Media monitor system

• US 6,799,199 B1
• Filed: 09/05/2000
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: The Relegence Corporation (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Fridman, Sharon, Segal, Edo, Jaschek, Boaz, Avni, Michal
• Primary Examiner(s): Wiley, David
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mauro, Jr., Thomas J
• Application Number:
  US09/654,822
• Time in Patent Office: 1,484 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224, 709/201, 709/207, 709/218, 709/219, 707/6
• US Class Current: 709/207
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/959 Network
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A media monitor system monitors content of a plurality of information streams provided by a plurality of information sources coupled to a media monitor system. The media monitor system is adapted to be coupled to a plurality of client systems, the media monitor system includes an information retriever, a distributor, and an analyzer. The analyzer has a real time search engine and a real time alert engine.

Claims

1. A media monitor system for monitoring content of a plurality of information streams provided by a plurality of information sources coupled to said media monitor system, said media monitor system adapted to be coupled to a plurality of client systems, said media monitor comprising:

retrieval means, adapted to be coupled to the plurality of information sources, for receiving information streams from the information sources, and providing information signals comprising information packets representative of at least a portion of the information streams;

distribution means, adapted to be coupled to a plurality of client systems, for receiving client queries and client requests to update or create alert criteria, and for providing client systems real time alerts and query results; and

analysis means, coupled to the distribution means and to the retrieval means for storing said information signals provided by the retrieval means, for real time matching of information signals against alert criteria to generate a real time alert and for real time matching of client queries against the information signals to generate query results, wherein the analysis means comprises;

a real time alert logic, for real time matching of information signals against alert criteria to generate a real time alert; and

a real time search engine, for real time matching of client queries against the information signals to generate query results, wherein the real time search engine comprises;

an information packet processor, for receiving an information packet and for processing the information packet to generate at least one processed portion of the information packet;

storage means coupled to the information packet processor, for temporarily storing information representative of a reception of the at least one processed portion of the information packet, wherein the storage means are configured to allow fast insertion and fast deletion of content, and wherein the storage means is a term index data structure adapted to hold indexed extracted terms and information packet identifiers, wherein the term index data structure comprises;

a terms hash table to hold extracted, filtered and processed terms;

a terms inverted file pointed to by said term hash table holding a terms inverted entry map;

a message hash table to hold information packets identification;

a messages data table to hold information packets data;

a channel map to hold a list of information sources and the related number of index terms of said information source; and

a query and result manager, coupled to the storage means for matching a received client query against at least a portion of content of the storage means to generate a query result.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the information signals are computer readable signals.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the information signals are information packets.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the distribution means comprises:

a plurality of interfaces, each interface for receiving, from at least one client system, client requests and client queries in a client system format, wherein said client system format differs from a media monitor system compatible format, and formatting the client requests and the client queries in a monitor media system compatible format, for receiving alerts and query results in a media monitor system format, converting said received alerts and query results to the client system compatible format, and for dispatching said converted alerts and said converted query results to at least one designated client system;

a client manager, coupled to said plurality of interfaces, for storing and updating client system profiles, for processing said client profiles to determine at least one parameter selected from the group consisting of;

the designated client systems, a format of an alert, a format of a query result, relevant information to add to the alert, relevant information to add to the query result;

a dispatcher, coupled to the client manager and to the plurality of interfaces, for receiving said at least one parameter from the client manager, to fetch relevant information from the analysis means and for providing alerts and query results client systems for said plurality of interfaces.

5. The media monitor system of claim 4 wherein the distribution means further comprises:

a query and alert manager, for receiving client requests and client queries from the dispatcher and providing them to the analysis means;

a data builder, coupled to the dispatcher and to the analysis means, for receiving requests from the dispatcher to fetch relevant information from the analysis means, accessing the analysis means, fetching said relevant information and for providing the relevant information to the dispatcher;

a history manager for storing client queries and client requests to update to create alert criteria and for client system retrieval.

6. The media monitor system of claim 1, wherein the retrieval means comprises a plurality of agents selected from the group of agents consisting of:

an agent having an audio recognition means, adapted to receive information streams comprising of audio information and to generate a stream of information packets representative of the content of the audio information;

an agent having an encoder, adapted to receive information streams comprising audio information and to generate a stream of information packets containing said audio information;

an agent having visual recognition means, adapted to receive information streams comprising visual information and to generate a stream of information packets representative of the content of the visual information;

an agent having a encoder, adapted to receive information streams comprising visual information and to generate a stream of information packets containing said visual information;

an agent having a parsing means, adapted to receive a stream of computer readable signals and to parse said stream to provide a plurality of information packets.

7. The monitor media page system of claim 1 further comprising a data manager for storing said information signals, and for allowing the distribution means to fetch relevant information associated to an information signal that caused said alert module to issue an alert.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one module selected from the group of modules consisting of:

a message coordinator module adapted to coordinate handling of a plurality of information packets;

a message buffer adapted to hold temporarily the plurality of information packets;

a message filter module for filtering the plurality of information packets according to predefined rules;

a term extractor module for performing parsing and stemming on said plurality of information packets;

a terms filter for excluding extracted terms according to predefined rules;

a queries coordinator module to coordinate the processing of client queries;

a query-term extractor to parse and stem incoming queries in order to extract and process operative query-terms;

a query-terms filter for excluding specific query-terms in a predefined manner;

an archive search module for indexing data on archive files containing historical informational content and for returning results according to said indexed data;

a semi-static database search module to act on a semi-static database holding semi-static information source control data;

a future search module for matching extracted terms from the plurality of information packets against static queries; and

a queries index for holding queries for a predefined time frame to provide means of future search.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the terms inverted file further comprises:

a terms inverted entries map table;

a total instances of said term;

a number of information sources containing said term; and

a last modification time of said term.

10. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a message terms keyed map;

an information source identification; and

an information packet time of arrival.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the message terms keyed map further comprises:

a pointer to said terms inverted file;

an instances number of said term in said information packet; and

a pointer to said inverted file entry related to said term.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the terms inverted entries map further comprises:

an information source identification;

an instances number of said term in said information source informational content; and

a time of last appearance of said term in said information source informational content.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein said high update storage means allows fast insertion and deletion of content.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the fast update storage means further allows timely deletions of irrelevant or time-decayed terms and query-terms.

15. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one of the following:

adding means for adding control data to said information packets;

filtering means for the plurality of information packets;

processing means for said extracted terms by adding control information to said extracted terms; and

term filtering means for the extracted terms to generate filtered extracted terms.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the extracted terms are extracted out of the plurality of information packets by parsing and stemming the plurality of information packets;

and

wherein the term filtering means are adapted to (a) discard said terms constructed of one-letter words;

(b) discard said terms constructed of frequently used words;

(c) discard said terms constructed of stop-words; and

(d) discard said terms constructed of predefined words.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the control data comprises information packet identification, information source identification and time of arrival.

18. The system of claim 1 further adapted to receive an information packet, to storing the information packet with an associated packet identifier in an information packet storage means, store extracted term information representative of a reception of at least one extracted term, said at least one extracted terms extracted from the information packet;

and to link between the stored information packet and the extracted term information.

19. The system of claim 18 further adapted to delete an information packet and delete the linked extracted term information.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein information packets are stored in a messages hash, and wherein the linked extracted term information is stored in a terms hash.

21. The system of claim 20 wherein the extracted term information comprises at least one information field selected from the group consisting of:

a last modification time field, indicating a most recent time in which the extracted term was received;

a number of channels containing the term, indicating a number of information sources that provided the extracted term;

a total instances field, indicating a number of times the extracted term was provided; and

a terms inverted entries map, comprising of a plurality of terms inverted file entries, each entry holding information representative of a reception of the extracted term from a single information source.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein each inverted file entry comprises at least one field selected from the group consisting of:

a channel identifier, for identifying the information source that provided the extracted term;

instances number, for indicating a number of times the extracted term was provided by an information source; and

time of last appearance, for indicating a most recent time in which the extracted term was received from an information source.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein each information packet is further associated to a message terms key map, said message key map comprising a plurality of message characteristic entries, each message characteristic entry associated to an extracted term being extracted from the information packet, said message characteristic entry comprising at least one of the following fields selected from the group consisting of:

a term inverted file, for pointing to the term extracted information;

an instance of number, for indicating a number of times said extracted term appeared in the information packet; and

an inverted file entry, for pointing to a terms inverted file entry.

24. The system of claim 1 further adapted to insert an extracted term into a terms hash table and into a terms inverted file, insert an information source identification, said information source providing the extracted term, to a terms inverted entry map table in said terms inverted file, insert information packet data in a messages hash table;

insert the extracted term from said information packet to a messages data table;

increase a value of instances in said messages data table by one; and

update a value of information source identification in said message data table.

25. The system of claim 24 further adapted to extract an extracted term and accordingly to perform at least one operation selected from the group consisting of:

increase a value of total instances in said terms inverted file;

update a value of last modification time in said terms inverted file;

increase a value of instances number in said inverted entry map table associated with said information source identification in said terms inverted file; and

update a value of message time in said messages data table.

26. The system of claim 1 further adapted to delete an information packet, and accordingly to perform at least one operation selected from the group consisting of:

receive an information packet identification, wherein the terms extracted from the information packets are to be deleted;

read the information packet identification from the messages hash table in said terms index data structure;

obtain relevant entries of said extracted terms belonging to said information packet in said messages data; and

access said terms inverted file for each said terms entry pointed to said terms inverted file.

27. The system of claim 1, further adapted to store alert criteria and to match alert criteria received and processed in the past against newly received terms to generate an alert.

28. The system of claim 1 further adapted to match the client query against historical archives of informational content to generate an archive query result.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the system is further adapted to generate a query result from an archive query result and from a recent query result.

30. The system of claim 1 further adapted to match the client query against a semi-static database of said informational content and having a low incidence of changing to generate a semi static query result.

31. The system of claim 30 wherein the system is further adapted to generate a query result from a semi static query result and from a recent query result.

35. The system of claim 1 wherein an information source is selected from the group consisting of:

television broadcast providers, radio broadcast providers, data network providers, chat channels providers, news providers, and music providers.

36. The system of claim 1 wherein information packets comprise of content selected from the group of:

text, audio, video, multimedia, and executable code streaming media.

37. The system of claim 1 further adapted to compute a similarity between a client query and a group of at least one information packet.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the group of at least one information packet comprises at least one information packet received from a single information source.

39. The system of claim 37 wherein the similarity reflects at least one of the following parameters:

a total amount of extracted terms being received from at least one information source during a predefined time interval;

a number of relevant extracted terms being received from at least one information source during the predefined time interval;

a total number of information sources being searched during the predefined time interval;

an elapsed time since a last appearance of a relevant extracted term from an information source during the predefined time interval;

a position of relevant extracted terms in at least one information source;

proximity of an extracted term to a relevant extracted term;

a part of speech of a relevant extracted term; and

a relevant extracted term frequency and importance in a language of the information source.

40. The system of claim 1 adapted to implement a matching technique selected from the group consisting of:

Boolean based matching;

probabilistic matching;

fuzzy matching;

proximity matching; and

vector based matching.

41. The system of claim 1 adapted to implement complex matching techniques.

32. The system of step 1, further adapted to rank information sources according to a similarity between at least a portion of information packets provided by said information sources and between the client query.

33. The system of claim 32 further adapted to insert a list of ranked information sources in the query result.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the step of ranking is based upon a parameter selected from the group consisting of:

a total amount of extracted terms provided by an information source in a predefined time interval;

an elapsed time since the extracted term was provided by the information source in said predefined time interval; and

an extracted term position in the information source.

42. A media monitor system for monitoring content of a plurality of information streams provided by a plurality of information sources coupled to said media monitor system, said media monitor system adapted to be coupled to a plurality of client systems, said media monitor comprising:

retrieval means, adapted to be coupled to the plurality of information sources, for receiving information streams from the information sources, and providing information signals comprising information packets representative of at least a portion of the information streams;

distribution means, adapted to be coupled to a plurality of client systems, for receiving client queries and client requests to update or create alert criteria, and for providing client systems real time alerts and query results; and

analysis means, coupled to the distribution means and to the retrieval means for storing said information signals provided by the retrieval means, for real time matching of information signals against alert criteria to generate a real time alert and for real time matching of client queries against the information signals to generate query results;

wherein the analysis means comprises;

a real time alert logic, for real time matching of information signals against alert criteria to generate a real time alert;

wherein the real time alert logic comprises;

an information packet processor, for receiving an information packet; and

extracting at least one extracted term out of the information packet;

said information packets either provided by an information source or representative of a portion of a received signal provided by an information source;

storage means, configured to allow fast insertion and fast deletion of content, for storing matching term information representative of a reception of matching extracted terms, an alert criteria comprising at least one alert term;

a storage means controller, coupled to the information packet processor and to the storage means, for receiving the at least one extracted term, for determining whether an extracted term out of said at least one extracted term matches an alert term, and accordingly for updating the matching term information; and

an alert module, coupled to the storage means, for processing at least a portion of the matching extracted term information to determine whether to issue an alert; and

for issuing at least one alert to at least one client system, according to said determination;

real time search engine, for real time matching of client queries against the information signals to generate query results;

wherein the real time search engine comprises;

an information packet processor, for receiving an information packet and for processing the information packet to generate at least one processed portion of the information packet;

storage means coupled to the information packet processor, for temporarily storing information representative of a reception of the at least one processed portion of the information packet, wherein the storage means are configured to allow fast insertion and fast deletion of content,

a query and result manager, coupled to the storage means for matching a received client query against at least a portion of content of the storage means to generate a query result.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein the portion of the matching extracted term information is determined by at least one alert criteria.

44. The system of claim 43 wherein the at least one alert criteria comprises at least one alert term that matched the at least one matching extracted term.

45. The system of claim 42 wherein the matching term information is representative of a reception of matching extracted terms during a predetermined period of time.

46. The system of claim 42, wherein the storage means controller is further adapted to store the information packet and related control data in the storage means, and to link between the stored information packet and the matching extracted term information.

47. The system of claim 42 wherein the storage means holds a term index data structure.

48. The system of claim 42 wherein the information packet processor is further adapted to perform at least one preprocessing step selected from the group consisting of:

adding control data to said information packet;

filtering the information packet;

processing an extracted term by adding control information to said extracted term; and

filtering the extracted term, wherein said filtered extracted terms are matched against alert terms.

49. The system of claim 42 wherein the information packet processor is configured to extract an extracted term from an information packet by parsing and stemming the information packet.

50. The system of claim 42 wherein the storage means controller is adapted to delete information packets from the storage means, after a predetermined period has lapsed;

and wherein a deletion of an information packet is followed by a deletion of the linked extracted term information.

51. The system of claim 42 wherein alert terms and matching terms information are stored in an alert terms hash, alert criteria are stored in an alert criteria map and wherein the linked information packets are stored in a message hash.

52. The system of claim 42 wherein the matching extracted term information comprises at least one information field selected from the group consisting of:

a last modification time field, indicating a most recent time of reception of the matching extracted term, during a predetermined period of time;

a number of channels containing term, indicating a number of information sources that provided the matching extracted term during a predetermined period of time;

a total instances field, indicating a total amount of receptions of the matching extracted term during a predetermined period of time; and

a terms inverted entries map, comprising a plurality of matching terms inverted file entries, each entry holding information representative of a reception of the matching extracted term from a single information source during a predetermined period of time.

53. The system of claim 52 wherein each matching term inverted file entry comprises at least one field selected from the group consisting of:

a channel identifier, for identifying the information source that provided the matching extracted term during a predetermined period of time;

instances number, for indicating a total amount of receptions of the matching extracted term from an information source during a predetermined period of time; and

time of last appearance, for indicating a most recent time of reception of the matching extracted term from an information source during a predetermined period of time.

56. The system of claim 42 wherein the storage means controller is adapted to access the message hash table, to obtain relevant entries of said matching extracted terms belonging to said information packet;

and to access said matching extracted terms inverted file for each said matching extracted terms entry pointed to said matching extracted terms inverted file.

57. The system of claim 56 wherein the alert module is adapted to rank information sources according to a similarity between at least a portion of information packets provided by said information sources and between an alert criteria.

58. The system of claim 42, wherein said rank is based upon a parameter selected from the group consisting of:

a total amount of extracted terms provided by an information source in a predefined time interval;

an elapsed time since the extracted term was provided by the information source in said predefined time interval; and

an extracted term position in the information source.

59. The system of claim 42 wherein an information source is selected from the group consisting of:

data network providers, chat channels providers, news providers, and music providers.

60. The system of claim 42 wherein information packets comprise content selected from the group consisting of:

text, audio, video, multimedia, and executable code streaming media.

61. The system of claim 42 further adapted to compute a similarity between an alert criteria and information indicating a reception of a group of at least one matching information packet.

62. The system of claim 61 wherein the group of at least one information packet comprises at least one information packet received from a single information source.

63. The system of claim 61 wherein the similarity reflects at least one of the following parameters:

a total amount of extracted terms being received from at least one information source during a predefined time interval;

a number of matching extracted terms being received from at least one information source during the predefined time interval;

a total number of information sources being searched during the predefined time interval;

an elapsed time since a last appearance of a matching extracted term from an information source during the predefined time interval;

a position of matching extracted terms in at least one information source;

an extracted term in proximity to a matching extracted term;

a part of speech of a matching extracted term; and

a matching extracted term frequency and importance in a language of the information source.

64. The system of claim 42 wherein the alert module is further adapted to implement a matching technique selected from the group consisting of:

Boolean based matching;

probabilistic matching;

fuzzy matching;

proximity matching; and

vector based matching.

65. The system of claim 42 wherein the alert module is further adapted to implement complex matching techniques.

66. The system of claim 42 wherein an alert comprises at least one field selected from the group consisting of:

an information source identifier field, for identifying an information source that either provided a matching extracted packer or for identifying an information source that provided a received signal, wherein a portion of said received signal is represented in an information packet from which the extracted term was extracted;

a link field, for allowing the client system to be linked to the information source or for allowing the client system to receive relevant information from said information source; and

an information source category identification, identifying a category of information source that provided the matching extracted term.

67. The system of claim 66 wherein relevant information is selected from the group consisting of:

a multimedia stream originated by said information source;

a stream of information packets originated by said information source;

a multimedia stream associated to the information packet from which the extracted term was extracted;

a stream of information packets, comprising the extracted term.

68. The system of claim 42 wherein the information packet processor comprises at least one module selected from the group of modules consisting of:

a message coordinator module adapted to coordinate handling of a plurality of information packets;

a message filter module for filtering the plurality of information packets according to predefined rules;

a term extractor module for performing parsing and stemming on said plurality of information packets; and

a terms filter for excluding extracted terms according to predefined rules.

69. The system of claim 42, wherein the storage means holds a term index data structure, said term index data structure further comprising:

an alert terms hash table to hold alert terms;

a matching extracted terms inverted file pointed to by said alert term hash table holding a matching extracted terms inverted entry map;

a messages hash table to hold information packets identification;

a messages data table to hold information packets data; and

a channel map to hold a list of information sources and the related number of index terms of said information source.

70. The system of claim 69 wherein the terms inverted file further comprises:

a matching extracted terms inverted entries map table;

a total instances of said matching extracted term;

a number of information sources containing said matching extracted term; and

a last modification time of said matching extracted term.

71. The system of claim 70 further comprising:

a message terms keyed map;

an information source identification; and

an information packet time of arrival.

72. The system of claim 71 wherein the message terms keyed map further comprises:

a pointer to said matching extracted terms inverted file;

an instances number of said matching extracted term in said information packet; and

a pointer to said inverted file entry related to said matching extracted term.

73. The system of claim 72 wherein the matching extracted terms inverted entries map further comprises:

an information source identification;

an instances number of said matching extracted term in said information source informational content; and

a time of last appearance of said matching extracted term in said information source informational content.

74. The system of claim 42 wherein the storage means further allows timely deletions of irrelevant or time-decayed terms and query-terms.

75. The system of claim 42 further comprising an alert criteria module, coupled to the storage means, to the storage means controller and to a plurality of client systems, for handling client system requests and for updating alert criteria.

76. The system of claim 75 wherein the alert criteria module comprises at least one module selected from the group consisting of:

an alert criteria coordinator module to coordinate the processing of alert criteria;

an alert term extractor to parse and stem incoming alert criteria in order to extract and process operative alert terms; and

an alert terms filter for excluding specific alert terms in a predefined manner.

54. The system of step 53 wherein each information packet is further associated to a message terms key map, said message key map comprising a plurality of message characteristic entries, each message characteristic entry associated to a matching extracted term being extracted from the information packet, said message characteristic entry comprising at least one of the following fields selected from the group consisting of:

a term inverted file, for pointing to the matching extracted term information;

an instance of number, for indicating a number of times said matching extracted term appeared in the information packet; and

an inverted file entry, for pointing to a terms inverted file entry.

55. The system of claim 54 wherein the storage means controller is further adapted to determine a deletion of an information packet and associated matching extracted term information.