Methods and apparatus to determine an audience composition based on voice recognition, thermal imaging, and facial recognition

A method performed by computing system including at least one processor, the method comprising:

• obtaining thermal image data of a media environment during presentation of media presented by a media presentation device in the media environment;
• determining, based on the thermal image data, a thermal-indicated audience count that corresponds to a number of heat blobs within the generated thermal image data;
• comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with a previously obtained audience count for the media environment;
• determining, based on comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with the previously obtained audience count, that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count;
• determining, based on the thermal image data, a position, within the generated thermal image data, that corresponds to an audience member;
• defining a field of view of the media environment based on the determined position;
• responsive to determining that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count, controlling a light image sensor to generate audience image data of the defined field of view;
• and
• identifying an audience member based on a comparison of a frame of the audience image data with a library of reference audience images.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that, upon execution by at least one processor, cause performance of:

• obtaining thermal image data of a media environment during presentation of media presented by a media presentation device in the media environment;
• determining, based on the thermal image data, a thermal-indicated audience count that corresponds to a number of heat blobs within the generated thermal image data;
• comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with a previously obtained audience count for the media environment;
• determining, based on comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with the previously obtained audience count, that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count;
• determining, based on the thermal image data, a position, within the generated thermal image data, that corresponds to an audience member;
• defining a field of view of the media environment based on the determined position;
• responsive to determining that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count, controlling a light image sensor to generate audience image data of the defined field of view;
• and
• identifying an audience member based on a comparison of a frame of the audience image data with a library of reference audience images.