audience measurement system of claim 2 wherein the people
identifying means comprises means for passively identifying the individual
people in the monitored audience.
4. The audience measurement system of claim 3 wherein the means for
passively identifying the individual people comprises a personal people
meter.
5. The audience measurement system of claim 1 further comprising:
replica generating means coupled to the reference receiving means for
generating a compressed replica of at least a portion of the program
received by the reference receiving means; and,
means for regenerating a facsimile of the at least a portion of the program
received by the reference receiving means from the compressed replica,
whereby an operator can identify the program received by the reference
receiving means.
6. The audience measurement system of claim 5 wherein the compressed
replica comprises digitally compressed video data and wherein the means
for regenerating a facsimile comprises a video display.
7. The audience measurement system of claim 5 wherein the compressed
replica comprises digitally compressed audio data and wherein the means
for regenerating a facsimile comprises a speaker.
8. The audience measurement system of claim 1 further comprising;
a first clock coupled to the program signature extracting means;
a second clock coupled to the reference signature extracting means; and,
wherein the first and second clocks are synchronized to a common time
source at least once each day, wherein the first and second clocks
therefore have a synchronization, wherein the synchronization has a drift
error, wherein the drift error has an expectation value, and wherein the
signature comparing means time-shifts the program and reference signatures
with respect to one another when comparing the program and reference
signatures.
9. The audience measurement system of claim 1 wherein the signature
comparing means time-shifts the program and reference signatures with
respect to one another.
10. The audience measurement system of claim 1 comprising a plurality of
pairs of the reference signature extracting means and the reference code
reading means, wherein each pair of the plurality of pairs is located at
one of a plurality of reference sites, and wherein each pair of the
plurality of pairs communicates with the code comparing means.
11. An audience measurement system for identifying a program which is
broadcast in a signal from a signal source and to which a household
receiver in a household is tuned, the audience measurement system
comprising:
reference receiving means for receiving a broadcast of the program at a
reference site;
household code reading means operably coupled to the household receiver for
reading an ancillary code of the program received in the household;
code comparing means for comparing the ancillary code to data stored in a
code-program name library to identify the program received in the
household;
program signature extracting means operably coupled to the household
receiver for extracting a program signature from the program;
reference signature extracting means coupled to the reference receiving
means for extracting a reference signature from the program; and,
signature comparing means for comparing the program signature to the
reference signature to identify the program received in the household.
12. The audience measurement system of claim 11 wherein the ancillary code
comprises a plurality of unique source information data selectively
encoded in uniquely specified segments of the signal, each of the unique
source information data being representative of a selected one of a
plurality of levels of distribution of the signal.
13. The audience measurement system of claim 11 wherein the ancillary code
is encoded in a video portion of the program.
14. The audience measurement system of claim 13 wherein the household code
reading means is non-electrically connected to the household receiver.
15. The audience measurement system of claim 13 wherein the household code
reading means comprises a photosensor.
16. The audience measurement system of claim 11 wherein the ancillary code
is encoded on an audio portion of the program.
17. The audience measurement system of claim 16 wherein the household code
reading means is non-physically connected to the household receiver.
18. The audience measurement system of claim 17 wherein the household code
reading means comprises an audio sensor.
19. An audience measurement apparatus for collecting data representative of
program signals from a broadcast signal source, the program signals
received by a household receiver associated with a predetermined audience
member, a first portion of the program signals carrying an ancillary code
and a second portion of the program signals being free of the ancillary
code, the audience measurement apparatus comprising:
sensing means operably associated with the household receiver for sensing
first and second signal components of the corresponding first or second
portions of the program signals received by the household receiver;
signal processing means for processing the first and second signal
components, the signal processing means having an output;
code reading means connected to the output of the signal processing means
for reading the ancillary code carried by the first portion of the program
signals and for storing the ancillary code in a tuning data memory;
program signature generating means connected to the output of the signal
processing means for generating a program signature from the second
portion of the program signals and for storing the program signature in
the tuning data memory; and,
communicating means for communicating the ancillary code and the program
signature stored in the tuning data memory to a central office computer.
20. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 19 wherein the household
receiver is a portable receiver and wherein the audience measurement
apparatus further comprises means operably connected to the communicating
means and having an interface operably connectable to the tuning data
memory for receiving and storing data transferred from the tuning data
memory before the data is transferred to the central office computer.
21. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 19 further comprising
audience member identifying means for identifying the predetermined
audience member.
22. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 21 wherein the audience
member identifying means comprises a manually operated device operable by
the predetermined audience member.
23. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 21 wherein the audience
member identifying means comprises a passive people meter.
24. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 19 wherein the ancillary
code is encoded on an audio portion of the program signals.
25. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 24 wherein the code reading
means is non-physically connected to the household receiver.
26. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 25 wherein the code reading
means comprises an audio sensor.
27. The audience measurement apparatus of claim 25 wherein the code reading
means comprises an optical sensor.
28. An audience measurement system for use in measuring an audience of
programs broadcast from a broadcast signal source wherein ones of the
programs are received by a household receiver in a household and are
selected by a predetermined audience member of the audience for viewing or
listening, wherein a first program element of the programs carry an
ancillary code and a second program element of the programs is free of the
ancillary code, the audience measurement system comprising:
program signature extracting means in the household for extracting a
program signature from at least one of the programs;
reference signature extracting means in a reference site for extracting a
reference signature from at least one of the programs;
comparing means operably coupled to the program signature extracting means
and to the reference signature extracting means for comparing the program
signature to the reference signature;
replica generating means in the reference site for generating and storing
in a memory a compressed replica of the second program element; and,
regenerating means operably coupled to the replica generating means for
regenerating a facsimile of the second program element from the compressed
replica thereof, whereby an operator can identify a broadcast program
associated with the second program element.
29. The reference signature collection apparatus of claim 28 wherein the
compressed replica comprises a digitally compressed video signal and
wherein the regenerating means comprises a video display.
30. The reference signature collection apparatus of claim 28 wherein the
compressed replica comprises a digitally compressed audio signal and
wherein the regenerating means comprises a speaker.
31. A method of identifying ones of a plurality of broadcast programs
received by a receiver associated with a member of a broadcast audience,
the method comprising the steps of:
a) detecting, at the receiver, a signal corresponding to one of the
programs;
b) if an ancillary identification code is present in the signal, reading
and storing the ancillary identification code and a time interval during
which the ancillary identification code is read as a time-stamped code
datum in a first memory;
c) if the ancillary identification code is not present in the signal,
extracting a program signature from the signal and storing the program
signature and a time at which the program signature is extracted as a
time-stamped program signature datum in the first memory;
d) forwarding the data in the first memory to a central office;
e) detecting the signal at a local monitoring site;
f) extracting a reference signature from the signal at the local monitoring
site and storing the reference signature and a time at which the reference
signature was extracted as a time-stamped reference signature datum in a
second memory;
g) storing in the second memory with the time-stamped reference signature
datum either 1) the ancillary identification code read from the signal at
the local monitoring site, or 2) a compressed digital replica of the
signal;
h) forwarding the data in the second memory to the central office;
i) comparing, in the central office, the time-stamped code datum with a
first library to thereby identify a first portion of the plurality of
programs, the first library containing a list of broadcast program names
and ancillary codes associated therewith;
j) comparing, in the central office, the ancillary code stored with the
time-stamped reference signature datum with the first library and with the
time-stamped program signature datum to thereby identify a second portion
of the plurality of programs;
k) generating and manually identifying a facsimile of the compressed
digital replica to thereby create a record in a second library, the second
library containing a list of broadcast program names and signatures
associated therewith;
l) comparing the second library with the time-stamped program signature
datum to thereby identify a third portion of the plurality of programs;
and,
m) repeating steps j), k), and l) until all time-stamped program signature
data are either identified or determined to be unidentifiable.
32. The method of claim 31 wherein an identity of the audience member is
associated with the time-stamped code datum and the time-stamped program
signature datum.
33. An audience measurement system comprising:
a receiver apparatus adjacent a sampled receiver which receives broadcast
program signals, the receiver apparatus including a first clock, a first
telecommunication apparatus, code reading means for reading ancillary
codes from encoded portions of the broadcast program signals, program
signature generating means for generating program signatures from
non-encoded portions of the broadcast program signals, and a first storing
means for storing first data including time-stamped code data relating to
the ancillary codes read by the code reading means of the receiver
apparatus and time-stamped signature data relating to the program
signatures generated by the program signature generating means;
reference apparatus including a reference receiver which receives the
broadcast program signals from a monitored program source, a reference
clock, code reading means for reading the ancillary codes from the encoded
portions of the broadcast program signals, a reference signature
generating means for generating reference signatures from the broadcast
program signals, a compressed replica generating means for generating
compressed replicas of the non-encoded portions of the broadcast program
signals, and second storing means for storing second data comprising the
ancillary codes read by the code reading means of the reference apparatus,
the reference signatures, and times at which the ancillary codes were read
by the code reading means of the reference apparatus and at which the
reference signatures were generated, the second storing means storing
third data comprising the compressed replicas, and a time at which the
compressed replicas were generated; and,
a comparison apparatus including a second telecommunication apparatus
operably coupled to the first telecommunication apparatus, and third
storing means for storing fourth data associating predetermined program
elements with corresponding predetermined ancillary codes, the comparison
apparatus receiving the first, second and third data of the first and
second storing means and making a sequential comparison in which (i) the
time-stamped code data are matched with the fourth data to thereby form a
first subset of program-identified viewing records, (ii) the program
signatures are compared with the reference signatures to thereby create a
second subset of program-identified viewing records and to thereby create
an intermediate set of unidentified tuned-program signatures, (iii) ones
of the intermediate set of unidentified program signatures are compared
with the reference signatures of the third data to identify compressed
replicas for each match that is found so that the broadcast program
signals corresponding to the identified compressed replicas can be
regenerated therefrom, the regenerated broadcast program signals being
usable by a human operator to associate a program name with the
unidentified program signatures, and to thereby generate a third subset of
program-identified viewing records and leaving a final set of unidentified
program signatures.
34. An audience measurement system for identifying a program or station
from a program signal which is received in a household by a household
receiver, the audience measurement system comprising:
reference receiving means for receiving a broadcast of the program signal
at a reference site;
household code reading means operably coupled to the household receiver for
reading an ancillary code, if present, from the program signal received in
the household;
code comparing means for comparing the ancillary code to data stored in a
library to identify the program or station received in the household;
program signature extracting means operably coupled to the household
receiver for extracting a program signature from the program signal if the
ancillary code is not present in the program signal;
reference signature extracting means coupled to the reference receiving
means for extracting a reference signature from the program signal
broadcasted to the reference site; and,
signature comparing means for comparing the program signature, if
extracted, to the reference signature to identify the program or station
received in the household.
35. The audience measurement system of claim 34 wherein the household code
reading means is non-electrically connected to the household receiver.
36. The audience measurement system of claim 35 wherein the household code
reading means comprises an audio sensor.
37. An audience measurement apparatus for collecting data representative of
program signals from a broadcast signal source, the program signals
received by a household receiver associated with a predetermined audience
member, a first portion of the program signals carrying an ancillary code,
and a second portion of the program signals being free of the ancillary
code, the audience measurement apparatus comprising:
first means operably associated with the household receiver for sensing the
first and second portions of the program signals received by the household
receiver, the first means having an output;
the second means connected to the output of the first means for reading the
ancillary code carried by the first portion of the program signals;
third means connected to the output of the first means for generating a
program signature from the second portion of the program signatures; and,
fourth means connected to the second and third means for storing the
ancillary code and the program signature. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an audience measurement system and, more
particularly, to an audience measurement system which identifies the
programs or stations of televisions or radios which are watched, or
listened to, by an audience.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Although the present invention is described herein with particular
reference to television audience monitoring, it should be realized that
the present invention applies equally well to radio audience monitoring.
Also, as used herein, the term "programs" means segments of various
lengths such as all or parts of programs, commercials, promos, public
service announcements, and the like.
Broadcast audience measurements have conventionally been made with
equipment placed in statistically selected households to monitor the
channels to which each receiver in the statistically selected households
is tuned. Data from such statistically selected households are collected
at a central office and compared with separately collected reference data.
This reference data includes a compiled list of those programs which were
available on each receivable channel during each time period of interest,
and are commonly referred to as program records. (Reference data may
alternatively be referred to as station records, cable records, or the
like.) By comparing the tuned channels, i.e. the channels to which the
receivers in the statistically selected household were tuned, to the
programs available on those channels at the time, an inference can be made
as to the identities of the programs selected by the members of the
household.
Program records are becoming increasingly difficult to compile because the
average number of channels which may be received by a sampled home has
grown dramatically over the past decades. This growth is largely due to an
increase in the number of sources creating and/or broadcasting programs
and to an increase in the accessibility to these sources. This
accessibility, in turn, is due in large part to a growth in the number of
cable and satellite systems which distribute programs. The growth in the
number of, and accessibility to, channels which can be received and
selected has increased the difficulty and expense of compiling accurate
program records. Thus, there is a need for a program-based, rather than a
channel-based, system to measure the audience of programs so that the
dependence of present systems on program records, which are difficult and
expensive to compile, can be eliminated.
Additionally, conventional audience measurement equipment is expensive to
install in a statistically selected household. A significant part of this
expense is associated with the need to calibrate the tuned channels to the
corresponding program sources (especially when the signals that come into
the household are routed through a multitude of tuners, such as television
tuners, cable converters, VCR tuners, and the like). Another significant
part of this expense arises from the common need to open up (i.e., intrude
into) monitored receivers and/or associated equipment so that the
installer of the audience measurement equipment can secure access to the
tuners of these receivers and/or associated equipment. Also, members of
the statistically selected households may be reluctant to permit such
intrusions for fear that the intrusions will cause damage or be unsightly.
Moreover, there is always at least some inherent confusion in the viewing
records produced by an audience measurement system because, although the
system accurately reports both the channels to which the receivers in a
statistically selected household are tuned and the times during which
those receivers are tuned to those channels, the programs currently being
broadcast on those channels and at those times are not always accurately
known. One suggested approach to avoiding this confusion is to label each
broadcast program with an ancillary code (e.g., a digital code written on
a selected video line in the vertical blanking interval of each video
program to be broadcasted and/or monitored). This ancillary code can then
be read by the metering equipment in the sampled households and can be
compared (e.g., in a central office computer) to the ancillary codes
stored in a code-program name library. The code-program name library
contains a manually entered list of program names and the codes associated
therewith. Thus, given an ancillary code of a program selected for viewing
and/or listening in the sampled households, the program name of this
program can be easily determined from the library. Although a system of
this sort has been previously suggested, such a system has not been
successfully employed for audience measurement because it requires all
possible programs to be encoded before a complete measurement can be made,
and because it requires an ancillary code that can pass through a variety
of distribution and broadcasting processes without being stripped or
corrupted and thereby rendered illegible.
Ancillary codes are more often used to verify program line-ups. That is, a
typical audience measurement system determines both the channels to which
the receivers in the statistically selected households are tuned and the
times that the receivers are tuned to those channels. The tuned channels,
and the times during which those channels are tuned, are periodically
transmitted to a central facility where the tuned channels, and the times
during which those channels are tuned, are compared to the aforementioned
program record. This program record is compiled from information supplied
by the sources of these programs, and is intended to reflect the identity
of the programs which are supposed to be aired at the times indicated in
the program records. Systems which read the ancillary codes of these
programs are used to verify the accuracy of the program records, i.e. that
the programs were actually aired at the intended times as indicated in the
program records.
An example of such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,851, which
is assigned to the same assignee as the current application. The system
disclosed therein monitors those programs which have a code written on a
video line of one or more of a video program's vertical blanking
intervals. The system described in this patent, which is generally
referred to as the Automated Monitoring of Line-up (AMOL) system, has been
in general use in the United States for over a decade, and is used to
determine (i) the identity of aired programs, (ii) the local stations
which air these programs, and (iii) the times during which these programs
are aired. A system of this type significantly reduces the complexity, and
improves the accuracy, of the resulting program records that are an
essential element of current national television audience measurements.
The AMOL system is not used within a sampled household due to code loss
problems that can be more successfully remedied at a broadcast monitoring
site, but that are intractable in a sampled household.
A system for radio audience monitoring is disclosed by Weinblatt in U.S.
Pat. No. 4,718,106. Weinblatt teaches an audience measurement system in
which each participant wears a metering device that includes a microphone
and a detection circuit which responds to in-band codes in the
programming. Weinblatt discusses background noise as a problem in this
method, and teaches that such noise is avoidable by using a microphone
having a low sensitivity. The system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,031
utilizes a robust video luminance coding method with a low data rate. The
system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,945,412 utilizes a sub-audible 40 Hz
tone to encode the audio portion of a broadcast.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/981,199, abandoned in favor of U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 08/279,271, which was allowed Jan. 19, 1995
which is assigned to the same assignee as the current application, Thomas
et al teach a multi-level encoding system in which a code may be inserted
into a program at each level of distribution of the program. Each code
identifies the source in its corresponding level of the multi-level
encoding system. Thus, the program may be tracked through the distribution
system.
The foregoing systems, which rely upon encoded broadcasts, require that all
programs be encoded by at least one of the sources (e.g., broadcasters) in
the distribution system. Even in the unlikely event that all broadcasters
were to agree to cooperate, occasional encoding equipment failures would
likely cause gaps in the data provided by systems that rely solely on
codes. These gaps would cause losses of rating data and would render all
of the program share measurements meaningless whenever any significant
number of programs are not encoded. Thus, there is a need to collect
program identifying data even when there is no code present in the
programs to be identified.
Several broadcast measurement systems have been suggested which do not
detect embedded codes in order to identify programs, but which instead
monitor program content. These systems generally receive programs to be
monitored at a measurement site, extract broadcast signatures from the
programs, and compare these broadcast signatures with corresponding
reference signatures previously extracted from reference copies of these
programs (e.g., distribution tapes) or from previous broadcasts of the
programs to be monitored. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,697,209, which
is assigned to the same assignee as the current application, a program
monitoring system is disclosed in which broadcast signatures are collected
in sampled households relative to certain program content (e.g., a scene
change in the video portion of a monitored program). These broadcast
signatures are subsequently compared to reference signatures collected by
reference equipment tuned to broadcast sources available in the selected
market. A favorable comparison between broadcast signatures and
corresponding references signatures indicates the programs, not just the
channel, being viewed.
A program monitoring system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,466, which is
assigned to the same assignee as the current application, logs the
broadcasts of selected programs (e.g., commercial advertisements). This
monitoring system makes video tape recordings of unrecognized, suspected
commercials (e.g., programs existing for short intervals which typically
begin and end with a blank frame interval and which have lengths generally
commensurate with the typical lengths of commercials) for subsequent
viewing so that manual identifications of the unrecognized, suspected
commercials may be made by a human operator. In order to manually identify
those unrecognized, suspected commercials on the video tape recordings,
such recordings must be transmitted to the human operator. As the
unrecognized, suspected commercials are manually identified, they are
given a program ID as appropriate.
Systems which rely upon the extraction of signatures in order to identify
programs, however, also have well known shortcomings. Such systems are
computationally expensive, and their use has been restricted by the cost
of computer hardware. Additionally, such systems rely on reference
measurement sites that collect reference signatures from known program
sources. When one set of reference equipment fails, all reference
signature data for that program source may be lost. If the lost data
accounts for a significant fraction of tuning activity, the widely used
statistic normally referred to as "share" becomes correspondingly
unreliable.
It is also known to transmit (e.g., over a telephone connection) digitally
compressed video and/or audio replicas of programs instead of program
tapes. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,638, which is assigned to the
same assignee as the current application, programs are compressed and are
sent over telephone lines to households. The compressed programs are
stored in equipment in the households, and are subsequently displayed on
television receivers as substitutes for regularly scheduled programs when
certain preselected conditions are met (such as in response to program IDs
contained in the compressed programs). A more recent teaching relating to
the use of compressed video and/or audio replicas is disclosed by Strubbe
in U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,924. Strubbe's system permits a television viewer
to select programs for future viewing or recording based on the viewer's
exposure to facsimiles of the program material generated from the
compressed replicas stored in a database in the viewer's home.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Unlike these prior measurement systems, the system of the present invention
collects data representative of selected programs rather than of tuned
channels, and generally includes (i) a stationary and/or a portable
household metering apparatus in a sampled household which operates during
any time period when a broadcast is received, and which records ancillary
codes that may be present in programs to be monitored and/or extracts
program signatures from programs if no ancillary codes are found therein,
(ii) a reference apparatus which monitors broadcast programs to be
monitored, which extracts reference signatures therefrom, which stores
these reference signatures, which records whatever ancillary codes may be
associated with these broadcast programs to be monitored and, if no codes
are present, which compresses and stores a digital replica representative
of the broadcast programs to be monitored, (iii) a data collection
apparatus which collects data from a plurality of such household metering
apparatus and from one or more reference apparatus, and which compares the
household and reference data to determine (a) which of the broadcast
programs to be monitored were selected for viewing and/or listening, (b)
which of the metered households viewed and/or listened to the broadcast
programs to be monitored, and (c) at which times the broadcast programs to
be monitored were selected for viewing and/or listening, and (iv) a
central office apparatus which automatically determines a program name for
each monitored encoded program, and which regenerates a facsimile of each
monitored compressed broadcast program to permit a central office worker
to view each regenerated facsimile and to provide each corresponding
program with a program name.
The audience measurement system according to the present invention uses
ancillary codes to identify encoded broadcast programs being selected for
viewing and/or listening, and collects program data or signals (e.g.,
signatures) that can subsequently be used to identify non-encoded
broadcast programs. The audience measurement system of the present
invention can be non-intrusively installed in a statistically selected
household so that physical intrusion into the entertainment equipment of
the household is not required.
Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention, an audience measurement system
identifies a program which is broadcast from a signal source and to which
a household receiver in a household is tuned. The audience measurement
system includes a reference receiver for receiving a broadcast of the
program at a reference site. A program signature extractor is operably
coupled to the household receiver to extract and store a program signature
from the program. A reference signature extractor is coupled to the
reference receiver to extract and store a reference signature from the
program. The reference signature is compared the program signature to
create a pr | | |
