The Nielsen Comapny (us), LLC

Nielsen Media Research, Inc.

Intel Corporation

The Nielson Company (us), LLC

The Neilsen Company (us), LLC

Nielsen Media Research, Inc. a Delaware Corporation

Venugopal Srinivasan

Alexander Pavlovich Topchy

Arun Ramaswamy

Padmanabhan Soundararajan

Daniel John Nelson

John C Peiffer

Raghuram Ranganathan

Robert Stokes

Atul Puri

Morris Lee

Jan Besehanic

Dan Nelson

Paul Mears

Marko Usaj

David Henry Harkness

Jerome Samson

Kenneth William McArthur

Jeremey M Davis

Daozheng Lu

Christen Voss Nielsen

Kevin Keqiang Deng

James Joseph Vitt

Anand Jain

Sadhana Gupta

John William Buonasera

Marc Messier

David Howell Wright

Michael Alan Hicks

Paul Kempter

Daniel A Nelson

Keqiang Deng

Arun Ramamswamy

Paul M Mears

Kenneth William Mcarthur

Disclosed example people monitoring methods include detecting a first watermark in a first audio signal obtained from an acoustic sensor, the first watermark identifying media presented by a monitored media device, determining whether a second watermark, different from the first watermark, is embedded in the first audio signal obtained from the acoustic sensor, the second watermark identifying at least one of a mobile device or a user of the mobile device, classifying the second watermark as a media watermark or a people monitoring watermark based on a characteristic of the second watermark, and when the second watermark is determined to be embedded in the first audio signal, reporting at least one of the second watermark or information decoded from the second watermark to identify at least one of the mobile device or the user of the mobile device as being exposed to the media presented by the monitored media device.

Audio watermarking for people monitoring

Example methods and apparatus to verify presentation of media content are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus for generating media presentation information includes a comparator to periodically output a value indicative of whether media selected via a set-top box is presented at a media presentation location by comparing a first audio signal associated with the media to ambient audio received in the media presentation location via an audio system associated with a media presentation device. The example apparatus also includes a privacy protector to facilitate operation of the comparator by periodically preventing the comparator from receiving of the ambient audio. The example apparatus also includes a metering module to record presentation of the media based on the output.

Methods and apparatus to verify presentation of media content

Methods and apparatus to perform audio watermarking and watermark detection and extraction are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein are to select frequency components to be used to represent a code, different sets of frequency components to represent respectively different information, respective ones of the frequency components in the sets of frequency components located in respective code bands, there being multiple code bands and spacing between adjacent code bands being equal to or less than the spacing between adjacent frequency components in the code bands. Disclosed example apparatus are also to synthesize the frequency components to be used to represent the code, combine the synthesized frequency components with an audio block of an audio signal, and output the audio signal and a video signal associated with the audio signal.

Methods and apparatus to perform audio watermarking and watermark detection and extraction

Example apparatus disclosed herein are to determine a location of a portable device based on location data collected by the portable device, determine whether a person is within a threshold distance of the portable device based on proximity data collected by the portable device, and, when the person is determined to be within the threshold distance of the portable device: (i) infer at least one of a presence or an absence of the person in a media exposure environment based on the location of the portable device, (ii) determine a confidence level that the person corresponds to a member of the panelist household, and (iii) determine an accuracy of presence information collected by a people meter based on the confidence level and the inference of the at least one of the presence or the absence of the person, the people meter different than the portable device.

Methods and apparatus to count people in an audience

Methods and apparatus to present supplemental media on a second screen are disclosed. An example method includes establishing a connection between a digital media device and a computing device based on information identifying the computing device and, in response to establishing the connection, receiving, at the computing device, a first notification from the digital media device including a location of supplemental media; accessing the supplemental media; and in response to accessing the supplemental media, sending a second notification that the supplemental media has been accessed, the second notification to enable media skipping on the digital media device.

Methods and apparatus to present supplemental media on a second screen

Methods and apparatus to audio watermarking and watermark detection and extracted are described herein. An example method includes receiving a media content signal, sampling the media content signal to generate samples, storing the samples in a buffer, determining a first sequence of samples in the buffer, determining a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples, calculating an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples, extracting an identifier from the average sequence of samples, and storing the identifier in a tangible memory.

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to perform speed-enhanced playback of recorded media are disclosed. Example apparatus to playback media disclosed herein comprise at least one memory, machine-readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the machine-readable instructions to parse an audio frame included in the media to determine a number of skip bytes included in the audio frame, compare the number of skip bytes to a threshold, associate the audio frame with a plurality of candidate frames identified in the media when the number of skip bytes satisfies the threshold, and calculate a speed-enhanced playback rate for the media based on the plurality of candidate frames identified in the media.

Methods and apparatus to perform speed-enhanced playback of recorded media

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to reduce signature matching uncertainty in media monitoring systems are disclosed. Disclosed example apparatus are to compare first groups of monitored signatures representative of monitored media with second groups of reference signatures representative of respective reference media to determine a first sequence of match results for an observation period, the first and second groups to have a first size corresponding to a first number of signatures. Disclosed example apparatus are also to compare, in response to a discontinuity in the first sequence of signature match results, third groups of monitored signatures from the sequence of monitored signatures with fourth groups of reference signatures from the respective sequences of reference signatures to determine a second sequence of signature match results for the observation period, the third groups and the fourth groups to have a second size greater than the first size.

Reducing signature matching uncertainty in media monitoring systems

Example apparatus disclosed herein are to obtain a first hash key, a second hash key and a third hash key representative of first reference media in response to a first query of a first table, the second hash key associated with a second time preceding a first time associated with the first hash key, the third hash key associated with a third time following the first time associated with the first hash key. Disclosed example apparatus are also to prequalify the first hash key as a candidate for subsequent signature processing associated with a first site signature in response to a determination that the second hash key corresponds to a second site signature preceding the first site signature in time and that the third hash key corresponds to a third site signature following the first site signature in time.

Signature retrieval and matching for media monitoring

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for media crediting and, more particularly, methods and apparatus of media device detection for minimally invasive media meters. An example apparatus disclosed herein to detect media devices presenting media includes means for generating a cluster of media locations from a reference population of media locations based on media identifying information received from a presentation of media at an unidentified media device at a first media location, means for determining media devices available at the media locations in the cluster of media locations, means for identifying the unidentified media device based on (1) the media devices available at the media locations in the cluster of media locations and (2) an identity of a media device determined to be available in a majority of media locations in the cluster of media locations.

Methods and apparatus of media device detection for minimally invasive media meters

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for scalable architectures for reference signature matching and updating. An example method for scalable architectures for reference signature matching and updating includes accessing site signatures to be compared to reference signatures from a first group of media sources. Determining if a first reference node is an owner of a first one of the site signatures. Comparing a neighborhood of site signatures including the first site signature to reference signatures in a first subset of reference signatures when the first reference node is the owner of the first site signature, the first subset of references signatures stored in a first memory partition associated with the first reference node. Not comparing site signature to reference signatures when the first reference node is not the owner of the first one of the site signatures.

Scalable architectures for reference signature matching and updating

Example methods and apparatus to audio watermarking and watermark detection and extraction are disclosed herein. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes memory, computer readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the computer readable instructions to at least detect a first symbol, a second symbol, a third symbol, and a fourth symbol sequentially in encoded audio samples, determine whether the first symbol is a synchronization symbol, in response to a determination that the first symbol is a synchronization symbol, determine that the first symbol and the third symbol are associated with a first message and the second symbol and the fourth symbol are associated with a second message, and output at least one of the first message or the second message.

Example apparatus disclosed herein are to identify encoded information present in audio obtained for a time period. Disclosed example apparatus are also to generate a signature of the audio for comparison with signatures of reference media. Disclosed example apparatus are also to generate a first determination that a media presentation device was in an off state during a first portion of the time period based on a gain level applied by an automatic gain controller to collect the audio. Disclosed example apparatus are also to override the first determination that the media presentation device was in the off state during the first portion of the time period with a second determination that the media presentation device was in an on state during the first portion of the time period, the second determination based on at least one of the encoded information or the signature.

Growing community of inventors

Palm Harbor, FL, United States of America

Venugopal Srinivasan