Method and apparatus for determining audience viewing habits by jamming a control signal and identifying the viewers command

摘要

A method and apparatus for determining the channel of a plurality of predetermined channels to which a remotely controlled receiver is tuned. A viewer transmitter device includes a keyboard for receiving viewer entered selections and a remote transmitter which transmits infrared, ultrasonic, radio frequency or other radiated control signals for each of the viewer selections. A receiver device in a channel detection system receives a signal in the selected transmission medium, and immediately signals a jamming device to broadcast interference which precludes the remotely controlled receiver from identifying and acting upon the transmitted control signal. The receiver device applies the received signal to a processor device that performs a stored program to determine if the received signal corresponds to a transmitted control signal from the viewer transmitter device and, if so, to identify the channel to which the monitored receiver is to be tuned. An associated memory device is used for storing the identified channel reception data. The processor device identifies the user selection and either applies a corresponding control signal to a second transmitter device which transmits a control signal of sufficient strength to overcome the interference, or instructs the jammming device to cease the broadcasting of interfering signals. In either case, the remotely controlled receiver will now receive and implement the viewer selection. The processor device will periodically broadcast a command to the remotely controlled receiver containing the last identified channel data to ensure that a viewer does not manually adjust the channel being viewed.