Patents by Inventor Laurence Blair Miller

Laurence Blair Miller 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: 9508086
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing received advertisement detection information associated with the advertisement, the advertisement detection information detected from a presentation of the advertisement; identifying a buy order corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement based on the advertisement detection information; determining a purchased ratings value from the buy order; comparing the purchased ratings value of the buy order to received ratings information corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement to determine whether the advertisement was presented as indicated in the buy order; and generating a performance monitoring report using the buy order and the advertisement detection information to indicate whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2016
    Assignee: THE NIELSEN COMPANY (US), LLC
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Publication number: 20150287074
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing received advertisement detection information associated with the advertisement, the advertisement detection information detected from a presentation of the advertisement; identifying a buy order corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement based on the advertisement detection information; determining a purchased ratings value from the buy order; comparing the purchased ratings value of the buy order to received ratings information corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement to determine whether the advertisement was presented as indicated in the buy order; and generating a performance monitoring report using the buy order and the advertisement detection information to indicate whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 22, 2015
    Publication date: October 8, 2015
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Patent number: 9064270
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing received advertisement detection information associated with the advertisement, the advertisement detection information detected from a presentation of the advertisement; identifying a buy order corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement based on the advertisement detection information; determining a purchased ratings value from the buy order; comparing the purchased ratings value of the buy order to received ratings information corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement to determine whether the advertisement was presented as indicated in the buy order; and generating a performance monitoring report using the buy order and the advertisement detection information to indicate whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2015
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Publication number: 20140114751
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes analyzing received advertisement detection information associated with the advertisement, the advertisement detection information detected from a presentation of the advertisement; identifying a buy order corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement based on the advertisement detection information; determining a purchased ratings value from the buy order; comparing the purchased ratings value of the buy order to received ratings information corresponding to the presentation of the advertisement to determine whether the advertisement was presented as indicated in the buy order; and generating a performance monitoring report using the buy order and the advertisement detection information to indicate whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 30, 2013
    Publication date: April 24, 2014
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Patent number: 8701136
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes receiving an identification of an advertisement that was presented on a media presentation channel at a time, receiving ratings information for the media presentation channel associated with the time period, identifying a buy order for the received identification, receiving a purchased ratings value associated with the buy order, comparing the purchased ratings value to the ratings information, and displaying an indication of whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2009
    Date of Patent: April 15, 2014
    Assignee: Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Publication number: 20090187932
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to monitor, verify, and rate the performance of airings of commercials are disclosed. An example method includes receiving an identification of an advertisement that was presented on a media presentation channel at a time, receiving ratings information for the media presentation channel associated with the time period, identifying a buy order for the received identification, receiving a purchased ratings value associated with the buy order, comparing the purchased ratings value to the ratings information, and displaying an indication of whether the ratings information is less than the purchased ratings value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 7, 2009
    Publication date: July 23, 2009
    Inventors: James Milton Rathburn, Laurence Blair Miller, Thomas J. Whymark, Huaiyeu Huey Yu, Hui-Tung Yang, Stephen Shindle, Jonathan Chazen, Joseph Kaminski
  • Patent number: 6338043
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus for automatically developing a package of advertising spots from a plurality of available spots offered by a plurality of media suppliers are disclosed. In one implementation, an apparatus includes a package developer cooperating with the memory to develop a package containing a subset of the representations of the available spots based on at least one of a plurality of guideline variables. The apparatus also includes a validator cooperating with the package developer to validate the package by ensuring that every media supplier associated with the representations in the subset supplies a minimum percentage of the spots in the subset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 1998
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2002
    Assignee: Nielsen Media Research
    Inventor: Laurence Blair Miller