Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system – History logging or time stamping
Patent
1998-03-02
2000-09-05
Shah, Kamini
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system
History logging or time stamping
39518701, G06F 1740
Patent
active
061156809
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a system for monitoring computer use and, more particularly, a system for collecting, logging, and analyzing preselected operations in a personal computer and reporting use trends.
2. Description of the Related Technology
The popularity of personal computers has exploded in the past decade. Each year more and more people have used more and more personal computers in more and more ways. This raped expansion has resulted in an astronomical increase in the amount of money spent on computers, computer related services, computer software, computer peripherals and electronic information and information services. In just the past few years, on-line services such as CompuServe, Prodigy, and America On-Line have gone from virtual obscurity to household words. Our children learn to surf the "net" before they can ride bicycles. Heretofore, there has been no effective reliable mechanism to measure computer usage on a local or broad basis.
Organizations which sell any computer related products or services or which conduct any marketing activity in any electronic format will have an intense need to measure use of computer related resources and dissemination of electronic information. In much the same fashion that television advertisers rely on television ratings and viewer demographics to evaluate television marketing, "electronic" advertisers and sellers and producers of computer related products and services will need to evaluate information on computer use and "on-line ratings."
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to facilitate the collection of reliable information regarding the use of personal computer software.
It is a further object of the invention to facilitate the collection of reliable multi-media viewing statistics of commercial on-line services as well as access to the "information superhighway," including the use of the Internet's World Wide Web.
It is a further object of the invention to facilitate the establishment of a panel of personal computer using households in order to develop useful reports for a number of different industries including, without limitation, software manufacturers, commercial on-line service providers, computer hardware manufacturers, and on-line marketers.
According to the invention, a system may be provided to intercept and monitor operating system messages. Such messages may be targeted instructions to various applications or operating system overhead messages. Such messages may be generated internally by the operating system software, such as the Microsoft Windows operating environment. A system according to the invention may filter through a vast array of messages and capture only specific messages, such as those messages which indicate a change in focus from one application to another. These changes in focus may include but are not limited to an application launch, the termination of an application, switching resources from one application to another, minimizing an application, or restoring an application.
According to the invention, operating system messages may be intercepted and relevant messages may be recorded in a log file, along with other pertinent or useful information. Such pertinent or useful information may include date stamps, time stamps, message types such as launch, terminate, switch, minimize, restore, etc., household ID numbers, identification of individual users within a household, identification of an application's executable program file name and file size, an application's Window title, and the handle to the "instance" of the application. A household identification number may be a number which uniquely identifies a personal computer within a "panel" of households, each of which is contributing data to the system through use of a local metering system.
Advantageously, the system according to the invention may be utilized in association with a plurality of computers and computer users. The computers and computer users associated with the system may be i
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Coffee Steven R.
Costello Stephen J.
Pinsley David B.
Poloniewicz Karen A.
Stanziani Steven N.
Media Metrix, Inc.
Miller Craig Steven
Shah Kamini
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