Patents Assigned to The Nielsen Company
  • Patent number: 11509554
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to coordinate receipt of monitoring information are disclosed. An example method includes in response to a first received message requesting a session identifier, creating, with a first processing device, the session identifier. The session identifier including an identifier of the first processor. The first message is received from a media device via a load balancer. First monitoring information is extracted from the first message. The first monitoring information is stored in a first database of the first processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Jan Besehanic
  • Patent number: 11508027
    Abstract: An example symbol-based watermark detection method disclosed herein includes, in response to a comparison of a first count of occurrences of a first potential symbol value corresponding to a first symbol within a watermark and a second count of occurrences of a second potential symbol value corresponding to the first symbol, (i) determining a first accumulated signal to noise ratio value corresponding to the occurrences of the first potential symbol value, (ii) determining a second accumulated signal to noise ratio value corresponding to the occurrences of the second potential symbol value, and (iii) selecting one of the first or the second potential symbol value having a greatest accumulated signal to noise ratio value as a likely symbol value for the first symbol. The example method also includes concatenating the likely symbol value with other likely symbol values corresponding to other symbols of the watermark to detect the watermark.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Christen V. Nielsen
  • Patent number: 11507580
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to partition data are disclosed. An example apparatus to partition panelist data includes an indicator matrix generator to determine an indicator matrix including panelist vectors for panelists based on panelist data associated with the panelists, a first one of the panelist vectors for a first one of the panelists to indicate whether the first one of the panelists: has a first characteristic, meets a first criterion based on the first characteristic and a second characteristic, has a third characteristic, and meets a second criterion based on the third characteristic and a fourth characteristic. The example apparatus further includes a matrix reducer to reduce the indicator matrix to a set of unique panelist vectors that represent partitions of the panelist data, the partitions of the panelist data to utilize less storage capacity than the panelist data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Michael Sheppard, Jonathan Sullivan, Peter Lipa, Alejandro Terrazas
  • Patent number: 11510037
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to monitor mobile internet usage are disclosed. An example method includes identifying, by executing an instruction with a processor, an application associated with a request for Internet content, the request sent at an identified time; determining, by executing an instruction with the processor, that the application is operating in a background mode at the identified time by identifying a uniform resource location (URL) corresponding to the request, the URL included in the request when the application is operating in the background mode; and crediting, by executing an instruction with the processor, the Internet content as a background application when the application is operating in the background mode at the identified time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Achilleas Papakostas, Susan Cimino
  • Patent number: 11507588
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to facilitate matching of names for same media content are disclosed. Example methods include analyzing first data associated with first media content and, when a program name/identifier and/or episode name/identifier is not identified in the first data, supplementing the data with second data to form third data and processing the third data with respect to fourth data associated with second media content and calculating a composite match score including a program match score and an episode match score based on processing the third data with respect to the fourth data. When the first media content is determined to match the second media content based on the processing of the third data with respect to the fourth data and a comparison of the composite match score to a threshold is satisfied, a normalized media name is generated for the first media content and the second media content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Goli Reddy Narasimha, Gangadhar Jakkula, Tejas Desai, Amudha Colaco, Steven L. Glickman, Punil Patel
  • Patent number: 11503370
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to impute media consumption behavior are disclosed. An example system includes one or more media meters to obtain tuning data, one or more people meters to obtain viewing data, and one or more servers to, in response to a determination that a difference satisfies a first threshold, determine that a first subset of the tuning data associated with first panelist households having tuned to first media in a first area exhibits local bias, determine that a second subset of the viewing data associated with second panelist households having viewed the first media in the second area represents heavy viewing, and impute the second subset of the viewing data for the first subset of the tuning data in response to the second subset of the viewing data representing heavy viewing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: David J. Kurzynski, Balachander Shankar, Richard Peters, Jonathan Sullivan, Molly Poppie
  • Patent number: 11502914
    Abstract: System and method for behavioral and contextual data analytics are disclosed. An example computer system to process observational data received from a wireless device includes a memory including machine readable instructions and a processor to execute the instructions to: process the observational data to identify temporally adjacent applications to generate usage metric data, the observational data including application usage data; build a behavior model based on the identified temporally adjacent applications, the behavior model to describe user behavior associated with the wireless device; and apply the behavior model to predict a usage duration of a second application in response to usage of a first application.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Hannu Verkasalo
  • Patent number: 11501786
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are disclosed for supplementing partially readable and/or inaccurate codes. An example apparatus includes a watermark analyzer to select a first watermark and a second watermark decoded from media; a comparator to compare a first decoded timestamp of the first watermark to a second decoded timestamp of the second watermark; and a timestamp adjuster to adjust the second decoded timestamp based on the first decoded timestamp of the second watermark when at least a threshold number of symbols of the second decoded timestamp match corresponding symbols of the first decoded timestamp.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: David Gish, Jeremey M. Davis, Wendell D. Lynch, Christen V. Nielsen
  • Patent number: 11500698
    Abstract: Example methods and apparatus to detect uninstallation of applications on mobile devices. An example apparatus includes means for detecting that an application is to be uninstalled from the mobile device. The apparatus includes means for displaying a prompt indicating whether the means for detecting is to be uninstalled when the application is to be uninstalled. The apparatus includes means for transmitting an uninstallation notification to a remote data collector when the application is to be uninstalled, the uninstallation notification to enable identification of at least one of the mobile device associated with the uninstallation or a user of the mobile device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 22, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventor: Cary Pillers
  • Patent number: 11501793
    Abstract: Examples are disclosed to perform signature matching using noise cancellation models to achieve consensus. Example apparatus disclosed herein include a signature matcher to compare a first stream of monitored media signatures to streams of reference signatures representative of corresponding reference media to determine a first signature match, and compare a second stream of monitored media signatures to the streams of reference signatures to determine a second signature match; a match selector to use at least one the first signature match or the second signature match to identify a first one of the reference media corresponding to the monitored media data; and a creditor interface to output identification data for the first one of the reference media identified with the at least one the first signature match or the second signature match, the identification data to be used to credit a media exposure corresponding to the monitored media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 15, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Jeremey M. Davis, Christen V. Nielsen, Kevin Keqiang Deng, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11496435
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and apparatus to identify media devices are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a listing retriever to retrieve a list of device names corresponding to devices identified as present on a local area network, the list of device names retrieved from a network activity measurement system located outside of the local area network. The example apparatus includes a communications analyzer to identify a list of hardware addresses of devices on the local area network. The example apparatus includes a mapper to receive a mapping between a device in the list of devices and a hardware address in the hardware addresses. The mapper is to transmit the mapping to the network activity measurement system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 28, 2016
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Joseph Kerkes, Eric R. Hammond
  • Patent number: 11496813
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to credit commercial broadcasts are disclosed. Example commercial crediting apparatus disclosed herein compare first identification information and first timing information obtained from a first monitored data feed with second identification information and second timing information in a second monitored data feed to identify a first final distributor code represented in the second monitoring data feed, the first identification information and the first timing information corresponding to a first commercial represented in the first monitored data feed. Disclosed example apparatus also access data that maps a first original distributor code to the first final distributor code, identify the first commercial in lineup data based on the first original distributor code, and adjust, based on a duration of the first commercial, a duration obtained for a first media program listed in the lineup data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Narasimha Reddy Goli, Gangadhar Jakkula, Michael Allen Bivins, Thomas A. Potter, Venkata Lakshmi Kumar Pittu, Kevin J. Rini
  • Patent number: 11496231
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to detect blank images in a digital video broadcast signal are disclosed. An example method of detecting a blank image includes receiving a compressed digital image including a plurality of DC values, analyzing a total number of bits in the digital image to determine if the digital image has a data size small enough to be a blank frame candidate, if the data size is small enough for the digital image to be a blank frame candidate, analyzing multiple areas of the digital image to determine if the multiple areas exhibit substantially a same complexity, if the multiple areas exhibit substantially the same complexity, determining a number of DC values in the plurality of DC values that meet a criterion, comparing the determined number of DC values meeting the criterion to a threshold, and identifying the received digital image as a blank image if the determined number of DC values exceeds the threshold.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 15, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventor: Kevin K. Deng
  • Patent number: 11496799
    Abstract: Disclosed example audience measurement apparatus determine a first audience metric based on set-top box return path tuning data obtained from set-top boxes located in a first geographic area; determine a second audience metric from a portion of audience measurement data corresponding to a second geographic area, the portion of the audience measurement data associated with monitored sites in the second geographic area having second set-top box characteristics that correspond with first set-top box characteristics of the set-top boxes located in the first geographic area; determine ratios of (i) respective first audience metrics determined for respective demographic stratifications to (ii) corresponding second audience metrics determined for the respective demographic stratifications; and combine the ratios after multiplication with third audience metrics determined, for the respective demographic stratifications, from the audience measurement data to determine an audience exposure metric that estimates exposur
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventor: Peter Campbell Doe
  • Patent number: 11496433
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to estimate demographics of users employing social media. An example method disclosed herein includes (1) identifying a social media message regarding an asset, the social media message associated with a user identifier associated with the user, (2) determining demographics associated with a group of people exposed to the asset, (3) associating the user identifier with the asset, and (4) repeating (1) to (3). The example method also includes (5) combining demographics associated with two or more different groups of people with which the user identifier is associated to estimate a demographic profile for the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Michael Richard Sheppard, Matthew B. Reid, Alejandro Terrazas, Peter Otto Robert Lipa, Brian George Schiller
  • Patent number: 11496925
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed to determine virtual WiFi data rate. An example disclosed herein includes a control frame receiver to capture control frames from a user device. The example disclosed herein further includes a bitrate calculator to calculate a bitrate for each control frame by dividing a bitmap of a control frame by an amount of time between the control frame and a previously captured control frame. The example disclosed herein further includes an interval timer to control a length of time that the control frames are captured before calculating the virtual bandwidth. The example disclosed herein further includes a virtual bandwidth calculator to calculate the virtual bandwidth after the length of time, the virtual bandwidth calculated by dividing an average bitrate from the control frames by the length of time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Joseph Kerkes, Julio Villasante, Marko Panger
  • Patent number: 11483160
    Abstract: Disclosed examples include accessing impression data collected at a media device by a collector installed with an application, the impression data including a first identifier, a second identifier, and a media identifier, the first identifier to identify at least one of the media device or a user of the media device to a first database proprietor, and the second identifier to identify the at least one of the media device or the user of the media device to a second database proprietor, the collector to obtain the first and second identifiers from a memory of the media device; requesting first demographic information from the first database proprietor based on the first identifier and second demographic information from the second database proprietor based on the second identifier; and storing at least some of the first or second demographic information in association with the media identifier in a data store.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: John R. Burbank, Madhusudhan Reddy Alla
  • Patent number: 11483602
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to perform media device asset qualification are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, and at least one processor to execute instructions to at least identify a first set of candidate media device assets for disqualification, the candidate media device assets including A) a signature and B) a media identifier that identifies media, generate a hash table using a second set of the candidate media device assets, determine one or more counts of matches between C) a first signature and a first media identifier of a first candidate media device asset of the second set and D) respective signatures and media identifiers of multiple ones of the second set using the hash table, the multiple ones of the second set not including the first candidate media device asset, and load the first signature into a reference database as a reference signature.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Nelson, James Petro, Albert T. Borawski
  • Patent number: 11481801
    Abstract: Methods and systems are disclosed to monitor a media device via a universal serial bus (“USB”) port. An example method includes obtaining a voltage output by a UBS port of the media device and determining if the voltage exceeds a threshold. If the voltage exceeds the threshold, the example method includes determining the media device is in an on state. If the voltage does not exceed the threshold, the example method includes determining the media device is in an off state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Mark Cave, Joseph Volpatti
  • Patent number: 11483606
    Abstract: Example methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture are disclosed to estimate population reach for different unions based on marginal ratings. An example method includes performing first parallel computations to determine first multipliers corresponding to a total number of panelists exposed to media at (a) a first margin of time, (b) a second margin of time, and (c) a union corresponding to the first and second margins of time, keeping a subset of the first multipliers corresponding to unknown census data; performing second parallel computation to determine second multipliers corresponding to a total audience exposed to the media at the first margin of time and the second margin of time, the second parallel computations to be performed by solving second equations corresponding to a tree association; and determining an estimate for a population reach of the union based on the second multipliers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Michael Sheppard, Ludo Daemen, Jonathan Sullivan, Michael D. Morgan, Edward Murphy