Patents by Inventor Christen V. Nielsen

Christen V. Nielsen 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: 20100169908
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to enforce a power off state of an audience measurement device during shipping of the device are disclosed herein. An example portable audience measurement device includes a housing, a media detector in the housing to collect media exposure data and a packaging sensor to detect an environmental condition exterior to the device. A packaging detector compares the detected environmental condition to a criterion to determine whether the device is located within the package.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Publication date: July 1, 2010
    Inventor: Christen V. Nielsen
  • Publication number: 20100169909
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to enforce a power off state of an audience measurement device during shipping of the device are disclosed herein. An example portable audience measurement device includes a housing, a media detector in the housing to collect media exposure data, and a packaging sensor to receive an audio signal. A packaging detector generates a frequency spectrum of the detected audio signal, determines an energy of a first frequency associated with the generated frequency spectrum, determines an energy of a second frequency higher than the first frequency and associated with the generated frequency spectrum, and compares the difference between the energy of the first frequency and the second frequency to a muffling threshold to determine whether the device is located within a package.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2008
    Publication date: July 1, 2010
    Inventor: Christen V. Nielsen
  • Publication number: 20100102981
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to detect carrying of a portable audience measurement device are disclosed herein. An example portable audience measurement device includes a housing; a media detector in the housing to collect media exposure data; a first status sensor to detect a first distance between the housing and an object at a first time, wherein the first status sensor is to detect a second distance between the housing and the object at a second time; and a distance comparator to generate a first signal indicative of a relationship between the first distance and the second distance to enable determination of whether the device is being carried by a person.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 29, 2008
    Publication date: April 29, 2010
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, Daniel J. Nelson
  • Publication number: 20100077420
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to detect carrying of a portable audience measurement device are disclosed herein. An example portable audience measurement device includes a housing; a media detector in the housing to collect media exposure data; an attachment mechanism coupled to the housing to secure the housing to a person; and a sensor to detect a status of the attachment mechanism to enable determination of whether the device is being carried by the person.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 19, 2008
    Publication date: March 25, 2010
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, Daniel J. Nelson
  • Publication number: 20080148307
    Abstract: Display device ON/OFF detection methods and apparatus are disclosed. An example method disclosed herein to determine whether a presentation device is ON or OFF comprises determining a plurality of metrics based on monitoring at least one output of the presentation device, wherein each metric in the plurality of metrics comprises a decision indicating an operating state of the presentation device, and combining the plurality of metrics to determine whether the presentation device is one of ON or OFF, wherein combining the plurality of metrics comprises at least one of weighting the plurality of metrics or determining a majority vote of the plurality of metrics.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 16, 2006
    Publication date: June 19, 2008
    Applicant: NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH, INC.
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, Dan Nelson
  • Patent number: 5568607
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems and methods are provided for controlling energy consumption by a selectively enabled processing system, such as a high-density code scanner. The selectively enabled processing system has at least one high-power consumption microprocessor which does not include a low-power consumption mode. Also included are a power-supply, a switch and a trigger for turning ON and OFF the power-supply, and means for performing diagnostics. The performing diagnostics means operate on at least a portion of the selectively enabled processing system whenever the power-supply is initially switched ON, and inhibit the power-supply upon diagnostics completion. The trigger selectively enables means for causing the microprocessor to consume the power-supply for a pre-set time period while processing, and then inhibit the power-supply upon expiration of the time period without re-performing diagnostics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 19, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 22, 1996
    Assignees: International Data Matrix, Inc., Tokyo Electric Company, Ltd.
    Inventors: Mamoru Ishikawa, Christen V. Nielsen
  • Patent number: 5324923
    Abstract: An apparatus for forming a dynamically variable machine readable N-ary code executes operations on an electronic code. The apparatus includes a generator for generating a machine readable non-electronic code in response to the received electronic code. A data integrity enhancer forms the electronic code into output blocks which are formed as a linearly determined function of the binary values of the N-ary digits of the electronic binary code.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 1991
    Date of Patent: June 28, 1994
    Assignee: International Data Matrix, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert S. Cymbalski, Christen V. Nielsen