Patent Document ID: 7644423
Application ID: 10955700
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for generating statistical information that reflects the consumption of a resource, comprising: collecting event data from a plurality of devices, wherein the event data identifies consumption behavior of respective users who operate the plurality of devices; computing by a processor a measure of a user's consumption of the resource within a defined time segment by: identifying the amount of time that the user consumed the resource within the defined time segment including: assigning a weight to the collected event data which conveys the likelihood that the corresponding event represents a legitimate consumption of the resource, wherein the weight is defined using a weighting function having an exponentially decaying shape, and multiplying an amount of time determined by the event data by the weight to calculate the amount of time that the user consumed the resource; dividing the amount of time that the user consumed the resource by the total amount of time in the time segment, to provide a fractional consumption measure; repeating the computing of the measure for plural users and for plural time segments to provide a plurality of fractional consumption measures; generating statistical information on the basis of the fractional consumption measures; and transmitting a report that identifies the statistical information.