METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR NONINTRUSIVE MONITORING OF WEB BROWSER USAGE

• US 20090259745A1
• Filed: 07/29/2008
• Published: 10/15/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Morris
• Granted Patent: US 8,090,822 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1452 based on positionally close symbols, e.g. amount sign or URL-specific characters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for nonintrusive monitoring of web browser usage are disclosed. An example method for monitoring web browsing disclosed herein comprises obtaining a video signal from a video output of a device implementing a web browser, processing a video image obtained from the video signal to identify a region of the video image displaying at least a portion of the web browser, determining textual information displayed by the web browser in the identified region of the video image, and using the textual information to record usage of the web browser.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring web browsing, the method comprising:

obtaining a video signal from a video output of a device implementing a web browser;

processing a video image obtained from the video signal to identify a region of the video image displaying at least a portion of the web browser;

determining textual information displayed by the web browser in the identified region of the video image; and

using the textual information to record usage of the web browser.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein processing the video image obtained from the video signal comprises performing a graphical recognition operation on the video image to identify a rectangular region including at least a portion of an address bar of the web browser.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the address bar is configured to display at least a portion of a uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to a web page displayed by the web browser.

4. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the rectangular region is a first rectangular region and the graphical recognition operation is a first graphical recognition operation, and wherein processing the video image obtained from the video signal further comprises performing a second graphical recognition operation on the video image to identify a second rectangular region including at least a portion of a title bar of die web browser.

5. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the graphical recognition operation comprises at least one of edge detection, corner detection or blob detection.

6. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining textual information comprises performing textual pattern recognition to determine the textual information presented in the portion of the web browser displayed in the identified region of the video image.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein determining textual information comprises performing optical character recognition to determine at least a portion of a URL or a numeric Internet protocol address corresponding to a web page displayed by the web browser.

8. A method as defined in claim 7 wherein performing textual pattern recognition to determine the textual information further comprises performing optical character recognition to determine at least a portion of a title corresponding to a web page displayed by the web browser

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein using the textual information to record usage of the web browser comprises determining a URL represented by at least a portion of the textual information.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein the determined URL corresponds to a web page processed by the web browser

11. A method as defined in claim 9 further comprising reporting the determined URL to a central processing facility, wherein the central processing facility is configured to process the URL to determine a web site corresponding to a web page processed by the web browser.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein obtaining the video signal from the video output of the device comprises splitting a video connection coupling the video output with a display device.

13-16. -16. (canceled)

17. An apparatus to monitor Internet usage, the apparatus comprising:

a video interface to accept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser;

a graphical recognition processor to extract at least a portion of an address bar of the web browser included in a video image of the video signal;

a textual recognition processor to extract uniform resource locator (URL) information included in the extracted portion of the address bar; and

a network interface to report the extracted URL information to a central processing facility to track usage of the web browser.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the video interface comprises a video splitter to split the video signal into a first video signal and a second video signal, wherein the first video signal is provided to the video interface and the second video signal is provided to a display.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the video interface comprises a camera positioned to capture video images associated with a display of the device implementing the web browser to generate the video signal.

20. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the graphical recognition processor is further to extract at least a portion of a title bar of the web browser displayed in the video image of the video signal.

21. An apparatus as defined in claim 20 wherein the textual recognition processor is further to extract title information included in the extracted portion of the title bar.

22. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the network interface is to report the extracted title information to the central processing facility.

23. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the network interface is to interface with an access network providing network connectivity for the device implementing the web browser.

24. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 wherein the network interface is to interface with a first access network different from a second access network providing network connectivity for the device implementing the web browser

25. An apparatus as defined in claim 17 further comprising a video interface activity detector to indicate whether an active video signal has been applied to the video interface.

26. A system to monitor Internet usage, the system comprising:

a web browser monitor to extract textual information from a captured image comprising at least a portion of a web browser implemented by a monitored device; and

a central processing facility to process the extracted textual information received from the web browser monitor to determine web sites accessed using the web browser.

27. A system as defined in claim 26 wherein the web browser monitor is configured to perform optical character recognition to extract textual information corresponding to at least one of a uniform resource locator (URL) or a title associated with a web page presented by the web browser.

28. A system as defined in claim 26 wherein the web browser monitor is further configured to process the captured image comprising at least the portion of the web browser by performing a graphical recognition operation to extract a region of the captured image characteristic of at least one of an address bar or a title bar of the web browser, and the web browser monitor is configured to extract the textual information from the extracted region.

29-31. -31. (canceled)