Patent GB-1134451-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for determining audience response
IPC: G01D21/00
Filed: 1966-03-01
Abstract: 1,134,451. Audience survey system. SCREEN GEMS Inc. 1 March, 1966 [1 March, 1965], No. 8898/66. Heading G4H. Audience survey apparatus comprises a plurality of rating devices individually distributed to audience members, each said device having means for producing a signal indicative of the response of the audience member, the responses being selectively combined into a plurality of categories (e.g. the responses of women over the age of thirty five) for processing. In the embodiment described the rating devices (123, Fig. 1B, not shown), are potentiometers 111, 113, 115, . . . 151 (Fig. 1A), the output from each potentiometer being connected to an audience jack on a plug board 161, the jacks preferably being arranged in rows and columns to correspond to the seating position of the associated audience member. Stand-by audience jacks are also provided connected to stand-by audience rating devices so that if a satisfactory response is not obtained from one of the selected audience members he may be replaced by connecting a patch 195 to link the stand-by member's jack to the selected member's jack and so disconnect the selected member. The outputs from the plug board are connected on channel 181 to diode matrices 200, on channel 182 to single line recorders, on channel 183 to a master chart 106 and on channel 184 to a card switch. Each member's response on channel 181 is connected to one of the diode matrices, each of the matrices being connected to a master counter so that each matrix is pulsed sequentially and hence the voltage corresponding to the associated rating device is applied in its proper time slot on output lead 206 (Fig. 4A), to voltage controlled switches. The voltage controlled switches 400A, 400B, 400C, 400D, control accumulation counters 401, 404, 407, 410, each corresponding to one of the possible ratings which may be given by the audience member, the outputs from which control units and tens silicon controlled rectifiers 402, 403, 405, 406, 408, 409, 411, 412 controlling recorder pens of a recorder 415. The card switch to which the output on channel 184 (Fig. 1A), is applied, comprises a plurality of slots for cards (such as card 220, Fig. 2D, not shown) and a plurality of upper and lower contacts (230, 231) associated with each slot. The cards are pre-punched, each card representing for example one row of the audience and punched to give any required statistical information (e.g. colour of hair). The contacts only make where a hole is punched and the outputs from the contacts are combined in categories 1-N on a channel (281). Each category lead is associated with a switch (320, 321 . . . 329, Fig. 3A, not shown), each switch controlling a sub group chart recorder so that the ratings given by each category are recorded. Each rating from the rating devices is preceded by a spike which is filtered by transformers (340 . . . 349) and fed via further switches (330 . . . 339) and a gate (360) to accumulation counters (362) for determining the number of members in the audience in any given category. The counters may also be used for counting the whole audience. The counters are reset after each complete scan of the audience, the count in the counter being displayed on an indicator (365). The outputs from the diode matrices may also be connected to a cathode ray oscilloscope (520, Fig. 5B, not shown), the magnitude of the rating of each member of the audience appearing as a dot on the cathode ray tube as the master scan counter sequentially scans. If the reaction of a number of the audience is noteworthy this number may be located by placing a photocell probe (521) on the cathode ray screen on the trace of interest, the photocell when activated stopping the master scan counter to indicate the seat location of the audience member. If it is required to survey the audience reaction at a particular point during the performance cue announcements from a two track reproducer (500, Fig. 5A, not shown), may be used to control cue pens marking the recorders at the required points. Afterwards a tape recorder (507) may be listened to to find the event corresponding to the cue mark on the recorder.