Importance

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Abstract

A method for obtaining audience preference market survey data, such as a radio and/or television listening audience survey and/or supplemental data, such as bar coded data (156), from a plurality of diverse locations for accumulative processing by a remote data processor, involves recording (22, 30, 40, 42, 44, 56, 54, 52) a plurality of audio signals (46, 48, 50) at each of the diverse locations which corresponds to the ambient radio and/or television audio sound at predetermined synchronized discrete sampling times (42, 60, 64, 66, 62) or windows which are synchronized to a master recording (110) of the programs being surveyed. The sampling windows are of short duration with respect to the measurement interval. The master recording (110) audio signals frequency intervals are matched against the frequency of the diverse location audio samples to provide an indication of audience preference and tested for a correct match in a configurable filter array (120, 122, 124). Respondents at the diverse locations may be provided with portable tape recorders (30) which are automatically activated at synchronized clock times to obtain the audio samples. Bar code scanning information (150, 24) may also be provided in the form of audio signals by using the scanning signal (152) to drive a voltage controlled audio oscillator (160).

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First Claim