MEDIA DATA USAGE MEASUREMENT AND REPORTING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20130339521A1
• Filed: 08/16/2013
• Published: 12/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Nielsen Company LLC (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Arbitron Inc. (MOOD Media Corporation)
• Inventors: Hebeler, John W. Jr., Kunchakarra, Prasad V., Dietz, Thomas L. III
• Granted Patent: US 9,426,240 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4488 Object-oriented
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/062 related to network traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/289 Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network
• 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 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/564 Enhancement of application control based on intercepted application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/00 Arrangements for metering, time-control or time indication ; Metering, charging or billing arrangements for voice wireline or wireless communications, e.g. VoIP
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/57 for integrated multimedia messaging subsystem [IMS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/58 based on statistics of usage or network monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0188 Network monitoring; statistics on usage on called/calling number
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/2026 Wireless network, e.g. GSM, PCS, TACS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/208 IMS, i.e. Integrated Multimedia messaging Subsystem
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/32 : Involving wireless systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/24 : Accounting or billing

Abstract

An audience measurement system for gathering data reflecting usage of media data by a user on a processing device configured to process and present the media data locally on the processing device. Report objects may be generated by the processing device, wherein each of the report objects reflect usage of media data by each user of a processing device. Each of the report objects are configured to be generated regardless whether the media data was received from a network source or a source local to each processing device. In certain exemplary embodiments, report objects may correspond to different media data categories, and/or different user agents. The report objects may be assembled into a macro report.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for gathering data for media data usage reports for a processing device serving to process and present the media data locally on the processing device, said method comprising the steps of:

gathering usage data on the processing device via media data usage gathering objects representing usage of media data on the processing device, said media data usage gathering objects being configured to gather usage data regardless of whether the media data was received from an external network source or a source that is local to the processing device,

wherein each media data usage gathering object corresponds to one of (i) a different media data type, and (ii) a different user agent associated with the media data; and

instantiating a session object to merge the plurality of media data usage gathering objects into one of a respective (i) user session and (ii) resource control location (RCL) session.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising the step of providing a report object for reporting the user session and/or RCL session.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the report object merges the session object into itself.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 wherein one or more user sessions and/or RCL sessions are selected and merged into the report object.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 further comprising the step of generating a macro report based upon the report object.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the media data usage gathering object preprocesses the media usage data.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the media data usage gathering object preprocesses the media usage data by gathering media usage data based upon predetermined selection criteria.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the session object encapsulates qualitative data.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 wherein the session object includes and relates the media usage data and qualitative data.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the media data comprises at least one of graphical data, audio data, streaming media data, video data, text, web pages and image data.

11. A computer-implemented method for generating reports in a reporting system on usage of media data on processing devices serving to process and present the media data locally on each processing device, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving report objects generated by each processing device, wherein each of the report objects reflect usage of media data on each respective processing device, and wherein each of the report objects are configured to be generated regardless of whether the media data was received in the processing device from a network source or a source local to each processing device; and

assembling the received report objects into at least one macro report in accordance with predetermined parameters.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising the step of coordinating and collecting at least one of (1) at least one macro report and (2) report objects, from at least one other reporting system.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein each of the report objects represents gathered usage data for a single predetermined category of media data.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the report objects are merged into a session object corresponding to a respective user session and/or RCL session.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the session object encapsulates qualitative data.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the session object includes and relates media usage data and qualitative data.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the media data comprises streaming media.

18. A computer-implemented method for managing reports in a reporting system on usage of media data on processing devices configured to process and present the media data locally on the processing devices, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving in the reporting system at least one of (1) a macro report and (2) report objects generated by the processing devices, from at least one other reporting system, wherein

each of the report objects reflect usage of media data by each user of the at least one processing device,

and wherein each of the report objects are configured to be generated regardless whether the media data was received from a network source or a source local to each processing device,

and wherein the report objects correspond to at least one of (i) different media data types, and (ii) different user agents associated with the media data,

wherein the macro report comprises report objects assembled in the other reporting system; and

formatting the collected macro reports for presentation.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, wherein the report objects are merged into a session object corresponding to a respective user session and/or RCL session.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 19, wherein the session object encapsulates qualitative data.