Systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure mobile device usage

• US 9,020,463 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2011
• Issued: 04/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Kandregula, Anil
• Primary Examiner(s): Khan, Mehmood B
• Application Number:
  US13/340,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20130171960A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 455405-408
• US Class Current: 455/405
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3072 where the reporting involves data filtering, e.g. pattern matching, time or event triggered, adaptive or policy-based reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/28 with meter at substation or with calculation of charges at terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 Accounting or billing

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture to measure mobile device usage are disclosed. An example method to determine mobile device usage includes filtering, with a processor, a debug log file stored in the device to obtain debug file entries representative of device usage information, the debug log file having been modified by at least one of an operating system of the device or a device application, and sending, to a server, a filtered log file based on filtering the debug log file.

Claims

1. A method to determine usage of a device, comprising:

filtering, via a first application executed by a processor, a public debug log file stored in the device to obtain debug messages that are stored in the public debug log file by a plurality of second applications executed by the processor and representative of device usage information, the public debug log file including messages associated with performance of the second applications and the device, the public debug log file being included on the device to store messages and information for reviewing performance of the device and the second applications, the filtering of the public debug log file including;

identifying an application title or a service title in a first one of the debug messages in the public debug log file;

determining whether the first one of the debug messages is a message of interest based on the application title or the service title;

identifying at least one of a uniform resource identifier or a uniform resource locator in a second one of the debug messages in the public debug log file; and

determining whether the second one of the debug messages is a message of interest based on the content of the uniform resource identifier or the uniform resource locator; and

sending, to an audience measurement entity server, a filtered log file based on the filtering of the public debug log file.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the sending of the filtered log file includes sending information representative of a multimedia event or information representative of an advertisement sent to the device.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the filtering of the public debug log file comprises generating the filtered log file from the public debug log file.

4. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the filtered debug log file comprises usage information.

5. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein generating the filtered log file is in response to a threshold amount of time lapsing.

6. A method as defined in claim 3, wherein the filtering of the public debug log file comprises updating the filtered log file from the public debug log file.

7. A method as defined in claim 6, wherein the device is a mobile device and the filtering is done by the first application on the mobile device.

18. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein filtering the debug log file comprises identifying debug messages in the debug log file that include an identification of media presented via the device.

19. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the filtered log file comprises debug messages stored in the public debug log file that identify media presented via the device.

20. A method as defined in claim 2, wherein the multimedia event is at least one of an audio event, a video event, or an audio/video event.

21. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein filtering the public debug log file comprises identifying the ones of the debug messages that are assigned a DEBUG priority level.

22. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein the second applications comprise at least one of a video application, a game application, a web browser application, or an operating system.

23. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising installing the first application on the device when an audience measurement panelist associated with the device has agreed to have activities occurring on the device monitored.

8. A mobile device, comprising:

a log filter to generate a filtered log file from a public debug log file stored in the mobile device to obtain debug messages that are stored in the public debug log file by applications and operating system services executed by the mobile device and that are representative of mobile device usage information, the public debug log file comprising messages associated with performance of the applications and the operating system services, the public debug log file being included on the device to store messages and information for reviewing performance of the mobile device and the applications, the log filter to generate the filtered log file by;

identifying an application title or a service title in a first one of the debug messages in the public debug log file;

determining whether the first one of the debug messages is a first message of interest based on the application title or the service title;

identifying at least one of a uniform resource identifier or a uniform resource locator in a second one of the debug messages in the public debug log file; and

determining whether the second one of the debug messages is a second message of interest based on the content of the uniform resource identifier or the uniform resource locator; and

a filtered log reporter to send, to an audience measurement entity server, the filtered log file.

9. A mobile device as defined in claim 8, wherein the log filter is to generate the filtered log file by determining whether a debug message in the public debug log file is associated with a monitored one of the applications and operating system services.

10. A tangible article of manufacture comprising machine readable instructions which, when executed, cause a processor to at least:

execute a first device application to filter a public debug log file stored in a device housing the processor to obtain debug messages that are stored in the public debug log file by second applications executed by the processor, the debug messages being representative of usage information, the public debug log file including messages associated with performance of the second applications and the device, the public debug log file being included on the device to store messages and information for reviewing performance of the device and the second applications, the instructions to cause the processor to filter the public debug log file by;

identifying an application title or a service title in a first one of the debug messages in the public debug log file;

determining whether the first one of the debug messages is the message of interest based on the application title or the service title;

identifying at least one of a uniform resource identifier or a uniform resource locator in a second one of the debug messages in the public debug log file; and

determining whether the second one of the debug messages is a message of interest based on the content of the uniform resource identifier or the uniform resource locator; and

export, to an audience measurement entity server, a filtered log file generated by the first device application filtering the public debug log file.

11. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to export the filtered log file by exporting information representative of a multimedia event or information representative of an advertisement sent to the device.

12. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to filter the public debug log file by generating the filtered log file from the public debug log file.

13. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12, wherein the filtered log file comprises usage information.

14. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 13, wherein the usage information comprises at least one of a timestamp, an application name, a service name, an informational message, a uniform resource locator, or a uniform resource identifier.

15. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 12, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to generate the filtered log file in response to a threshold amount of time lapsing.

16. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to decrypt a debug log message to determine usage information.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 10, wherein the instructions are to cause the processor to filter the public debug log file by updating the filtered log file from the public debug log file.