Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090240572 | BUSINESS TRANSACTION REPORTING SYSTEM - An embodiment of the present invention provides a business transaction reporting system for use in tracking revenue from entertainment commodities distributed by one or more distribution parties. The distribution of the entertainment commodities is conducted through a plurality of entities that are independent from the distribution parties. In the embodiment, at least two of the entities are independent from one another. The system includes a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) computers operated at a plurality of locations. Each computer is operated by one of the independent entities and each POS computer hosts an application for recording entertainment unit transactions related to the entertainment commodities. The system further includes a central host computer system coupled to the POS computers to receive an accounting of the entertainment unit transactions, and a database configured to store, process, and report on the entertainment unit transactions. | 09-24-2009 |
20120260280 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING NON-POWERED VIDEO PLAYBACK DEVICES - A method and system for identifying tune data from set top boxes associated with televisions, video monitors, or other video playback devices that are likely powered off. In some embodiments, survival curves are constructed that predict a length of time before a video playback device is powered off after a tuning event. The survival curves are used to predict the likelihood that a video playback device is powered off. Viewership estimates made from tune data reported from set top boxes can be adjusted to take account of the video playback devices that are predicted to be powered off. | 10-11-2012 |
20130014147 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CLEANING TELEVISION VIEWING MEASUREMENT DATA - A system and method for cleaning television viewing behavior data collected from set top boxes by detecting and correcting various problems that can occur in the viewing data. Three problems that may be detected and corrected by the system include: overflows of memory buffers; inclusion of non-human generated tuning events; and presence of clock offsets. After cleaning the television viewing behavior data, the cleaned data may be used to analyze audience viewing behavior in a manner that achieves a higher degree of accuracy than can be achieved by using uncleaned television viewing behavior data. | 01-10-2013 |
20130014148 | AGGREGATION-BASED METHODS FOR DETECTION AND CORRECTION OF TELEVISION VIEWERSHIP ABERRATIONS - A method cleans television viewing behavior data collected from a plurality of television set top boxes by using aggregation to detect an excess or a deficit in viewership for a group of television set top boxes. In various aspects, the group of set top boxes may be associated with a particular television service provider, cable television head-end, or data warehouse. Additionally, the method can clean television viewing behavior data by detecting and correcting aberrant viewership in a time series, that is based on a weekly or an approximately monthly frequency. The aberrant viewership can be detected by calculating a minimum expected number of viewers for a day, and comparing it to the actual number of households that reported viewers for that day. | 01-10-2013 |
20130084056 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING NON-POWERED VIDEO PLAYBACK DEVICES - A method and system for identifying tune data from set top boxes associated with televisions, video monitors, or other video playback devices that are likely powered off. In some embodiments, survival curves are constructed that predict a length of time before a video playback device is powered off after a tuning event. The survival curves are used to predict the likelihood that a video playback device is powered off. Viewership estimates made from tune data reported from set top boxes can be adjusted to take account of the video playback devices that are predicted to be powered off. | 04-04-2013 |
20140013345 | AGGREGATION-BASED METHODS FOR DETECTION AND CORRECTION OF TELEVISION VIEWERSHIP ABERRATIONS - Various of the disclosed embodiments contemplate television viewing behavior data collected from a plurality of television set top boxes by using aggregation to detect an excess or a deficit in viewership for a group of television set top boxes. In some embodiments, a group of set top boxes can be associated with a particular television service provider, cable television head-end, or data warehouse. Additionally, some embodiments can clean television viewing behavior data by detecting and correcting aberrant viewership in a time series, e.g. based on a weekly or an approximately monthly frequency. In some embodiments, the aberrant viewership can be detected by calculating a minimum expected number of viewers for a day and comparing it to the actual number of households that reported viewers for that day. | 01-09-2014 |
20140157293 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CLEANING TELEVISION VIEWING MEASUREMENT DATA - A system and method for cleaning television viewing behavior data collected from set top boxes by detecting and correcting various problems that can occur in the viewing data. Three problems that may be detected and corrected by the system include: overflows of memory buffers; inclusion of non-human generated tuning events; and presence of clock offsets. After cleaning the television viewing behavior data, the cleaned data may be used to analyze audience viewing behavior in a manner that achieves a higher degree of accuracy than can be achieved by using uncleaned television viewing behavior data. | 06-05-2014 |
20150227950 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ASCERTAINING NETWORK MARKET SUBSCRIPTION COVERAGE - A system and methods for estimating network subscription coverage within or across various markets. The system generates estimates of viewers that subscribe to certain network subscription packages in various geographic markets. The estimates may be organized in different fashions, such as organized by households, by income or other demographic, etc. In some embodiments, the system iteratively scales an estimated viewership count in a given market based on existing subscription data across all the markets and demographic characteristics of the various markets. The system may also redistribute estimates based on market capacity. | 08-13-2015 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20120253874 | GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR PRODUCT QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT - A method to facilitate a Product Quality Planning and Management (PQPM) project associated with a product development cycle is provided. The method includes displaying on a user interface one or more activities to be executed for the PQPM project. The method further includes receiving, with an aid of the user interface, textual inputs indicative of a measurement criterion associated with an execution status the one or more activities. The method further includes tracking a progress of the PQPM project based at least in part on the received textual inputs for the measurement criterion associated with the execution status of the one or more activities. | 10-04-2012 |
20120253875 | RISK REPORTS FOR PRODUCT QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT - A method to facilitate a Product Quality Planning and Management (PQPM) project associated with a product development cycle is provided. The method includes displaying on a user interface one or more activities to be executed for the PQPM project. The method further includes receiving, with an aid of the user interface, textual inputs indicative of a measurement criterion associated with an execution status the one or more activities. The method further includes developing a report to monitor a risk associated with the PQPM project, the report is based on the measurement criterion associated with the execution status of the one or more activities. | 10-04-2012 |
20120254044 | GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR FAILURE MODE AND EFFECT ANALYSIS - A method to facilitate a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle is provided. A real time FMEA status is viewable through a user interface which indicates the progress of the FMEA project. The method includes displaying on the user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts. The method further involves receiving with an aid of the user interface textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts for the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements. The method further includes representing, to the one or more FMEA analysts, the sequential order of elements in a tree structure format. The information associated with the sequential order of elements is editable and is updated in real time. | 10-04-2012 |
20120254710 | RISK CHARTS FOR FAILURE MODE AND EFFECT ANALYSIS - A method to facilitate a failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) project associated with one or more components or process during a product development cycle is provided. The method includes displaying on the user interface one or more information pages associated with sequential order of elements to be completed by one or more FMEA analysts. The method further involves receiving with an aid of the user interface textual inputs from the one or more FMEA analysts for the one or more information pages associated with the sequential orders of elements. The method further includes developing a risk chart for tracking a risk mitigation progress for the FMEA project associated with the one or more components or process during the product development cycle. The risk charts include a Criticality Matrix Risk Chart (CMRC) and a Pro-active Reliability Risk Chart (PRRC). | 10-04-2012 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090282475 | Media Streams from Containers Processed by Hosted Code - Described is a technology by which code, such as an untrusted web application hosted in a browser, provides content through an interface for playback by an application environment, such as an application environment running in a browser plug-in. Content may be in the form of elementary video, audio and/or script streams. The content is in a container that is unpackaged by the application code, whereby the content may be packaged in any format that the application understands, and/or or come from any source from which the application can download the container. An application environment component such as a platform-level media element receives information from an application that informs the application environment that the application is to provide media stream data for playback. The application environment requests media stream data (e.g., samples) from the application, receives them as processed by the application, and provides the requested media stream data for playback. | 11-12-2009 |
20090300597 | APPLICATION LOADING - Extensions or additional software programs that are requested by a computer application running on an application platform are handled in an efficient manner by, among other things, regulating and tracking extensions that are downloaded. This allows the size of the application platform upon which the application is running to remain relatively small so as to mitigate strain on resources when the platform is initially deployed over a network (e.g., the Internet), thus making it easier and more likely for a user to install the application platform (and/or updates thereto). Requested extensions are subsequently added to and/or removed from the (already deployed) application platform based on, among other things, download metrics. | 12-03-2009 |
20090328066 | UNTRUSTED COMPONENT HOSTING - In a computing environment, one may wish to have interoperability between trusted and untrusted controls/plug-ins allowing for richer expression of content and control within a platform. This can be accomplished by allowing an untrusted plug-in to communicate with a trusted plug-in, while having the trusted plug-in exercise control over the platform. This allows for the creation of a layered secure approach of communication with a platform, thus allowing for increased application richness in untrusted third party applications. | 12-31-2009 |
20100146379 | ISOLATING APPLICATIONS HOSTED BY PLUG-IN CODE - Described is a technology in which one application running in a browser can host another application (e.g., an advertisement) in an isolated manner that prevents the hosted application from accessing browser data, or data of any other hosted application (including the host). The host and/or hosted application may be a browser plug-in (e.g., Microsoft® Silverlight™) application. The host application privately instantiates a hidden plug-in, with that hidden plug-in's access to browser data disabled, and loads the hosted application in the hidden plug-in. A XAML tag element may be used to identify the hosted application, along with a rendering area for the hosted application. Content from the hosted application is composited with content from the host application when rendering. The host application may provide keywords to the hosted application, such as for selecting relevant advertisements, and/or may allow the hosted application to open a browser window to display associated website content. | 06-10-2010 |
20100235820 | HOSTED APPLICATION PLATFORM WITH EXTENSIBLE MEDIA FORMAT - A media interaction system is described herein that allows hosted applications to consume and/or produce rich media content independent of the format of the media content, while still maintaining the security of the host. The media interaction system accepts raw, uncompressed media data from a hosted application, and allows the hosted application to provide its own codec through a sandboxed API that restricts the actions the codec can perform to a set of trusted actions. Then, the application provides the uncompressed data to the system for playback. Thus, the media interaction system provides rich media content in any format that the application developer supports, and maintains the security of the user's computer system. | 09-16-2010 |
20140337433 | Media Streams from Containers Processed by Hosted Code - Described is a technology by which code, such as an untrusted web application hosted in a browser, provides content through an interface for playback by an application environment, such as an application environment running in a browser plug-in. Content may be in the form of elementary video, audio and/or script streams. The content is in a container that is unpackaged by the application code, whereby the content may be packaged in any format that the application understands, and/or or come from any source from which the application can download the container. An application environment component such as a platform-level media element receives information from an application that informs the application environment that the application is to provide media stream data for playback. The application environment requests media stream data (e.g., samples) from the application, receives them as processed by the application, and provides the requested media stream data for playback. | 11-13-2014 |