Methods and apparatus for nonintrusive monitoring of web browser usage

• US 8,090,822 B2
• Filed: 07/29/2008
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US12/181,841
• Publication Number:
  US 20090259745A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,253 Days
• Field of Search: 709/218, 709/224, 715/719, 725/19, 725/113
• 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;

performing graphical recognition processing on a video image obtained from the video signal to extract an image region less than the entire video image, the extracted image region displaying at least a portion of the web browser, the portion of the web browser including at least a portion of an address bar;

performing textual recognition processing to determine textual information displayed in the portion of the address bar included in the extracted image 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 the image region extracted from the video image is a rectangular region including at least the portion of the address bar of the web browser.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the rectangular region is a first rectangular region and the method further comprises performing graphical recognition processing on the video image to extract a second rectangular region including at least a portion of a title bar of the web browser.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein performing textual recognition processing 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.

5. 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.

6. A method as defined in claim 5 wherein the determined URL corresponds to a web page processed by the web browser.

7. A method as defined in claim 5 further comprising reporting the determined URL to a central processing facility, the central processing facility to process the URL to determine a web site corresponding to a web page processed by the web browser.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the address bar is to display at least a portion of a uniform resource locator (URL) corresponding to a web page displayed by the web browser.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the graphical recognition processing comprises at least one of edge detection, corner detection or blob detection.

10. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein performing textual recognition processing 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.

11. 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.

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

a video interface, implemented by at least one of hardware or a combination of hardware and at least one of software or firmware, to accept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser;

a graphical recognition processor to extract a rectangular image region that is a subset of a video image of the video signal, the extracted rectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least a portion of an address bar of the web browser included in the video image;

a textual recognition processor to extract uniform resource locator (URL) information included in the extracted rectangular image region; and

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

13. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the extracted rectangular image region is a first extracted rectangular image region, and the graphical recognition processor is further to extract a second rectangular image region from the video image, the second extracted rectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least a portion of a title bar of the web browser displayed in the video image of the video signal.

14. An apparatus as defined in claim 13 wherein the textual recognition processor is further to extract title information included in the second extracted rectangular image region.

15. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 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.

16. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the network interface is to report the extracted title information to the central processing facility.

17. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 wherein the network interface is to interface with an access network providing network connectivity for the device implementing the web browser.

18. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 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.

19. An apparatus as defined in claim 12 further comprising a video interface activity detector to indicate whether an active video signal has been applied to the video interface.

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

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

a graphical recognition processor to extract a rectangular image region that is a subset of a video image of the video signal, the extracted rectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least a portion of an address bar of the web browser included in the video image;

a textual recognition processor to extract uniform resource locator (URL) information included in the extracted rectangular image region; and

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

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

a video interface, implemented by at least one of hardware or a combination of hardware and at least one of software or firmware, to accept a video signal from a device implementing a web browser;

a graphical recognition processor to extract a rectangular image region that is a subset of a video image of the video signal, the extracted rectangular image region having an image characteristic corresponding to a presentation of at least a portion of an address bar of the web browser included in the video image, wherein the graphical recognition processor is to;

determine whether the rectangular image region has a first image characteristic corresponding to the rectangular image region having a light solid background and a high aspect ratio;

determine whether the rectangular image region has a second image characteristic corresponding to the rectangular image region being located below a second rectangular region having a dark solid background;

determine whether the rectangular image region has a third image characteristic corresponding to the rectangular image region being located above a third rectangular region; and

extract the rectangular image region from the video image when the rectangular image region is determined to have the first, second and third image characteristics;

a textual recognition processor to extract uniform resource locator (URL) information included in the extracted rectangular image region; and

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