Estimating demographic statistics of media viewership via context aware mobile devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9516360-B2
Application number	US-201213445348-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 12, 2012
Priority date	Apr 12, 2012
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

A method of generating demographic statistics related to an event includes using sensor data acquired at a mobile device to estimate a value for a category of a demographic model of a user of the mobile device; using sensor data acquired at the mobile device to detect an occurrence of the event in which the user of the mobile device participates; and associating the estimated value for the category of the demographic model of the user of the mobile device with the event.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of generating demographic statistics related to an event, the method comprising:
estimating, using at least a first portion of sensor data acquired at a mobile device, one or more values for one or more categories of a demographic model of a user of the mobile device, wherein the estimated one or more values are determined in accordance with a user-selected level of anonymity and wherein the one or more estimated values comprise an estimated age of the user;
detecting, using at least a second portion of the sensor data acquired at the mobile device, a change in a geographic location of the mobile device;
determining, based on the change in the geographic location, an occurrence of the event in which the user of the mobile device participates;
storing the estimated values for the user of the mobile device; and
generating demographic statistics for the detected event, wherein the demographic statistics include the stored estimated values for the one or more categories of the demographic model for the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event comprises consuming a media program.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the media program is a television program.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event comprises attending or participating in a live gathering of participants.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the event comprises being present at a geographic location.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sensor data is acquired from one or more of a microphone, a GPS receiver, an accelerometer, a light sensor, a magnetometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, a camera, a barometric pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a capacitive touch sensor, a Wi-Fi detector, a Bluetooth® detector, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of estimation of the value and detection of the occurrence of the event also uses user content data including usage information from one or more of email content, calendar content, SMS text message content, social networks, a contact list, or any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more categories of the demographic model includes one or more of the following categories: age, gender, race, location, occupation, income, activity level, commute information, height, languages spoken, locations visited, environments encountered, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating values for the one or more categories of the demographic model of the user of the mobile device further comprises assigning a confidence measure to at least one of the estimated values.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating an estimate of a value for a category of the demographic model based at least in part on detecting the occurrence of the event.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method is performed at a server in communication with the mobile device.

12. A system for generating demographic statistics related to an event, the system comprising:
a mobile device configured to:
collect sensor data available at the mobile device;
estimate, using at least a first portion of the sensor data, one or more values for one or more categories of a demographic model of a user of the mobile device, wherein the estimated values are determined in accordance with a user-selected level of anonymity and wherein the estimated values comprise an estimated age of the user;
transmit the estimated values to a server;

detect, using at least a second portion of the sensor data, a change in a geographic location of the mobile device;
determine, based on the change in the geographic location, an occurrence of the event in which the user of the mobile device participates; and
transmit information about the occurrence of the event to the server; and

the server configured to:
receive the estimated values from the mobile device;
receive the information about the occurrence of the event from the mobile device;
store the estimated values for the user of the mobile device; and
generate demographic statistics for the detected event, wherein the demographic statistics include the stored estimated value of the category of the demographic model for the user.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the event comprises consuming a media program.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the media program is a television program.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the event comprises attending or participating in a live gathering of participants.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the event comprises being present at a geographic location.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the mobile device is configured to acquire the sensor data from one or more sensors selected from the group consisting of: a microphone, a GPS receiver, an accelerometer, a light sensor, a magnetometer, a gyroscope, a proximity sensor, a camera, a barometric pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, a capacitive touch sensor, a Wi-Fi detector, and a Bluetooth® detector.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein
the mobile device is further configured to acquire user content data including usage information from one or more of email content, calendar content, SMS text message content, social networks, a contact list, or any combination thereof; and
at least one of estimation of the value and detection of the occurrence of the event also uses the user content data.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the one or more categories of the demographic model includes one or more of the following categories: age, gender, race, location, occupation, income, activity level, commute information, height, languages spoken, locations visited, environments encountered, or any combination thereof.

20. The system of claim 12 , wherein the mobile device is further configured to assign a confidence measure to at least one of the estimated values.

21. The system of claim 12 , wherein the mobile device is further configured to update an estimate of a value for a category of the demographic model based at least in part on detecting the occurrence of the event.

22. A mobile device comprising:
one or more sensors configured to collect sensor data;
a processor communicatively coupled to the one or more sensors and configured to:
estimate, using at least a first portion of the sensor data collected by the one or more sensors, one or more values for one or more categories of a demographic model of a user of the mobile device, wherein the estimated values are determined in accordance with a user-selected level of anonymity and wherein the estimated values comprise an estimated age of the user,
detect, using a second portion of the sensor data, a change in a geographic location of the mobile device;
determining, based on the change in the geographic location, an occurrence of an event in which the user of the mobile device participates, wherein at least part of the second portion of the sensor data comprises audio data, and
process the audio data to generate audio features associated with the event; and

a transceiver communicatively coupled to the processor and configured to receive information about a plurality of possible pre-determined target events,
wherein the processor is further configured to detect the occurrence of the event in which the user of the mobile device participates by comparing the audio features associated with the event with the information about the plurality of possible pre-determined targe

Assignees

• Grokop Leonard Henry
• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Grokop Leonard Henry

Classifications

• H04W4/206

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04N21/466

  Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies {(services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61)} · CPC title

• H04N21/6582

  Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number (arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38) · CPC title

• H04N21/25883

  being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address (arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52) · CPC title

• H04N21/24 Primary

  Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of server load, available bandwidth, upstream requests {(monitoring of server performance or load G06F11/34; arrangements for observation, testing or troubleshooting for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/12)} · CPC title