Method and system for tracking network use

• US 6,983,478 B1
• Filed: 02/01/2000
• Issued: 01/03/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alphonso, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Swix, Scott R., Danner, III, Fred Thomas, Batten, John Christopher, Grauch, Edward Rowland, Stefanik, John R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Srivastava, Vivek
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ustaris, Joseph G.
• Application Number:
  US09/496,825
• Time in Patent Office: 2,163 Days
• Field of Search: 725/9, 725/14, 725/16, 725/21, 725/46, 725/58, 725/61, 725/13
• US Class Current: 725/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0258 Registration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0264 based upon schedule
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/38 Arrangements for distribution where lower stations, e.g. receivers, interact with the broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/64 for providing detail information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

An interactive media delivery system enables interactive media programming to a multimedia device and also tracks a subscriber'"'"'s use of the multimedia device. For example, the device tracks events, such as a change in programming, a change in channel selection, and/or the subscriber'"'"'s interaction with a particular interactive services application. Each event may be stored as an event record in a database, and one or more of the event records may be merged with content data to form event timelines of programming or other activity to the multimedia device over a selected time period. Further, timelines may be analyzed to generate ratings and other information about programming and may also be correlated with demographics data for marketing analysis.

Claims

1. A system for collecting and processing information about subscribers'"'"' selection and use of programming distributed over a media delivery network, the system comprising:

a) merge processor coupled via means for communication to

b) a plurality of set top boxes, each comprising a processor for

(1) collecting a plurality of event records that describe selected commands from a subscriber to a particular set top box and

(2) transmitting event records to the merge processor;

c) wherein the merge processor forms an event timeline describing a subscriber'"'"'s selection of distributed programming for a discrete time period by merging the event records with programming data describing programming available via the media delivery system.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein the programming data comprises data collected from at least two sources selected from the group consisting of:

a broadcasting schedule source, a national advertising schedule source, a local advertising schedule source and an interactive application use schedule source.

3. A system according to claim 1 wherein each set top box further comprises a plurality of applications capable of being invoked by a subscriber.

4. A system according to claim 3 wherein each event record comprises:

(1) an application identifier corresponding to the application associated with the recorded event;

(2) an event identification code; and

(3) a time stamp associated with the initiation of the event.

5. A system according to claim 4 wherein each application creates an event upon detection of selected commands from the subscriber.

6. A system according to claim 1 further comprising a buffer for storing the event records before transmission.

7. A system according to claim 1 wherein the merge processor forms an event timeline for each of the plurality of set top boxes.

8. A system according to claim 7 further comprising an analysis engine for correlating the event timelines with demographics information describing the subscribers.

9. A method for journaling information about subscriber use of a media delivery network for delivering programming and a merge processor for analyzing the resulting journaled information, the method comprising the steps of:

a) collecting information about a plurality of subscribers'"'"' use of a media delivery network, the collecting step comprising;

i) identifying commands of interest from each subscriber;

ii) forming event records that record at least the commands of interest and a time associated with the command;

b) transmitting event records to the merge processor;

c) merging the event records with data describing the programming delivered over the media network in order to form event timelines of which describes the programming selected by a particular subscriber over a discrete time period.

10. A method according to claim 9 wherein the identifying step comprises the step of correlating each command of interest with a global table comprising identification codes.

11. A method according to claim 9 further comprising the step of filtering the event timelines in order to classify subscribers'"'"' viewing patterns into at least two categories.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein the first category comprises programming watched by a subscriber for greater than a selected threshold percent of the total program length.

13. A system for determining the viewing habits of subscribers to a media delivery network for delivering programming, the system comprising:

a) a collector for collecting event records describing subscribers'"'"' selection and use of programming;

b) means, coupled to the collector, for communicating event records to

c) a merge processor for processing the event records to form a selected subscriber an event timeline describing the programming delivered to a selected subscriber over a particular time period via the media delivery network;

d) means for storing demographics information about selected groups of subscribers; and

e) wherein the merge processor forms a plurality of event timelines and correlates the demographics information with the event timelines.

14. A system according to claim 13 in which the merge processor applies filtering criteria to the event records to determine the programming watched by a subscriber for greater than a selected percent of the programming.

15. A system according to claim 14 in which the collector is deployed upon a set top box that is associated with a display device for displaying delivered programming.

16. A system according to claim 15 in which the subscriber controls the set top box via a remote device in order to invoke and run a variety of applications and the collector forms event records by:

a) identifying a code that corresponds to a command of interest entered by a selected subscriber; and

b) storing in a buffer, associated with the collector, an event record comprising

(1) the code corresponding to the command; and

(2) a time stamp.