MXPA06008054A - Portable audience measurement architectures and methods for portable audience measurement - Google Patents

Abstract

Portable audience measurement architectures and methods for portable audience measurement are disclosed. A disclosed system contains a plurality of portable measurement devices configured to collect audience measurement data from media devices, a plurality of data collection servers configured to collect audience measurement data from the plurality of portable measurement devices, and a central data processing server. A portable measurement device establishes a communication link with a data collection server in a peer-to-peer manner and transfers the collected audience measurement data to the data collection server. Because the portable measurement device is not dedicated to a particular local data collection server, the portable measurement device periodically or a periodically broadcasts a message attempting to find a date collection server with which to establish a communication link.

Description

PORTABLE AUDIENCE MEASUREMENT ARCHITECTURES AND METHOD FOR PORTABLE HEARING MEASUREMENT TECHNICAL FIELD The present description pertains to audience measurements and, more particularly, to portable audience measurement architectures and methods for portable audience measurement.

BACKGROUND Determining the size and demographics of viewers helps producers of television programs improve their television programming and determine the price charged for the advertisements that are broadcast during this programming. In addition, the reliable demographics of viewers allow advertisers to target audiences of a desired size and / or audiences that include members who have a set of desired, common characteristics (ie, income level, lifestyles, interests, etc) .

To collect these demographics, a company that measures audiences can list a number of viewers (ie, panelists) to cooperate in a hearing measurement study for a predetermined period of time. The habits of these enlisted viewers, as well as the demographic information about these listed viewers, are collected using automatic or manual collection methods. The information collected is subsequently used to generate a variety of informal statistics related to viewer audiences including, for example, audience sizes, audience demographics, audience preferences, the total number of hours watched by television at home and / or by region, etcetera.

The configurations of the audience measurement systems vary depending on the equipment used to receive, process and display the television signals in each home that is being monitored. For example, households that receive cable television signals and / or satellite television signals typically include a box on the equipment (STB) to receive television signals from a cable television and / or satellite provider. The television systems configured in this way are typically monitored using hardware, firmware and / or software to connect to the STB and extract or generate the information signals from them. This hardware, firmware and / or software can be adapted to perform a variety of monitoring tasks including, for example, detecting the status of the tuned channel of a tuning device placed in the STB, extracting the identification codes of the program nested in the television signals tuned by the STB, generating characteristic signals of the television signals tuned by the STB, ETC. The information of viewers and demographics collected can then be transmitted to a data collection facility for processing.

Traditional audience measurement systems have employed a client / server architecture with the client (i.e., a measurement device) and a server (i.e., a data collection unit for collecting data from a measurement device) in fixed physical locations. For example, in a typical system, the client is located in a room in a residence of the listed viewer and there is a need for multiple clients if additional rooms in the residence of the listed viewer have to be monitored. The server is typically located in an outside facility outside the residence of the listed viewer. Also, each client is assigned to a specific data collection server so that, even in the case of a portable client (ie, a measuring device), the data collected by the measuring device is always exported to the same server. data collection.

Typically, measuring devices (i.e., an audiometer) communicate with the media devices (i.e., the devices to be measured such as a TV, STB, etc.) to measure the use of the devices of the devices. the media. The measurement devices accumulate demographic and viewer data and typically use a proprietary data transfer protocol to communicate with the dedicated data collection unit. The owner's data transfer protocol is not extendable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an example of a portable audience measurement system.

Fig. 2 is a representative flow diagram of the example of machine-readable instructions for implementing the portable hand-held measuring device in the portable hearing measurement system.

FIG. 3 is a representative flowchart of the machine-readable instructions for implementing a data collection server in the exemplary portable hearing measurement system.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system that can execute the machine-readable instructions represented by the flowcharts of Fig. 2 to implement a portable audience measurement device of Fig. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary audience measurement architecture 100. The audience measurement architecture 100 comprises an observation area 102, members of the home 104, a media device 106, portable measurement devices 108a and 108b, data collection servers 110a, 110b and 110c, a communication protocol 112, a network connection 114, and a central server for data processing 116.

The media device 106 may be any device that is to be measured by means of the audience measurement architecture described herein. As mentioned above, the media device 106 may be a television and / or a sound system, but may also include an STB, a video game system or console, advertisements, and / or a personal computer.

The observation area 102, as shown in Fig. 1, is located within a house that may be occupied by one or more persons, referred to as members of a house 104 (ie, panelists). The observation area 102 includes the area in which the media devices (i.e., a television 106, an STB, a radio, etc.) are located which are monitored. In the case of viewing audience monitoring shown in Fig. 1, television 106 can be seen by one or more members of house 104 located in observation area 102. Although Fig. 1 shows observation area 102 Inside a house, because the measuring devices 108a and 108b are portable, other areas can also be monitored to see outside the house. For example, if the device to be monitored is a car sound system, (ie, a car stereo or a compact disc player (DC)), an observation area can be a car and the area around it. of the automobile. As another example, if the audience measurement system is collecting viewing audience statistics, the viewing areas can include the areas around the televisions outside the home (ie, in a restaurant, in a bar, etc.). ) as well as in the home observation area 102.

The portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are devices for collecting the hearing measurement information of the media devices 106. Preferably, the portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are designed to be used or otherwise loaded by the members of the house 104. The portable measuring devices 108a and 108b may be of well-known techniques for collecting the audience measurement information such as sound code capture techniques and / or sound signal capture techniques. The portable measuring devices 108a and 108b may also be configured to capture the program identification code information or collect measurement information from the audience using any other method known to one of ordinary skill in the art. The collected audience measurement information can be stored in any type of storage device 320 (Fig. 4) or main memory 310 (Fig. 4) or any other device for storing the information.

The portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are also configured to have wireless communication capabilities using an extensible information transport protocol 112 such as the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and may also have the capabilities to discover other portable measuring devices 108 and / or data collection servers 110a, 110b, and / or 110c that are within a predetermined distance of portable measuring devices 108a and 108b (i.e., a communication interval). Wireless communication can be implemented using any wireless protocol such as Bluetooth, 802.11b, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and so on.

The data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c can be any device configured to collect the measurement data of the hearing of any portable measuring device 108a or 108b of a plurality of portable measuring devices. The data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c are configured to communicate with any portable measuring device 108a or 108b of a plurality of portable measuring devices in a point-to-point manner using any wireless and / or standard communication protocol. The data collection servers 110a, 110b and 110c can be located anywhere (i.e., in an observation area 102, in a house, outside a house, in a restaurant, in a bar, outside, in a post of telephone, or in a cell phone tower, etc.) and are positioned to receive and store the measurement data of the audience of the portable measuring devices 108a and 108b. The data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c are typically fixed servers configured to communicate with the central data processing server 116 and a plurality of portable measuring devices (i.e., portable measuring devices 108a and 108b). The geographic location and communication interval of each data collection server 110a, 110b, and 110c can be known by the central data processing server 116 and the geographical location / proximity of the portable measuring device 108a and / or 108b is can determine by the reported location of the data collection server. For example, if the central data processing server 116 receives data from the data collection server 110a, it can be determined that the portable measurement device 108a has been in the geographical proximity or network of the data collection server 110a. When the portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are within the communication range of at least one of the data collection servers 110a, 110b and 110c, a communication link (i.e., a network connection) is established by means of the communication protocol 112 and portable measuring devices 108a and 1008b can transmit the audience measurement data to the data collection server 110a, 110b, and 110c. The data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c can process, store, and / or transmit the measurement data of the audience to the central data processing server 116 via the network connection 114. The collection servers of data 110a, 110b, and 110c can also be configured to detect portable measuring devices 108a and 108b and indicate the ability of the data collection servers to receive the measurement data of the audience.

The portable measuring devices 108a and 108b can detect the data collection servers 110 (i.e., the data collection servers 110a, 110b, 110c, and / or other data collection servers that are not shown in FIG. 2) and / or other portable measuring devices 108 by means of a transmitted inquiry message. The inquiry message can identify and / or publish the capabilities of portable measurement devices such as communication protocol 112, the ability to collect and / or receive measurement data from the audience, and / or the ability to transfer measurement data from the audience. Alternatively, the inquiry message may be a message testing a local network for data collection servers 110 and / or search to join a network. Although the portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are able to communicate with any data collection server 110a, 110b, or 110c, each portable measuring device 108a or 108b is associated with an observation area 102, a data collection server. 110a, 110b, or 110c in the home of members of house 104 or located elsewhere, and / or members of the house 104.

The communication protocol 112 can be any extensible data transport protocol such as XML and / or XML Web Services. In the illustrated example, communication protocol 112 is a non-proprietary protocol that allows devices such as data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c and portable measuring devices 108a and 108b to communicate with each other in a global or localized manner (that is, a point-to-point network). The communication protocol 112 can be implemented by means of a wireless network protocol such as Bluetooth, 208.11b and / or an infrared (IR) connection.

The network connection 114 can be implemented using any type of public or private network such as, but not limited to, the Internet, an intranet, a telephone network, a local area network (LAN), a cable network, and / or a wireless network point to point. The network connection 114 enables the data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c to communicate with each other, with the central data processing server 116 and / or with other devices that can be connected through the network connection 114. like a personal computer.

The central data processing server 116 is a device that collects the measurement data from the audience of the data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c by means of the network connection 114. The central data processing server 116 it can store and / or process the data received from the data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c. Typically, the central data processing server 116 processes the data received in reports that can be sold to interested parties.

A typical scenario in which a portable measuring device 108a or 108b is used may be similar to the following example. In this example, it is assumed that the observation area 102 is a room in a house, which includes a television 106, and the portable measuring device 108a is associated with the observation area 102. It is also assumed that the portable measuring device 108a is configured to collect the measurement data of the television audience 106.

The member of the house 104 watching television 106 places the portable measuring device 108a in the observation area 102. The portable measuring device 108a collects the signatures of the television programs and / or the advertisements that are shown on television 106 and / or codes transmitted with the television program and / or advertisements. Consequently, the member of the house 104 can move the portable measuring device 108a to a first place outside the observation area 102 as a second room in the house containing a data collection server 110a. If so, the portable measuring device 108a can detect the data collection server 110a and can determine that sufficient measurement data of the audience has been collected. If so, load the audience measurement data on the data collection server 110a. The data collection server 110a can communicate with the portable measuring device 108a when the portable measuring device 108 is present in the house (regardless of which room) and within the communication range of the data collection server 110a. This can be implemented through a wireless network in the house, which is well known to those with ordinary skill in the art. The data collection server 110a may be able to use a signal strength of the portable measuring device 108a to determine in which part of the house the portable measuring device 108a is located.

Accordingly, the member of the house 104 can charge the portable measuring device 108a back to the observation area 102. The portable measuring device 108a then collects additional hearing measurement data from the television 106. The member of the house 104 can charging the portable measuring device 108a to a second location outside the observation area 102, like a grocery store. If the second location (or a location between the first and second locations (ie, a telephone pole in the street or in a parking lot) contains a data collection server 110b, the portable measurement device 108a can detect the server of data collection 110b and uploading the audience measurement data to the data collection server 110b if a predetermined amount of audience measurement data has been collected.

Figs. 2 and 3 are flowcharts depicting machine-readable instructions that can be executed from a portable measuring device 108 to implement an example method of an audience measurement. Preferably, the illustrated processes 200 and 250 are in the mode of one or more software or firmware programs that are stored in one or more memories, (i.e., flash memory 312 and / or hard disk 320) and executed in one or more processors (i.e., processor 306) in a well-known manner. However, some or all of the blocks of processes 200 and 250 may be performed manually and / or by some other device. Although processes 200 and 250 are described with reference to the flow diagrams shown in Figs. 2 and 3, a person with ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that many other methods can be used to perform processes 200 and 250. For example, the order of many of the blocks can be altered, the operation of one or more blocks it can be changed, the blocks can be combined, and / or the blocks can be deleted.

In general, the process of example 200 begins when a portable measuring device 108 (i.e., the portable measuring devices 108a and / or 108b of Fig. 2 or other portable measuring devices that are not shown) collect measurement data. of the hearing from a medium device 106. Accordingly, the portable measurement device 108 attempts to detect a data collection server 110. If the portable measurement device 108 detects a data collection server 110 and a predetermined amount has been collected of measurement data of the audience, the measurement data of the hearing stored in the portable measurement device 108 are loaded to the data collection server 110. Otherwise, the portable measurement device 108 waits a predetermined period of time and then it attempts to detect a data collection server 110. In this way, the portable measurement device 108 is able to export the collected data to any of the data collection servers 110a, 110b, and 110c while the portable measuring device 108 is transported from one location to another.

More specifically, the process 200 of FIG. 2 begins when a portable measuring device 108a collects the measurement data of the audience (block 202). The portable measuring device 108a can collect data from any type of media device 106, such as a television, a radio, spectacular advertisements that broadcast an identifier and a map that correlates the user's position with a place for announcements, known as a spectacular announcement, and / or a personal computer. Examples of the audience measurement data to be collected may include, but are not limited to, signatures of a broadcast program (ie, radio and / or television programming and / or advertisements), identification codes within the broadcast program (ie, data of watermarks in radios and / or television broadcast and / or digital codes nested within the frames of a video of a program or advertisement), and / or information of tuned channels. The measurement data of the audience may also include surveys or invitation information in a system. The methods for collecting the audience measurement data are well known in the art and, thus, will not be described herein.

After the portable measuring device 108a has collected the measurement data from the audience, a member of the house 104 can charge the portable measuring device or the portable measuring device 108a can be moved to another location (ie, outside of the house, in a separate room, etc.), (block 204). In the example of Fig. 1, a data collection server 110a is located within the home of the audience member 104 associated with the portable measuring device 108a. Thus, when the portable measuring device 108 moves at a sufficient distance, it will move the communication interval of the server 110a. As a result of the portable measuring device 108a being outside the communication range of the data collection server 110a, the wireless communication link (i.e., a network connection using the communication protocol 112) between the data collection server 110a. data 110a and portable measuring device 108a is lost. Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, however, that there may not be a data collection server 110a located in the home or in the observation area 102.

Regardless of the location of the server 110a, when the portable measurement device 108a detects the loss of the communication link 112, it attempts to establish a wireless communication link (i.e., discover) with any data collection server 110a by means of a transmitted inquiry message (block 206). The data collection server 110a can be found through commonly known protocols and / or the network identity of the collection servers 110a (i.e., a domain name and / or an Internet protocol address) can be store in the portable measuring device 108a. The inquiry message is transmitted using a communication protocol 112 as described above. The inquiry message can be a message publishing the capabilities of the portable measuring device (i.e., a wireless communication protocol, collection of audience measurement data, skills for transferring measurement data, etc.) or a message seeking a network to join her.

If a data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c is in the communication range of the portable measuring device 108a and receives the inquiry message, the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c respond and a communication link is established wireless between the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c and the portable measuring device 108a (block 208). The portable measurement device 108a then transfers the collected audience measurement data to the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c (block 210) using the communication protocol 112. Then the control returns to the block, although it is not shown in Fig. 2, after the collected hearing measurement data is transferred to the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c (block 210), the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c can transfer the audience measurement data compiled to a central collection server 116 and explained later in connection with Fig. 3.

Returning to block 208, if a data collection server does not answer the inquiry message (block 208), portable measurement device 108a waits for a predetermined period of time (block 212). The predetermined time period can be dynamically adjusted, set by the user, or determined by the software. At the end of the predetermined time period (block 212), the control returns to block 206 and portable measuring device 108a tries again to find a data collection server 110 by means of a transmitted inquiry message. This attempt can be successful if, for example, the device 108a has moved to a location within the communication range of the data collection server 110a, 110b and 110c.

Fig. 3 represents a program that can execute a data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c. In general, the example process 250 of FIG. 3 starts by means of the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c which searches for a query message transmitted by a portable measuring device 108a or 108b. If a query message is detected, the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c acknowledges receipt of the inquiry message and establishes a wireless communication link with the portable measurement device 108a and / or 108b which transmitted the inquiry message for publish your ability to receive the load of audience measurement data. After a wireless communication link is established, the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c receives the audience measurement data of the portable measuring device 108a or 108b. The data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c expects additional inquiry messages and / or audience measurement data from the portable measurement device 108a and / or 108b and / or processes or data transfers of audience measurement that it has already received. .

More specifically, the process of Fig. 3 begins when a data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c searches for a query message transmitted by a portable measuring device 108a or 108b (block 252). If no inquiry message is detected (block 252), control returns to block 252 and data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c continues searching for a query message.

If a query message is detected (block 252), the data collection server 110a 110b or 110c answers the inquiry message (block 254) and creates a wireless communication link with the portable measurement device 108a or 108b (block 255). The data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c can respond to the inquiry message by sending an acknowledgment message or some other message to inform the portable measurement device 108a or 108b of the presence and capabilities of the data collection server. data 110a, 110b or 110c. The acknowledgment message is transmitted using the communication protocol 112 as described above.

After the wireless communication link (block 255) is established, the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c collects the audience measurement data from the portable measuring device 108a or 108b (block 256). The audience measurement data is transmitted from the portable measuring device 108a or 108b using the communication protocol 112.

After the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c (block 256) receives the audience measurement data, the data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c may transfer the collected audience measurement data to the central data server. data processing 116 (block 257). The collected hearing measurement data can be transferred by means of data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c as it is received or can be stored and later transferred. The data collection server 110a, 110b or 110c then awaits another inquiry message and / or audience measurement data additions from the portable measuring device 108a or 108b (block 258).

Although the aforementioned examples illustrate only two portable measuring devices 108a and 108b, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that any number of portable measuring devices can be employed. Similarly, although only portable measuring devices 108a and 108b are discussed above, persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that system 100 can employ fixed measuring devices (not shown) in addition to portable measuring devices. Moreover, although only three data collection servers 110a, 110b and 110c are shown in the previous example, a person with ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that any number of those servers can be employed. For example, additional data collection servers can be used in areas with a large data traffic load. Similarly, although only data collection servers 110a, 110b or 110c employing an extensible language are described above, persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that some of the servers may be traditional servers adapted to collect data from fixed devices or other devices dedicated to measurement.

Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary processor system 300 that can be used to implement the methods and architecture for the portable measurement devices 108a and 108b described. The example processor system 300 may be similar to a personal computer (PC), a portable computer, or any other computing device. In the illustrated example, the exemplary processor system 300 includes a main processing unit 302 with a power source 304. The main processing unit 302 may include a processor 306 electrically coupled by a system interconnect 308 to a main memory device 312, and one or more interface circuits 314. The interconnection system 308 may be an address / data bus. Of course, a person with ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that connections other than buses can be used to connect the processor 306 to other devices 310, 312 and 314. For example, one or more dedicated lines and / or a crosshead is they can be used to connect the processor 306 to other devices 310, 312 and 314.

The processor 306 may be of any well-known processor type, such as a processor from the Intel Pentium® processor family, the Intel Itanium® microprocessor family, the Intel Cetrino® microprocessor family, and / or the Intel microprocessor family XScale®. In addition, the processor 306 may include any well-known type of cache memory, such as a static random access memory (SRAM). The main memory device 310 may include dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and / or any other form of random access memory. For example, the main memory device 310 may include double data rate (DDRAM) random access memory. The main memory device 310 may also include non-volatile memory. In one example, the main memory device 310 stores a software program that is executed by the processor 306 in a well-known manner. The instant memory device 312 may be of any type of instant memory device. The instant memory device 312 can store firmware used to start the portable measuring device 300.

The circuit (s) of the interface 314 can be implemented using any type of well-known standard interface, such as an Ethernet interface and / or a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. One or more of the input devices 316 may be connected to the circuits of the interface 314 to input data and commands into the main processing unit 302. For example, the input device 316 may be a keyboard, mouse, touch screen , seguibola, tactile platelet, and / or a voice recognition system.

One or more displays, horns, and / or other output devices 318 may also be connected to the main processing unit 310 by means of one or more interface circuits 314. The display 318 may be a liquid crystal display (LCD) , light emitting diode (LED) screen, or any other type of screen. The display 318 may generate visual indications of data generated during the operation of the main processing unit 302. The visual indications may include invitations for the input of human operator information, calculated values, detected data, and so on.

The example processor system 300 may also include one or more storage devices 320. For example, the portable measurement device 300 may include one or more hard disks, a compact disc (CD), a digital versatile hard disk (DVD), and / or other input / output devices of computing means (I / O).

The example processor system 300 can also exchange data with other devices 322 by means of a connection to a network 324. The network connection can be any type of network connection, such as an Ethernet connection, a wireless network connection, a cellular data line, etc. The network 324 can be any type of network, such as the Internet, a cellular network, a cable network, and / or a wireless point-to-point network. The data can be exchanged using an extensible data transport such as XML and / or XML Web services or can be exchanged using some other known communication protocols.

Because the hardware configuration of a server is well known, it is not shown separately. However, persons of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the data collection servers 110 can be implemented using hardware as shown in Fig. 4. Typically, the hardware of the server 110 will be more robust than the hardware of the device. portable data collection 108, because the servers 110 do not have the handleability restrictions of portable devices 108.

Although the example systems described above include, among other components, software executed in hardware, it will be noted that these systems are merely illustrative and are considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that any or all of the

Claims (19)

Hardware and software components described may have modalities exclusively in dedicated hardware, exclusively in software, exclusively in firmware or in some combination of hardware, firmware and / or software. In addition, although certain methods, apparatuses and articles of manufacture have been described herein, the field covered by this patent is not limited thereto. On the contrary, this patent covers all apparatuses, methods and articles of manufacture that come fully within the scope of the claims either literally or under the doctrine of equivalents. CLAIMS

1. An audience measurement architecture consisting of: a plurality of portable measuring devices, each of the portable measuring devices are structured to collect audience measurement data; a first data collection server for collecting audience measurement data from any of the plurality of portable measuring devices, and a second data collection server for collecting audience measurement data from any of the plurality of portable measuring devices , the first data collection server, the second data collection server and the plurality of portable measuring devices are structured to operate in accordance with an extensible data transport protocol.

2. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the plurality of portable metering devices are not associated with the first data collection server or the second data collection server.

3. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the first data collection server and the second data collection server are networked with a central data processing server.

. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the first data collection server and the second data collection server are structured to publish their capabilities to receive audience measurement data.

5. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the plurality of portable measuring devices are structured to publish their capabilities to load audience measurement data.

6. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the portable measuring devices are structured to load audience measurement data when one of the first or second data collection servers is detected.

7. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 6 wherein the portable measurement devices load the audience measurement data to one of the data collection servers, first and second, by means of a wireless connection.

8. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the portable measuring devices are structured to load the audience measurement data after the portable measuring devices have collected a predetermined amount of audience measurement data and at least one of the data collection servers has been detected, first and second,

9. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein the audience measurement data consists of at least one signature of a broadcast program detected by the portable measurement device and a broadcast code with the broadcast program detected by the device portable measurement

10. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 1 wherein at least one of the portable measurement devices is associated with a fixed data collection device when located at a predetermined location.

11. The audience measurement architecture defined in claim 10 wherein the predetermined location is the home of a panelist.

12. A method for collecting audience measurement data that consists of: gathering audience measurement data using a portable audience measurement device in a first location; transport the portable hearing measurement device to a second location; detect, with the portable audience measurement device, the availability of a first data collection server to collect audience measurement data; upload the collected audience measurement data to the first data collection server; transport the portable hearing measurement device to the first location; gather audience measurement data using the portable audience measurement device in the first location; transport the portable hearing measurement device to a third location; detect, with the portable audience measurement device, the availability of a second data collection server to collect audience measurement data; and upload the collected audience measurement data to the second data collection server.

13. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the first location is not the second location.

14. The method defined in claim 13 wherein the first location is not the third location.

15. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the first data collection server is not the second data collection server.

16. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the load of the collected audience measurement data consists of transferring the collected audience measurement data by means of a wireless connection.

17. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the first data collection server, the second data collection server, and the portable measurement device operate in accordance with an extensible data transport protocol.

18. The method defined in claim 12 further comprises gathering hearing measurement data in a subsequent location; and uploading the audience measurement data gathered in the fourth location to one of the first and second data collection servers.

19. The method defined in claim 12 wherein the first and second data collection servers and the portable hearing measurement device have wireless communication capabilities.