US 11,941,646 B2
Methods and apparatus to estimate population reach from marginals
Michael Sheppard, Holland, MI (US); DongBo Cui, New York, NY (US); David Forteguerre, Brooklyn, NY (US); Jessica Lynn White, Plant City, FL (US); and Edward Murphy, North Stonington, CT (US)
Assigned to The Nielsen Company (US), LLC, New York, NY (US)
Filed by The Nielsen Company (US), LLC, New York, NY (US)
Filed on Sep. 10, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/472,215.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/077,418, filed on Sep. 11, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0084052 A1, Mar. 17, 2022
Int. Cl. G06Q 30/02 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0201 (2023.01); G06Q 30/0204 (2023.01); H04N 21/258 (2011.01)
CPC G06Q 30/0201 (2013.01) [G06Q 30/0205 (2013.01); H04N 21/25883 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An audience measurement system comprising:
a plurality of meters configured to monitor operation of first media devices in households; and
a computing system comprising a processor and a memory, the computing system configured to:
receive, via the Internet, media presentation data associated with operation of the first media devices monitored by the plurality of meters;
receive, from a service provider via the Internet, return path data associated with operation of second media devices;
determine an audience relationship value based on first audience exposure values for a recorded audience of a media and a first de-duplicated audience value for the recorded audience of the media, the first audience exposure values and the first de-duplicated audience value based on the media presentation data;
determine a first intermediate range based on (i) a largest second audience exposure value of a plurality of second audience exposure values for a population audience of the media, (ii) a sum of the second audience exposure values, and (iii) the audience relationship value, the second audience exposure values based on the return path data;
determine a second intermediate range based on the largest second audience exposure value and the sum of the second audience exposure values;
determine bounds of a pseudo universe estimate of the population audience of the media based on a set intersection of the first intermediate range and the second intermediate range;
iteratively determine the pseudo universe estimate of the population audience and a second de-duplicated audience value for the population audience of the media by iteratively updating an initial pseudo universe estimate based on the audience relationship value and the second audience exposure values to converge to a final pseudo universe estimate of the population audience that is within the bounds; and
output the second de-duplicated audience value and the audience relationship value to an application that is to perform an operation based on at least one of the second de-duplicated audience value or the audience relationship value.