# US 11,451,844 B2 · Assigning synthetic respondents to geographic locations for audience measurement > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 11,451,844 B2 - Document ID: US11451844B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 17/195,306 - Filed: 2021-03-08 - Published: 2021-06-24 - Granted: 2022-09-20 - Earliest claimed: 2017-10-31 - Assignees: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC - Applicants: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC - Inventors: Michael Sheppard; Edward Murphy; Chris Samuel Redino; Michael D. Morgan; Jonathan Sullivan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US11451844B2 ## CPC - H04N 21/25841: {involving the geographical location of the client (retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00)} - H04N 21/25883: {being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address (arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52)} - H04N 21/2668: Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles {(information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063)} - H04N 21/44222: {Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33)} - H04N 21/252: {Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data} - H04N: PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION ## Abstract Example methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to assign respondents to geographic locations for audience measurement are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein are to determine a set of constraints based on aggregate values of demographic features associated with respective ones of the geographic locations. Disclosed example apparatus are also to construct a model to return probabilities that respective ones the respondents are associated with the respective ones of the geographic locations, the model to have a set of parameters, respective ones of the parameters to be associated with respective ones of the constraints. Disclosed example apparatus are further to evaluate the model based on values of the set of parameters and values of the demographic features for a first one of the respondents to determine a set of probabilities that the first respondent is to be assigned to respective ones of the geographic locations. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An apparatus to assign respondents to geographic locations for audience measurement, the apparatus comprising: memory; and at least one processor to execute computer readable instructions to at least: determine a set of constraints based on aggregate values of demographic features associated with respective ones of the geographic locations; construct a model that is to return probabilities that respective ones the respondents are associated with the respective ones of the geographic locations, the model to have a set of parameters, respective ones of the parameters to be associated with respective ones of the constraints; determine values of the set of parameters based on a combination of a first function and a second function, the first function to combine, based on the set of parameters, values of the demographic features for the respective ones of the respondents, the second function to combine, based on the set of parameters, the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with the respective ones of the geographic locations; and evaluate the model based on the values of the set of parameters and values of the demographic features for a first one of the respondents to determine a set of probabilities that the first one of the respondents is to be assigned to respective ones of the geographic locations. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first one of the respondents is a synthetic respondent created to represent return path data reported by a media presentation device associated with a media service provider, and the at least one processor is to provide the set of probabilities to an audience measurement entity that is to perform audience measurement based on the return path data. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein to determine the values of the set of parameters, the at least one processor is to: construct the first function; construct the second function; and iteratively evaluate the combination of the first function and the second function to determine the values of the set of parameters. ### Claim 4 (depends on 3) The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is to determine the set of parameters to minimize the combination of the first function and the second function. ### Claim 5 (depends on 3) The apparatus of claim 3, wherein respective ones of the constraints correspond to respective ones of the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with geographic locations, and the at least one processor is to construct the first function to include a linear combination of the values of the demographic features for the first one of the respondents in which respective ones of the values of the demographic features for the first one of the respondents are multiplied by respective ones of the set of parameters. ### Claim 6 (depends on 5) The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one processor is to construct the second function to include a linear combination of the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with a first one of the geographic locations in which respective ones of the aggregate values of the demographic features for the first one of the geographic locations are multiplied by respective ones of the set of parameters. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the combination of the first function and the second function corresponds to a difference between the first function and the second function. ### Claim 8 An apparatus to assign respondents to geographic locations for audience measurement, the apparatus comprising: means for identifying a set of constraints based on aggregate values of demographic features associated with respective ones of the geographic locations; means for evaluating model parameters, the means for evaluating to: construct a model that is to return probabilities that respective ones of the respondents are associated with the respective ones of the geographic locations, the model to have a set of parameters, respective ones of the parameters to be associated with respective ones of the constraints; and determine values of the set of parameters based on a combination of a first function and a second function, the first function to combine, based on the set of parameters, values of the demographic features for the respective ones of the respondents, the second function to combine, based on the set of parameters, the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with the respective ones of the geographic locations; and means for estimating locations, the means for estimating to evaluate the model based on the values of the set of parameters and values of the demographic features for a first one of the respondents to determine a set of probabilities that the first one of the respondents is to be assigned to respective ones of the geographic locations. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the first one of the respondents is a synthetic respondent created to represent return path data reported by a media presentation device associated with a media service provider, and the means for estimating locations is to provide the set of probabilities to an audience measurement entity that is to perform audience measurement based on the return path data. ### Claim 10 (depends on 8) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the means for evaluating model parameters is to: construct the first function; construct the second function; and iteratively evaluate the combination of the first function and the second function to determine the values of the set of parameters. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the means for evaluating model parameters is to determine the set of parameters to minimize the combination of the first function and the second function. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The apparatus of claim 10, wherein respective ones of the constraints correspond to respective ones of the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with the geographic locations, and the means for evaluating model parameters is to construct the first function to include a linear combination of the values of the demographic features for the first one of the respondents in which respective ones of the values of the demographic features for the first one of the respondents are multiplied by respective ones of the set of parameters. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the means for evaluating model parameters is further to construct the second function to include a linear combination of the aggregate values of the demographic features associated with a first one of the geographic locations in which respective ones of the aggregate values of the demographic features for the first one of the geographic locations are multiplied by respective ones of the set of parameters. ### Claim 14 (depends on 8) The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the combination of the first function and the second function corresponds to a difference between the first function and the second function. ### Claim 15 An audience measurement apparatus to assign virtual panelists to geographic locations for audience measurement, the apparatus comprising: means for evaluating model parameters, the means for evaluating to determine values of a set of parameters corresponding respectively to a set of demographic features associated with a plurality of geographic locations, the values of the set of parameters to be determined based on a first combination of aggregate values of the set of demographic features associated with the geographic locations and a second combination of respective sets of values of the set of demographic features for corresponding ones of a plurality of virtual panelists; and means for assigning the virtual panelists to the geographic locations, the means for assigning to: determine respective sets of assignment probabilities for the corresponding ones of the virtual panelists based on the determined values of the set of parameters and the respective sets of values of the set of demographic features for the corresponding ones of the virtual panelists; and assign the virtual panelists to the geographic locations based on the sets of assignment probabilities. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the set of demographic features associated with the geographic locations is a first set of demographic features, and the virtual panelists are associated with a second set of demographic features, the first set of demographic features missing at least one feature from the second set of demographic features. ### Claim 17 (depends on 15) The apparatus of claim 15, wherein a first one of the geographic locations is associated with a first subset of the set of demographic features and a second one of the geographic locations is associated with a different second subset of the set of demographic features. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The apparatus of claim 17, wherein a third one of the geographic locations is not associated with any of the features in the set of demographic features. ### Claim 19 (depends on 15) The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means for evaluating is to: determine the first combination of aggregate values of the set of demographic features associated with the geographic locations based on a linear combination of the aggregate values of the set of demographic features multiplied with corresponding ones of the set of parameters; and determine the second combination of the respective sets of values of the set of demographic features for corresponding ones of the virtual panelists based on (i) a first linear combination of a first set of values of the set of demographic features values for a first one of the virtual panelists multiplied by corresponding ones of the set of parameters and (i,j) a second linear combination of a second set of values of the set of demographic features values for a second one of the virtual panelists multiplied by the corresponding ones of the set of parameters. ### Claim 20 (depends on 15) The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the means for evaluating is to iteratively determine the set of parameters to minimize a difference between the first combination of the aggregate values of the set of demographic features associated with the geographic locations and the second combination of the respective sets of values of the set of demographic features for the corresponding ones of the virtual panelists. ### Claim 21 (depends on 15) The apparatus of claim 15, wherein respective ones of the assignment probabilities in a first one of the sets of assignment probabilities for a first one of the virtual panelists represent how likely the first one of the virtual panelists is to belong in corresponding ones of the geographic locations.