JP2000307530A - Wearable audience rate meter system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To build up a system with immediacy that can automatically and surely survey an indivisual audience rate at any place without revamping a receiver of an object to be viewed and imposing no load onto a broadcast enterprise. SOLUTION: The system consists of a wearable program rating meter 200 having a function that uses a survey object receiver 100 and a built-in subminiature microphone to collect a music tone of a view program of a survey object person, to extract a characteristic parameter of the music tone, and to transfer a transmission packet multiplexing view program music tone data or the like consisting of the characteristic parameter and that is wearable by the survey object person at all times, of a PHS telephone network public radio base station 300 having a function of adding a base section identification code to a transmission packet, a program rating collection center 500 that takes correlation between view program music tone data and reference program music tone data to have a function of specifying the view program and a telephone network 400 that interconnects the public radio base station 300 and the audience rate collection center 500.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system for individually examining the program orientation of a plurality of viewers such as radio and television broadcasts. , The identification code of the surveyee is transferred to a large computer via a mobile communication network (PHS or mobile phone network, etc.) to identify the program being watched by the surveyee and use the broadcast service The present invention relates to a wearable audience rating meter system capable of recording the same. In particular, a technique for identifying a program by using a frequency spectrum and a temporal variation of its amplitude level as characteristic parameters representing the characteristics of musical sounds is used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Audience rating information is collected for advertisers to understand the cost of channel time purchased for advertising their products and for broadcasters to use the channel time value. Have been. Initially, there are few channels, and only one household radio receiver and television receiver
Although it was enough to measure the household audience rating because it was a unit, it was gradually personalized and one radio,
With the start of owning televisions, personal ratings have become an issue. In the era of digital media, transmission media has diversified into satellite waves, terrestrial waves, cables, and the Internet, but with the advancement of information compression technology, multiple programs have been multiplexed into a single wave. It is predicted that the number of channels that can be received in Japan will reach 400 channels. As a result, the adoption of portable receivers and multi-channel receivers has given viewers a variety of viewing modes, and the number of viewing locations has expanded to various places, not just at home. The development of methods has been required. Conventionally, several methods have been adopted for collecting audience ratings. One of the methods, which is still used for collecting the listening rate of a radio receiver, is a method in which a viewer keeps a journal. In this case, the respondent must enter the program he / she has watched in the journal. The diary method has the following problems. 1) Respondents sometimes forget to enter the program selection. 2) It is necessary for the rating rating company to go directly to collection, analyze the entry data, and extract rating information. 3) Sometimes, the audience rating information is desired on the day following the broadcast of the program, but it takes too much time to distribute and collect it. Another method is a method in which an audience rating meter is physically directly connected to a receiver for measuring the audience rating. It is currently used to collect household ratings for television receivers. In this system, a weak radio wave of a channel being received by a viewing receiver is detected and matched with the channel of an audience rating meter to automatically specify a channel, and to specify a program from a reception time and a program table. In order to detect weak radio waves, it is necessary to attach the audience rating meter closely to the receiver, and it is necessary to modify the receiver. Using this method, a switch is assigned to an individual audience member at home in a normal audience rating meter to measure the individual audience rating. Pressing this switch sends the respondent's identification code to the audience rating meter. The audience rating meter not only provides channel information received by the viewing receiver, but also provides information regarding the composition of the viewer. With this audience rating meter, a program cannot be specified in a digital satellite broadcast in which a plurality of programs are multiplexed in one channel. Although not put to practical use, a method has been proposed that can automatically determine the program being viewed. This is a method in which an identification code is embedded in a video signal or an audio signal of a program and broadcasted. This method can be generally used in digital broadcasting, but it places a burden on broadcasters in the current situation where analog broadcasting and digital broadcasting are mixed. There is a demand for an instantaneous system construction that can automatically and automatically perform a personal audience rating survey at any location without any modification to the broadcast receiver to be viewed and without burdening the broadcaster.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a broadcast receiver to be investigated, a wearable audience rating meter, a public wireless base station in a mobile communication network, a telephone network, and an audience rating aggregation center. A wearable audience rating meter system comprising: collecting a musical tone of a program viewed by a surveyee with a built-in microminiature microphone; extracting characteristic parameters of the musical tone; A wearable audience rating meter that has the function of transmitting a transmission packet multiplexing a set of musical sound data, listening time, the identification code of the subject, and the transfer time, and that the subject can always wear. And a public wireless base station of a mobile communication network having a function of adding a base station identification code to the transmission packet, and a transmission packet from the public wireless base station via the telephone network. And a function of receiving a program including a viewing program (hereinafter, referred to as a reference program), and extracting characteristic parameters of musical tones of the reference program. And the function of creating a multiplexed reference program packet with a set of a program name and a broadcast time, a listening time and a base station identification code separated from the transmission packet, and sequentially selecting the reference program packet. A wearable audience rating meter system comprising a rating aggregation center having a function of identifying a program by performing a correlation between the included feature parameter and the feature parameter included in the transmission packet, and performing the correlation operation. is there. This system does not make any modifications to the receivers to be watched and does not impose any burden on the broadcaster, and it is also necessary to ensure that the personal viewing rate survey can be performed automatically and automatically at any location. To satisfy. In other words, having a wearable audience rating meter means that the viewer has something equivalent to an “artificial ear”. As long as the concept is "ear", it is always worn by the viewer without any discomfort. And, at any time, the broadcast content that the viewer listened to with "artificial ear"
The broadcast content will be sent to the "brain" large computer from anywhere via the network, and the large computer will identify the program to be listened to. This “artificial ear” is the concept of a wearable audience rating meter. Radio and television media both convey the content of the broadcast to the audience through musical sounds. According to this concept, it can be said that the wearable audience rating meter is optimal for measuring the personal audience rating of radio and television. The functions required of the wearable audience meter are a function to collect music, a function to compress music,
It only needs to have a function to connect to the network, so it has the feature that it can be made smaller and lighter so that it can always be carried without trouble. But here's the challenge of "privacy protection." It is possible to know the place where the user is watching TV or radio, and to send the conversation around the broadcast receiver to the center through the network together with the program being viewed, in some cases touching the privacy of the viewer. It is necessary that the tone data transmitted from the wearable rating meter to the rating counting center should not be reproduced in the original tone. In order to solve this problem, a system for transmitting only characteristic parameters of musical sounds has been constructed.

[0004]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wearable audience rating meter system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a wearable audience rating meter system includes a broadcast receiver 100 to be investigated such as a television receiver, a wearable audience rating meter 200, and a PH.
Public wireless base station 300, telephone network 40 in S telephone network
0, a rating rating center 500. A method for obtaining the individual audience rating will be described with reference to FIG.

The operation of this system will be described with reference to FIG. The wearable audience rating meter 200 is ultra-small enough to be worn by a plurality of subjects without always suffering, and has a built-in ultra-small micro horn (hereinafter, referred to as “microphone”).
The sound of the program being listened to by each of the surveyees is collected from the microphone, and the characteristic parameters of the listening sound are extracted. A transmission packet obtained by multiplexing one set of identification codes of the individual is transmitted to the public wireless base station 300 of the PHS telephone network. The public wireless base station 300 further adds location information and sends it to the audience rating collection center 500 via the telephone network 400. At the audience rating counting center 500, based on the listening time and the location information of the listening area obtained by demultiplexing the transmission packet, the programs of all the broadcasting stations that can be received at the listening time in the listening area (hereinafter referred to as reference programs). ) Is received, and characteristic parameters of musical tones of the reference program are extracted. The correlation value is determined by comparing the listening tone data composed of the characteristic parameters of the listening tone with the tone data of the reference program composed of the characteristic parameters of the tone of the reference program. Correlation value is 5
A listening program is determined based on the tone data of the reference program that is 0% or more. Then, an individual viewing rate is obtained from the identification code of the survey target and the program being listened to. It will be clear where in the country the respondents listened to the program. It will be clear not only the time zone but also the place where the advertisement will be displayed, and it will be possible to pay close attention to the program and advertise it.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a wearable audience rating meter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
1 is an example of a wearable audience rating meter 200 implemented by mounting an audience rating function function on a wearable computer. In FIG. 2, a micro microphone 211, an audio amplifier 212, a gate circuit 213, an analog / digital converter 2
14 (hereinafter abbreviated as ADC), digital signal processor 21
5 (hereinafter abbreviated as DSP), a buffer memory 216, and a first bus interface 217, which are parts that require high-speed processing, are realized by hardware, constitute an audience card 210, and include peripheral devices on a wearable computer. Connected to bus 221. Peripheral bus 221, bridge 22
3, main bus 224, memory 225, program memory 2
26, a clock circuit 227, and a processor 228 form a part of a wearable computer. The second bus interface 231 and the PHS transmission / reception system 232 constitute a PHS communication card 230 and are connected to the peripheral bus 221 on the wearable computer. RAM disk 240
Includes an operating system (hereinafter abbreviated as OS), application software, and a rating rating center 5
Data such as the identification code of the surveyee sent from 00 is recorded. An OS read into the memory from the RAM disk 240 via the peripheral bus 221 operates on a processor (hereinafter abbreviated as MPU), and the OS
Application software that converts the tone data consisting of the characteristic parameters of the tone, the listening time data, the identification code of the surveyee into a signal format suitable for transmission, and the time management for opening and closing the gate of the tone collection. Hereinafter, referred to as viewing software). The display LSI 251 and the liquid crystal display 252 constitute a display device. It displays character information provided through the PHS telephone network and displays a clock. The audio amplifier 212 has a band filter function and an automatic gain control function (hereinafter abbreviated as AGC). The AGC is used to expand the dynamic range of an input signal and suppress nearby conversation and noise other than listening tones. The tone signal is limited to a band of 100Hz to 15kHz by the bandpass filter function of the audio amplifier, and indoor noise is reduced.

[0007] The operation of the wearable audience rating meter will be described. A battery (not shown) is inserted into wearable computer 200, a self test is performed, a master boot record is read from RAM disk 240, and then an OS
The loader is loaded into the memory, the hardware information is checked, the OS kernel is loaded into the memory 225, the OS is activated, and the rating software is activated on the activated OS. M
The PU 228 accesses the gate circuit 213. MPU
228, a gate is opened for a predetermined period of time, for example, every 15 minutes, for example, 4 seconds, and a tone signal collected from the micro microphone 211 through the audio amplifier 212 is converted into an ADC.
Input to 214. The ADC 214 converts the tone signal into a digital format and creates tone data. ADC
The sampling frequency of 214 is
30Hz because it is 100Hz-15kHz (according to the sampling theorem,
It can be arbitrarily selected as long as it is at least twice the highest frequency of the frequency band), and an 8-bit resolution is used to faithfully reproduce the tone signal. The tone data is loaded into the DSP 215. The DSP 215 performs frequency spectrum processing of the musical tone data, and stores the characteristic parameter matrix pattern in the buffer memory 216. On the other hand, the MPU 228 stores the time when the gate is opened as the listening time in the program memory 226 in the memory 225. The MPU 228 transmits the encoded data of the characteristic parameter matrix pattern stored in the buffer memory 216 until the next gate is opened, through the first bus interface 217 and the
3 to the program memory 226. Then, the identification code of the subject is written from the RAM disk 240 into the program memory 226. The identification code of the subject, the listening time, the transfer start time, the error correction code, etc. are attached to the header of the encoded data of the characteristic parameter matrix pattern, converted to a signal format suitable for transmission, and the transmitted packet data is converted. create. The transmission packet data is sent to the PHS transmission / reception system 232 via the second bus interface and sent to the public wireless base station 300. Here, the identification code of base station 300 is attached to the header and sent to audience rating totaling center 500. As a response, the wearable computer 2 from the audience rating counting center 500
00 time data transmitted to the PHS transmission / reception system,
MPU2 for the identification code and other character information of the surveyee
28 is stored in the RAM disk 240. MPU228
Calibrates the clock circuit 227 based on the transmitted time data of the audience rating totaling center 500 to accurately match the time of the audience rating totalizing center 500.

Next, the frequency spectrum processing function of the DSP 215 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the function of the digital signal processor of the wearable audience rating meter according to the second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows an example of a characteristic parameter matrix pattern representing characteristics of musical sound data recorded in the buffer memory of the wearable audience rating meter according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The function shown in FIG. 3 is DS
It can be obtained by P program processing. In FIG. 3, tone data is input from the ADC 214 to the DSP 215. To characterize the frequency spectrum and amplitude level distribution of vocal music, Western music, Japanese music, and reading included in music data, the frequency band of the music signal is decomposed into eight frequency spectra by eight digital filters having different pass bands. It is desirable. Also, since one phrase in the flow of music is about 4 seconds, it is desirable to set the musical sound collection time to the same time or longer.

In FIG. 3, for ease of explanation,
Voice, harp and drum sounds are characterized by the low-frequency range, Western music is the high frequency range, Japanese music is the middle frequency range, and the sound is characterized by the amplitude level distribution of the frequency spectrum of 1000 Hz. 100, 20 respectively
0, 400, 1000, 1600, 3200, 640
Select 0, 12800 Hz. When tone data is input to the band digital filter 601, eight frequency spectra A (i) (i = 1, 2,...) Corresponding to eight frequencies are provided.
8) is output and input to the squaring circuit 602. The squaring circuit 602 squares A (i) to obtain a power spectrum A (i) ²
Is output. Since the time change of the power spectrum is slow, it is filtered by a low-pass filter 603 that passes a frequency of 15 Hz or less in order to extract the time change. The output of the low-pass filter 603 is input to the sampling circuit 604. 25ms output change over time
(1/160 of 4 seconds) and sampled and stored in the buffer memory 216 as a feature parameter matrix pattern shown in FIG.

Next, the role of the audience rating counting center will be described. FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining the function of the audience rating counting center. In FIG. 5, the peripheral bus 55
1, bridge 552, main bus 553, memory 554, M
The PU 555, the clock circuit 556, the third bus interface 557, and the program memory 558 constitute a part of a large computer. Receiver 511, ADC 512, first
Buffer memory 513, first bus interface 51
Reference numeral 4 denotes a receiving block for receiving a broadcast wave, digitizing a received musical tone signal and storing it as musical tone data, and connected to a peripheral bus 551 on a large-sized computer. DSP
The reference numeral 521, the second buffer memory 522, and the second bus interface 523 constitute a feature parameter extraction block for extracting feature parameters of musical sound data, and are connected to a peripheral bus 551 on a large-sized computer. Multiple modems 53
1. The communication control device 532 receives a transmission packet transmitted from the wearable audience rating meter, configures a communication block for transmitting and receiving information to and from the wearable audience rating meter 200, and is connected to the peripheral bus 551 on the large computer. A program table disk 542 serving as a database of a broadcast program table, a program disk 543 for storing received musical tone data serving as a reference, and a rating program table disk 544 for storing calculation results of personal audience rating data constitute a recording device block. And a third on peripheral bus 551 on the large computer.
It is connected via a bus interface 557.

Next, the operation will be described. Broadcast wave is receiver 5
11 and outputs a tone signal. The tone signal is converted into digital data by the ADC 512 and stored in the first buffer memory 513. The MPU extracts the tone data stored in the first buffer memory 513 through the first interface 514 based on the program guide of the program guide disk, attaches the program name and the broadcast time to the header, and stores the header in the program disk 543. On the other hand, the transmission packet transferred from the wearable audience rating meter 200 is
1. The program is stored in the program memory 558 in the memory 554 via the communication control device 532. The MPU 555 selects a receivable program in the listening area from the programs stored in the program disk 543 based on the listening time separated from the header of the transmission packet and the area identification code, and focuses on the listening time. The tone data of 5 seconds before and after (preferably at least twice the gate time when using the sliding correlation method) is extracted, and the method as described above is used.
The frequency spectrum processing of the musical sound data is performed using the DSP 521. Also, the MPU 521 recognizes the difference between the transfer start time obtained by separating the header and the time of the clock circuit 556 of the audience rating center 500, and calculates a correction coefficient for correcting the time scale of the received musical sound data. While correcting the difference between the time of the wearable audience rating meter 200 and the reception time of the broadcast station to be investigated with the correction coefficient, the correlation value of the element (i, j) pair of the two characteristic parameter matrix patterns for four seconds is calculated. If the strength of the correlation is 50% or more, the program is identified as a viewing program. If it cannot be identified, it is compared with another program. By repeating this, the personal viewing ratio of the program is totaled. In this way, the audience rating counting center 500
And the clock of the wearable audience rating meter 200 are synchronized to synchronize the characteristic parameters of the listening musical tone with the characteristic parameters of the musical tone received by the audience rating totaling center 500 to prevent errors in correlation values. However, there is a transmission time difference between the listening tone and the received tone at the center 500.
For example, assuming that the distance between the receiver 100 under investigation and the microphone of the wearable audience rating meter 200 is 1 m in FIG. 1, the transmission time of the musical sound is 2.9 ms, and the transmission time difference is 2.9 ms. Since the synchronization of the feature parameters may not be accurate, adjust the mutual time axis of the feature parameters of the listening music and the feature parameters of the music received at the audience rating collection center, 5 seconds before and after the listening time described above. The sliding correlation method for finding the maximum correlation value between the two is also used in the musical tone data. In the embodiment, the audience rating information is transmitted using the PHS telephone network, but the present invention can be implemented using a mobile telephone network.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the personal viewing rate can be automatically and reliably determined at any place without any modification to the receiver to be viewed and without burdening the broadcaster. Immediate system construction that enables investigation is possible.
In other words, by designing the listening rate meter to be wearable, the personal listening program is automatically set based on the music data and listening time, the identification code of the survey target, and the listening area from all broadcasting receivers from personal to stationary. Can be identified, so that the program preference of the surveyee can be accurately grasped. Also, the sound data, listening time, identification code of the subject, and the listening area are automatically sent in digital data form from the wearable listening rate meter to the listening rate collection center via the PHS telephone network, and the listening rate is calculated. Therefore, the individual listening rate can be grasped in a short time. Even if the voice of the surveyee is input to the audience rating meter, the voice of the surveyee cannot be reproduced from the voice data because the voice is decomposed into a frequency spectrum. Therefore, the privacy of the respondents is completely protected. In addition, the audience rating meter functions as a computer because it is developed as application software of a wearable computer. Therefore, it is possible to provide information that the user always wants to carry, such as programs and shopping information that can be heard in the area from the center, through the PHS telephone network. According to the present invention, a wearable audience rating meter system having the above-described features can be constructed, and personal audience ratings can be efficiently collected in various viewing modes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wearable audience rating meter system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a wearable audience rating meter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining a function of a digital signal processor of a wearable audience rating meter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a characteristic parameter matrix pattern representing characteristics of musical sound data recorded in a buffer memory of a wearable audience rating meter according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining a function of an audience rating totaling center according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 100 broadcast receiver 200 wearable audience rating meter 211 microphone 212 audio amplifier 213 gate circuit 214 analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 215 digital signal processing (DSP) 216 buffer memory 217 first bus interface 221 peripheral bus 223 blitch 224 main bus 225 memory 226 program memory 227 clock circuit 228 processor (MPU) 231 second interface 232 PHS transmission / reception system 240 RAM disk 300 PHS public wireless base station 400 telephone network 500 audience rating center 511 receiver 512 analog-to-digital converter 513 first Buffer memory 514 First bus interface 521 Digital signal processor 522 First buffer memory 523 Second bus-in Interface 531 modem 532 communication control unit 542 program table disk 543 program disk 544 audience disk 551 peripheral bus 552 blitch 553 main bus 554 memory 555 processor 556 clock circuit 557 third bus interface 558 program memory 601 band digital filter 602 2 Multiplying circuit 603 Low-pass digital filter 604 Sampling circuit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A wearable audience rating meter system comprising a broadcast receiver to be investigated, a wearable audience rating meter, a public wireless base station in a mobile communication network, a telephone network, and an audience rating aggregation center. The sound of the program viewed by the surveyee is collected by a micro microphone, and the characteristic parameters of the sound are extracted. It has a function of transferring a transmission packet obtained by multiplexing one set of the transmission time and a function of adding a wearable audience rating meter and a base station identification code which can be always worn by a surveyee to the transmission packet. A public wireless base station of a mobile communication network having a function of receiving a transmission packet from the public wireless base station via the telephone network; A function of receiving all broadcast programs (hereinafter referred to as a reference program) and a characteristic parameter of a tone of the reference program are extracted, and a broadcasting area, a program name, a broadcast time, and The reference program packet is sequentially selected according to the function of creating a reference program packet obtained by multiplexing one set of the above, the listening time and the base station identification code separated from the transmission packet, and the characteristic parameter and the transmission packet included in the packet are selected. A wearable audience rating meter system comprising a rating aggregation center having a function of identifying a program by correlating with a feature parameter included in the program. 2. A wearable audience rating meter includes a microphone for collecting musical tones of a viewed program, an audio amplifier for amplifying a musical tone signal output from the microphone and suppressing noise, and a digital audio signal for outputting a musical tone signal output from the audio amplifier. An analog-to-digital converter that outputs a tone data, a gate circuit that opens a gate for a certain time at a certain time interval to pass the tone data, a digital signal processor that performs a frequency spectrum process on the tone data, and a frequency spectrum processed A buffer memory for temporarily storing and outputting the to-be-viewed program musical sound data, a bus for transferring data and control signals, and a program memory for inputting and storing the output of the buffer memory via the bus, and the program memory stored in the program memory. Watching program music day, listening time, survey subject's identification code and transfer time And a processor having a function of producing and transmitting a multiplexed transmission packet as a set and a function of controlling the gate circuit, and outputting the transmission packet transferred via the bus by the processor to a mobile communication network. 2. The wearable audience rating meter system according to claim 1, wherein the wearable audience rating meter system comprises a mobile communication network transmitting / receiving system. 3. The audience rating collection center receives the reference program, demodulates and outputs a tone signal, a digital format of the tone signal, and an analog-to-digital converter for outputting tone data. A first buffer memory for storing and outputting data; a bus for transferring data and control signals; and a digital signal for performing frequency spectrum processing on the tone data transferred from the buffer memory via the bus to produce the reference program tone data. A signal processor, a second buffer memory for temporarily storing the reference program tone data, a modem for demodulating transmission packets transferred from the telephone network, a communication control device for controlling the output of the modem, and storing a program table of the broadcast wave The program guide disk, the reference program tone data transferred from the second buffer memory and the program guide disk. Program name taken out and the broadcast time 1
A function of multiplexing a set of multiplexed reference program packets with a program disc, a function of multiplexing the set, and a function of selecting a reference program packet from the program disc based on a listening time and an area identification code separated from the transmission packet. A processor having a function of calculating a correlation between the transmission packet and musical sound data included in a reference program packet and specifying a viewing program when the correlation value is equal to or greater than a predetermined correlation value. Item 2. A wearable audience rating meter system according to item 1.