Kind of. Come September, 500 people will be wandering around L.A. with cellphone tracking devices that pick up the sounds of televisions that are on in gyms, bars, hotels, offices - pretty much anywhere but home. It's part of an effort announced today by Nielsen to get a better handle TV viewing in public venues. Over the years, the news and sports channels have griped about ratings that don't factor such viewing. It's a big deal, of course, because all this determines how much advertisers are charged. Nielsen will be working with a San Mateo outfit called Integrated Media Measurement, which developed the measuring system. Besides L.A., there will be trackers in NY, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Houston - as well as other locales around the country so that they can come up with national numbers. NYT PR Wire