EP2210354A2 - Détecteur de presence et procédé d'estimation d'un auditoire - Google Patents

Détecteur de presence et procédé d'estimation d'un auditoire

Info

Publication number
EP2210354A2
EP2210354A2 EP08789878A EP08789878A EP2210354A2 EP 2210354 A2 EP2210354 A2 EP 2210354A2 EP 08789878 A EP08789878 A EP 08789878A EP 08789878 A EP08789878 A EP 08789878A EP 2210354 A2 EP2210354 A2 EP 2210354A2
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
audience
television
presence detector
advertisement
sensor
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP08789878A
Other languages
German (de)
English (en)
Inventor
Yossef Gerard Cohen
Eliahu Elson
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Wavebreak Technologies Ltd
Original Assignee
Wavebreak Technologies Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Wavebreak Technologies Ltd filed Critical Wavebreak Technologies Ltd
Publication of EP2210354A2 publication Critical patent/EP2210354A2/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
    • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
    • H04H60/29—Arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services
    • H04H60/31—Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
    • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
    • H04H60/29—Arrangements for monitoring broadcast services or broadcast-related services
    • H04H60/33—Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
    • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
    • H04H60/35—Arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time, e.g. for identifying broadcast stations or for identifying users
    • H04H60/45—Arrangements for identifying or recognising characteristics with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time, e.g. for identifying broadcast stations or for identifying users for identifying users

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a presence detector and method for detecting and estimating an audience, and in particular for estimating an audience watching television.
  • Measuring an audience precisely is a question of great economic importance especially in areas such as television programs, advertisement (across all media), movie films, outdoor advertisements, malls and shops etc.
  • areas such as television programs, advertisement (across all media), movie films, outdoor advertisements, malls and shops etc.
  • the more people watch a television program the higher the price the content provider can charge the program broadcaster, and the higher the price the broadcaster can charge for advertisement with that television program.
  • the more people visit a mall or a shopping center the higher the price the mall operator can charge for store rent.
  • the number of people determined to watch a television program will also determine if the program is continued or should be replaced.
  • the television set has been used mainly for watching television programs received over the air, via cable or satellite.
  • more and more solutions are proposed for using the television as a mean for accessing both television programs and content through the Internet, sometimes simultaneously.
  • an advertisement might demonstrate a product with the possibility of purchasing the product via an Internet connection from the same screen.
  • Another convergence scenario is when an Internet connection provides more data or an advertisement related to the content of the television program watched, for example, while watching a sports event the viewer may request more information about the track record of a team or a player or receive advertisements for sports-related material.
  • advertisement in the Internet is typically measured per user click or exposure and always assumes that a single user is watching the computer screen.
  • the human body radiates electromagnetic radiation in the optical part of the spectrum (broadly speaking, infrared radiation is also included). All objects also radiate electromagnetic radiation but the emission intensity and radiation frequency depends on the temperature, emissivity and area of the object or body, so they can be separated when trying to detect a person.
  • IR infrared
  • the present invention thus relates to a presence detector for detecting and estimating an audience watching television, comprising: one or more presence sensors adapted to capturing signals emitted by or reflected from the audience; and a translator connected to said one or more presence sensors adapted to translating output signals created by the one or more presence sensors to data signals representing the estimated number of people in the audience.
  • the present detector further comprises a communications port for communicating the estimated number of people to a remote facility. The remote facility can further process the received data, and can also decide on the appropriate action to take based on the information received.
  • the content displayed on the television is detected by the presence detector.
  • the content displayed on the television is selected according to the estimated number of people detected in the audience.
  • the selected content displayed on the television is advertising.
  • the presence detector of the invention can be placed in a representative sample of television households. Rating data can be gathered and analyzed to determine the pricing of advertisings in different programming slots. The return on investment of a television advertisement can also be calculated according to the audience detected by the presence detector.
  • an audience is measured before during and after an advertisement is displayed on television in order to accurately estimate the audience during the advertisement break.
  • the television's screen is turned off after no audience is detected for predetermined period of time.
  • other electrical devices such as an air conditioning unit, can also be turned off after no audience is detected for a predetermined period of time.
  • the presence detector of the invention can use any available presence sensors such as a pyroelectric detector, an ultrasonic transceiver, a thermopile sensor, an imaging camera, an imaging camera with a VMD algorithm, an imaging camera with a face detection algorithm, a photodiode, IR receiver, a microphone, or an electro-optic detector coupled to a light source.
  • thermopile sensor used may comprise a single thermopile sensor, a line of thermopile sensors or a matrix of thermopile sensors.
  • the photodiode or IR receiver detects signals emitted from any remote control operated by the audience.
  • a microphone can be used by the presence detector in order to detect sound voices from the audience.
  • the signals emitted by or reflected from the audience comprise sound signals, infrared signals, electromagnetic signals or optical signals.
  • a separate presence detector of the invention can be installed as an independent component which is located in front of the viewers for example on the
  • the device of the invention may also be used to measure students in a classroom, people entering a mall, people waiting in line for a service etc.
  • Television advertisements can be more accurately priced according to the estimation of number of people actually present in front of the television.
  • the proposed device can be used for rating the advertisements themselves since the metering by the presence detector can be continuous and communicated online.
  • the presence invention relates to a method for detecting and estimating an audience watching television, comprising the steps of: capturing signals emitted by or reflected from the audience by a presence sensor; and translating said captured signals to a data signals representing the estimated number of people in the audience.
  • the present invention relates to an advertising method for sending commercial advertisements to an audience in front of a television set, the method comprising the steps of: (i) detecting the presence of at least one viewer in front of said television set using the presence detector of the invention; and (ii) sending an advertisement to the television set only when the at least one viewer is detected. It is thus possible to guarantee to an advertiser that its advertisement has actually been broadcast to an existing audience, as opposed to the current situation when an advertisement is placed in the middle of a program, but the audience may leave the room or simply change channels at the commercial break.
  • the presence detector comprises an electronic circuit that finds out if the television is turned on.
  • the electronic circuit compares and correlates the audio signal entering a television set with the audio signal entering a microphone coupled to the presence sensor.
  • the electronic circuit is an electromagnetic loop or a photodiode directed to the television's screen or a current sensor coupled to the presence sensor.
  • the presence detector of the invention further comprises: a mirror; a slit; a filter; and a rotating motor.
  • the mirror is adapted to rotate in order to scan a large field of view.
  • both the mirror and the filter are optional and may not be used.
  • the mirror is coated on both sides with high reflection coating for the mid-IR spectrum from 4 micron to 20 micron.
  • the filter only passes signals between 5 micron and 20 micron.
  • the presence detector integrates energy-saving capabilities to turn off the television set when nobody is watching it.
  • the presence detector contains four modules that may be located on one board: 1) IR module - has the ability to learn IR signals from remote control.
  • Presence Sensors Module for example, pyroelectric, thermopiles, ultrasonic sensors, microphones etc.
  • TV status module - determines if the television is on or off.
  • a photodiode that is looking on the TV screen can identify if there is light above a predetermined threshold from the screen thus deducting that the TV is on.
  • Another option is to sample the current that enters the TV, when the TV is on than the current is much higher than when the TV is off. It can be done also by a magnetic loop.
  • Fig. 1 is a graph of the radiant emittance of a human being at 37 degree Celsius.
  • Fig. 2 is an illustration of a presence detector device of the invention.
  • Fig. 3 is an example of a graph of the signal vs. instantaneous field of view (IFOV) when the presence detector is in operation.
  • IFOV instantaneous field of view
  • Fig. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a presence detector device comprising multiple presence sensors with equal field of view (FOV).
  • FOV field of view
  • Fig. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a presence detector device comprising multiple presence sensors with variable size field of views (FOV).
  • Fig. 6 is a block diagram of a module to turn off a television automatically when nobody is watching.
  • the present invention relates to a presence detector adapted to detecting and estimating an audience watching television. It is important to be able to detect if at least one person is present in front of the television. This information can be used to determine television programming rating, television advertisement rating. In addition, this information can be useful for saving electricity in the house, as the television, and other appliances in the room such as an air-conditioning unit, can be turned off if nobody is in the room for a predetermined period of time.
  • the presence detector device can also estimate the number of people present in front of the television, thus providing more accurate information relevant for determining television programs and advertizing rating.
  • the present detector further comprises a communications port for communicating the estimated number of people to a remote facility.
  • the remote facility can further process the received data, and can also decide on the appropriate action to take based on the information received.
  • the communication port can use any available communication links such as Internet, telephone, wireless telephony, wireless data services, cable TV etc.
  • the term "audience" as referred to herein should be interpreted in a broad sense to encompass, a viewing public, a participating public, passive public, comprising one or more persons.
  • the presence detector of the invention uses a presence sensor to detect if an audience (people) is present in front of the television. In some embodiments, it is also possible to estimate how many people are present in front of the television.
  • presence sensor as referred herein should be understood in a wide sense, for example, a pyroelectric detector, an ultrasonic transceiver, a thermopile sensor, an imaging camera, an imaging camera with a VMD algorithm, an imaging camera with a face detection algorithm, a photodiode, IR receiver, a microphone, or an electro-optic detector coupled to a light source. It may also be incorporated together in a single chip the camera detector and the processor running the algorithm.
  • PYROELECTRIC DETECTORS PYROELECTRIC DETECTORS
  • Pyroelectric detectors are thermal detectors. That is, they produce a signal in response to a change in their temperature.
  • ferroelectric materials such as triglycine sulfate (TGS) or Lithium Tantalate, exhibit a large spontaneous electrical polarization. If the temperature of such a material is altered, for example, by incident radiation, the polarization changes. This change in polarization may be observed as an electrical signal if electrodes are placed on opposite faces of a thin slice of the material to form a capacitor. When the polarization changes, the charges induced in the electrodes can be made to produce a voltage across the slice if a the external impedance is comparatively high. The sensor will only produce an electrical output signal when the temperature changes; that is, when the level of incident radiation changes.
  • Tc triglycine sulfate
  • Lithium Tantalate Lithium Tantalate
  • This process is independent of the wavelength of the incident radiation and hence pyroelectric sensors have a flat response over a very wide spectral range.
  • the limiting feature on the spectral range is the window material used in the manufacture of the sensor housing. By using different windows materials it is possible to detect radiation at different frequencies.
  • a pyroelectric detector detects optical radiation in the mid infrared (IR) range. It has a high responsiveness and since it is sensitive to thermal energy it detects a wide range of wavelengths. It contains normally a filter to define the spectral range of interest and a sensing crystal to convert the radiation into electrical signal.
  • the pyroelectric detector may be arranged as a single element detector, a dual element detector in several configurations and also quad elements per detector are available. It is possible to find also pyroelectric detector arrays which may be used for imaging applications.
  • the pyroelectric detector is sensitive to changes in thermal radiation, but it also depends on the frequency response.
  • pyroelectric detectors are used for human motion detection.
  • the most popular and broad known use of these detectors are for volume detection in home security and alarm systems.
  • the radiation from the human being is perceived by the detector.
  • the amount of power received by the detector depends on the moving velocity of the person.
  • FOV field of view
  • Pyroelectric material develops a voltage difference in response to a temperature change.
  • a single element pyroelectric detector is sensitive to any temperature change so it may also be sensitive to ambient temperature changes, so in order that temperature changes will not be recorded as false alarms it will require compensation for ambient changes. That is the reason that for volume detector applications (and also many other applications) a dual element is used, since it has built in compensation for ambient changes. The compensation is done by connecting the two elements in electrical opposite connection so when both elements detect a temperature change (because of ambient change, for example) then no electrical signal is generated because one element cancels the other.
  • the pyroelectric sensor is made of a crystalline material that generates a surface electric charge when exposed to heat in form of infrared radiation. When the amount of radiation striking the crystal changes, the amount of charge also changes and can be measured with a sensitive Field Effect Transistor (FET) device built into the pyroelectric sensor.
  • FET Field Effect Transistor
  • the pyroelectric sensor elements are sensitive to radiation over a wide range so a filter window is added to limit detectable radiation to the 8 to 14 micron, for example.
  • the typical sensor has two sensing elements connected in a voltage bucking configuration. This arrangement cancels signals caused by vibration, temperature changes and sunlight.
  • a human body passing in front of the pyroelectric sensor will activate first one and then the other element whereas other sources will affect both elements simultaneously and be cancelled.
  • the pyroelectric detector (sensor) described above is mostly used as an infrared motion detector and mainly used for detecting a moving human body. Yet there is no information if the one or more people are moving and if a person is not moving at all he will not be detected.
  • the present invention applies the pyroelectric sensors to estimate how many people are watching a program, and in case that the viewer is not moving at all then the sensor moves instead, having the same detection effect.
  • the FOV of the different detectors in the array have different FOVs so the extreme detectors have very narrow FOV so people can be detected as entering or exiting the field of regard (area of interest for the audience measurement and counting), and other detectors can be used for counting how many persons are in any sub-area.
  • the presence sensor 10 detects the infrared signal coming from the audience 20.
  • a slit 30, limits the field of view of the presence sensor 10 so in every single moment the field of view of the presence sensor 10 is limited to a small instantaneous field of view (IFOV).
  • IFOV instantaneous field of view
  • the size of the slit 30 can vary according to design preference. For example, the slit 30 can be a rectangular opening of 1 centimeter by 2 centimeters.
  • the signal received by the presence sensor 10 enters into the device through a window 40, and is reflected from the mirror 50 and then passes through the slit 30 and through a special filter 60.
  • the mirror 50 rotates so the IFOV also moves in order to scan the audience 20 as shown in Fig. 2 from the left side to the right side in an angle of -45° to +45°.
  • the mirror 50 is coated with a high reflection coating for the MID-IR spectrum (from 4 ⁇ m to 15 ⁇ m, for example) on both sides so after a rotation of half circle it can reflect the radiation coming from the audience 20 also from the other side.
  • the angle of interest (the field of view that the mirror 50 scans) is between -45° to +45°.
  • the filter 60 is such that it allows transmitting only spectral radiation corresponding to the typical radiation that is emitted by the human body within the spectrum mentioned above.
  • the emission spectrum of an incandescent lamp which is a common light source, emits most of its radiation in much lower wavelengths, so if a filter 60 blocking lower wavelengths is not used then the presence sensor 10 will detect also the lamp and not only the human body.
  • the electronics card 70 translates the signal received in the presence sensor 10 to a signal representing the occupancy of the audience 20 within the angle of interest.
  • the electronics card 70 comprises also a processor and communications means in order to integrate the information about the presence of the audience 20 the channel which is being watched and communicates it to a distant location.
  • the electronics card 70 also synchronizes between the mirror 50 rotation and the timing of light collection by the presence sensor 10, in such a way that once the line of sight moves an angle which is equal or less than the instantaneous FOV then resets the presence sensor 10 if necessary and reactivates it again to be ready to collect again the reflected radiation from the human body in the presence sensor 10 and no "holes" are formed in scanning the audience 20.
  • ultrasonic detectors such as ultrasound detectors or transceiver. These detectors may consist of a single transceiver (transmitter and receiver) or a dual sensor (one for transmission and the other for receiving).
  • the transmitter emits a signal and by measuring the time it takes to the signal to come back, it can calculate the distance of the object from the sensor.
  • the sensor may be located in the TV, on the TV panel, or on the set-top box and the object is the audience 20.
  • the ultrasonic sensor When nobody is present in front of the TV the ultrasonic sensor will detect a distance which corresponds to the distant wall or furniture. When a person enters into the field of view of the ultrasonic sensor, then the ultrasonic sensor detects a different temporal distance and it can be deducted that a person is present. When the person moves, a change in the integral distance detected will appear. If the FOV of the ultrasonic sensor is small, it is possible to scan with the ultrasonic sensor over a larger area (compared to the sensor's FOV) and receive a mapping of objects' distance from the sensor. In that way, when a person enters into the area a change in the mapping will describe where people entered and also where they are seated.
  • Thermopile sensors measure the temperature of an object based on the radiation energy emitted by the object and collected by the thermopile sensor.
  • the thermopile sensor reports a similar temperature to its ambient temperature sensor.
  • the measured temperature raises showing a higher temperature than the ambient temperature. If, for example, a person leaves the place when an advertising starts, then the thermopile sensor will detect a decrease in the temperature showing again the similar temperature as the ambient. According to the temperature measured it is possible within the FOV of the thermopile sensor to calibrate the additional contribution of each person to the object temperature level that the thermopile sensor shows.
  • thermopile sensor it is possible also to use a small FOV angle sensor (that is more sensitive) and by scanning the area in a wider FOV.
  • a static wide FOV thermopile sensor is also an alternative, though it may be less sensitive.
  • the signal processing coming from the thermopile sensor can be done using a simple processor (for example, an 8051 processor). This processor will receive the signal and according to a logical sequence of events detected by the thermopile sensor.
  • thermopile sensor and a pyroelectric detector it is possible to obtain information about the movement of the audience 20 and the presence of the audience 20 and consequently, to deliver the advertisement according to the audience 20 behavior. For example, if the person is sleeping the thermopile will detect his presence but the pyroelectric detector will not detect movements for a long time (for example, 15 minutes). This information may be used for saving energy, for example, by turning off the TV. And in the case that the person is present and awake it may be a good moment to deliver a commercial clip. If the sensors detect that the person is leaving the area during the advertisement then this information will be transmitted to the advertiser as an additional field of report that is evaluated by a central server as part of the viewing habits and television rating data analysis services.
  • the presence detector can use any combination of different presence sensors 10 available in the industry.
  • VMD VIDEO MOTION DETECTION
  • VMD algorithms for performing video motion detection and in special in the security area for detecting moving people or objects.
  • to the presence detector can use the same VMD algorithms to detect the movements of a person or detect body par movements such as hands, head, legs etc. A person, even watching TV, cannot stay without moving any body part for an extended period of time.
  • the basic VMD algorithm works by capturing two consecutive frames and by subtracting one from the other. If there is a movement then the subtraction will not be zero and this non zero part of the image will be detected as a movement. It is possible then to detect where in the FOV the movement happens and then image processing software can track each person entering the FOV and exiting it. Thus the number of people in front of the TV (or any other device) can be known.
  • the VMD module can be integrated into a TV set, a set-top box, air conditioning unit etc.
  • the module may include the imaging sensor or both the imaging sensor and a CPU for making the calculations (such a CPU may be a DSP, arm, the same imager with a SOC (system on chip) or a simple 8051 controller family for example or similar or more advanced controllers).
  • a CPU may be a DSP, arm, the same imager with a SOC (system on chip) or a simple 8051 controller family for example or similar or more advanced controllers).
  • the light source for the application of the VMD may be the room light, or at dark conditions the light from the TV itself or for more reliable results by adding an IR light source.
  • the detection may be done by using a face detection algorithm.
  • a face detection algorithm is adapted to detect special features that are common in faces and by looking for the combination of several such features it is possible to decide that a face is present in the scene in front of the TV.
  • the presence detector is used to turn off electrical devices when an audience 20 is not detected for a predetermined period of time.
  • electrical devices include but are not limited to: television sets, air conditioning units, heating systems etc.
  • the presence detector can be connected to the air conditioning unit and control in a similar way the operation of the air conditioning unit, turning it off when no people are detected for a given period of time.
  • the existing way of operation for the air conditioning unit saving energy is by using a volume detector based on a single pyroelectric sensor. The drawback of this method is that if the person does not move (for example, sleeping or reading a book) then the module will stop the air conditioning unit by directly turning the power off, and then when the person moves again it activates the air conditioning unit again.
  • the presence detector of the invention it is possible to detect people in a room even when the people are not moving.
  • An additional advantage of the invention is that the power off/on is not done from via the power switch on the wall but by activating the unit's remote control.
  • a mirror 50 is placed in front of the presence sensor 10 (for example, a Pyroelectric detector), and the presence sensor 10 "looks" through a very narrow slit 30. When the mirror 50 rotates the presence sensor 10 detects different angles in the field of view, and when this angle of view identifies a person, then the person is detected because of the moving angle of view.
  • Fig. 3 is a graph of the signal received in the presence sensor 10 after the mirror 50 has rotated by 180°. Once the mirror 50 completes this half circle rotation, it starts reflecting again the radiation coming from the left side to the right side of the angle of interest.
  • the scanning starts from - 45° to +45° and the first person in the audience 20 appears at about -41° and it is in front of the IFOV of the detector up to about -28°, and so on with the other two members of the audience 20 as shown.
  • the pyroelectric detectors are arranged in an array arrangement with different field of view (FOV) for each other.
  • FOV field of view
  • an estimation of the number of people viewing a program can be done by counting how many persons emits heat to several detectors.
  • the detected audience 20 is actively watching a program on television, but nevertheless it is important to know that some people are present in front or at the area of the television.
  • a motion detector or a volume detector 10 once the pyroelectric detector 10 detects a motion, a signal is generated informing that at least one person is detected If many people are moving at the same time, then when using a single motion/volume detector it is not possible to know how many people are actually out there.
  • Fig. 4 illustrating an embodiment of a presence detector comprising multiple presence sensors 10 with equal field of view (FOV).
  • FOV field of view
  • several presence sensors 10 can be located, for example, in a matrix 800 (series) of presence sensors 10 where each presence sensor 10 has a separate field of view.
  • each presence sensor 10 detects only to single person that was moving. In any case each person is detected as long as being on the move.
  • the size of the field of view of each presence sensor 10, is determined by its corresponding slit 30 (not shown).
  • a filter 60 is placed before each presence sensor 10 in order to allow transmitting only spectral radiation corresponding to the typical radiation that is emitted by the human body. The use of this filter 60 is optional. In the example shown at Fig. 4, there are 4 people in front of the television but according to the field of view of the presence sensors 10, only 3 people 20 will be detected since two people 20 are captured in FOV3 but are counted as a single detection. This is a good estimation.
  • the whole set 800 of presence sensors 10 may move slightly axially or rotationally and create a signal at all the presence sensors 10 which detect human heat change.
  • the rotation can be done by an electric motor or step motor or a solenoid that moves the matrix forwards and back slightly enough to activate the motion/volume detectors 10 matrix.
  • the invention uses the technology of presence sensor 10 such as a pyroelectric detector 10 which normally is used in current motion/volume detectors to create a different product of people presence counting detector.
  • the people in the audience 20 need not move in order to be detected, since the whole matrix 800 or series moves periodically.
  • the matrix/series 800 may be located on the television or set top box or in front of the audience 20.
  • a microprocessor collects the signal of all the presence sensors 10 and estimates according to motion and sleeping behavior of audiences 20.
  • a rotation of one presence sensor 10 around an axis can produce multiple signals. Counting the number of signals may infer to the number of people 20 in the field of view that was scanned by the rotation.
  • Fig. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a presence detector comprising multiple presence sensors 10 with variable size field of views (FOV).
  • the angles of each field of view can be different, for example, the two external fields of views 1 and 5 for example in Fig. 5 may be very narrow such that once there is a detection in those fields of view it means that someone cross the interesting area and remains inside.
  • the order of the presence sensors 10 signal generation it can be estimated where the person 20 is actually located. Since those fields of view (1& 5) are very narrow the generation of the signals will be short enough during normal motion or walking of a person 20 so only one person 20 can be capture in such a narrow FOV.
  • Accurately estimating the number of people in an audience 20 can have great commercial implications for different applications such as estimating the popularity of television programs, how many people watch an advertisement, how many people enter a shopping mall, how many people visited an exposition or a conference, how many people entered a commercial location etc.
  • the presence detector detects the content of the television program the audience 20 is watching.
  • the presence detector can connect to a television set-top box receiving TV channels via satellite, cable or the Internet in order to determine which channel is broadcast on the television set at each moment.
  • Data received directly or indirectly from the TV service operator typically cable or satellite nowadays, and through the Internet in the future) lists at every given moment the content broadcast on each channel.
  • the content is typically looked at as being either a commercial advertisement or a television program.
  • the price of commercial advertisement is determined in relation to the audience 20 reports provided by the presence detector of the invention. The more people watch an advertisement the higher it can be priced. Advertisements can thus be priced in real-time according to the number of people actually watching at a given moment. Alternatively, the audience 20 actually measured can be looked at as a sample representing the real number of people watching at a given moment.
  • each television (or household) receives individual, personalized commercial advertisements according to measured audience 20 ratings for each specific television (or household) and according to additional parameters such as socio-demographic data, personal preferences, previously recorded TV watching habits etc.
  • the invention thus allows targeting of custom advertisements for each television set and/or household.
  • the presence detector can also be used for the timing of placing advertisements. For example, it can be decided that an advertisement is not displayed unless at least one person is detected in front of the television.
  • each household is allocated a group of advertisements.
  • Each advertisement of that group is only displayed when an audience 20 is identified as watching the television set. In this way, it can be guaranteed to the advertiser that the advertisement has actually been seen by an audience 20 as opposed to cases where people take a bathroom break when the advertisements begin or they change channels while waiting for the program to resume.
  • a presence detector is installed or integrated, for example, in a set-top box or in the TV panel itself, in a display screen, an air conditioning unit, a "media center" or in any place that can be seen by the audience 20. Many television sets remain active even though nobody is in front of the television.
  • the presence detector of the invention determines if nobody is watching the television, and then turn the television off after a predetermined period of time thus saving electricity and increasing the life of the screen.
  • the device doesn't detect any person for a period of time for example 5, 10, 15 minutes (or any other predetermined time) than it can turn off the television.
  • the device contains four modules that may be located on one board as specified in Fig. 6: 1) IR module 730 - has the ability to learn IR signals from remote control.
  • the IR transceiver can learn several IR channels with modulation around 38KHZ for example. The learning process may be performed manually by push buttons .
  • Presence Sensors Module 720 - the board 700 supports several types of sensors: pyroelectric, thermopiles, acoustic sensors, face detection, VMD detectors.
  • Control module 740 this module is responsible for reading presence sensors, running a state machine, and turning on the IR module for turning off the television.
  • the information about the audience 20 in front the television may be transmitted by communication protocols to any remote location or WEB site.
  • TV status module 710 - may include various options such as: a photodiode that is looking on the TV screen . If there is light above some specific threshold from the screen then TV is on. There are many other options for detecting if the TV is on. If we sample the audio in signal and using a microphone on the device board than by comparing the signal and applying correlation than if the TV is not muted we can know that the TV is on. Another option is to sample the current that enter the TV, when the TV is on than the current is much higher than when the TV is off. It can be done also by a magnetic loop.

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Social Psychology (AREA)
  • Geophysics And Detection Of Objects (AREA)
  • Testing, Inspecting, Measuring Of Stereoscopic Televisions And Televisions (AREA)

Abstract

La présente invention concerne un détecteur de présence permettant de détecter et d'estimer un auditoire regardant la télévision comportant: un ou des capteurs de présence apte capter des signaux émis par ou réfléchis depuis l'auditoire; et un traducteur connecté à l'un ou aux capteurs de présence apte à traduire les signaux de sortie créés par l'un ou les capteurs de présence en signaux de données représentant le nombre estimé de personnes dans l'auditoire. L'information de présence captée est convertie en données de cote d'écoute et est très utile pour la fixation précise de prix de publicités.
EP08789878A 2007-09-11 2008-09-11 Détecteur de presence et procédé d'estimation d'un auditoire Withdrawn EP2210354A2 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US97149207P 2007-09-11 2007-09-11
US8794908P 2008-08-11 2008-08-11
PCT/IL2008/001218 WO2009034576A2 (fr) 2007-09-11 2008-09-11 Détecteur de presence et procédé d'estimation d'un auditoire

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EP2210354A2 true EP2210354A2 (fr) 2010-07-28

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EP08789878A Withdrawn EP2210354A2 (fr) 2007-09-11 2008-09-11 Détecteur de presence et procédé d'estimation d'un auditoire

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WO (1) WO2009034576A2 (fr)

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CN110333285B (zh) * 2019-07-04 2021-07-27 大连海洋大学 基于变分模态分解的超声兰姆波缺陷信号识别方法
CN111586334B (zh) * 2020-04-29 2022-02-08 从法信息科技有限公司 一种远程会见方法、装置、系统、电子设备和存储介质
CN113049684B (zh) * 2021-03-23 2023-07-28 大连海洋大学 基于变分模态分解的超声兰姆波缺陷信号识别方法

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US20040226043A1 (en) * 2003-05-07 2004-11-11 Autodesk, Inc. Location enabled television
WO2006060889A1 (fr) * 2004-12-09 2006-06-15 Cmetrics Media Inc. Procede et systeme permettant d'evaluer l'ensemble de spectateurs d'un média
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US20070126884A1 (en) * 2005-12-05 2007-06-07 Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd. Personal settings, parental control, and energy saving control of television with digital video camera

Also Published As

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WO2009034576A3 (fr) 2009-05-22
WO2009034576A2 (fr) 2009-03-19

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