Apparatus, system and methods for portable device tracking using temporary privileged access

• US 9,473,555 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2012
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Lindberg, Tero, Browne, Jason, Stavropoulos, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Parry, Chris
• Assistant Examiner(s): STILTNER, WEIWEI YE
• Application Number:
  US13/731,607
• Publication Number:
  US 20140189095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 709224-226
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/50 Monitoring users, programs or devices to maintain the integrity of platforms, e.g. of processors, firmware or operating systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/51 at application loading time, e.g. accepting, rejecting, starting or inhibiting executable software based on integrity or source reliability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30043 LOAD or STORE instructions; Clear instruction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3009 Thread control instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45512 Command shells
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/468 Specific access rights for resources, e.g. using capability register
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4812 by interrupt, e.g. masked
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5011 the resources being hardware resources other than CPUs, Servers and Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5027 the resource being a machine, e.g. CPUs, Servers, Terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5033 considering data affinity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5038 considering the execution order of a plurality of tasks, e.g. taking priority or time dependency constraints into consideration scheduling strategies G06F9/4881 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/18 Protocol analysers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 : based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 : for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 : involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/55 : Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A computer-implemented system, apparatus and method for accessing a portable device to execute monitoring capabilities. The monitoring capabilities include packet detection, which in turn may be processed to produce media exposure data. The monitoring capabilities are installed using privileged access in order to obtain data from a kernel layer of the portable device, and the device is returned to an original state following installation, in order to comply with operating system requirements. Audio media exposure data may further be integrated with the packet-detected media exposure data.

Claims

1. A method for monitoring a portable device, the method comprising:

activating, by executing an instruction with a processor, a shell to access at least a kernel layer in the portable device;

verifying whether the shell has an elevated privilege;

in response to detecting that the shell does not have the elevated privilege, gaining the elevated privilege;

configuring a packet capturer to capture packets on the portable device using the elevated privilege when the shell is deactivated, the packet capturer to communicate between the kernel layer and a user layer of the portable device;

deactivating the shell; and

analyzing, by executing an instruction with the processor, the packets captured by the packet capturer to produce media exposure data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the portable device includes at least one of a cell phone, smart phone and computer tablet.

3. The method of claim 1, further including receiving audio media exposure data from the portable device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the audio media exposure data comprises at least one of (i) ancillary code relating to audio, or (ii) audio signatures.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the ancillary code is formed from audio signals converted at least in part to a frequency domain.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the packet capturer is embodied on a shared memory in the portable device.

7. A tangible machine-readable storage disk or storage device comprising instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to at least:

activate a shell to access at least a kernel layer in the portable device;

verify whether the shell has an elevated privilege;

in response to detecting that the shell does not have the elevated privilege, gain the elevated privilege;

configure a packet capturer to capture packets on the portable device using the elevated privilege when the shell is deactivated, the packet capturer to communicate between the kernel layer and a user layer of the portable device;

deactivate the shell; and

analyze the packets captured by the packet capturer to produce media exposure data.

8. The tangible machine readable storage disk or storage device of claim 7, wherein the portable device includes at least one of a cell phone, smart phone and computer tablet.

9. The tangible machine readable storage disk or storage device of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the machine to receive audio media exposure data from the portable device.

10. The tangible machine readable storage disk or storage device of claim 9, wherein the audio media exposure data comprises at least one of (i) ancillary code relating to audio, or (ii) audio signatures.

11. The tangible machine readable storage disk or storage device of claim 10, wherein the ancillary code is formed from audio signals converted at least in part to a frequency domain.

12. The tangible machine readable storage disk or storage device of claim 7, wherein the packet capturer is embodied on a shared memory in the portable device.