Audio watermarking for people monitoring

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016019901-A1
Application number	US-201414332055-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 15, 2014
Priority date	Jul 15, 2014
Publication date	Jan 21, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to utilize audio watermarking for people monitoring are disclosed. Example people monitoring methods disclosed herein include determining, at a user device, whether a first trigger condition for emitting an audio watermark identifying at least one of the user device or a user of the user device is satisfied. Such example methods also include, in response to determining that the first trigger condition is satisfied, providing a first audio signal including the audio watermark to an audio circuit that is to output an acoustic signal from the user device.

First claim

1 . A people monitoring method comprising:
determining, at a user device, whether a first trigger condition for emitting an audio watermark identifying at least one of the user device or a user of the user device is satisfied; and in response to determining that the first trigger condition is satisfied, providing a first audio signal including the audio watermark to an audio circuit that is to output an acoustic signal from the user device.

2 . A method as defined in claim 1 , wherein the first trigger condition is satisfied when an input audio signal sensed at the user device satisfies an audio threshold.

3 - 5 . (canceled)

6 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a level of an input audio signal; and adjusting a level of the first audio signal based on the level of the input audio signal.

7 . A method as defined in claim 6 , wherein adjusting the level of the first audio signal comprises adjusting the level of the first audio signal to cause the first audio signal to be substantially masked by a source of the input audio signal when the acoustic signal is output from the user device.

8 . (canceled)

9 . A method as defined in claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, at the user device, whether a second trigger condition is satisfied; and in response to determining that the first trigger condition and the second trigger condition are satisfied, but not if either the first trigger condition or the second trigger condition is not satisfied, providing the first audio signal including the audio watermark to the audio circuit.

10 . A method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a location of the user device is determined to correspond to a first geographical area including a monitored media device.

11 . A method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a current time at the user device corresponds to a first time period.

12 . A method as defined in claim 9 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a second audio signal is being provided to the audio circuit.

13 . (canceled)

14 . A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
determine whether a first trigger condition for emitting an audio watermark identifying at least one of a user device or a user of the user device is satisfied; and in response to determining that the first trigger condition is satisfied, provide a first audio signal including the audio watermark to an audio circuit that is to output an acoustic signal from the user device.

15 . A storage medium as defined in claim 14 , wherein the first trigger condition is satisfied when an input audio signal sensed at the user device satisfies an audio threshold.

16 - 18 . (canceled)

19 . A storage medium as defined in claim 14 , wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:
determine a level of an input audio signal; and adjust a level of the first audio signal based on the level of the input audio signal.

20 . A storage medium as defined in claim 19 , wherein to adjust the level of the first audio signal, the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to adjust the level of the first audio signal to cause the first audio signal to be substantially masked by a source of the input audio signal when the acoustic signal is output from the user device.

21 . (canceled)

22 . A storage medium as defined in claim 14 , wherein the machine readable instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to:
determine whether a second trigger condition is satisfied; and provide the first audio signal including the audio watermark to the audio circuit in response to determining that the first trigger condition and the second trigger condition are satisfied, but not if either the first trigger condition or the second trigger condition is not satisfied.

23 . A storage medium as defined in claim 22 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a location of the user device is determined to correspond to a first geographical area including a monitored media device.

24 . A storage medium as defined in claim 22 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a current time at the user device corresponds to a first time period.

25 . A storage medium as defined in claim 22 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a second audio signal is being provided to the audio circuit.

26 . An apparatus to support people monitoring using watermarks, the apparatus comprising:
a trigger condition evaluator to determine whether a first trigger condition for emitting an audio watermark identifying at least one of a user device or a user of the user device is satisfied; and a watermarker to provide a first audio signal including the audio watermark to an audio circuit that is to output an acoustic signal from the user device.

27 . An apparatus as defined in claim 26 , wherein the first trigger condition is satisfied when an input audio signal sensed at the user device satisfies an audio threshold.

28 - 29 . (canceled)

30 . An apparatus as defined in claim 26 , wherein the watermarker is further to:
determine a level of an input audio signal; and adjust a level of the first audio signal based on the level of the input audio signal.

31 . An apparatus as defined in claim 30 , wherein to adjust the level of the first audio signal, the watermarker is to adjust the level of the first audio signal to cause the first audio signal to be substantially masked by a source of the input audio signal when the acoustic signal is output from the user device.

32 . (canceled)

33 . An apparatus as defined in claim 26 , wherein the trigger condition evaluator is further to:
determine whether a second trigger condition is satisfied; and provide the first audio signal including the audio watermark to the audio circuit in response to determining that the first trigger condition and the second trigger condition are satisfied, but not if either the first trigger condition or the second trigger condition is not satisfied.

34 . An apparatus as defined in claim 33 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a location of the user device is determined to correspond to a first geographical area including a monitored media device.

35 . An apparatus as defined in claim 33 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a current time at the user device corresponds to a first time period.

36 . An apparatus as defined in claim 33 , wherein the second trigger condition is satisfied when a second audio signal is being provided to the audio circuit.

37 - 49 . (canceled)

Assignees

• Nielsen Co Us Llc

Inventors

• Topchy Alexander
• Soundararajan Padmanabhan
• Srinivasan Venugopal

Classifications

• H04H60/45

  for identifying users · CPC title

• H04H60/51

  of receiving stations · CPC title

• G10L19/018 Primary

  Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal · CPC title

• G10L25/78

  Detection of presence or absence of voice signals (switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10) · CPC title

• H04H2201/50

  characterised by the use of watermarks · CPC title