Methods, apparatus, and machine readable storage media to monitor a media presentation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10200751-B2
Application number	US-201213436444-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2012
Priority date	Mar 30, 2012
Publication date	Feb 5, 2019
Grant date	Feb 5, 2019

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, and machine readable storage media to monitor media presentations are disclosed. An example method includes receiving a status from a media presentation status server indicating whether there is more than a sufficient likelihood of media being presented at a present location of a mobile device; collecting audio with the mobile device when the status indicates there is more than the sufficient likelihood of media being presented; and not collecting audio when the status indicates there is not more than the sufficient likelihood of media being presented.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to monitor a media presentation, the method comprising:
determining a location of a mobile device;
comparing the location of the mobile device with a set of predefined locations at which audio monitoring is to be performed;
when the location of the mobile device corresponds to a first location of the set of predefined locations:
sending, by executing an instruction with a processor of the mobile device, a status request including the first location corresponding to the location of the mobile device to a media presentation status server;
receiving, from the media presentation status server in response to the request including the first location, status indicating whether a likelihood of media being presented at the first location satisfies a threshold, the status obtained at the media presentation status server from a presentation monitor, separate from the mobile device, associated with the first location;
enabling a microphone to collect audio with the mobile device when the status indicates that the likelihood of media being presented satisfies the threshold and the location of the mobile device corresponds to the first location; and
to conserve battery life of the mobile device, not enabling a microphone to collect audio when the status indicates that the likelihood of media being presented does not satisfy the threshold and the location of the mobile device corresponds to the first location; and

when the location of the mobile device does not correspond to any of the set of predefined locations, not sending the status request to conserve the battery life of the mobile device.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including transmitting audience measurement data based on the collected audio from the mobile device to a media monitoring server.

3. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the status is updated by the presentation monitor when the presentation monitor detects media being presented at the first location.

4. The method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the sending of the status request includes polling the media presentation status server for the status.

5. The method as defined in claim 1 , further including determining whether the likelihood of media being presented at the location of the mobile device satisfies the threshold.

6. The method as defined in claim 5 , wherein the collecting of the audio is performed by a first application on the mobile device, and the determining of the location of the mobile device is performed by a second application on the mobile device, the second application being different than the first application.

7. An apparatus, comprising:
a locator to determine a present location of the apparatus and compare the present location of the apparatus with a set of predefined locations at which audio monitoring is to be performed;
a status checker to request, from a media presentation status server, a status message indicating whether a likelihood of media being presented at a first location of the set of predefined locations satisfies a threshold, the status checker to request the status message when the present location of the apparatus corresponds to the first location of the set of predefined locations, and to conserve battery life, the status checker not to request the status message when the present location does not correspond to the set of predefined locations, the media presentation status server separate from the apparatus, the request including the first location corresponding to the present location of the apparatus; and
an audio receiver to enable a microphone to collect audio when the status message indicates that the likelihood of media being presented at the first location satisfies the threshold and the present location corresponds to the first location, and to conserve battery life, the audio receiver not to enable the microphone to collect audio when the status message indicates that the likelihood of media being presented at the first location does not satisfy the threshold.

8. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , further including a media monitor to identify the collected audio.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8 , further including a data transmitter to transmit at least one of the collected audio or an identification of the collected audio to a media monitoring server.

10. The apparatus as defined in claim 7 , wherein the presentation monitor is to detect a start of a media presentation at the first location, and to transmit a status update message to the media presentation status server via a network to indicate a likelihood of media being presented at the first location.

11. The apparatus as defined in claim 10 , wherein the presentation monitor is incapable of identifying the media presentation.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor of a mobile device to at least:
determine a location of the mobile device;
compare the location of the mobile device with a set of predefined locations at which audio monitoring is to be performed;
when the location of the mobile device corresponds to a first location of the set of predefined locations:
request status from a media presentation status server, the status indicating whether a likelihood of media being presented at the first location satisfies a threshold, the request including the first location corresponding to the location of the mobile device, the status to be requested from the media presentation status server, separate from the mobile device;
enable a microphone to collect audio with the mobile device when the status indicates that the likelihood of media being presented satisfies the threshold and the location of the mobile device corresponds to the first location; and
not enabling the microphone to collect audio, to conserve battery life of the mobile device, when the status indicates that the likelihood of media being presented does not satisfy the threshold; and

when the location of the mobile device does not correspond to any of the set of predefined locations, not requesting the status to conserve the battery life of the mobile device.

13. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein the status is updated by the presentation monitor when the presentation monitor detects a media presentation at the first location.

14. The computer readable medium as defined in claim 12 , wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine whether the likelihood of media being presented at the location of the mobile device satisfies the threshold.

Assignees

• Besehanic Jan
• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Besehanic Jan

Classifications

• H04H60/37

  for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID · CPC title

• H04N21/44213 Primary

  Monitoring of end-user related data (arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title

• H04N21/41407

  embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop (constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57) · CPC title

• H04N21/4394

  involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams (arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58) · CPC title

• H04N21/25841

  involving the geographical location of the client (retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00) · CPC title