US 12,217,527 B2
Methods and apparatus to determine an audience composition based on voice recognition, thermal imaging, and facial recognition
John T. LiVoti, Clearwater, FL (US); and Stanley Wellington Woodruff, Palm Harbor, FL (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 Aug. 1, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/363,378.
Application 18/363,378 is a continuation of application No. 16/998,814, filed on Aug. 20, 2020, granted, now 11,763,591.
Prior Publication US 2023/0410547 A1, Dec. 21, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06V 40/10 (2022.01); G06V 10/75 (2022.01); G10L 25/51 (2013.01); G10L 25/78 (2013.01); H04N 21/442 (2011.01)
CPC G06V 40/10 (2022.01) [G06V 10/751 (2022.01); G10L 25/51 (2013.01); G10L 25/78 (2013.01); H04N 21/44218 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. An apparatus comprising:
an audio sensor to generate audio monitoring data during presentation of media presented by a media presentation device in a media environment;
a thermal image sensor to generate thermal image data captured in the media environment;
a light image sensor to generate audience image data of a selected field of view of the media environment; and
at least one processor to execute computer readable instructions to perform a set of operations including:
based on the generated thermal image data, determining a thermal-indicated audience count that corresponds to a number of heat blobs within the generated thermal image data;
comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with a previously obtained audience count for the media environment;
determining, based on comparing the thermal-indicated audience count with the previously obtained audience count, that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count;
based on the generated thermal image data, determining a position, within the generated thermal image data, that corresponds to an audience member;
defining the selected field of view of the media environment based on the determined position;
responsive to determining that the thermal-indicated audience count differs from the previously obtained audience count, controlling the light image sensor to generate the audience image data of the selected field of view; and
identifying an audience member based on a comparison of a frame of the audience image data with a library of reference audience images.