October 26, 2006
Nielsen to use psychoacoustic encoding to to know what TV show you're watching on your mobile device
Earlier this month Network World's Phil Hochmuth profiled Nielsen's efforts to figure out what people are watching on their iPods and other mobile devices. The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports.
"Until now, the Nielsen box would be bolted to your TV and hardwired into the electronics to know exactly what you are viewing, but since home electronics have changed so much this is no longer a viable option. So Nielsen has partnered with content creators to use psychoacoustic encoding to let Nielsen figure out what you're watching.
Disapointingly, psychoacoustic encoding has nothing to do with psychic readings, but is simply an audio signal that is encoded into the television program, enabling Nielsen to look for this signal and find out what you're watching. "
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