The Nielsen Comapny (us), LLC

Arbitron Inc.

Vladimir Kuznetsov

Wendell D Lynch

Alan R Neuhauser

David Gish

John Steven Stavropoulos

Jack C Crystal

Anand Jain

Alexander Pavlovich Topchy

Sadhana Gupta

Ken Joseph Frett

Jeremey M Davis

William John McKenna

Jason Bolles

Mark Richardson

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark. Disclosed example apparatus also swap at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a second one of the timestamp cycles, but do not swap the at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a first one of the timestamp cycles. Disclosed example apparatus further embed the watermark in a first piece of media.

Methods and apparatus to extend a timestamp range supported by a watermark

Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to perform time alignment for watermarks. An example apparatus adjusts a power value of an element of a template based on respective average magnitudes and respective tonality ratios corresponding to a plurality of frequency representations of a media signal, the media signal to be encoded with at least one watermark, the element corresponding to one of the plurality of frequency representations. Additionally, the example apparatus computes an alignment of the template to the media signal based on respective power values of elements of the template, the template corresponding to a type of the at least one watermark. The example apparatus also encodes the media signal with the at least one watermark according to the alignment.

Methods, systems, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to perform time alignment for watermarks

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark, the timestamp including a set of timestamp symbols, a first subset of data symbols and a second subset of data symbols. Disclosed example apparatus also modify the first subset of data symbols of the watermark based on a further timestamp symbol not included in the set of timestamp symbols of the timestamp, but not modify the second subset of data symbols based on the further timestamp symbol, the further timestamp symbol to identify the one of the plurality of timestamp cycles to be represented by the timestamp of the watermark. Disclosed example apparatus further embed the watermark in a piece of media.

Methods and apparatus to determine media viewing information for hybrid content delivery are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to at least one of instantiate or execute the machine readable instructions to monitor network traffic associated with at least one device during a media session, determine viewing information associated with the media session based on a consumption data message in the network traffic, the consumption data message transmitted by the at least one device, determine a program identifier of primary content received by the at least one device, the program identifier indicative of a program presented as the primary content by the at least one device, associate a panelist identifier with the viewing information and the program identifier of the primary content, and generate a media session report based on the panelist identifier, the viewing information, and the program identifier.

Methods and apparatus to determine media viewing information for hybrid content delivery

Example apparatus disclosed herein include a watermark detector to detect watermarks in a media signal. Disclosed example apparatus also include a controller to operate the watermark detector to (1) detect a first watermark in the media signal, and (2) cycle between sleep intervals and active intervals based on a repetition rate of the watermarks in the media signal to perform a detection operation for a second watermark at a second location in the media signal relative to a first location of the first watermark in the media signal. In some examples, the controller is to search a buffer of prior detected watermark symbols to detect a third watermark at a third location prior to the second location in the media signal in response to the second watermark not being detected at the second location in the media signal.

Power efficient detection of watermarks in media signals

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for watermarking using starting phase modulation. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the machine readable instructions to at least access a media signal, access a watermark symbol to be encoded into the media signal, determine bit values of the watermark symbol, determine a common starting phase value for watermark components of the watermark symbol, the common starting phase value to represent at least one of the bit values of the watermark symbol, and embed the watermark components into the media signal based on the common starting phase value.

Apparatus and methods for watermarking using starting phase modulation

Example methods and apparatus to improve timestamp transition resolution of watermarks are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus is to determine an initial resolution for timestamp transitions based on a first number of time units between first ones of watermarks detected in media, and determine an updated resolution for the timestamp transitions based on a predicted timestamp transition window and a second number of time units between second ones of the watermarks detected in the media, the second ones of the watermarks to be subsequent to the first ones of the watermarks in the media, the predicted timestamp transition window associated with the initial resolution for timestamp transitions, the updated resolution for the timestamp transitions corresponding to a third number of time units, the third number of time units less than the second number of time units.

Systems and methods to improve timestamp transition resolution

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a timestamp range supported by a watermark without breaking backwards compatibility are disclosed. An example watermark encoder includes a counter to increment symbols of a watermark timestamp and a controller to control the counter to increment the symbols of the watermark timestamp based on a key, the controller to cause the counter to restrict ones of the symbol values to increment over one of a first range of symbol values or a second range of symbol values based on a value of the key, the second range of symbol values different from the first range of symbol values.

Methods and apparatus to extend a timestamp range supported by a watermark without breaking backwards compatibility

Apparatuses are disclosed for identifying portable devices carried by the same person. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, instructions on the apparatus, and a processor to execute the instructions to access media exposure data from at least one of a plurality of portable computing devices, access motion strings from each of the plurality of portable computing devices, each of said strings comprising a successive binary representation of motion over a first period of time, compare the motion strings in a processor to determine if at least two motion strings match within a predetermined threshold, and identify the devices that produced matching motion strings.

Multiple meter detection and processing using motion data

Example systems, methods, apparatus and articles of manufacture for wirelessly modifying detection characteristics of portable devices are disclosed herein. Example portable devices include example radio circuitry and example processor circuitry. In disclosed examples, the example processor circuitry is to cause the radio circuitry to scan for radio frequency beacons. The example processor circuitry is also to trigger activation of audio monitoring via a microphone of the portable device in response to establishment of a first connection with a first radio frequency beacon, the audio monitoring to at least one of detect an audio code or generate an audio signature. The example processor circuitry is further to cause the audio monitoring to stop in response to establishment of a second connection with a second radio frequency beacon different from the first radio frequency beacon.

Systems and methods for wirelessly modifying detection characteristics of portable devices

Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods are disclosed for multiple scrambled layers for audio watermarking. An example system includes a processor to execute instructions to: divide the watermark into a plurality of watermark symbols; map the watermark symbols to a plurality of frequency bins according to a first distribution scheme to create a first watermark layer having a first combination of the frequency bins and a second watermark layer having a second combination of the frequency bins, subsets of adjacent ones of the plurality of frequency bins grouped into a corresponding plurality of frequency clumps; determine a sequence for shifting watermark symbols between the frequency clumps to cause different combinations of watermark symbols that include one watermark symbol from each watermark layer to share up to a first number of frequency bins, the first number of frequency bins to be less than a number of watermark symbols in respective ones of the different combinations; and generate a second distribution scheme to map the watermark symbols in accordance with the sequence.

Multiple scrambled layers for audio watermarking

Example apparatus to improve timestamp transition resolution of watermarks are disclosed. A disclosed example apparatus is to decode timestamps in respective ones of detected watermarks, estimate a first transition window indicative of a transition between a first time period to a second time period based on a first one of the timestamps and a second one of the timestamps, and when the first transition window does not satisfy a threshold, estimate a second transition window indicative of a transition between the second time period and a third time period based on the second one of the timestamps and a third one of the timestamps. The disclosed example apparatus is also to determine a first mapped transition window based on an intersection of the first transition window and the second transition window, and set the first mapped transition window as a reference time transition window for subsequent time periods.

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Ellicott City, MD, United States of America

Vladimir Kuznetsov