Telephonic communications – Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical... – Polling
Patent
1990-01-17
1992-10-13
Dwyer, James L.
Telephonic communications
Telephone line or system combined with diverse electrical...
Polling
358 84, H04M 1100, H04N 702
Patent
active
051557622
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention relates to a method and a system for acquiring and transmitting information about television program audiences.
Audience detection or measurement apparatuses currently exist which are associated with television sets in the homes of viewers which together constitute a representative sample of the population. Each audience detection or measurement apparatus includes an internal clock, means for detecting when the television set is switched on and off, and means for identifying the selected channel.
By associating the selected channel with the exact time, it is naturally possible to determine which program was visible on the screen.
In current systems, all of this information is recorded in a memory in the audience detection apparatus, and each apparatus is interrogated by an overall central unit at night and via the switched telephone network. On the basis of information provided by a plurality of such apparatuses, a central unit establishes audience ratings which are only moderately accurate since prior apparatuses do not provide information about the number of people looking at a television program, indeed they cannot even guarantee that there were any viewers in front of the television set.
Recent proposals have been made for novel audience detection apparatuses which are specifically capable of determining the number of people present in front of a television set which is switched on, and which also provide information about the periods for which a television set if switched on or off and about the selected channel, thereby enabling relatively accurate audience ratings to be established. However, when the information is stored in a memory in each apparatus and the apparatuses are interrogated in deferred time, e.g. during the night, it is not possible to establish audience ratings immediately. Practice has also shown that there are several problems associated with the central unit interrogating the apparatuses during the night by means of the viewers' telephone lines, for example there may be conflicts of access to the telephone line, the telephone bell may ring in the middle of the night, the telephone line may accidentally be locked up, etc.
The present invention seeks to avoid these drawbacks.
To this end, the present invention provides a method of acquiring and transmitting information about television program audiences, the method consisting in associating detection apparatuses with television sets and/or video recorders in order to obtain information about television program audiences, in recording said information and the precise time thereof in memories of the apparatuses, and in periodically connecting each of the apparatuses to a central unit via the telephone network in order to transfer said information recorded in said apparatuses to said central unit, the method being characterized in that it consists in connecting the central unit to the switched telephone network via a digital network for conveying digital data and having access points in the switched telephone network, in using said digital network and its access points as data concentrators between the detection apparatuses and the central unit, and in periodically, or on instruction from the central unit, connecting all of the detection apparatuses, or at least a large number of them, to the central unit and transmitting the information detected by the apparatuses about the audiences of television programs to the central unit in real time.
By transmitting the information collected by the audience detection apparatuses in real time, it is possible to obtain immediate data for establishing audience ratings. The use of a network such as the national TRANSPAC network and its points of access makes it possible in a manner which is simple and which does not require special investment to obtain a very large quantity of information very quickly from a large number of audience detection apparatuses distributed throughout the territory, thereby making it possible to obtain ratings representative of the audience on a national scale.
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PCT application, Pub. No. WO88/01117, Watanabe, Feb. 1988.
Bidon Jean-Pierre
Croquet Jean-Louis
Drevon Jean-Marc
Duval Pierre-Yves J.
Chan Wing F.
Croquet & Cie
Dwyer James L.
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