Patent Application
20140026159
The present invention relates generally to device identification, and more specifically, to a system configured to identify a type of device playing media content.
Television ratings are very important to both content providers and advertisers. Content providers rely on television ratings to determine which shows are successful, and advertisers rely on television ratings to set a market price for advertising time. Some marketing and advertising research firms or audience rating companies specialize in television ratings, such as Nielsen, Arbitron, TruMedia, and CognoVision. These firms use television rating systems that measure audience size and composition for television programming.
In order to generate television ratings, a firm, such as Nielsen, monitors the viewing habits of a number of target homes. Before any data can be gathered, the firm first requests that a target home or person opt-in to their television viewing habit monitoring program. By opting into the program, the target home agrees to waive some privacy rights. However, the target homes selected by the firms are usually kept a secret, and the firm provides no identity-specific information about the target homes to any third parties, such as advertisers or content providers. Once the target home agrees to the survey, the firm monitors television viewing habits of the target home for a certain amount of time. The firm selects a number of target homes, which is a sample of all the television viewing homes (e.g., in the United States or particular regions), but the sample is large enough to be statistically significant. The firm gathers data regarding the viewing habits of all the target homes in the sample and generates television ratings by extrapolating the data gathered from the target homes.
The firm monitors viewing habits of the target homes by using one of a few different methods. A first method is a viewer “diary” method. In the first method, a person in the target home self-records his or her viewing habits in a journal. The first method is not preferable because it is subject to inaccuracies, such as if a member of the target home forgets something he or she watched or is untruthful. A second method uses a technology kit referred to as a “home unit” to monitor viewing habits. In the second method, the firm connects a component of the home kit known as a set meter to a television to measure the viewing habits of the target home. The set meters give the firm more information than the first method, such as the exact moments a viewer switches channels or turns off the television. Additionally, the set meters are not subject to human error and thereby are more accurate at measuring viewing habits. The home unit may even monitor other devices to gather even more data, such as demographic information. Generally, professionals install the home unit soon after the target home agrees to be included in the monitoring program.
Watermarking is a process of embedding information into a signal that can identify the content. A digital watermark may not be audible to human ears or visible to human eyes, but can be recognized by digital equipment. Most television content contains a watermark, so an audio watermark may be used by the set meter 130 to determine which show is being watched. The watermarked content may be watermarked using an audio algorithm such as Nielsen NASE to uniquely identify the content source. The watermark may further include a time/date stamp, content identification, or a unique numerical assignment, such as an entertainment identifier registry (EIDR) or an international standard audiovisual number (ISAN).
Fingerprinting, on the other hand, is a condensed digital summary of an audio sound that generates a uniqueness algorithm. For example, the condensed digital summary measures perceptual characteristics such as average zero crossing rate, average spectrum, bandwidth, and spectral flatness to identify content. Once the uniqueness algorithm is generated, it is sent to a database to identify the content.
As stated above, the set meter 130 identifies the television content 110 using either the watermark module 134 or the fingerprint module 136. The set meter 130 sends the results of either identification to a server 140 of the firm. The server 140 analyzes the information received from the set meter 130 and creates a report 150.
The second method of viewing habit monitoring may be preferable for households that watch television content primarily or exclusively on a television set. However, more and more content is being viewed on alternative platforms other than a television set. For example, television shows are available to download through digital media stores or to stream through provider websites. The digital content can be viewed on a desktop computer, laptop computer, a tablet computer, a smart phone, a gaming console, or any other device capable of playing the digital information. Some existing technology is capable of detecting watermarks or digital fingerprints of content played on platforms other than a television set, even if headphones or ear buds are used to listen to the media, so the content being watched in target homes that watch television media on platforms other than a television set can still be identified.
However, existing technology does not report the type of platform (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smart phone, gaming device) that is playing the television content. As a result, a firm presumes that the content is watched on a television set.
Watermarking techniques can be used to detect a platform type that is playing media, but given the monitoring technology, each content provider must insert a different watermark into the content for every type of device in order to monitor platforms as well as content. Content providers may find that adding multiple watermarks for every type of device capable of playing content is too large of a burden. But the type of platform viewers are using to watch television content may be valuable information to content providers and advertisers. Thus, technology is desired to assist audience monitoring companies determine the type of platform being used to playback media without requiring multiple watermarks for each item of content provided by the content providers.
Also, because the firms may be protective of the secrecy of the identity of those who consent to their monitoring program, a platform identification method must meet certain privacy requirements. For example, content providers and advertisers cannot receive any identity-specific information about the participants in the monitoring program. Also, any application used to playback television content cannot be aware that the technology is identifying content or a user's identity, as such methods may violate privacy policies. Thus, technology that determines the type of platform used to playback media must also satisfy privacy concerns.
The systems and methods described herein attempt to overcome the drawbacks discussed above by providing a system that identifies a device platform that is playing media content by using a beacon that is consistent with privacy policies of audience rating companies. The beacon may be a watermark that is added to and consistent with existing watermarks embedded into the media content. The system that generates the beacon may give advertisers, content providers, and audience rating companies valuable information regarding how much content is being consumed through alternative platforms other than a television set without requiring the content providers to embed multiple watermarks into the media content for each type of device that can playback media content.
In one embodiment, a platform playback device identification system includes a computer program product, comprising a tangible computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for identifying a platform type of a device, the method comprising: providing a system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a secure beacon generator; receiving, by the secure beacon generator, an audio portion of media content from a content playback module; determining, by the secure beacon generator, a platform type of the device; and generating, by the secure beacon generator, a beacon for integrating with a sound wave of the audio portion of the media content, wherein the beacon includes the determined platform type of the device.
In another embodiment, a platform playback device identification system, comprises a computer program product, comprising a tangible computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for identifying a platform type of a device, the method comprising: providing a system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a secure beacon generator; receiving, by the secure beacon generator, an audio portion of media content; determining, by the secure beacon generator, whether a content watermark is included in audio content; determining, by the secure beacon generator, a platform type of the device; generating, by the secure beacon generator, the beacon, wherein the beacon includes data that identifies the platform type of the device; checking, by the secure beacon generator, if the content watermark is embedded into the audio content at the point in time when the device generates the beacon, if the audio content contains the content watermark; embedding, by the secure beacon generator, the beacon into the audio content, if the content watermark is not currently embedded into the audio content; and outputting, by the device, the audio content that includes the embedded beacon through a speaker.
In yet another embodiment, a computer program product, comprising a tangible computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code embodied therein, the computer-readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for identifying a platform type of a device, the method comprising: providing a system, wherein the system comprises distinct software modules, and wherein the distinct software modules comprise a beacon detection module; receiving, by the beacon detection module, a beacon generated from a secure beacon generator of a device, wherein the beacon includes data that identifies the platform type of the device that is emitting the audio of the media content; determining, by the beacon detection module, the platform type of the device; and generating, by the beacon detection module, a report identifying the platform type of the device that is emitting the audio of the media content.
Additional features and advantages of an embodiment will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the exemplary embodiments in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings constitute a part of this specification and illustrate an embodiment of the invention and together with the specification, explain the invention.
Various embodiments and aspects of the invention will be described with reference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings will illustrate the various embodiments. The following description and drawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order to provide a concise discussion of embodiments of the present inventions.
A set meter 230, which can be installed by an audience rating company, can monitor viewing habits of a target home by identifying an audio track of the content 210 from the speaker 225 using a microphone 232. The set meter 230 can be a software module installed in the device 220, an add-on component coupled to the device 220 such as using a USB drive, a set-top box coupled to the device, or any other hardware or software connected with wires or wirelessly to the device 220 for implementing the embodiments described herein. The set meter 230 can be a tangible computer-readable medium having computer-readable program code having modules that can be executed by a processor.
The set meter 230 identifies the content 210 using either a digital watermark detection module 234 or a digital fingerprint detection module 236. In addition, the set meter 230 receives a beacon sent from the device 220 using a beacon detection module 238. The beacon may at least contain information that identifies a platform type of the device 220 that is playing the content 210. The platform type can include a label such as a television, desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, smart phone, gaming console, or the like. The beacon will be described in greater detail below with reference to
The set meter 230 transmits the content identification using the watermark detection module 234 or the fingerprint detection module 236 to a server 210, and the set meter 230 also transmits the platform identification using the beacon detection module 238 to the server 240. The server 240 may be owned and operated by the audience rating company. The server 240 analyzes the information received from the set meter 230 and can create a report 250. The server 240 may include one or more servers and databases that receive information over a network such as the internet, store the received information, and generate reports based upon the stored information.
The monitoring module 324 includes a secure beacon generator 326. The secure beacon generator 326 generates a beacon that identifies the type of platform playing the content 310, and for example, the type of platform may be identified as a tablet, a smart phone, a television, a gaming console, a DVD player, a computer or the like. If the content 310 includes a content watermark that identifies the content 310, the beacon may be a second watermark that identifies the type of device 320. Alternatively, if the content 310 is not watermarked, but instead is recognized using a fingerprint detection module, the beacon may be a first watermark to be output by the device's speaker 325. Additionally, the beacon may be another wired or wireless signal that is configured to identify the platform of the device 320. The secure beacon generator 326 receives the audio of the content 310 and generates the beacon at appropriate points in time. For example, if the content playback module 322 is paused, the secure beacon generator 326 may not output the beacon. As a further example, the secure beacon generator 326 outputs the beacon when the audio of the content 310 is at a certain sound level or when the audio of the content 310 is a certain sound type so that the beacon cannot be heard by a human ear.
The sound of the content 310, which may include a sub-audible watermark identifying the content 310, such as Nielsen NASE, an entertainment identifier registry (EIDR), or an international standard audiovisual number (ISAN), is sent from the content playback module 322 to an audio summing module 328, and the beacon is sent from the secure beacon generator 326 to the audio summing module 328. The audio summing module 328 may be a module included in the monitoring module 324, or the audio summing module 328 may be an audio generating driver included as part of the operating system of the device 320, or the audio summing module 328 may be an additional piece of hardware connected between the device 320 and the speaker 325. In general, the audio summing module 328 includes a combination of a processor, pre-amplifier, amplifiers, stereo balance, equalizer, or the like. The audio summing module 328 mixes the beacon with the audio from the content 310 received from the content playback module 322, which may include a watermark identifying the content 310. In other words, the audio summing device 328 can embed the beacon into the audio signal of the content 310. The speaker 325 outputs the audio of the content 310 and the beacon as sound waves. The beacon, like other conventional watermarks, is sub-audible. Thus, the addition of the beacon signal in the sound wave emitted from the speaker 325 does not distort the audio of the content 310 if the beacon is emitted at an appropriate time, such as when the audio of the content 310 is not silence. However, the microphone 232 of the set meter 230 is configured to detect and receive the beacon, and a beacon detection module 238 is configured to decode the information included in the beacon. It is to be noted that because the beacon is a watermark, the beacon detection module 238 may be unnecessary because the watermark detection module is capable of decoding any watermark, including the beacon. However, the beacon detection module is illustrated as a separate module for illustration purposes.
If the content 310 contains a content watermark identifying the content 310, the beacon is set to not collide with or disrupt the output of the content watermark, as described in more detail in
The anti-collision characteristic is illustrated in
Referring again to
The information included in the beacon may include any information useful in determining the platform playing the content 310. For example, the secure beacon generator 326 may include a manufacturer's serial number of the device. The serial number could be used by the beacon detection module to determine the type of device playing the content 310. Alternatively, the beacon could include a user-set parameter, such as the name given to the device when the device was first activated by the user. In another embodiment, the professionals who install the home unit may identify the device 320 and program the type of device into the secure beacon generator 326. In yet another embodiment, the secure beacon generator 326 may be able to look into the device's memory and determine the type of device using the information gathered from the device's memory. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the secure beacon generator 326 may determine the device's type in a plurality of methods, and any method that determines the device's type may be included in the scope of the exemplary embodiments to determine the type of device.
The device platform type reported by the beacon may be general or specific. For example, the beacon may generally report that the device 320 is a tablet computer. The beacon may also be more specific, such as by listing a manufacturer and model of the tablet (for example, the beacon may report the device is an Apple® iPad®). Even more specifically, the beacon may report a model generation (for example, the beacon my report that the device is an Apple® iPad 2®). As described above, the beacon may even report the device's serial number or a UPC number. Any information that describes the device's type may be included within the scope of the exemplary embodiments.
A method of the configuration of the platform playback device identification system of
As shown in
Information received from the wireless antenna 630 may be included in the information of the beacon. For example, the device 620 may be configured to determine a location of the device 620 and a time of day using information received by the wireless antenna 630. The location, time, etc. may be included in the beacon.
The monitoring module 624 may include additional features that gather additional information about the device 620 that can be reported through the beacon. For example, the monitoring module 624 may be able to determine a state of the device 620, such as an orientation of the device 620, if the device 620 is equipped with an accelerometer, whether headphones are used to listen to the audio of the content 610, the location of the device 620, if the device 620 includes location determining hardware or to what wireless network the device 620 is connected, if the device 620 includes a wireless antenna. Further, the monitoring module 624 may be able to report a status of the content playback module 622, such as whether the content 610 is paused, whether the playback is continuous, and whether a user has used a fast forward or rewind function. Any such information about the device 620 or the playback of the content 610 may be included in the beacon.
The monitoring module 624 may also be able to determine biometric information about a viewer watching the content 610. For example, the monitoring module 624 may determine which viewer in the target home is watching the content 610 when the content playback module 622 begins to play the content 610. The monitoring module 624 may use facial recognition or fingerprint recognition to determine the biometric data. Once the viewer is recognized, the secure beacon generator 626 may report which viewer is watching the content 610 by including such information in the beacon. Viewer recognition and determination may be useful in demographic statistics gathering.
A method of the configuration of the platform playback device identification system of
The monitoring module 624 may be included as software installed on a device 620. The software may be installed as an application (or “app”) on a smart phone, tablet computer, gaming console, digital media receiver, personal computer, or other device such as a smart TV that allows installation and use of applications. The monitoring module 624 may also be included in a firmware update for any device.
However, not all device that are capable of presenting content are able to be easily updated with a simple software application or firmware update.
Finally, if a device cannot be updated with a firmware or software monitoring module 624, the set meter 230 may presume that if no beacon is received, the device that could not be updated is the device playing the content 610. Although, this solution may not be preferable if more than one device cannot be updated with the monitoring module 624.
The exemplary embodiments can include one or more computer programs that embody the functions described herein and illustrated in the appended flow charts. However, it should be apparent that there could be many different ways of implementing aspects of the exemplary embodiments in computer programming, and these aspects should not be construed as limited to one set of computer instructions. One or more acts described herein may be performed by hardware, software, or a combination thereof, as may be embodied in one or more computing systems.
The functionality described herein can be implemented by numerous modules or components that can perform one or multiple functions. Each module or component can be executed by a computer, such as a server, having a non-transitory computer-readable medium and processor. In one alternative, multiple computers may be necessary to implement the functionality of one module or component.
Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizing terms such as “providing” or “receiving” or “generating” or “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or “checking” or “embedding” or “outputting” or the like, can refer to the action and processes of a data processing system, or similar electronic device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the system's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the system's memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
The exemplary embodiments can relate to an apparatus for performing one or more of the functions described herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a machine (e.g. computer) readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs and magnetic-optical disks, read only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) erasable programmable ROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to a bus.
The exemplary embodiments described herein are described as software executed on at least one server, though it is understood that embodiments can be configured in other ways and retain functionality. The embodiments can be implemented on known devices such as a personal computer, a special purpose computer, cellular telephone, personal digital assistant (“PDA”), a digital camera, a digital tablet, an electronic gaming system, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit element(s), and ASIC or other integrated circuit, a digital signal processor, a hard-wired electronic or logic circuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device such as a PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, or the like. In general, any device capable of implementing the processes described herein can be used to implement the systems and techniques according to this invention.
It is to be appreciated that the various components of the technology can be located at distant portions of a distributed network and/or the Internet, or within a dedicated secure, unsecured and/or encrypted system. Thus, it should be appreciated that the components of the system can be combined into one or more devices or co-located on a particular node of a distributed network, such as a telecommunications network. As will be appreciated from the description, and for reasons of computational efficiency, the components of the system can be arranged at any location within a distributed network without affecting the operation of the system. Moreover, the components could be embedded in a dedicated machine.
Furthermore, it should be appreciated that the various links connecting the elements can be wired or wireless links, or any combination thereof, or any other known or later developed element(s) that is capable of supplying and/or communicating data to and from the connected elements. The term module as used herein can refer to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, or combination thereof that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. The terms determine, calculate and compute, and variations thereof, as used herein are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique.
The embodiments described above are intended to be exemplary. One skilled in the art recognizes that numerous alternative components and embodiments that may be substituted for the particular examples described herein and still fall within the scope of the invention.
