Back in middle school, my best friend’s family was asked to participate in a week-long survey of their television habits by Nielson Media Research (the company that figures out how many people watch TV shows each week). I was very jealous. Ever since, I’ve been interested in the seemingly-random statistics that companies like Nielson put out, and how they collect the data. I mean, why would most of us care that 68 million people watched show XYZ last Friday? Well, I care because I can make fun of those 68 million people, but you get the idea.

NMR released a new set of data on Thursday dealing with Video Game habits in the United States. It may just be a bunch of numbers to most of you, but what I found interesting was how they actually determined what video games were being played, and for how long. Using a library of audio signatures from various game titles, the software installed in survey-participants’ televisions analyzes the audio going through the TV, and matches it to the appropriate game.

I thought that was a nice example of technologies which were once considered CIA-grade being used in more widespread and interesting ways.

Plus, it’s fun to laugh at the fact that the average World of Warcraft player spends 2.48 hours/day with the game…
via IGN