Methods and apparatus for associating media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10078846-B2
Application number	US-201414462190-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 18, 2014
Priority date	Dec 16, 2008
Publication date	Sep 18, 2018
Grant date	Sep 18, 2018

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus for associating media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area are disclosed. A disclosed example method includes receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member, determining a most used Internet Protocol address from the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses, accessing geographic information and determining a geographic location corresponding to the most used Internet Protocol address, accessing demographic information and determining a demographic profile associated with the geographic location, and associating at least one of the geographic location or the demographic profile with the media device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
obtaining a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member;
identifying a geographic area corresponding to a home location by:
determining, by executing an instruction with a processor a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;
identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and
in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location, the second geographic location being associated with a second geographic location identifier different from a first geographic location identifier associated with the first geographic location;

identifying, by executing an instruction with the processor, a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and
associating, by executing an instruction with the processor, the demographic profile with the media device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes:
accessing demographic information including a plurality of geographic areas; and
matching the home location to the geographic area in the demographic information.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic profile to an identifier of the media device.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the associating of the demographic profile with the media device includes linking the demographic profile to an electronic record including the media device.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

6. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including:
compiling Internet Protocol addresses assigned to media devices associated with panel members associated with the geographic area;
associating the respective ones of the media devices with corresponding identifiers; and
determining total market usage of a first type of media device for the geographic area based on a number of the identifiers associated with the first type of media device, a total number of the identifiers for the geographic area, and a population of the geographic area.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the first geographic location corresponds to the location of the internet service provider includes matching the first geographic location to a street address associated with the internet service provider.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determining that the first geographic location corresponds to the location of the internet service provider includes determining a threshold number of the Internet Protocol addresses are associated with a same street address.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying of the second geographic location includes determining an average distance between a plurality of media devices and the location associated with the internet service provider.

10. An apparatus comprising:
a receiver to obtain a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member; and
an address resolver to:
identify a geographic area corresponding to a home location by:
determining a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;
identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and
in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location, the second geographic location being associated with a second geographic location identifier different from a first geographic location identifier associated with the first geographic location;

identify a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and
associate the demographic profile with the media device.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by:
accessing demographic information including a plurality of geographic areas; and
matching the home location to the geographic area in the demographic information.

12. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic profile to an identifier of the media device.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein the address resolver is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by linking the demographic profile to an electronic recording including the media device.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

15. A tangible machine accessible medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
obtain a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member;
identify a geographic area corresponding to a home location by:
determining a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;
identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device; and
in response to determining that the first geographic location corresponds to a location associated with an internet service provider, identifying a second geographic location different than the first geographic location based on the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location;

identify a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and
associate the demographic profile with the media device.

16. The tangible machine accessible medium as defined in claim 15 , wherein the geographic area is associated with the demographic profile by:
acces

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Besehanic Jan
• Mears Paul
• Milavsky Joseph G
• Luff Robert A
• Ramaswamy Arun
• Wright David Howell

Classifications

• H04W4/025

  using location based information parameters · CPC title

• G06F2221/2111

  Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS · CPC title

• G06Q30/02

  Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising · CPC title

• G06Q30/0205 Primary

  based on location or geographical consideration · CPC title

• H04M2215/22

  Bandwidth or usage-sensitve billing · CPC title