Real-time tracking collection for video experiences

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9635398-B2
Application number	US-201314070014-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 1, 2013
Priority date	Nov 1, 2013
Publication date	Apr 25, 2017
Grant date	Apr 25, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for tracking events associated with use of video content are disclosed. A method collects events associated with use of video content at a computing device. In response to determining that a tracking interval has elapsed, the method optimizes the collected events by grouping similar events together, serializes the optimized events by structuring the optimized events in a defined format, and creates a tracking call to send the serialized events to a remote computing device. A system determines setup parameters for tracking collection on a client computing device, the setup parameters comprising an error tracking parameter, and setup check and tracking intervals. The system periodically receives serialized event data from a client device in accordance with the tracking interval, the event data having been collected in response to occurrences of tracked events associated with use of video content at the client device, the video content including an advertisement.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for real-time tracking of events associated with use of video content, the method comprising:
collecting, by a tracking collection system, event data for a plurality of events associated with a rendition of the video content at a computing device, the rendition of the video content including one or more advertisements, wherein the event data includes an advertisement event type comprising a measurement of user interaction with the one or more advertisements in the rendition of the video content, a playback event type comprising playback data describing the rendition of the video content at the computing device, and a quality event type comprising quality-of-service data for the rendition of the video content at the computing device;
determining, by the tracking collection system, that a defined tracking interval has passed, wherein multiple tracking intervals pass during the same rendition of the video content; and
in response to determining that the defined tracking interval has passed:
optimizing, by an optimizer of the tracking collection system, the collected event data by grouping a first set of events having the advertisement event type and similar event data into a first common data item, grouping a second set of events having the playback event type and similar event data into a second common data item, and grouping a third set of events having the quality event type and similar event data into third common data item;
serializing, by a serializer of the tracking collection system, the optimized event data by structuring the optimized event data in a defined format for sending, in a common transmission for the defined tracking interval, the first common data item, the second common data item, and the third common data item; and
creating, by the tracking collection system, a tracking call capable of sending the serialized event data to a tracking server remote from the computing device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending, by a sender of the tracking collection system, the serialized event data to the tracking server by invoking the tracking call; and
repeating the collecting and the determining while the rendition of the video content is in use at the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more advertisements is an item of electronic content including one or more of text, image, hypervideo, and multimedia content.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the collected event data comprises, for each of the plurality of events, one or more of an event timestamp, an event type, and a previous event timestamp, the previous event timestamp representing a most-recent event timestamp for a prior event having a similar event type.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the advertisement event type is one or more of an ad start event and an ad play event, wherein the second event type is one or more of a video start event and a video play event, wherein the quality event type is one or more of a video buffering event, and a bitrate change event.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tracking call is formatted as a hypertext transfer protocol call.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the defined tracking interval is a tunable interval set to a default value of 9 seconds.

8. A tracking collection system comprising:
a tracking server comprising a processor and a memory having executable instructions stored thereon, that, when executed by the processor, cause the tracking server to perform operations for tracking events associated with use of video content, the operations comprising:
determining setup parameters for a tracking collection engine implemented on a client computing device that is remote from the tracking server, the setup parameters comprising an error tracking parameter, a setup check interval, and a tracking interval, wherein the tracking collection engine comprises:
a collector module capable of collecting event data for a plurality of events associated with a rendition of the video content at the client computing device, the rendition of the video content including one or more advertisements, wherein the event data includes an advertisement event type comprising a measurement of user interaction with the one or more advertisements in the rendition of the video content, a playback event type comprising playback data describing the rendition of the video content, and a quality event type comprising quality-of-service data for the rendition of the video content,
an optimizer module capable of optimizing, in response to the defined tracking interval having passed, the collected event data by grouping a first set of events having the advertisement event type and similar event data into a first common data item, grouping a second set of events having the playback event type and similar event data into a second common data item, and grouping a third set of events having the quality event type and similar event data into third common data item,
a serializer module capable of serializing the optimized event data by structuring the optimized event data in a defined format for sending, in a common transmission for the defined tracking interval, the first common data item, the second common data item, and the third common data item, and
a sender module capable of creating and invoking a tracking call capable of sending the serialized event data to the tracking server, and

periodically receiving serialized event data from the sender module in accordance with the defined tracking interval.

9. The tracking collection system of claim 8 , wherein the serialized event data comprises, for each of a plurality of tracked events, one or more of an event timestamp, an event type, and a previous event timestamp, the previous event timestamp representing a most-recent event timestamp for a prior event having a similar event type.

10. The tracking collection system of claim 8 , wherein the periodically receiving the serialized event data comprises periodically receiving the tracking call from the sender module of the client computing device, the tracking call being formatted as a hypertext transfer protocol call.

11. The tracking collection system of claim 8 , wherein the use of the video content comprises the playback of the rendition of the video content in a video player executing on the client computing device,
wherein the tracking server is further configured for collecting the serialized event data in real-time and contemporaneously with occurrences tracked events associated with the playback of the rendition of the video content.

12. The tracking collection system of claim 8 , wherein the tracking collection system further comprises a display device communicatively coupled to the tracking server, wherein the operations further comprise:
storing the serialized event data in the memory or another memory;
repeatedly receiving the serialized content while the video content is in use at the client computing device;
presenting, in an interactive user interface on the display device, data representing (i) at least a portion of the serialized event data and (ii) analytics data related to the serialized event data,
wherein determining the setup parameters comprises iteratively querying the client computing device in accordance with the setup check interval to determine current setup parameters for the tracking collection engine.

13. The tracking collection system of claim 8 , wherein the tracking server is communicatively coupled to an input device of the tracking collection system and a display device of the tracking collection system, wherein the operations further compri

Assignees

• Adobe Systems Inc

Inventors

• Ionescu Andrei Cristian

Classifications

• H04N21/812

  involving advertisement data (advertising per se G06Q30/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/44209

  Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network (arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896) · CPC title

• H04N21/2547

  Third Party Billing, e.g. billing of advertiser · CPC title

• G06Q30/00

  Commerce · CPC title

• H04N21/44222

  Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programmes or purchase activity (monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33) · CPC title