Patent ID: 9197929
Filing Date: 2015-11-24
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: at a distributed computer system including multiple computers, each computer having one or more processors and memory storing multiple event records, each event record including a predefined time interval: receiving a query from a client, wherein the query includes one or more predefined criteria and one of which specifies a predefined time period; dynamically selecting one or more computers by applying at least one of the one or more predefined criteria to a predefined sharding function, wherein there are at least a predefined number of candidate event records on the selected computers that might satisfy the one or more predefined criteria; at each of the selected computers: aggregating the respective counts of qualified event records determined by the selected computers; statistically projecting the aggregated count of qualified event records into an estimated total count of qualified event records on the distributed computer system, wherein the estimated total count of qualified event records has an associated confidence level; and returning a query result to the requesting client, wherein the query result includes the estimated total count of qualified event records and its associated confidence level.