ITMI20120061A1 - AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION SYSTEM OF THE NUMBER OF THE SPECTATORS PRESENT IN FRONT OF THE TV AND FORWARD A SERVER FOR THE PROCESSING OF ACQUIRED DATA. - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL INVENTION TITLE:

"AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION SYSTEM OF THE NUMBER OF SPECTATORS

PRESENT IN FRONT OF THE TV AND FORWARDING TO A SERVER FOR

PROCESSING OF ACQUIRED DATA "

The present invention relates to the field of counting television viewers while they are viewing a video content whether it is recorded, sent over the air or IP which, unlike current systems (see Auditel meters and similar), require manual intervention to report the number of spectators.

The proposed invention automatically recognizes the number of spectators and, integrating it with other data such as the channel on which the decoder has been tuned, drilling it and the identification code of the acquisition system, sends them via the internet to a server for acquisition and processing. in order to archive them in a database, for consultation, even in real time. The processing of the data in the database allows on a timely and / or statistical basis to know the number of spectators and their behavior during viewing. An understanding of the invention will be obtained with the following description and with reference to the attached Table 1, which illustrates, by way of example only and not limiting, a preferred embodiment of the invention and of a practice thereof.

The innovation that forms the object of the present invention consists of a system consisting of a processing unit connected to appropriate interfaces which have the task of:

1. Acquire the on / off time of the decoder whether it is SAT, DTT, OTT or IP.

2. Acquire the identification of the displayed channel and / or the identification of the video content being viewed, even coming from a digital storage system of the decoder.

3. Acquire the number of spectators in front of the TV / monitor.

4. Connect to the internet and send the acquired data.

In relation to points 1,2 and 4, they can be made with any known technique, both in terms of hardware and software and / or firmware.

The invention continuously monitors the status of the previous points 1, 2 and 3 and, at each variation, it connects to the server, via the internet, sending updated data.

CURRENT SITUATION.

Part of the content of Table 1 summarizes a typical environment for the use of video content, where there is a television or monitor (Table1-4) connected (Table1-5) to the decoder (Table1-3) whether it is satellite (Table1-6), digital terrestrial (Table 1-7) or IP (Table 1--15) and, therefore, connected to the router and / or modem (Table 1-9) ADSL / DSL and / or similar (Table 1--12) in turn connected to the internet ( Table 1-13) or directly connected to the internet (Table 1-15) and obviously the spectators (Table 1-8). INNOVATED SITUATION WITH THE FOUND.

The innovation that forms the object of the invention consists in a system that is added to what is indicated in the previous paragraph "CURRENT SITUATION" and consists of an acquisition and processing system, (Table1-1) equipped with interfaces for connection with the decoder (Table1-14), with the ADSL / DSL router and / or modem (Table1-12) via Ethernet and / or Wi-Fi (Tables-10 and 11) and with the 3D acquisition device (Table 1-2).

All the elements mentioned, with the exception of the 3D acquisition system, (Table 1-2), are of very common use and can be found in any consumer electronics store. Also to date, two commercial three-dimensional acquisition devices are available in more specialized stores and in particular the Kinect by Microsoft and the Xtion by Asus. Both devices use a component of the company PrimeSense for 3D acquisition. Basically, these devices acquire the volumes present in front of their lens at low resolution and return a three-dimensional representation of the acquired environment.

And it is precisely this functionality that responds to the previous point 3, (acquire the number of spectators present in front of the television / monitor) and that is the characterizing element of the invention.

Appropriate software development kits, provided by the respective manufacturers, allow to process the acquired data and to recognize the peculiar characteristics of the human being from the shapes, and consequently, recognize the number of people.

WORKING PRINCIPLE OF THE FIND.

The acquisition and processing system (Table 1-1) is essentially a multi-process processing unit. Through a process associated with a communication module, said unit obtains from the 3D acquisition system (Table 1-2) the image of the environment and, with specific software, extracts the shapes that meet the typical characteristics of human beings (head, arms, trunk and legs) recognizing, according to their movement, if they are from behind or in front, if seated or standing or passing through the 3D acquisition area by updating a table containing the number of people. Another process associated with the reception of the data received from the decoder (Table 1-2) recognizes, from the received values, what is being displayed on the television or monitor and updates a table with the relative data.

Another process associated with the monitoring function of the two aforementioned tables continuously checks if their content undergoes changes and as soon as it recognizes that any data has changed, it generates a message consisting essentially of day, hour, minute, second, tenth of a second, identification of the displayed channel, number of people and the identification of the system and sends it in real time to the acquisition and processing center, via internet, (Table1-16) reachable through the Wi-Fi connection (Tavolal-1 1) or via cable Ethernet (Table 1-10) to the ADSL / DSL modem / router (Table 1--12) through the ADSL / DSL connection (Table 1--13).

The use of the system object of the present invention sees its first use for counting spectators. The system is also well suited for other uses, in consideration of the fact that it is able to recognize outlines and distances and, consequently, is able to recognize gestures and actions. Therefore, by way of non-exhaustive example, it can be used as a system to carry out surveys in real time, for example, right arm up indicates "yes", arm down indicates "no" and arm extended towards the TV could indicate "I don't know", as well as the movement of the hands; for example, the applause indicates positivity, while the hands clapped on the thighs, negativity; or thumbs down indicates negativity and thumbs up indicates positivity. The limit to the interpretation of gestures will be dictated only by the imagination of those who set up the system. Likewise, it can also be used to interact with the video content and / or interact with other viewers, both in the same room and with other viewers connected to the internet or with the production studio, whether it be television, theater or whatever.

LEGEND OF THE TABLE 1

1 acquisition and processing system

2 3D capture device

3 satellite, digital terrestrial and / or IP decoders

4 TV or monitor

5 connection between television or monitor and decoder

6 satellite antenna

7 digital terrestrial antenna

8 IP connection to the internet

9 spectators

10 connection with Ethernet cable

11 Wi-Fi connection

12 ADSL / DSL modem / router

13 ADSL / DSL connection

14 decoder and processing unit connection

15 direct connection between the decoder and the internet

16 internet

The present invention has been described in one of its preferred embodiments and applications, but it is understood that any technician skilled in the art will be able to make equivalent modifications and / or replacements, as well as further additions of interface devices of a known type, without however departing from the scope of protection. of this industrial right.

Claims (10)

CLAIMS OF THE INDUSTRIAL INVENTION WITH THE TITLE: "AUTOMATIC ACQUISITION SYSTEM OF THE NUMBER OF SPECTATORS PRESENT IN FRONT OF THE TV AND FORWARDING TO A SERVER FOR PROCESSING OF ACQUIRED DATA " 1) The use of a 3D acquisition system to know the number of viewers which, integrated with the identification data of the displayed video content taken from the decoder (be it satellite, digital terrestrial, digitally recorded or connected directly to the internet, can receive video content) to which the data of the day, hour, minute, second, tenth of a second and the system identifier are added, are sent in real time via the internet, or deferred by any other means, to a processing system for reconstruct the precise moment in which there was a switch on, a change in the number of spectators, a change in the channel or when the decoder was switched off. 2) The use of the invention to identify and recognize the gestures of the spectators and, when a gesture deemed valid by the 3D acquisition system is recognized, it is encoded and integrated with the identification data of the displayed video content taken from the decoder (be it satellite, digital terrestrial, digitally recorded or connected directly to the internet, capable of receiving video content) to which the data of day, hour, minute, second, tenth of a second and the system identifier are added, are sent via the internet to a system processing to reconstruct the precise moment in which the event occurred. 3) The use of the invention as per claim 1 and 2, which has integrated in a single container or more than one the elements indicated in Table 1 and by way of example only and not already limiting, an example of integration of the acquisition device is cited 3D (Table1 -2), of the acquisition and processing system (Table1-1), of the decoder (Table1-3) whether satellite (Table1-6), digital terrestrial (Table 1-7) or IP (Table1-15) and ADSL / DSL router and / or modem (Table 1-12) in a single container. 4) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2 and 3 to generate reports related to the video content; and only as an example and not already cited an example of a survey carried out in real time, using an arm to indicate "yes" by moving the arm up, or "no" by positioning the arm to the side, or "I don't know" by positioning the arm facing the TV or monitor. 5) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2, 3 and 4 to process and generate reports both in real time and deferred; and by way of example only and not already hititative, an example of presentation of the data processed in graphic and / or table form, which can be consulted via WEB browser, is cited. 6) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 to process and generate reports in real time; and by way of example only and not limiting, we cite an example of presentation of the data processed in graphic form to be superimposed with known techniques on the control monitors of the broadcasters in order to understand in real time the trend of the audience according to the video content transmitted. 7) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 to process and generate real-time reports on the number of viewers; and by way of example only and not limiting, we cite an example of presentation of the data of the number of spectators, divided by channel and processed in graphic form to be superimposed with known techniques on the control monitors of the broadcasters in order to understand the trend in real time of the audience according to the video content transmitted. 8) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to process and generate real-time reports on gestures; and by way of example only and not limiting, we cite an example of presentation of the data relating to the gestures, divided by channel and by type of gestures and processed in graphic form to be superimposed with known techniques on the control monitors of the broadcasters in order to understand in time real the progress of the gestures according to the video content transmitted. 9) The use of the invention referred to in claims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 to process and generate reports in real time on the gestures relating to surveys; and by way of example only and not limiting, we cite an example of presentation of data relating to survey data, divided by channel and by type of gestures and processed in graphic form to be superimposed with known techniques on the control monitors of the broadcasters in order to understand in real time the trend of gestures according to the survey request. 10) The use of the invention referred to in claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 to process and generate reports in real time on the gestures relating to surveys of even more spectators in the same place; and by way of example only and not limiting, we cite an example of presentation of data relating to survey data, divided by channel and by type of gestures and processed in graphic form to be superimposed with known techniques on the control monitors of the broadcasters in order to view survey results in real time.