US 12,088,876 B2
Methods and apparatus to determine synthetic respondent level data using constrained Markov chains
Michael Sheppard, Holland, MI (US); Jonathan Sullivan, Hurricane, UT (US); Michael D. Morgan, Bartlett, IL (US); Balachander Shankar, Tampa, FL (US); Edward Murphy, North Stonington, CT (US); and Frank Downing, Orchard Park, NY (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 Jun. 11, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/332,737.
Application 18/332,737 is a continuation of application No. 17/465,567, filed on Sep. 2, 2021, granted, now 11,716,509.
Application 17/465,567 is a continuation of application No. 16/526,747, filed on Jul. 30, 2019, granted, now 11,115,710, issued on Sep. 7, 2021.
Application 16/526,747 is a continuation of application No. 15/635,153, filed on Jun. 27, 2017, granted, now 10,382,818, issued on Aug. 13, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0379537 A1, Nov. 23, 2023
Int. Cl. H04N 21/40 (2011.01); H04H 60/31 (2008.01); H04N 21/258 (2011.01); H04N 21/262 (2011.01); H04N 21/442 (2011.01); H04N 21/458 (2011.01); H04N 21/81 (2011.01); H04N 21/845 (2011.01)
CPC H04N 21/44213 (2013.01) [H04H 60/31 (2013.01); H04N 21/25883 (2013.01); H04N 21/262 (2013.01); H04N 21/458 (2013.01); H04N 21/812 (2013.01); H04N 21/8456 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computing system comprising a processor and a memory, the computing system configured to perform a set of acts comprising:
obtaining as a seed panel a subset of an audience measurement panel for which viewing behavior and demographics are known;
obtaining, using viewing behavior for the seed panel, a transition matrix, wherein the transition matrix is representative of channel-switching probabilities for each of multiple channels during respective sub-durations of a duration of time;
generating synthetic respondent level data by assigning viewing to each of multiple synthetic panelists for the duration of time using a respective initial channel and respective channel-switching probabilities of the transition matrix;
obtaining viewing constraints for the duration of time;
determining, using the viewing constraints, weights for the synthetic panelists that satisfy the viewing constraints; and
generating an output file using the weights for the synthetic panelists.