Real time data collection system and method

• US 20100332482A1
• Filed: 06/25/2010
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dan Melton
• Original Assignee: Dan Melton
• Inventors: Melton, Dan
• Granted Patent: US 8,255,392 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A computer implemented real time method for demographic, population or census data collection including the steps of:

• collecting a first data set and storing the first data at an Internet accessible location;
• providing access to the stored first data set through the Internet;
• storing a second data set provided by a customer computer,
• accessing a third data set responsive to a customer request;
• locating, interfacing with, storing and using social networking profile data based upon geography to inform population counts;
• sorting the first, second and third data sets by a first criteria wherein the first criteria is a geographic location;
• sorting the first, second and third data sets by a second criteria wherein the second criteria indicates age of the data sets;
• aggregating data for a common geographic location such as a city;
• weighting the data from the first, second and third data sets based on the age of the data;
• providing a report including demographic data about people within the location wherein the demographic data includes a confidence interval indicating the degree of likelihood that the demographic data is correct.

Claims

1. A computer implemented real time method for data collection including the steps of:

collecting a first data set and storing the first data at an Internet accessible location;

providing access to the stored first data set through the Internet;

storing a second data set provided by a customer computer,

accessing a third data set responsive to a customer request;

sorting said first, second and third data sets by a first criteria wherein the first criteria is a geographic location;

sorting the first, second and third data sets by a second criteria wherein said second criteria indicates age of the first, second and third data sets;

aggregating data for a common geographic location;

weighting the data from the first, second and third data sets based on the age of the data;

providing a customer interactive report including demographic data within said location wherein said demographic data includes a confidence interval indicating the degree of likelihood that the demographic data is correct.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the report is controlled in real time by a customer by manipulating pins on a map that define the common geographic location.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one of the data sets is social networking profile data, and the step of aggregating includes using social networking profile data based upon geography to inform a population count.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first data set is census data, the second data set is social media data from the Internet.

5. A computer implemented real time method for collecting population data including the steps of:

collecting a first population data set and storing the first data at an Internet accessible location;

providing access to the stored first data set through the Internet;

storing a second data set provided by a customer computer,

accessing a third data set responsive to a customer request;

sorting said first, second and third data sets by a first criteria wherein the first criteria is a geographic location;

sorting the first, second and third data sets by a second criteria wherein said second criteria indicates age of the first, second and third data sets;

aggregating data for a common geographic location;

weighting the data from the first, second and third data sets based on the age of the data;

providing a real time customer interactive report including demographic data within said location wherein said demographic data includes a confidence interval indicating the degree of likelihood that the demographic data is correct.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the step of providing the real time report is controlled in real time by a customer by manipulating pins on an Internet based map that defines the common geographic location.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the first data set is census data, the second data set is social media data from the Internet.

8. A computer implemented real time method for collecting demographic data including the steps of:

collecting a first demographic data set and storing the first data at an Internet accessible location;

providing access to the stored first data set through the Internet;

storing a second data set provided by a customer computer,

accessing a third data set responsive to a customer request;

sorting said first, second and third data sets by a first criteria wherein the first criteria is a geographic location;

sorting the first, second and third data sets by a second criteria wherein said second criteria indicates age of the first, second and third data sets;

aggregating data for a common geographic location;

weighting the data from the first, second and third data sets based on the age of the data;

providing a real time customer interactive report including result data within said location wherein said result data includes a confidence interval indicating the degree of likelihood that the result data is correct.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the step of providing the real time report is controlled in real time by allowing manually manipulating pins on an Internet based map to define the common geographic location.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first data set is census data, the second data set is social media data from the Internet.