Methods and apparatus to determine a number of people in an area
AssigneeThe Nielsen Company (US), LLC
InventorsRanney Harrold Fry, Mark Richard Cave
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to determine the number of people in an area. An example method includes collecting media identification information corresponding to media presented at a location, responding to a received request to register a mobile device with a base station by storing device identification information for the mobile device at the base station, timestamping the device identification information, determining a number of mobile devices located in an area based on the stored device identification information, and identifying a number of persons exposed to the media based on the media identification information and the device identification information.
Claims28
A method comprising:
- collecting media identification information corresponding to media presented at a location;
- changing an identifier of a base station local to the location to cause mobile devices located at the location to attempt to register with the base station;
- responding to received requests to register the mobile devices with the base station by storing device identification information for the corresponding mobile devices at the base station;
- timestamping the device identification information;
- determining a number of the mobile devices located at the location based on the stored device identification information;
- and
- identifying a number of persons exposed to the media based on the media identification information and the stored device identification information.
An apparatus comprising:
- a media detector to collect media identification information corresponding to media presented at a location;
- a registration manager to respond to received requests to register mobile devices with a base station by storing device identification information for the corresponding mobile devices at the base station;
- a timestamper to timestamp the device identification information;
- and
- a counter controller to determine a number of persons located at the location and exposed to the media based on the media identification information and the device identification information.
A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a base station to at least:
- change an identifier of the base station to cause mobile devices located in a location to attempt to register with the base station;
- respond to received requests to register mobile devices with the base station by storing device identification information for the corresponding mobile devices at the base station;
- timestamp the device identification information;
- and
- extract the timestamped device identification information to enable identification of a number of persons exposed to media at the location based on the timestamped device identification information.
A counterfeit base station comprising:
- a registration manager to respond to a received request to register a mobile device with the counterfeit base station by storing device identification information for the corresponding mobile device at the base station, the counterfeit base station not providing a connection to a communication network;
- a timestamper to timestamp the device identification information;
- a base station controller to determine a number of mobile devices located in an area based on the stored device identification information;
- and
- a configuration changer to change an identity of the counterfeit base station to cause the mobile device at the location to attempt to re-register with the base station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.