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US 11,146,414 B2Granted
Methods and apparatus to locate unknown media devices
AssigneeThe Nielsen Company (US), LLC
InventorsMark Cave, Joseph Kerkes
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus and method to automatically determine the location of unknown media devices is disclosed. An example apparatus includes a media device detector to detect an unknown media device identified in monitoring data collected by an audience measurement device at a location determined to have an “on” status, a media transmission detector to detect a media transmission associated with a device address and an association storer to store an association of the device address, the unknown media device and the location. A probability determiner determines a probability that the unknown media device is located at the location.
Claims20
An apparatus for determining a location of media devices, the apparatus comprising:
- a media device detector to detect an unknown media device identified in monitoring data collected by an audience measurement device at a first location of a first media presentation device determined to have an “on” status;
- a media transmission detector to detect a media transmission associated with a device address;
- an association storer to:
- store an association of the device address with the unknown media device and the first location of the first media presentation device in a probability data structure, the association indicative of when the unknown media device transmits network communications during a period of time when the first media presentation device is determined to have the “on” status, the probability data structure including counts of a number of associations for the device address with the first location of the first media presentation device and respective locations of a plurality of media presentation devices;
- increase the counts when subsequent associations for the unknown media device with the first media presentation device or the plurality of media presentation devices that are determined to have the “on” status and the first location of the first media presentation device or the respective locations of the plurality of media presentation devices are stored;
- and
- a probability determiner to determine a probability that the unknown media device is located at the first location of the first media presentation device based on a total count of associations of the device address with the unknown media device and the location of the first media presentation device.
4 more elements
A method for determining a location of unknown media devices, the method comprising:
- detecting, by executing an instruction via a processor, an unknown media device identified in monitoring data collected by an audience measurement device at a first location of a first media presentation device determined to have an “on” status;
- detecting, by executing an instruction via the processor, a media transmission associated with a device address;
- storing, by executing an instruction via the processor, an association of the device address with the unknown media device and the first location of the first media presentation device in a probability data structure, the association indicative of when the unknown media device transmits network communications during a period of time when the first media presentation device is determined to have the “on” status, the probability data structure including counts of a number of associations for the device address with the first location of the first media presentation device and respective locations of a plurality of media presentation devices;
- increasing, by executing an instruction with the processor, the counts when subsequent associations for the unknown media device with the first media presentation device or the plurality of media presentation devices that are determined to have the “on” status and the first location of the first media presentation device or the respective locations of the plurality of media presentation devices are stored;
- and
- determining, by executing an instruction via the processor, a probability that the unknown media device is located at the first location of the first media presentation device based on a total count of associations of the device address with the unknown media device and the location of the first media presentation device.
3 more elements
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:
- detect an unknown media device identified in monitoring data collected by an audience measurement device at a location of a first media presentation device determined to have an “on” status;
- detect a media transmission associated with a device address;
- store an association of the device address with the unknown media device and the location of the first media presentation device in a probability data structure, the association indicative of when the unknown media device transmits network communications during a period of time when the first media presentation device is determined to have the “on” status, the probability data structure including counts of a number of associations for the device address with the location of the first media presentation device and respective locations of a plurality of media presentation devices;
- increase the counts when subsequent associations for the unknown media device with the first media presentation device or the plurality of media presentation devices that are determined to have the “on” status and the location of the first media presentation device or the respective locations of the plurality of media presentation devices are stored;
- and
- determine a probability that the unknown media device is located at the location of the first media presentation device based on a total count of associations of the device address with the unknown media device and the location of the first media presentation device.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.