Ctba Associates

Control Data Corporation

Peac Media Research, Inc.

Viewfacts, Inc.

Peach Media Research, Inc.

Russell J Welsh

Rand B Nickerson

Harold R Walker

William J McKenna

Joseph A Cullity

Bohdan Stryzak

Kenneth W Silvers

John D Fourdraine

Joseph A Damoci

Matthew F Kern

A system for monitoring and recording as data television program viewing habits utilizing a plurality of remote program monitor units in panelists households and automatically periodically reporting such data to a central computer via a conventional telephone network.

Method and system for monitoring television viewing

Apparatus in an automatic telecommunications system which communicates between a central location and at least one remote location over the switched telephone network, senses changes in loading of the telephone line which correspond to a telephone going off-hook, to serve as an indication that a telephone has gone off-hook and to cause the automatic telecommunications system to relinquish its use of the telephone line, or not to go off-hook if a telephone is in use.

Method and apparatus for determining when a telephone handset is off-hook

An electronic monitor and system for automatically monitoring broadcast band listening habits and periodically collecting data at a central location. The electronic monitor includes a microphone circuit and a tuner circuit. The tuner circuit is tuned until a match is found between the microphone circuit and the tuner circuit and the event of a match is recorded in the portable monitor. Operation may be performed intermittently to extend battery operation. The portable monitor further has power supply monitoring circuits to prevent incorrect data and loss of data in the event of battery discharge. Digitizing and signal processing circuits are provided to perform the match and loss of match determination.

Apparatus and method for automatically monitoring broadcast band

A video monitoring system for identifying television broadcast program material such as commercials by extracting characters present in the closed captioned portion of the video signal at line 21, field 1 and comparing the extracted characters to stored characters and recording the occurrence of a match between the extracted characters and the stored characters indicating the presence of specific program material such as a commercial in the broadcast signal. In an alternative embodiment, comparison may be made between a compressed character string formed from extracted characters and a stored compressed character string.

Video monitoring system

A system for remotely displaying screen data on televisions or the like transmits screen data over a plurality of commercial radio band carrier transmitters. A plurality of devices are provided, each being for use with a corresponding television in a home. Each device includes a band receiver and a decoder for receiving and decoding screen data. A display signal is then generated for viewing on the television or the like. Each device can include means for receiving responses from a user, for example responses to a program viewed. The device can also include a storage for storing both screen data and response data. This enables response data to be transmitted at a later time, and it can be collected by polling from a central computer. Similarly, screen data can be received and stored, for later viewing.

System and device for data transmission, and related method

A data gathering system includes a plurality of remote units which are controlled from a central location. Each of the remote units is attached to a television receiver which is generally but not necessarily attached to a cable system. Each of the remote units can function to determine which of several TV modes is in use as well as to store TV channel selector data, data from an optical input device, and/or data input by viewers representative of the composition of the viewing audience. The data is stored for either later collection by a portable data collector, or for direct transmission via telephone to the central location. A video message for a TV viewer, such as a survey, may be transmitted from the central location and stored at the remote units, for later display on the TV receiver associated with the remote units. Substitution of alternate programming information may also be achieved by the central control point on selected of the remote units.

Television and market research data collection system and method

A data gathering system includes a plurality of remote units which are controlled from a central location. Each of the remote units is attached to a television receiver which is generally but not necessarily attached to a cable system. Each of the remote units can function to determine which of several TV modes is in use as well as to store TV channel selector data, data from an optical input device, and/or data input by viewers representative of the composition of the viewing audience. The data is stored for either later collection by a portable data collector, or for direct transmission to the central location. A video message for a TV viewer, such as a survey, may be transmitted from the central location and stored at the remote units, for later display on the TV receiver associated with the remote units. Substitution of alternate programming information may also be achieved by the central control point on selected of the remote units.

A data storage and transmission system is provided for accumulating and transmitting data from a plurality of remote T.V. panelist locations to a central location. Each remote unit includes a microprocessor, a control memory, and a data store memory. The control memory stores control information for the remote unit, which may include dynamic allocation information. The data store memory is event driven and stores data as to television channel selection and times thereof, and can store viewer reaction data and the like. At a preselected time, each remote unit initiates a telephone call to a central location and identifies itself. Upon successful telephone connection between a remote unit and the central location, any data such as viewer habit and/or reaction data and the like contained in the data store memory is transmitted over the telephone line to the central location.

Television viewer data collection system

A data gathering system includes a plurality of remote units which are controlled from a central location. Each of the remote units is attached to a television receiver which is generally but not necessarily attached to a cable system. Each of the remote units functions to determine which of several TV modes is in use as well as to store TV channel selector data and data from an optical input device. All this data is stored for later transmission by each of the remote units to a central data collecting point. A video message for a TV viewer, such as a survey, may be transmitted from the central location and stored at the remote units, for later display on the TV receiver associated with the remote units. Substitution of alternate programming information may also be achieved by the central control point on selected of the remote units.

Growing community of inventors

Toronto, Canada

Russell J Welsh