Patent ID: 6134531
Filing Date: 2000-10-17
Classification: G06Q,H04H

Abstract:
A computerized method for collecting audience feed-back in response to a broadcast program in real-time, wherein the broadcast program is broadcast synchronized with a broadcast clock that is synchronized to a standard time, the method comprising:at a server computer, while the broadcast program is being broadcast, transmitting a Web page to client computers of persons receiving the broadcast program; the transmitted Web page soliciting user feedback concerning the broadcast program; the server computer also maintaining a current server time value;at the client computers, continuously maintaining a current client time value, receiving the transmitted Web page with a browser application, automatically downloading and executing an applet associated with the Web page so as to exchange messages with the server computer and generate a time differential between the client time value and the server time value; receiving via the browser application user input that includes the solicited user feedback concerning the broadcast program, generating user response messages based on the received user input, time-stamping the user response messages, and transmitting the time-stamped user response messages to the server computer; wherein each user response message includes a time stamp that indicates a server time value generated by a respective one of the client computers as function of the client time maintained by the respective client computer and the time differential generated by execution of the applet; andreceiving from the client computers the time-stamped user response messages and analyzing the time-stamps of the received user response messages to associate such user response messages with specific segments of the broadcast program.