Psychographic device fingerprinting

• US 10,754,945 B2
• Filed: 09/16/2011
• Issued: 08/25/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Etchegoyen, Craig S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dollinger, Tonia L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Goodwin, Schquita D
• Application Number:
  US13/235,281
• Publication Number:
  US 20120072546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,266 Days
• Field of Search: 709219, 709223, 725 61, 725 34, 725 10, 7155001, 705 1466, 705 1449, 717104, 726 26, 726 7, 702181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/316 by observing the pattern of computer usage, e.g. typical user behaviour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/552 involving long-term monitoring or reporting
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/51 of receiving stations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18

Abstract

A system for generating a psychographic device fingerprint includes a server in communication with a network and memory storing a program which, when executed by the server, performs steps for (a) detecting reception at a computing device of media content delivered via the network, (b) reading device elements stored on the computing device, (c) reading a geographic indicator from the computing device, (d) reading a content indicator identifying the media content, (e) determining a timing parameter associated with reception of the content at the computing device, and (f) deriving from the device type, the geographic indicator, the content indicator, and the timing parameter, the psychographic device fingerprint as computer readable code uniquely identifying a user of the computing device. The steps may further include recording media content received by multiple computing devices, and generating a viewership report relating computing devices and psychographic device fingerprints to the media content received.

Claims

1. A system for generating a psychographic device fingerprint, comprising:

a computing device in data communication with a network; and

memory accessible by the computing device and storing a psychographic device fingerprint generating program which, when executed by the computing device, causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least;

(a) detecting reception at the computing device of media content delivered via the network;

(b) reading one or more device elements from memory stored on the computing device;

(c) reading a geographic indicator from memory stored on the computing device;

(d) reading a content indicator identifying the media content;

(e) determining a timing parameter associated with reception of the content at the computing device;

(f) deriving from the one or more device elements, the geographic indicator, the content indicator, and the timing parameter, a bit stream comprising the psychographic device fingerprint, the bit stream uniquely identifying the computing device and a collection of one or more users of the computing device,

(g) comparing the psychographic device fingerprint to fingerprints stored in a database; and

(h) selecting, responsive to detecting a match between the psychographic device fingerprint and one of the stored fingerprints, additional media content intended for the collection of one or more users,

wherein the timing parameter represents a duration for which the media content was displayed on the computing device, and

wherein the program, when executed, causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least also identifying a device type solely from the one or more device elements.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each of steps (b)-(e) are executed responsive to step (a).

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the media content comprises streaming video.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the program, when executed, causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least also:

(i) delivering the additional media content to the computing device.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a server.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the computing device is a client computing device.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein steps (b)-(e) are performed by a browser.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein steps (b)-(e) are performed by an operating system.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein steps (b)-(e) are performed by a processor of said computing device using data stored in one or more web cookies.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the one or more device elements comprise non-user-configurable configuration data.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the content indicator comprises URL header information.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the content indicator comprises a program title.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the geographic indicator is derived from data stored in web cookies.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the program, when executed, causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least also reading data representing browsing history of the computing device, and wherein the deriving step further comprises deriving the psychographic device fingerprint from the browsing history data.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the program, when executed, causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least also:

(h) recording in a database the media content received, the psychographic device fingerprint, and receipt of the media content by the computing device.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the program executes steps (a)-(h) for each of multiple computing devices, and causes the computing device to generate the psychographic device fingerprint by at least also:

generating a viewership report relating numbers of computing devices to media content received by the multiple computing devices.