JP7569396B2 - Viewing status assessment system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a system for understanding the viewing status of target households in a viewing survey.

Conventionally, there is known technology that collects viewing data including television viewing logs from each household and uses the viewing data to understand the viewing status of television broadcasts (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Patent No. 6433615

In recent years, televisions that can connect to the Internet have become popular, and with this type of television, it is possible to watch not only television broadcasts, but also videos provided by various video distribution sites on the Internet. With this type of television, the viewing data acquired will be a mixture of viewing log information about television broadcasts and viewing data about videos.

On the other hand, for example, when television viewing data is used to understand the viewing status of television broadcasts, if the acquired viewing log information includes viewing log information about videos viewed via the Internet, it is difficult to accurately distinguish between broadcasts and video distribution.

It is important to note here that households are now able to access not only broadcasts but also video content and non-video websites, and there is a particular need to understand the actual usage of websites on television monitors and other devices (such as smartphones and tablets).

The present invention has been made in light of this background, and aims to provide a viewing status assessment system that can assess the actual usage of websites on television monitors and other devices (such as smartphones and tablets).

In order to achieve the above object, the viewing status grasping system of the present invention comprises: a communication log acquiring unit that acquires a communication log showing the connection status of the target households to the Internet in a viewing survey;
a communication analysis server that generates video usage data of the target households for the viewing survey from the communication logs acquired by the communication log acquisition unit;
The first invention is characterized by having a viewing survey server that links the video usage data generated by the communication analysis server to a television monitor, and determines that linked viewing data is viewing data from a television monitor via the Internet, while determining that video usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is video viewing other than on a television monitor.

According to the first invention, first, a communication analysis server generates video usage data for the target households of the viewing survey from a communication log. Then, from among the video usage data, the video usage data is linked to a television monitor, and the linked viewing data is determined to be viewing data from a television monitor via the Internet, while the video usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is determined to be video viewing other than on a television monitor.

This makes it possible to understand the actual usage of video sites on television monitors and other devices (such as smartphones and tablets).

In the first aspect of the present invention, the communication analysis server generates site usage data by excluding the video usage data from the communication log acquired by the communication log acquisition unit,
The viewing survey server links the site usage data generated by the communication analysis server to a television monitor, and determines that linked site usage data is site usage by a television monitor via the Internet, while determining that site usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is site usage other than on a television monitor (second invention).

By applying the same techniques as for video usage data to site usage data excluding video usage data, it will be possible to understand the actual usage of sites on television monitors and other devices (such as smartphones and tablets).

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a viewing situation grasping system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a flowchart showing a process of a communication log acquisition unit shown in FIG. 1 . 4 is a flowchart showing a process of the communication analysis server shown in FIG. 1 . 4 is a flowchart showing a process of the communication analysis server shown in FIG. 1 . 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the viewing survey server shown in FIG. 1 .

One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to Figs. 1 to 5. With reference to Fig. 1, the viewing status ascertainment system of this embodiment comprises a television monitor 1 provided in a viewing survey target household A, a communication analysis server 20, and a viewing survey server 30. In the illustrated example, the number of television monitors 1 provided in a viewing survey target household A (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as target household A) is, for example, two, but it may be one, or three or more.

Target household A is equipped with a router 10, and each television monitor 1 can communicate with the router 10 as a client of a local area network established within target household A by the router 10, and can also communicate with the external Internet via the router 10 as necessary. Each television monitor 1 can receive and broadcast television broadcasts, and can receive and broadcast videos from various video distribution sites by communicating with the Internet. It should be noted that not only television monitors 1, but also communication terminals such as smartphones and tablet terminals used by users in target household A can communicate with the Internet via the router 10.

The router 10 incorporates a function as a communication log acquisition unit 11 that acquires a communication log that indicates the communication connection status between the Internet and the target household A, or the communication log acquisition unit 11 is connected to the router 10. The communication log acquisition unit 11 is capable of communicating with the communication analysis server 20 via the Internet, and is capable of transmitting the acquired communication log to the communication analysis server 20.

Target household A is further provided with a viewing data acquisition unit 12 that acquires viewing data including viewing logs of television broadcasts by each television monitor 1 (data indicating which channel or broadcasting station's television broadcast was viewed and when). The viewing data acquired by the viewing data acquisition unit 12 may include, in addition to the viewing logs for each television monitor 1, identification information for each television monitor 1, viewer attributes, and other information.

The communication analysis server 20 and the viewing survey server 30 are each composed of one or more computers. The communication analysis server 20 can execute analysis processing (described in detail below) on the communication logs sent from the communication log acquisition unit 11 by functions realized by the implemented hardware configuration and program (software configuration).

In addition, the viewing survey server 30, through functions realized by the implemented hardware configuration and program (software configuration), can perform processing (details described later) related to a survey of the viewing status of television broadcasts in multiple target households, including target household A, using data provided by the communication analysis server 20 and viewing data transmitted from the viewing data acquisition unit 12 of target household A.
The communication analysis server 20 and the viewing survey server 30 may be integrated into a single server.

Next, the processing of the communication log acquisition unit 11, the communication analysis server 20, and the viewing survey server 30 will be described in more detail. The communication log acquisition unit 11 executes the processing as shown in FIG. 2.

In STEP 1, the communication log acquisition unit 11 sequentially captures communication packets passing through the router 10. Then, in STEP 2, the communication log acquisition unit 11 determines whether the port number related to the communication packet is "53" (= the port number related to the DNS (Domain Name System) service). If the result of the determination in STEP 2 is negative, in STEP 3, the communication log acquisition unit 11 generates and stores a communication log indicating the communication time of the communication packet, the MAC address, IP address, and port number of each of the communication source and destination, and the amount of data.

If the determination result in STEP 2 is positive, the communication log acquisition unit 11 generates and stores a communication log in STEP 4 that indicates the communication time of the communication packet, the MAC address of the queried device, and the result of the name resolution. More specifically, the "name" of the server refers to the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name).

Then, the communication log acquisition unit 11 transmits the communication log generated as described above to the communication analysis server 20 in response to a request from the communication analysis server 20 or at a predetermined timing.
The communication analysis server 20 executes the processes shown in the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 for each target household based on the received communication log.

In STEP 11, the communication analysis server 20 determines whether the communication log is related to name resolution. If the result of this determination is negative, in STEP 12, the communication analysis server 20 classifies the connections by a pair of a communication source address and port number, and a communication destination address and port number. Furthermore, in STEP 13, the communication analysis server 20 adds communication direction information indicating whether the connection is upstream or downstream to each connection. In this case, if the router's MAC address is the communication destination, the communication direction is upstream, and if the router's MAC address is the communication source, the communication direction is downstream.

Next, in STEP 14, the communication analysis server 20 generates and stores a connection direction summary by summarizing the communication time and communication volume for each combination of the connection classified in STEP 12 and the communication direction information added in STEP 13. In other words, the connection direction summary is data that links the communication time and communication volume to a pair of a connection and communication direction defined by a source address and port number, and a destination address and port number.

If the determination result in STEP 11 is positive, in STEP 15, the communication analysis server 20 determines whether the communication log related to name resolution is a CNAME record. If the determination result in STEP 15 is negative, the communication log related to name resolution is an A record or an AAAA record. In this case, since the record links the FQDN and the IP address, in STEP 16, the communication analysis server 20 generates and stores name-IP address data, which is data that indicates the correspondence between the FQDN and the IP address for each device (each MAC address).

If the determination result in STEP 15 is positive, the communication log related to name resolution is a CNAME record. In this case, in STEP 17, the communication analysis server 20 links the FQDN to the IP address based on the CNAME record, A record, or AAAA record related to the CNAME record. Then, in STEP 16, the communication analysis server 20 generates and stores the name-IP address data described above.

Next, in STEP 18, the communication analysis server 20 sorts the connection direction summaries generated in STEP 14 and the name-IP address data generated in STEP 16 in chronological order. Furthermore, in STEP 19, the communication analysis server 20 generates and stores named connection direction summaries by adding the FQDN of the Internet-side server to each connection direction summary. In this case, for each connection direction summary, the name of the Internet-side server is identified using the name-IP address data at a time before the time corresponding to the connection direction summary.

Next, in STEP 20, the communication analysis server 20 reads a name pattern-service list that has been created in advance to represent the correspondence between the name patterns of the servers on the Internet side and the services (such as video distribution services) that the device provides. The name pattern-service list is the name pattern of the device on the Internet side when receiving a service provided by the device.

Then, in STEP 21, the communication analysis server 20 compares the named connection direction summaries (generated in STEP 19) with the name pattern-service list, and assigns the services indicated by the name pattern-service list to each named connection direction summary that matches the name pattern-service list.

Furthermore, in STEP 22, the communication analysis server 20 groups together connection direction summaries to which temporally consecutive services are assigned. As a result, a service/direction summary indicating consecutive connections with the same service and communication direction is generated and stored. Note that in this case, connections that follow each other with a free time within a specified time are treated as being consecutive.

Next, in STEP 23, the communication analysis server 20 calculates the duration of the service and the total amount of communication data for each successive connection that has the same service and communication direction based on the service/direction summary obtained as described above, and calculates the communication speed for the service (the communication speed between the device providing the service and target household A) from these calculated values. The communication speed is the communication speed in the communication direction indicated by the service/direction summary.

Next, in STEP 24, the communication analysis server 20 extracts, from the successive connections having the same service and communication direction, a portion of the video distribution that can be regarded as streaming, based on the duration and communication speed of the service, as video usage data. In this case, the period between the time of the first connection and the time of the last connection of the video usage data indicates the time period during which the target household A used the continuous video.
In this embodiment, the process of the communication analysis server 20 is executed as described above.

The viewing survey server 30 executes the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5 using the video usage data. In STEP 31, the viewing survey server 30 acquires the video usage data generated by the communication analysis server 20, and reads a MAC address-television linking list that has been created in advance to link the identification information (e.g., number) of each television monitor 1 in the target household A with the MAC address.

Next, in STEP 32, the viewing survey server 30 determines, based on the MAC address included in the video usage data, whether the video usage data can be linked to the television monitor 1 of the target household A. In this case, if the video usage data includes a MAC address corresponding to the television monitor 1, the determination result in STEP 32 is positive.

In this case, in STEP 33, the viewing survey server 30 identifies the identification information of the television monitor 1 that used (watched) the video related to the video usage data from the MAC address included in the acquired video usage data based on the MAC address-television linking list, and assigns the identification information to the video usage data.

Next, in STEP 34, the viewing survey server 30 reads the viewing data of each television monitor 1 that has been received and stored from the viewing data acquisition unit 12. Then, in STEP 35, for each television monitor 1, the viewing survey server 30 determines that the viewing data during the video usage time period indicated by the video usage data to which the identification information corresponding to the television monitor 1 has been assigned is viewing data related to video via the Internet, and determines that the viewing data during the time period other than the usage time period is viewing data related to video via television broadcasting.

Next, in STEP 36, the viewing survey server 30 uses the viewing data determined as being via the Internet or via television broadcast as described above to compile data on the viewing status of television broadcasts for target household A. For example, data on the viewing rate of any television program (such as the viewing time of a television program for each target household A and the attributes of viewers) can be compiled based on viewing data on images via television broadcast.

If the video usage data does not include a MAC address corresponding to the television monitor 1 in STEP 32, the judgment result in STEP 32 becomes negative. In this case, in STEP 37, the viewing survey server 30 judges that the video usage data is video usage data for a device other than the television monitor 1 (e.g., a smartphone, a tablet terminal, etc.).

Then, in STEP 36, the viewing survey server 30, if necessary, adds viewing status other than that of the television monitor to the television broadcast viewing status of the target household A and performs the calculation.

In this embodiment, the processing of the viewing survey server 30 is performed as described above.

In this embodiment, the communication analysis server 20 generates video usage data for the households that are the subject of the viewing survey from the communication logs, and the communication analysis server 20 links the generated video usage data to television monitors. Linked viewing data is determined to be viewing data from a television monitor via the Internet, while video usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is determined to be video viewing other than on a television monitor. However, the scope of application is not limited to video usage data.

For example, the communication analysis server 20 generates site usage data excluding the video usage data from the communication log (for example, usage data not extracted as video usage data in STEP 24 is regarded as site usage data), and the viewing survey server 30 (similar to STEPs 31 to 36) links the site usage data to a television monitor and determines that linked site usage data represents site usage by a television monitor via the Internet, while determining that site usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor represents site usage other than on a television monitor.

1...television monitor, 11...communication log acquisition unit, 20...communication analysis server, 30...viewing survey server.

Claims (2)

A viewing status grasping system comprising: a communication log acquisition unit that acquires communication logs showing the connection status of the households subject to a viewing survey to the Internet; a communication analysis server that generates video usage data for the households subject to the viewing survey from the communication logs acquired by the communication log acquisition unit; and a viewing survey server that links the video usage data generated by the communication analysis server to a television monitor, and determines that linked viewing data is viewing data from a television monitor via the Internet, while determining that video usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is video viewing other than on a television monitor. The communication analysis server generates site usage data by excluding the video usage data from the communication log acquired by the communication log acquisition unit, and the viewing survey server links the site usage data generated by the communication analysis server to a television monitor, and determines that linked site usage data is site usage by a television monitor via the Internet, while determining that site usage data that cannot be linked to a television monitor is site usage other than by a television monitor.

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