System for monitoring and reporting viewing of television programming
US6124877A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 8, 1997 |
| Grant date | Sep 26, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 8, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04N7/165
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system for monitoring and reporting the viewing of television programs on a television receiver includes an RF probe which is positioned on the exterior of the receiver housing in close proximity to the intermediate frequency amplifier of the receiver to pick up the intermediate frequency signal therein. A demodulator circuit derives a composite video signal from the intermediate frequency signal. A closed captioning chip and decoder derive channel and/or program information from line 21 of the composite signal, which information is periodically stored in a memory with associated time, date and viewer ID information. The stored viewing information is periodically transmitted by modem to a central monitoring location for analysis. In an alternative embodiment the viewing information is transferred to a removable memory card which is mailed to the central monitoring location.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.