Patents by Inventor Alexander Topchy

Alexander Topchy has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11546674
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark, the timestamp including a set of timestamp symbols, a first subset of data symbols and a second subset of data symbols. Disclosed example apparatus also modify the first subset of data symbols of the watermark based on a further timestamp symbol not included in the set of timestamp symbols of the timestamp, but not modify the second subset of data symbols based on the further timestamp symbol, the further timestamp symbol to identify the one of the plurality of timestamp cycles to be represented by the timestamp of the watermark. Disclosed example apparatus further embed the watermark in a piece of media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov
  • Publication number: 20220415331
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for panelist-based logins using voice commands are disclosed herein. A disclosed example apparatus for identifying a user as a member of an audience includes a memory and at least one processor to execute machine readable instructions to at least access audio emitted by a speech recognition system, the audio generated based on a request spoken by the user, identify at least one of a watermark or a fingerprint included in the audio, the watermark or fingerprint including identifying information to identify a user and an indication of the presence of the user, and record the indication of the presence of the user in an audience.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2021
    Publication date: December 29, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Timothy Scott Cooper, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Patent number: 11537690
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, methods, and articles of manufacture related to end-point media watermarking are disclosed. An example device includes a media receiver to receive a media signal, a watermark generator to generate a watermark, a trigger to activate the watermark generator to generate the watermark based on an external input, an encoder to encode the media signal with the watermark to synthesize an encoded media signal, a media output to render the encoded media signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 27, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Arun Ramaswamy, Timothy Scott Cooper, Jeremey M. Davis, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11516609
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to analyze microphone placement for watermarks and signatures are disclosed. An example instructions cause one or more processors to at least determine a variance of a magnitude spectrum of a frequency band corresponding to a frequency spectrum of a first audio signal sensed with an audio sensor. The example instructions further cause the one or more processors to determine, based on the variance, a recovery rate associated with at least one of watermark detection or signature generation to be performed on a second audio signal to be sensed with the audio sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Marc Messier, James Joseph Vitt, Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • 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
  • Publication number: 20220321902
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for watermarking using starting phase modulation. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, machine readable instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the machine readable instructions to at least access a media signal, access a watermark symbol to be encoded into the media signal, determine bit values of the watermark symbol, determine a common starting phase value for watermark components of the watermark symbol, the common starting phase value to represent at least one of the bit values of the watermark symbol, and embed the watermark components into the media signal based on the common starting phase value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 24, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Publication number: 20220321978
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for associating different watermarks detected in media. An example method disclosed herein includes determining whether a first watermark detected in a media signal is represented in a watermark data structure and associating the first watermark with a first media presentation record associated with a second watermark in response to the first watermark being associated in the watermark data structure with the second watermark. The example method further includes transmitting monitoring data including the first media presentation record to an audience measurement entity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 6, 2022
    Publication date: October 6, 2022
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, David Gish, Ken Joseph Frett, Timothy Scott Cooper, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11451884
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark. Disclosed example apparatus also swap at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a second one of the timestamp cycles, but do not swap the at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a first one of the timestamp cycles. Disclosed example apparatus further embed the watermark in a first piece of media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 20, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Vladimir Kuznetsov, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20220284917
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems, and articles of manufacture to fingerprint an audio signal. An example apparatus disclosed herein includes an audio segmenter to divide an audio signal into a plurality of audio segments, a bin normalizer to normalize the second audio segment to thereby create a first normalized audio segment, a subfingerprint generator to generate a first subfingerprint from the first normalized audio segment, the first subfingerprint including a first portion corresponding to a location of an energy extremum in the normalized second audio segment, a portion strength evaluator to determine a likelihood of the first portion to change, and a portion replacer to, in response to determining the likelihood does not satisfy a threshold, replace the first portion with a second portion to thereby generate a second subfingerprint.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 4, 2021
    Publication date: September 8, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Christen V. Nielsen, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Patent number: 11423079
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to detect media watermarks in magnetic field data are disclosed herein. Example media monitors disclosed herein include a magnetic field estimator to determine first magnetic field data, the magnetic field estimator in communication with a magnetometer. Disclosed example media monitors also include a correlator to correlate the first magnitude field data with a reference sequence to determine second magnetic field data. Disclosed example media monitors further include a watermark decoder to process the second magnetic field data to detect an audio watermark encoded in an audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 23, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Publication number: 20220255651
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining increasing robustness of media signatures are disclosed. An example apparatus disclosed herein is to select to at least one of (A) boost a first characteristic of a media signal at a first time or (B) attenuate a second characteristic of the media signal at a second time based on an effect of the at least one of the boost of the first characteristic or the attenuation of the second characteristic on a difference between a third characteristic of the media signal at a third time and a fourth characteristic of the media signal at a fourth time. The disclosed example apparatus is also to perform the selected one of (A) the boost of the first characteristic of the media signal at the first time or (B) the attenuation of the second characteristic of the media signal at the second time to enhance the media signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 25, 2022
    Publication date: August 11, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Publication number: 20220215074
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, methods, and articles of manufacture related to end-point media watermarking are disclosed. An example device includes a media receiver to receive a media signal, a watermark generator to generate a watermark, a trigger to activate the watermark generator to generate the watermark based on an external input, an encoder to encode the media signal with the watermark to synthesize an encoded media signal, a media output to render the encoded media signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 22, 2021
    Publication date: July 7, 2022
    Inventors: Arun Ramaswamy, Timothy Scott Cooper, Jeremey M. Davis, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11375224
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for watermarking using starting phase modulation. An example apparatus includes memory, and processor circuitry to execute instructions to at least determine a first analyzed phase value for a watermark component of a watermarked media signal at a first time, determine a sum of differences for analyzed phase values with respect to a first one of a plurality of possible starting phase values, the analyzed phase values associated with the watermarked media signal, the analyzed phase values including the first analyzed phase value, in response to the sum of differences satisfying a threshold, decode a first data value corresponding to the first one of the possible starting phase values, and determine a watermark payload based on the first data value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Publication number: 20220200717
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods to identify media using watermarks and signatures are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, instructions, and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to: determine a first time and a category indicated by a watermark detected in the media, determine a search window based on the first time indicated by the watermark, the search window to at least one of (i) extend a first duration of time before the first time indicated by the watermark or (ii) extend a second duration of time after the first time indicated by the watermark, and compare (i) a query signature associated with a second time within the search window with (ii) a subset of reference signatures associated with the category to identify the media, the query signature generated from the media, the subset of reference signatures generated from reference media associated with the category.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 7, 2022
    Publication date: June 23, 2022
    Inventors: Daniel Nelson, Alexander Topchy, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Publication number: 20220188351
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to audio watermarking and watermark detection and extracted are described herein. An example method includes receiving a media content signal, sampling the media content signal to generate samples, storing the samples in a buffer, determining a first sequence of samples in the buffer, determining a second sequence of samples in the buffer, wherein the second sequence of samples is of substantially equal length as the first sequence of samples, calculating an average of the first sequence of samples and the second sequence of samples to generate an average sequence of samples, extracting an identifier from the average sequence of samples, and storing the identifier in a tangible memory.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 21, 2022
    Publication date: June 16, 2022
    Inventors: Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11357431
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to identify an emotion evoked by media are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a synthesizer to generate a first synthesized sample based on a pre-verbal utterance associated with a first emotion. A feature extractor is to identify a first value of a first feature of the first synthesized sample. The feature extractor to identify a second value of the first feature of first media evoking an unknown emotion. A classification engine is to create a model based on the first feature. The model is to establish a relationship between the first value of the first feature and the first emotion. The classification engine is to identify the first media as evoking the first emotion when the model indicates that the second value corresponds to the first value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Robert T. Knight, Ramachandran Gurumoorthy, Alexander Topchy, Ratnakar Dev, Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Anantha Pradeep
  • Patent number: 11356747
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for associating different watermarks detected in media. An example method disclosed herein includes determining whether a first watermark detected in a media signal is represented in a watermark data structure and associating the first watermark with a first media presentation record associated with a second watermark in response to the first watermark being associated in the watermark data structure with the second watermark. The example method further includes transmitting monitoring data including the first media presentation record to an audience measurement entity.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, David Gish, Ken Joseph Frett, Timothy Scott Cooper, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20220159337
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for media crediting and, more particularly, methods and apparatus of media device detection for minimally invasive media meters. An example apparatus disclosed herein to detect media devices presenting media includes means for generating a cluster of media locations from a reference population of media locations based on media identifying information received from a presentation of media at an unidentified media device at a first media location, means for determining media devices available at the media locations in the cluster of media locations, means for identifying the unidentified media device based on (1) the media devices available at the media locations in the cluster of media locations and (2) an identity of a media device determined to be available in a majority of media locations in the cluster of media locations, and means for generating a report on the identity of the unidentified media device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 7, 2022
    Publication date: May 19, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 11316603
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for determining increasing robustness of media signatures are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a characteristic analyzer to determine a first difference between (A) a first characteristic of an audio signal at a first time and (B) a second characteristic of the audio signal at a second time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Publication number: 20220122618
    Abstract: Disclosed example people monitoring methods include detecting a first watermark in a first audio signal obtained from an acoustic sensor, the first watermark identifying media presented by a monitored media device, determining whether a second watermark, different from the first watermark, is embedded in the first audio signal obtained from the acoustic sensor, the second watermark identifying at least one of a mobile device or a user of the mobile device, classifying the second watermark as a media watermark or a people monitoring watermark based on a characteristic of the second watermark, and when the second watermark is determined to be embedded in the first audio signal, reporting at least one of the second watermark or information decoded from the second watermark to identify at least one of the mobile device or the user of the mobile device as being exposed to the media presented by the monitored media device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 29, 2021
    Publication date: April 21, 2022
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan