Media data usage measurement and reporting systems and methods

• US 10,103,951 B2
• Filed: 07/21/2016
• Issued: 10/16/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Hebeler, Jr., John W., Kunchakarra, Prasad V., Dietz, III, Thomas L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Qing Yuan
• Application Number:
  US15/216,680
• Publication Number:
  US 20160330088A1
• Time in Patent Office: 817 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/57 for integrated multimedia messaging subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2026 Wireless network, e.g. GSM, PCS, TACS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/208 IMS, i.e. Integrated Multimedia messaging Subsystem
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 : Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing

Abstract

A tangible computer readable storage disk or device comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to merge usage data to generate session data is disclosed. An example computer readable storage disk or device includes instructions to gather first usage data representative of usage of first media on the machine, the first media being received from an external network source, the first usage data corresponding to at least one of (i) a first media type or (ii) a first user agent associated with the media; gather second usage data representative of usage of second media on the machine, the second media being received from a source that is local to the machine, the second usage data corresponding to at least one of (i) a second media type or (ii) a second user agent associated with the media; and merge the first usage data and the second usage data into a respective user session to generate session data.

Claims

1. A tangible computer readable storage disk or device comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

gather first usage data representative of usage of first media on the machine, the first media being received from an external network source, the first usage data corresponding to at least one of (i) a first media type or (ii) a first user agent associated with the media;

gather second usage data representative of usage of second media on the machine, the second media being received from a source that is local to the machine, the second usage data corresponding to at least one of (i) a second media type or (ii) a second user agent associated with the media; and

merge the first usage data and the second usage data into a respective user session to generate session data.

2. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to provide a report of the user session.

3. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 2, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to merge the session data into the report.

4. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 2, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to merge the user session into the report.

5. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 4, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to generate a macro report based on the report.

6. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 1, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to preprocess at least one of the first usage data or the second usage data by gathering the first usage data or the second usage data based on predetermined selection criteria.

7. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 1, wherein the session data includes qualitative data, the instructions to cause the machine to include and relate at least one of the first usage data or the second usage data and the qualitative data.

8. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 1, wherein:

the first media includes at least one of first graphical data, first audio, first streaming media, first video, first text, a first web page, or a first image; and

the second media includes at least one of second graphical data, second audio, second streaming media, second video, second text, a second web page, or a second image.

9. A tangible computer readable storage disk or device comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

access a first report data generated by a processing device, the report data reflecting first usage of first media on the processing device, the first media being received in the processing device from a network source;

access a second report data generated by the processing device, the second report data reflecting second usage of second media on the processing device, the second media being received in the processing device from a source local to the processing device; and

assemble the first report data and the second report data into a macro report in accordance with predetermined parameters.

10. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 9, wherein:

the first report data represents gathered first usage data for a first predetermined category of media; and

the second report data represents gathered second usage data from a second predetermined category of media.

11. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the machine to merge session data corresponding to a respective user session into the first report data and the second report data.

12. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 11, wherein the session data includes qualitative data and relates the first usage of first media, the second usage of second media, and the qualitative data.

13. The computer readable storage disk or device of claim 9, wherein:

the first media includes first streaming media; and

the second media includes second streaming media.

14. A system for gathering data for media usage reports for a user system, the system comprising:

media usage gathering objects running on a user system to;

gather first usage data representative of first usage of first media on the user system, the first media being received from an external network source, a first media usage gathering object corresponding to at least one of (i) a first media type or (ii) a first user agent associated with the media; and

gather second usage data representative of second usage of second media on the user system, the second media being received from a source that is local to the user system, a second media usage gathering object corresponding to at least one of (i) a second media type or (ii) a second user agent associated with the media;

a session object running on the user system to;

merge the first media usage gathering object into at least one of a respective (i) a first user session or (ii) a first resource control location (RCL) session; and

merge the second media usage gathering object into at least one of a respective (i) a second user session or (ii) a second resource control location (RCL) session; and

a reporting system to;

access a first report object running on the user system, the first report object reflecting the first usage data, the first report object corresponding to at least one of (i) the first media type or (ii) the first user agent associated with the first media;

access a second report object running on the user system, the second report object reflecting the second usage data, the second report object corresponding to at least one of (i) the second media type or (ii) the second user agent associated with the second media;

assemble the first report object and the second report object into a macro report in accordance with predetermined parameters; and

format the macro report for presentation, the reporting system including hardware.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the first report object merges at least one of the first user session or the first RCL session into the first report object; and

the second object merges at least one of the second user session or the second RCL session into the second report object.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein:

the first report object merges the first session object into the first report object; and

the second report object merges the second session object into the second report object.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the session object is to:

encapsulate qualitative data; and

relate the first usage of the first media and the qualitative data and relate the second usage of the second media and the qualitative data.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the first media usage gathering objects are to preprocess the first usage data by gathering the first usage data based on first predetermined selection criteria; and

the second media usage gathering objects are to preprocess the second usage data by gathering the second usage data based on second predetermined selection criteria.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein:

the first media includes at least one of first graphical data, first audio, first streaming media, first video, first text, a first web page, or a first image; and

the second media includes at least one of second graphical data, second audio, second streaming media, second video, second text, a second web page, or a second image.