Source: https://patents.com/us-9565473.html
Timestamp: 2019-11-15 04:30:04
Document Index: 212446049

Matched Legal Cases: ['art\n5355161', 'Application No. 2011203053', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No 11005351', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 201110230823', 'Application No. 2563834', 'Application No. 201110230823', 'Application No. 201110230823', 'Application No. 2', 'Application No. 2']

US Patent # 9,565,473. Methods and apparatus to maintain audience privacy while determining viewing of video-on-demand programs - Patents.com
United States Patent 9,565,473
Ramaswamy , et al. February 7, 2017
Ramaswamy; Arun (Tampa, FL), Luff; Robert A. (Wittman, MD)
The Nielsen Company (US), LLC.
Family ID: 1000002391463
14/223,560
US 20140208341 A1 Jul 24, 2014
13762025 Feb 7, 2013 8707340
12769163 Feb 19, 2013 8381241
11550261 Oct 17, 2006
PCT/US2005/013765 Apr 22, 2005
60564777 Apr 23, 2004
Current CPC Class: H04N 21/442 (20130101); H04H 20/14 (20130101); H04H 60/372 (20130101); H04H 60/40 (20130101); H04H 60/45 (20130101); H04H 60/59 (20130101); H04H 60/64 (20130101); H04N 7/173 (20130101); H04N 21/254 (20130101); H04N 21/25866 (20130101); H04N 21/44222 (20130101); H04N 21/47202 (20130101); H04N 21/6582 (20130101); H04N 21/8352 (20130101); H04H 60/43 (20130101); H04H 60/58 (20130101); H04H 2201/90 (20130101)
Current International Class: H04H 60/32 (20080101); H04N 7/173 (20110101); H04H 60/64 (20080101); H04N 21/258 (20110101); H04N 21/472 (20110101); H04N 21/658 (20110101); H04N 21/8352 (20110101); H04H 60/59 (20080101); H04H 60/45 (20080101); H04H 60/40 (20080101); H04H 60/37 (20080101); H04H 20/14 (20080101); H04N 21/442 (20110101); H04N 21/254 (20110101); H04H 60/43 (20080101); H04H 60/58 (20080101)
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Primary Examiner: Taylor; Joshua
This patent arises from a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/762,025 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,707,340), entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Maintain Audience Privacy while Determining Viewing of Video-on-Demand Programs" and filed on Feb. 7, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/769,163 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,381,241), entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Maintain Audience Privacy while Determining Viewing of Video-on-Demand Programs" and filed on Apr. 28, 2010, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/550,261, entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Maintain Audience Privacy while Determining Viewing of Video-on-Demand Programs" and filed on Oct. 17, 2006, which is a continuation of International Application Serial Number PCT/US05/013765, entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Maintain Audience Privacy while Determining Viewing of Video-on-Demand Programs," which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/564,777, entitled "Methods and Apparatus to Maintain Audience Privacy While Determining Viewing of Video-on-Demand Programs" and filed on Apr. 23, 2004. U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 11/550,261 and 12/769,163, International Application Serial Number PCT/US05/013765 and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/564,777 are hereby incorporated by reference in their respective entireties.
1. A method to share data between a service provider and a media monitoring system, the method comprising: accessing a data set provided by the service provider to the media monitoring system, the data set including service usage data and first encrypted identification data collected by the service provider for subscribers of the service provider, the first encrypted identification data being encrypted to hide identities of the subscribers from the media monitoring system; encrypting, with a processor, a combination of first and second personal identification data retrieved based on device identification data associated with a monitored device to determine second encrypted identification data; comparing, with the processor, a value of the second encrypted identification data with values of the first encrypted identification data in the data set to identify an entry of the data set that is associated with the second encrypted identification data; and adding, with the processor, a respective portion of the service usage data associated with the identified entry of the data set to a database of the media monitoring system.
2. The method of claim 1, further including using the portion of the service usage data added to the database of the media monitoring system to perform audience measurement.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitored device is a first monitored device, the second encrypted identification data further includes encrypted combinations of personal identification data retrieved based on respective device identification data associated with a plurality of monitored devices including the first monitored device, and subscribers of the service provider who are not associated with the second encrypted identification data are not identifiable to the media monitoring system from the first encrypted identification data.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the service usage data and the first encrypted identification data in the data set correspond to respective ones of substantially all of the subscribers of the service provider.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the monitored device is a first monitored device, the second encrypted identification data further includes encrypted combinations of personal identification data retrieved based on respective device identification data associated with a plurality of monitored devices including the first monitored device, and further including discarding portions of the service usage data from the data set corresponding to subscribers of the service provider that are not identified as associated with the second encrypted identification data.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first encrypted identification data is determined based on device identifiers associated with the subscribers.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first encrypted identification data is encrypted using a hash function, and encrypting the combination of the first and the second personal identification data includes processing the combination of the first and the second identification data with the hash function to determine the second encrypted identification data.
8. A tangible computer readable storage device or storage disk comprising computer readable instructions which, when executed, cause a computing device to at least: access a data set provided by a service provider to a media monitoring system, the data set including service usage data and first encrypted identification data collected by the service provider for subscribers of the service provider, the first encrypted identification data being encrypted to hide identities of the subscribers from the media monitoring system; encrypt a combination of first and second personal identification data retrieved based on device identification data associated with a monitored device to determine second encrypted identification data; compare a value of the second encrypted identification data with values of the first encrypted identification data in the data set to identify an entry of the data set that is associated with the second encrypted identification data; and add a respective portion of the service usage data associated with the identified entry of the data set to a database of the media monitoring system.
9. The storage device or storage disk of claim 8, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to use the portion of the service usage data added to the database of the media monitoring system to perform audience measurement.
10. The storage device or storage disk as defined of claim 8, wherein the monitored device is a first monitored device, the second encrypted identification data further includes encrypted combinations of personal identification data retrieved based on respective device identification data associated with a plurality of monitored devices including the first monitored device, and subscribers of the service provider who are not associated with the second encrypted identification data are not identifiable to the media monitoring system from the first encrypted identification data.
11. The storage device or storage disk of claim 8, wherein the service usage data and the first encrypted identification data in the data set correspond to substantially all of the subscribers of the service provider.
12. The storage device or storage disk of claim 11, wherein the monitored device is a first monitored device, the second encrypted identification data further includes encrypted combinations of personal identification data retrieved based on respective device identification data associated with a plurality of monitored devices including the first monitored device, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to discard portions of the service usage data from the data set corresponding to subscribers of the service provider that are not identified as associated with the second encrypted identification data.
13. The storage device or storage disk of claim 8, wherein the first encrypted identification data is determined based on device identifiers associated with the subscribers.
14. The storage device or storage disk of claim 8, wherein the first encrypted identification data is encrypted using a hash function, and the instructions, when executed, further cause the computing device to encrypt the combination of the first and the second personal identification data by processing the combination of the first and the second identification data with the hash function to determine the second encrypted identification data.
15. An apparatus to share data between a service provider and a media monitoring system, the apparatus comprising: a data interface to access a data set provided by the service provider to the media monitoring system, the data set including service usage data and first encrypted identification data collected by the service provider for subscribers of the service provider, the first encrypted identification data being encrypted to hide identities of the subscribers from the media monitoring system; a hash generator implemented with hardware to encrypt a combination of first and second personal identification data retrieved based on device identification data associated with a monitored device to determine second encrypted identification data; and a record identifier to: compare a value of the second encrypted identification data with values of the first encrypted identification data in the data set to identify an entry of the data set that is associated with the second encrypted identification data; and add a respective portion of the service usage data associated with the identified entry of the data set to a database of the media monitoring system.
16. The apparatus of claim 15, further including a processor to use the portion of the service usage data added to the database of the media monitoring system to perform audience measurement.
17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the monitored device is a first monitored device, the second encrypted identification data further includes encrypted combinations of personal identification data retrieved based on respective device identification data associated with a plurality of monitored devices including the first monitored device, and subscribers of the service provider who are not associated with the second encrypted identification data are not identifiable to the media monitoring system from the first encrypted identification data.
18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the service usage data and the first encrypted identification data in the data set correspond to respective ones of substantially all of the subscribers of the service provider.
19. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first encrypted identification data is determined based on a plurality of device identifiers associated with the subscribers.
20. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the first encrypted identification data is encrypted using a hash function, and the hash generator is further to encrypt the combination of the first and the second personal identification data by processing the combination of the first and the second identification data with the hash function to determine the second encrypted identification data.
Television ratings and metering information is typically generated by collecting viewing records and/or other viewing information from a group of statistically selected households. Each of the statistically selected households typically has a data logging and processing unit commonly referred to as a "home unit." In households having multiple viewing sites (e.g., multiple television systems), the data logging and processing functionality may be distributed among a single home unit and multiple "site units," one site unit for each viewing site. The home unit (or the combination of the home unit and the site unit) is often in communication with a variety of attachments that provide inputs to the home unit or receive outputs from the home unit. For example, a source identification unit such as a frequency detector attachment may be in communication with a television to sense a local oscillator frequency of the television tuner. In this manner, the frequency detector attachment may be used to determine the channel to which the television is currently tuned based on a detected frequency. Additional source identification devices, such as on-screen readers and light-emitting-diode (LED) display readers, may be provided, for example, to determine if the television is operating (i.e., is turned ON) and/or the channel to which the television is tuned. A people counter may be located in the viewing space of the television and in communication with the home unit, thereby enabling the home unit to detect the identities and/or number of the persons currently viewing programs displayed on the television.
In the illustrated example, one of the two signals from the signal splitter 116 is fed to the television 120 and the other signal is delivered to the home unit 124. The television 120 may be any type of television or television display device. For example, the television 120 may be a television and/or display device that supports the National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) standard, the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) standard, the Systeme Electronique pour Couleur avec Memoire (SECAM) standard, a standard developed by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), such as high definition television (HDTV), a standard developed by the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project, or may be a multimedia computer system, etc.
The example viewing record also includes sets of channel data information 412, 414, 416 corresponding to channels of the STB 316 selected by the user/subscriber. In the instant example, the home unit 124 is configured to poll the STB 316 at periodic intervals (e.g., once every 2.7 sec.) to determine the channel number selected by the STB 316. Additionally, the home unit 124 may be configured with a mapping table, for example, to map sets of channels into larger supersets of channels having similar content. For example, a set of broadcast channels used to carry pay-per-view programming may be grouped into a single superset representing all receivable pay-per-view content. Similarly, a set of broadcast channels used to carry VOD programming may be grouped and represented by a single superset used to indicate that VOD content was selected/output by the STB 316. As a result, the channel data 412, 414 that the home unit 124 includes in the example viewing record 400 may comprise the channel number selected by the STB 316 and the timestamp at which the measurement was taken. Additionally or alternatively, the home unit 124 may include VOD data 416 in the example viewing record 400, with the VOD data 416 including an entry indicating that any member of the superset of VOD channels was selected (represented by "VOD" in FIG. 4) and the timestamp at which the measurement was taken. Thus, as one having ordinary skill in the art will recognize, the example viewing record 400 may be used to indicate that at least one of a superset of VOD channels was selected by the STB 316. However, the actual VOD channel selected and/or the actual VOD content selected/output by the STB 316 cannot be readily determined solely from the data included in the example viewing record 400.
Although the above example employs specific examples of personal information to generate the subscriber hash ID, one having ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any combination of personal information may be used by the metering record hashing unit 600 to generate the subscriber hash ID.
The system 1100 of the instant example includes a processor 1112. For example, the processor 1112 can be implemented by one or more Intel.RTM. microprocessors from the Pentium.RTM. family, the Itanium.RTM. family or the XScale.RTM. family. Of course, other processors from other families are also appropriate. One or more processors such as processor 1112 may be used to implement any or all of the home unit 124 and/or the STB 108 (or portions thereof) of FIG. 1, the central facility processor 224 (or portions thereof) of FIG. 2, the VOD server 304 and/or the metering server interface 324 of FIG. 3, the metering record hashing unit 600 of FIG. 6 and/or the hashed metering database processor 800 of FIG. 8. A processor such as processor 1112 may also be used to implement the example programs 900 and/or 1000 of FIGS. 9 and 10A-10B, respectively.
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