Arbitron’s media measurement device, the Portable People Meter (PPM), is being honoured as a technological innovation, alongside TiVo, the Blackberry and the USB flash drive.

Ron Kolessar, who led the development of the PPM, has joined a list of innovators being recognised by the “Great Minds, Great Ideas project”.

The project, run by electronics publication EE Times, is designed to celebrate ‘the people and technologies that will shake the marketplace and open new opportunities’. The technologies honoured by the project will be on display in the Innovations Plus section of the Consumer Electronics Show, to be held in Las Vegas in January.

Arbitron’s PPM uses a passive measurement device, about the size of a small cell phone.

The device, which is carried throughout the day by randomly selected survey participants, detects inaudible codes embedded in the audio portion of media and entertainment content delivered by broadcasters, content providers and distributors. It can track when and where participants watch television, listen to radio, and how they interact with other forms of media and entertainment.

Pierre Bouvard, President of Portable People Meters at Arbitron, told radioinfo: “Ron Kolessar and his team shattered the paradigm for electronic audience measurement when they developed the PPM.”.

Among the innovators that EE Times is honouring in the digital media category of the project are: Jim Barton, developer of TiVo; Leonardo Chiariglione, a leader of the industry group that developed the MPEG compression standards; Shuji Nakamura, who helped develop the bright blue LEDs that power high definition DVDs; Mike Lazaridis, who put wireless e-mail on the map with the Blackberry; and Dov Moran, who inspired the development of the USB flash drive.

Profiles of the 29 innovators are online at the link below.