1. A broadcast receiver connected to a variable directional antenna qualified as an antenna capable of modifying a reception direction of a broadcast wave, said broadcast receiver comprising:
a tuner selecting a frequency of a broadcast wave received by said variable directional antenna,
a control unit controlling the frequency to be selected with respect to said tuner,
a determination unit determining whether a broadcast wave at the frequency selected by said tuner is valid for reception, and
a storage unit storing information as to whether each of frequencies of broadcast waves corresponding to a plurality of channels is valid for reception by said variable directional antenna, wherein
said control unit causes said determination unit to execute channel search utilizing said variable directional antenna when a predetermined condition is established, and
said channel search including a process of determining whether a broadcast wave is valid for reception for all reception directions by said variable directional antenna for only a frequency having information as invalid for reception stored in said storage unit.
2. The broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein
said storage unit further stores information as to which direction said variable directional antenna is capable of reception with respect to the frequencies of broadcast waves corresponding to said plurality of channels, and
said control unit causes said determination unit to determine, when a specific condition is established, whether a broadcast wave is valid for reception for a frequency having information stored as valid for reception in said storage unit, starting from a reception direction stored as valid for reception by said variable directional antenna, as said channel search utilizing said variable directional antenna.
3. The broadcast receiver according to claim 1, wherein
said storage unit further stores information as to which direction said variable directional antenna is capable of reception with respect to the frequencies of broadcast waves corresponding to said plurality of channels, and
said control unit causes said determination unit to determine, when a specific condition is established, whether a broadcast wave is valid for reception for a frequency having information stored as valid for reception in said storage unit, starting from a reception direction excluding the reception direction stored as valid for reception by said variable directional antenna, as said channel search utilizing said variable directional antenna.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A server arrangement (112, 234) for managing observation data of wireless devices, such as smartphones, comprising
a data input logic (300) for obtaining observation data from a number of wireless devices and optionally supplementary data from a number of other external data sources, the obtained data including behavioural, contextual, and optionally technical raw data relative to the wireless devices,
a data mining logic (500) for establishing a number of derived data elements (116), such as data tables or databases, on the basis of processing and analysing the obtained observation and optional supplementary data, said processing and analysing incorporating data aggregation, wherein at least one derived data element includes usage metrics with contextual and optionally technical dimension relative to one or more applications or other features of one or more wireless devices and users thereof,
a data storage (400) for storing the obtained data (402) and the number of derived data elements (403), and
a data distribution logic (600) for providing derived data to one or more other entities.
2. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said data distribution logic is configured to perform at least one action selected from the group consisting of: to serve a data query constructed by an external entity through provision of derived information from one or more derived data elements according to the query parameters, and to push derived information from one or more derived data elements to an external entity according to a predetermined push logic.
3. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to generate derived data for adapting a network service or an application of a wireless device according to the behavioural andor contextual characteristics of the user of the wireless device determined on the basis of derived data elements.
4. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to generate derived data for personalized advertising from the standpoint of a user of a wireless device according to the behavioural andor contextual characteristics of the user determined on the basis of derived data elements.
5. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to map an indication of wireless device platform andor used application, said indication being received in said obtained data, to other, more generic indication of the platform andor application so as to enable logical grouping of data associated similar platforms andor applications together.
6. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to determine an intensity variable, being an activity indicator in time domain relative to a selected time unit for a wireless device user or a plurality of users in view of an application or an application category including a plurality of applications.
7. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to determine a usage frequency for an application.
8. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein said processing and analysing includes at least one procedure selected from the group consisting of: correlation, clustering, and factoring.
9. The arrangement of claim 8, configured to apply a clustering algorithm on the obtained data for behavioural segmentation of wireless device users to form behaviourally coherent user groups, factor analysis to categorize applications andor content, or pattern recognition to draw relationships between entities such as actions, users andor applications.
10. The arrangement of claim 1, wherein the observation data includes at least one element selected from the group consisting of: data relating to a communication action such as initiating a call, answering a call, writing, sending, receiving, or reading a message, sensor data, application usage data, microphone usage data, loudspeakeraudio output data such as music reproduction data, camera usage data, user input data, user interface usage data, calendar entry -related data, audio andor video recording, location data, time data, identification data of a close device, device status data, cellular tower signal strength data, throughput rate data, signal-to-noise data, data on Internet usage, and data on data usage.
11. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to determine descriptive behavioural statistics for a wireless device user or a group of users including location spread of communications actions, such as calls, relative to a communication action initiator, respondent, near-end andor remote location.
12. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to determine usage intensity or frequency variables of an application or an application category and to build a derived factor on top thereof, such as one or more generic multimedia usage indices out of music, imaging andor video application usage variables.
13. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to utilize, on the basis of available application usage information, application andor other activity execution start and stop times for the calculation of usage session durations in view of a number of first type of applications or activities, such as music players, which are often used such that application runs on the background and the overall activity on a user interface level is lower, and to determine usage session durations for a second type of applications or activities, such as a document viewing application, from the user interface level information.
14. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to determine a statistical model of usage behavior to provide an estimate for a user’s or a user group’s status at a particular instant in view of location andor usage of an application or other wireless device feature.
15. The arrangement of claim 1, configured to enrich the observation data with said supplementary data.
16. A method for cultivating observation data provided by a number of wireless devices, comprising
obtaining and storing (816) observation data from a number of wireless devices and optionally supplementary data from a number of other external data sources, the obtained data including behavioural, contextual, and optionally technical raw data relative to the wireless devices,
establishing and storing (818) a number of derived data elements on the basis of processing and analysing the obtained observation and optional supplementary data, said processing and analysing incorporating data aggregation, wherein at least one derived data element includes usage metrics with contextual and optionally technical dimension relative to one or more applications or other features of one or more wireless devices and users thereof, and
providing derived data (820) from one or more derived data elements to one or more other entities.
17. Computer software comprising code means adapted, when run on a computer, to execute the method steps of claim 16.
18. A carrier medium comprising the computer software of claim 17.
19. The arrangement of claim 2, configured to generate derived data for adapting a network service or an application of a wireless device according to the behavioural andor contextual characteristics of the user of the wireless device determined on the basis of derived data elements.
20. The arrangement of claim 3, configured to generate derived data for adapting a network service or an application of a wireless device according to the behavioural andor contextual characteristics of the user of the wireless device determined on the basis of derived data elements.