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).

  • Publication number: 20220095012
    Abstract: Example apparatus disclosed herein are to determine a location of a portable device based on location data collected by the portable device, determine whether a person is within a threshold distance of the portable device based on proximity data collected by the portable device, and, when the person is determined to be within the threshold distance of the portable device: (i) infer at least one of a presence or an absence of the person in a media exposure environment based on the location of the portable device, (ii) determine a confidence level that the person corresponds to a member of the panelist household, and (iii) determine an accuracy of presence information collected by a people meter based on the confidence level and the inference of the at least one of the presence or the absence of the person, the people meter different than the portable device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2021
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20220094997
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for affiliate interrupt detection. An example method disclosed herein includes determining whether a first time period of a first audio signal corresponds to a first affiliate interrupt period based on whether (1) a first type of watermark is detected in the first time period of the first audio signal, and (2) a second type of watermark is detected in the first audio signal outside the first time period but not in the first time period of the first audio signal, and determining whether the first time period of the first audio signal corresponds to the first affiliate interrupt period when watermarks are not detected in the first time period of the first audio signal based on comparison of first signatures with second signatures representing a corresponding first time period of a reference audio signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 29, 2021
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Inventors: Jeremey M. Davis, David H. Wright, Alexander Topchy, Cherisse Ponraj, Chris Curtis, Jonathan Chazen, Markus Kurt Cremer, Sharmishtha Gupta, Jeffrey Scott
  • Publication number: 20220086531
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to present supplemental media on a second screen are disclosed. An example method includes establishing a connection between a digital media device and a computing device based on information identifying the computing device and, in response to establishing the connection, receiving, at the computing device, a first notification from the digital media device including a location of supplemental media; accessing the supplemental media; and in response to accessing the supplemental media, sending a second notification that the supplemental media has been accessed, the second notification to enable media skipping on the digital media device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2021
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Inventors: Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11271665
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods to identify media using watermarks and signatures are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a watermark evaluator to determine a category indicated by a watermark detected in the media. The example apparatus also includes a signature comparator to compare a query signature with a subset of reference signatures associated with the category to identify the media, the query signature generated from the media, the reference signatures generated from reference media associated with the category.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Daniel Nelson, Alexander Topchy, Jeremey M. Davis
  • Patent number: 11256740
    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: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20220051690
    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: Application
    Filed: August 14, 2020
    Publication date: February 17, 2022
    Inventors: Jeremey M. Davis, Christen V. Nielsen, Kevin Keqiang Deng, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11250865
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to utilize audio watermarking for people monitoring are disclosed. Example people monitoring methods disclosed herein include determining, at a user device, whether a first trigger condition for emitting an audio watermark identifying at least one of the user device or a user of the user device is satisfied. Such example methods also include, in response to determining that the first trigger condition is satisfied, providing a first audio signal including the audio watermark to an audio circuit that is to output an acoustic signal from the user device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 11245960
    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 comprises a cluster generator including circuitry to generate a cluster of media locations based on media identifying information received from a presentation of media at an unidentified media device, a media device including circuitry determiner to determine media devices available at the media locations in the cluster of media locations, and a cluster based media device identifier including circuitry to identify 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.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 3, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 11197060
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to count people in an audience are disclosed. An apparatus includes a location determiner to determine a location of a portable device was outside of a media exposure environment, and a proximity determiner to determine a person was in proximity to the portable device. The apparatus also includes a presence detector to: generate first presence information based on the location of the portable device and the proximity of the person to the portable device, the first presence information to indicate that the person was absent from the media exposure environment; compare the first presence information to second presence information collected by a people meter; and, when the second presence information indicates the person was present in the media exposure environment, modify the second presence information based on the first presence information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Inventors: Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20210377604
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to identify streaming sessions are disclosed. A disclosed apparatus for identifying streaming sessions includes an encoder to generate an identifier corresponding to a media file of an advertisement, a detector to determine a presence of the identifier in the advertisement presented at a media presentation device, a timing analyzer to determine a time at which the advertisement was presented, and an associator. The associator is to compare the identifier and the time to a streaming session log from a streaming service provider, identify a streaming session in which the advertisement associated with the identifier was presented at the time based on the comparison, and associate a panelist identifier corresponding to the media presentation device with a streaming session identifier corresponding to the streaming session.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 26, 2021
    Publication date: December 2, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Jeremey M. Davis, Christen V. Nielsen
  • Publication number: 20210289270
    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: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventors: Vladimir Kuznetsov, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20210289269
    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: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Publication date: September 16, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov
  • Publication number: 20210249023
    Abstract: A method for generating a signature is disclosed. As part of the method, a first number of bits are identified in respective rows of an audio signature matrix that are determined to be the strongest bits in the row, bits of the audio signature matrix are replaced with respective cells having values depending on whether the respective bits are included in the first number of bits, a set of uniformly distributed numbers are generated within a range of numbered locations corresponding to cells of the audio signature matrix; numerical distances are determined, from respective numbers in the set of uniformly distributed numbers, to the numbered locations of the matrix, associated with nearest occurrences of a first value. A set of integers is generated based on the distances.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Publication date: August 12, 2021
    Inventors: Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy, Sadhana Gupta
  • Patent number: 11082730
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture are disclosed for affiliate interrupt detection. An example method disclosed herein includes determining whether a first time period of a first audio signal corresponds to a first affiliate interrupt period based on whether (1) a first type of watermark is detected in the first time period of the first audio signal, and (2) a second type of watermark is detected in the first audio signal outside the first time period but not in the first time period of the first audio signal, and determining whether the first time period of the first audio signal corresponds to the first affiliate interrupt period when watermarks are not detected in the first time period of the first audio signal based on comparison of first signatures with second signatures representing a corresponding first time period of a reference audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 3, 2021
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Jeremey M. Davis, David H. Wright, Alexander Topchy, Cherisse Ponraj, Chris Curtis, Jonathan Chazen, Markus Kurt Cremer, Sharmishtha Gupta, Jeffrey Scott
  • Patent number: 11070892
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to present supplemental media on a second screen are disclosed. An example method includes establishing a connection between a digital media device and a computing device based on information identifying the computing device and, in response to establishing the connection, receiving, at the computing device, a first notification from the digital media device including a location of supplemental media; accessing the supplemental media; and in response to accessing the supplemental media, sending a second notification that the supplemental media has been accessed, the second notification to enable media skipping on the digital media device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: Padmanabhan Soundararajan, Venugopal Srinivasan, Alexander Topchy
  • Publication number: 20210211478
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture for identifying streaming sessions are disclosed. An example apparatus includes an audience measurer to determine an identifier for a commercial presented at a media presentation device, and to determine a time at which the commercial was presented. The example apparatus also includes a log analyzer to compare the identifier and the time to a streaming session log from a streaming service provider (SSP) to identify a streaming session in which the commercial associated with the identifier was presented at the time. The example apparatus also includes a panelist matcher to associate, based on the comparison, a panelist identifier with a streaming session identifier corresponding to the streaming session.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 6, 2021
    Publication date: July 8, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Jeremey M. Davis, Khaldun Karazoun
  • Publication number: 20210203426
    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: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Publication date: July 1, 2021
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Publication number: 20210192562
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for pre-scaling media content to facilitate audience measurement are disclosed. An example method includes encoding a media content sample in accordance with a first encoding configuration and playing the encoded sample. The example method also includes attempting to detect the codes in the sample, and computing a ratio between the codes encoded in the sample and the codes detected when the sample is played.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2020
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Inventors: Brian Fuhrer, Morris Lee, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11025996
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein include a timestamp cycle evaluator to determine which one of a plurality of timestamp cycles is to be represented by a timestamp of a watermark. Disclosed example watermark encoding apparatus also include a symbol swapper to swap at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a second one of the timestamp cycles but not to swap the at least two symbols of the watermark when the timestamp is to represent a first one of the timestamp cycles. Disclosed example watermark encoding apparatus further include a watermark embedder to embed the watermark in a first piece of media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Vladimir Kuznetsov, Alexander Topchy
  • Patent number: 11025995
    Abstract: Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media) to extend a time range supported by a watermark are disclosed. Example watermark encoding apparatus disclosed herein include a timestamp cycle evaluator to 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. Disclosed example watermark encoding apparatus also include a symbol modifier to modify a subset of data symbols of the watermark based on a further timestamp symbol not included in the set of timestamp symbols of the timestamp, the further timestamp symbol identifying the one of the timestamp cycles to be represented by the timestamp of the watermark. Disclosed example watermark encoding apparatus further include a watermark embedder to embed the watermark in a first piece of media.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 1, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Topchy, Vladimir Kuznetsov