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

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10956923-B2
Application number	US-202016901969-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 15, 2020
Priority date	Dec 16, 2008
Publication date	Mar 23, 2021
Grant date	Mar 23, 2021

Abstract

Example methods and apparatus for associating media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area are disclosed. Disclosed example apparatus include means for receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member. Disclosed example apparatus also include means for resolving addresses, the means for resolving to determine a most used Internet Protocol address from the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses, determine a geographic location corresponding to the most used Internet Protocol address, in response to determining the geographic location corresponds to a location of an internet service provider, associate a geographic area with the media device, determine a demographic profile associated with the geographic are, and associate the demographic profile with the media device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus to associate media devices with a demographic composition of a geographic area, the apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member; and
means for resolving addresses, the means for resolving to:
determine a most used Internet Protocol address from the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to the media device;
access geographic information;
access demographic information;
determine a first geographic location corresponding to the most used Internet Protocol address by at least:
matching the most used Internet Protocol address to a first range of a first level of Internet Protocol address prefixes;
identifying a first geographic region based on the first range of the first level of Internet Protocol address prefixes;
matching the most used Internet Protocol address to a first range of a second level of Internet Protocol address prefixes, the second level more specific than the first level; and
identifying a second geographic region based on the first range of the second level of Internet Protocol address prefixes, the second geographic region within the first geographic region, the first geographic location within the second geographic region;

in response to determining the first geographic location corresponds to a location of an internet service provider, associate a geographic area with the media device, wherein a size of the geographic area corresponds to an average distance between locations of a plurality of media devices and the first geographic location, the geographic area within or coextensive with the second geographic region;
determine a demographic profile associated with the geographic area; and
associate the demographic profile with the media device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the means for resolving is to determine the most used Internet Protocol address by calculating which one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses was assigned to the media device for a longest period of time.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the means for resolving is to determine the most used Internet Protocol address by calculating which one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses the media device used to access the Internet for a longest period of time.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the means for resolving is to determine the most used Internet Protocol address by calculating for which one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses the media device utilized the most bandwidth.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further means for reporting at least one of a type of the media device, the demographic profile, the geographic area or the first geographic location to a third party.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the means for receiving is to receive usage information from the media device.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the means for resolving is to associate at least one of the geographic area, the first geographic location or the demographic profile with at least one of the usage information or the panel member.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the means for reporting is to report at least one of the type of the media device, the usage information, the panel member, the demographic profile, the geographic area or the first geographic location to a marketing entity.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the means for receiving is to receive registration information from the media device and store the registration information in memory.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the memory is to store the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses.

11. An apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses assigned to a media device associated with a panel member; and
means for resolving addresses, the means for resolving to:
identify a geographic area corresponding to a home location by:
determining a first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses that is associated with a larger amount of usage by the media device than a second one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses;
identifying a first geographic location corresponding to the first one of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses; 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, the geographic area including the first geographic location and the second geographic location, the second geographic location 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.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the geographic area is a first geographic area, and the means for resolving is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by:
accessing demographic information identifying a plurality of geographic areas; and
matching the home location to the first geographic area in the demographic information.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the means for resolving 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.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the means for resolving is to associate the demographic profile with the media device by linking the demographic profile to an electronic record identifying the media device.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of Internet Protocol addresses is associated with a respective location.

16. An apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a plurality of Internet Protocol addresses associated with a media device; and
means for resolving addresses, the means for resolving to:
determine a first amount of usage of a first Internet Protocol address used by the media device;
determine a second amount of usage of a second Internet Protocol address used by the media device;
select the first Internet Protocol address or the second Internet Protocol address as a most used Internet Protocol address based on the first amount of usage and the second amount of usage;
identify latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the most used Internet Protocol address;
identify a first geographic area of a plurality of geographic areas corresponding to a home location based on the latitude-longitude coordinates associated with the most used Internet Protocol address;
access demographic information associated with the plurality of geographic areas; and
match the home location with a portion of the demographic information associated with the first geographic area to associate a demographic segment with the media device based on the first geographic area.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the usage corresponds to an amount of bandwidth.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the means for resolving is to associate the demographic segment with the media device by linking a reference code corresponding to the demographic segment to an identifier of the media device.

19. The apparatus of claim 16 , wherein the means for resolving is to associate the demographic segment with

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04L2101/69

  using geographic information, e.g. room number · CPC title

• H04L2101/695

  using masks or ranges of addresses · CPC title

• H04L61/5014

  using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/535

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title

• G06Q30/0205 Primary

  based on location or geographical consideration · CPC title