Method and system for polling and data collection

A system is provided for collecting subjective data from a user of a computer or computer terminals. A user performing a task on his or her computer or terminal is polled, by: interrupting the task being performed; a banner appears on the screen of the display terminal with the selectable option of continuing with the interruption or returning immediately to the interrupted task. If a user selects to continue with the interruption, one or more questions, having selectable responses is presented to the user. After responding to the questions, the responses are stored on disk, and the user returns to the task that was interrupted. In real-time or after a period of days, weeks or months, the data is collected from the hard disk or system memory and is analyzed. The analyzed data is then used to control a process. In one example, the questions asked relate to a user's thermal comfort, and the data collected and analyzed is used to control a heating and cooling system.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a system for collecting data from a user of a 
computer terminal, and more specifically relates to a polling system. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
If occupants of a commercial building could, at intervals, conveniently 
provide subjective input regarding their level of comfort, then lighting, 
temperature, ventilation and other variables could be automatically 
adjusted so that the majority of occupants were substantially satisfied. 
Traditional methods of polling such as paper-based subjective 
questionnaires can be handed out or mailed to occupants, but this is 
perceived to be a relatively large distraction and disturbance. 
Furthermore, priming, circulating and processing questionnaires is time 
consuming and costly. At times, subjects do not cooperate by filling in 
questionnaires, and furthermore, it may be essential when gathering some 
types of information to have the data collected from employees at 
particular times of day. For example, a company may want to determine the 
thermal comfort level of its employees; a questionnaire may ask if they 
comfortable, too warm, or too cold. In some situations an employee's 
comfort may change throughout the work-day and, from location to location 
within a building; thermal comfort may vary with external conditions, such 
the position of the sun at various times of the day. In this instance, it 
would be advantageous to obtain feedback from employees at particular 
times during the day and over a period of several days, weeks, or months. 
After obtaining useful feedback, an employer can attempt to make 
modifications to the building or to its heating or air-conditioning system 
in accordance with the collected data. Of course, it would be difficult to 
administer this kind of repetitive questioning using a paper-based 
questionnaire and it would likely be very disruptive. Therefore, it is one 
object of this invention, to provide a convenient method for collecting 
data, analyzing the collected data and, for making an environmental change 
or a change to a process in dependence upon the collected data. 
In the past, some awkward attempts have been made to obtain subjective 
responses from building occupants in a more convenient way than using a 
paper-questionnaire. For example, in a paper entitled The Thermal 
Environment in Offices, David S. Fishman and Stephen L. Pimbert in Energy 
and Buildings, 5 (1982) 109-116, describe a study where the reactions of 
26 subjects were recorded in a commercial building throughout the day for 
one year. At hourly intervals a central control system was arranged to 
initiate a two minute voting period during which time the subjects were 
requested to register a vote corresponding to one of seven positions on a 
seven point "Bedford" scale which relates to thermal comfort. The votes 
were stored in a special-purpose, built, control cabinet logic rack. To 
ensure that as many subjects as possible voted at a required time, a 
warning lamp and buzzer were activated at the commencement of the voting 
period. The lamp remained on for the two minute voting period or until the 
subject had voted. Although useful data was collected, the system employed 
for taking and recording subject's responses was costly, inflexible, and 
limited. Seven toggle switches provided by the specialized voting hardware 
offered only a limited choice in the responses that could be provided. If 
the subjects were not present during the time the warning lamp and buzzer 
were activated, they could miss the opportunity to vote. Furthermore, the 
lamp and buzzer were potential annoyances to others close by but not 
participating in the study. Another limitation was that the single 
question the subjects were to answer had to be known in advance by the 
subjects. To obtain additional data on clothing, subjects were provided 
with weekly paper-based questionnaires that were filled in by each subject 
and from which the thermal insulation of their clothing was estimated. Of 
course, having more detailed data would have been advantageous but was not 
practicable given the limitations of the equipment employed in this study. 
A variety of other systems are known, which poll at intervals, however 
these systems are limited to polling hardware to obtain data rather than 
polling humans to obtain subjective responses to particular questions 
which have an impact on controlling a process. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 
5,315,53 1, issued May 24, 1994 and assigned to Westinghouse Electric is 
entitled "Energy Monitoring System for a Plurality of Local Stations With 
Snapshot Polling From a Central Station" and relates to a personal 
computer (PC) for monitoring the energy, power, voltage, and current 
consumed at a plurality of local stations; A command from the PC causes at 
each station, the power, voltage, current and totaled energy to be stored, 
and thereafter the PC computer derives individually the results for 
separate estimations and central billing. In another U.S. Pat. No. 
5,194,846 issued in 1993 an invention entitled "Communication System 
Capable of Broadcast Messaging and Transponder Polling", a communication 
system controller is coupled over a communication path with two or more 
transponders. Periodic polls of all transponders in sequence provide 
supervision of the integrity of the system. 
Numerous other systems exist which poll or take samples at intervals from a 
plurality of device sensors, and although these systems may adequately 
control devices in response to polling, there remains a need for a system 
which is capable of polling the users of computer systems from time to 
time, to determine their subjective responses to particular questions so 
that the results can be compiled into useful control data. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with the invention, there is provided, a method of generating 
control data comprising the steps of: 
a) polling a plurality of times, a user engaged with a task being performed 
on a computer having, an input device, a memory device for storing data, a 
processing unit, and a display terminal, said polling step including: 
i) interrupting the task being performed on the computer; 
ii) querying the user for one or more responses to questions, by displaying 
one or more questions and a plurality of selectable responses on the 
display terminal; 
iii) storing the responses to the one or more questions in the memory 
device; and, returning the computer to a state prior to step (i) so that 
the user may resume the task that was being performed prior to said 
interruption; and, 
b) analyzing/processing the users' responses to obtain control data for use 
in effecting the control of a process that is unrelated to the computer 
system or its operation. 
In accordance with the invention, there is provided, in a system having a 
plurality of computers each having an input device, a memory device for 
storing data, a processing unit, and a display terminal, a method of 
generating control data comprising the steps of: 
polling a plurality of users engaged with tasks being performed on the 
computers by 
i) interrupting the plurality of users' tasks being performing on the 
computers; 
ii) querying the users for one or more responses, by displaying one or more 
questions on the display terminals; 
storing the responses to the one or more questions in the memory devices; 
and, 
returning the computers to a state prior to step (i) so that the users may 
resume the tasks that were being performed; and, 
analyzing/processing the users' responses to obtain control data for use in 
effecting the control of a process that is unrelated to the computer 
system or its operation. 
In accordance with the invention, there is provided, a method of 
controlling a controllable device comprising the steps of: 
a) querying a plurality of users of computers positioned at display 
terminals, each display terminal having an input device, by interrupting 
the each user's current task on the computer, and posing one or more 
questions on each user's display terminal so that each user may input via 
the input device one or more responses to the one or more questions being 
posed; 
b) storing the input responses in a memory; 
c) retrieving the stored responses from the memory; 
d) analyzing the stored responses to generate a control signal that is 
derived from the information contained in the stored responses; and, 
e) providing the control signal to the controllable device. 
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided, a 
system for controlling a process comprising: 
a computer, having an input device, storage means for periodically storing 
data, a processing unit, a display terminal; 
means for polling a user of the computer including means for interrupting 
the task being performed on the computer and means for querying a user for 
one or more responses, said querying means for displaying one or more 
questions on the display terminal at at least one of, a plurality of 
intervals, a plurality of predetermined times or at a plurality of random 
times; and, 
means for performing analysis of the stored responses in accordance with a 
set of rules; and, 
means for generating control data from the analyzed stored responses for 
use in controlling the process. 
Advantageously, the invention provides a flexible method of collecting 
data; the data can be stored for collection periodically, or the data can 
be collected, stored and analyzed in nearly real-time. The system provides 
a convenient way for computer users to effect change and control over 
processes external to their computers while working at their PC's or 
terminals on other tasks.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
Referring now to FIG. 1a, a suitably programmed personal computer (PC) 
system 10 is shown having a central processing unit (CPU) 12, a memory 
unit 14, a pointing input device 16 in the form of a mouse, a keyboard 18, 
a hard disk drive 20, a floppy disk drive 22, and display terminal 24. In 
this exemplary embodiment the computer 10 is programmed so that at 
intervals during the day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, 
but at times which vary from day to day, questions will appear on the 
screen of the display terminal, interrupting and polling a user for 
subjective responses to particular questions. In the preferred embodiment 
of this invention, the questions are preceded with a warning banner 
indicating to the user that an interruption is occurring, as is shown in 
FIG. 2. The warning banner provides the user with the opportunity to 
answer the questions immediately or to cancel the current query. If the 
user is busy and clicks on the Cancel button, the questions are 
rescheduled to appear at a later, predetermined, time. At that later, 
predetermined time, the warning banner appears again. If the Cancel button 
is once again selected, the questions does not re-appear until the next 
scheduled question administration time. If a user is not present when the 
warning banner appears and there is no response after a predetermined 
period, the warning banner is removed and the question appears again 
later. Various alternative schemes can be employed, such as continually 
polling a user at regular and/or more frequent intervals if there is no 
response. 
In the instance that a user selects the OK button, indicating to the 
software that the user agrees and is ready to be queried, a question 
appears on the screen; by way of example a question that might be asked is 
shown in FIG. 3. The user is prompted for a response and after an answer 
is selected with the mouse 16 or the keyboard 18 subsequent questions 
appear. When all questions have been answered, the responses are recorded 
in the PC's hard disk drive 20 for later retrieval. By posing the same 
question to a group of computer users at approximately the same time, 
subjective responses to that question are recorded and can be analyzed. 
For example, in a general case, if a majority of a group of users who 
respond to the question shown in FIG. 3 select the same response, changes 
can be made to the heating/cooling system in accordance with that 
response; however, the responses can be analyzed by a plurality of 
different rules. For example, the system's monitored physical data such as 
those received from thermostats and temperature sensors, may be weighted 
or combined in some manner with subjective responses/data collected from a 
group of polled computer users. Probabilistic or fuzzy logic may also be 
combined with the users' responses in the analysis/processing of the 
collected data. 
In a system according to one embodiment of this invention shown in FIG. 1b, 
where computers 10 are interconnected on a network, and wherein PC users' 
responses are available to a central controller 25, real-time adjustments 
can be made to control building temperature, for example, on the basis of 
a plurality of users responses; in the case where a majority of PC users 
indicate on the screen (FIG. 3) that they are cold, the building 
temperature can be raised according to the rule that the majority of users 
will have their needs met. Conversely if the majority of PC users are too 
warm, the building temperature can be lowered by the central controller 
25. 
In a preferred embodiment, the PC's are stand-alone units as is shown in 
FIG. 1a, not interconnected to one another; the data is conveniently 
stored in a hidden and encrypted format on each host computer's hard disk 
20 for later collection and analysis. Windows.TM., Macintosh.TM. and 
DOS.TM. versions of the system have been developed to suit the particular 
operating systems or graphical user interface in use. The operation of the 
system, according to this embodiment, is readily understood by referring 
to the flow diagram of FIG. 4. A user switches on the PC and is asked 
certain demographic questions that are only asked once. These demographic 
questions may comprise queries relating to age, sex, and education of the 
subject. Other questions relating to the physical location and orientation 
of the computer terminal may optionally be asked. The responses to these 
questions are then recorded on the system's hard disk 20. As can be seen 
from viewing the flow diagram, when a questionnaire is scheduled, a banner 
appears asking the user if he or she wishes to respond to questions. If 
the answer is no, the questions may be rescheduled. Otherwise, the 
questions appear on the display terminal 24 and the selected responses are 
saved to disk. 
Experimental Results 
The software that relates to this invention was installed on over 60 
stand-alone computers at four sites. Five questions relating to thermal 
comfort were asked twice per day for up to 16 weeks. Preliminary results 
from 55 participants indicate that software performed reliably. The five 
questions took an average of 45.3 seconds (standard deviation of 32.6) to 
complete. FIG. 5 shows the mean response rate of 29.1% over all of the 55 
participants. The response rate of 29.1% represents over 1500 data points. 
All participants answered each question at least twice. In a post-study 
evaluation, it was revealed that this method of questionnaire delivery was 
not unacceptably intrusive to any participant. 
Referring now to the graph of FIG. 6, the thermal sensation vote versus 
recorded temperature is shown. The data were analyzed at the end of the 
data collection period. Each point represents an average of up to 500 
separate votes. The vertical bars intersecting the points on the graph 
represent the standard deviation in the thermal votes. The subjects were 
asked "how do you feel at this moment?" The choices ranged from -3 (cold) 
through 0 (neutral) to +3 (hot). Assuming that neutral is the most 
desirable thermal sensation, from the results of the graph, the best 
temperature to maintain is 22.7.degree. C. Therefore, a building control 
system could be set to 22.7.degree. C. in accordance with this result. 
Turning now to FIG. 7, the question that appeared on the display terminal 
during the 3 month period was, "would you prefer to be cooler, warmer, or 
not have the temperature changed?" The results show high satisfaction with 
the temperature, however, there is indication of a slight preference on 
behalf of the participants to it being warmer. 
If the computers were interconnected as is shown in FIG. 1b, the responses 
could be collected in real-time or nearly real-time, and analyzed upon 
collection in a manner similar to the analysis shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. 
By having a control system that is dynamic and sensitive to the needs of 
the occupants of a building, a greater level of comfort can be provided. 
However, this invention is not intended to be limited to controlling only 
processes related to comfort. Polling computer users as is described and 
set out in accordance with this invention, offers an inexpensive and 
relatively unobtrusive method of acquiring subjective control data for use 
in controlling a process. 
Other, perhaps less obvious processes can also be controlled in a similar 
manner. By way of example, staff in company cafeteria may require some 
indication as to how many employees will purchasing lunch at work, and/or 
may want to determine employees' preferences in food on a particular day 
given a list of choices. Again, by polling users of interconnected 
computers, the responses can be immediately electronically sent to a 
central location for analysis. After analysis of the data, the staff can 
better plan ahead so that the preferred menu choices are available in 
sufficient quantity. 
In summary, the invention provides a flexible, efficient way to control a 
process so that the control is dependent upon the subjective data 
collected, by conveniently polling the people it will effect. 
Numerous other embodiments may be envisaged without departing from the 
spirit and scope of the invention.