Patent Application
20200372032
This application claims priority to Taiwan Patent Application No. 108117895 filed on May 23, 2019, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates to a data tracking apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium thereof. Specifically, the data tracking apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium thereof according to the present invention provide a user interface having the dynamic tracking function.
In the recent trend of big data, a special category of data, referred to as streaming of data (or data stream or stream data), has been identified. Stream of data has the following three main characteristics, including: (1) being non-stop and generated from the real world in real time order, (2) being immutable and collected as time series data, and (3) the more recent data is more valuable in business. Data generated from Internet of Things (IoT), mobile applications (APPs), or large-scale Web services often falls in this category.
Although some data analysis tools have been developed for stream of data, these data analysis tools can only be used in specific application environment and are not inconvenient to use. Taking Google Analytics (“GA” for short, which is a data analysis tool developed by Google, LLC.) as an example, a professional having the ability of programing has to insert some tracking codes into a web page or an application in advance and then only certain data of the website or application (specified in the tracking code) can be analyzed. Accordingly, a user interface that is convenient to use and can achieve dynamic tracking is in an urgent need for big data, especially for the ever-changing stream of data.
To solve the aforesaid problems, the present invention provides a data tracking apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium thereof.
The data tracking apparatus provided by the present invention comprises a storage device, a display screen, and a processor, wherein the processor is electrically connected to the storage device and the display screen. The storage device stores a fact dataset, wherein the fact dataset is continuously updated by a stream of data. The display screen displays a user interface, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of options related to the fact dataset. The processor establishes a tracking rule in response to one of the options being selected and updates the user interface so that the user interface further comprises a tracking item corresponding to the tracking rule. The processor further derives a tracking result by querying the updated fact dataset according to the tracking rule in response to the tracking item being selected.
The data tracking method provided by the present invention is adapted for use in an electronic computing apparatus, wherein the electronic computing apparatus stores a fact dataset.
The data tracking method comprises the following steps of: (a) updating the fact dataset by a steam of data continuously, (b) displaying a user interface on a display screen, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of options related to the fact dataset, (c) establishing a tracking rule in response to one of the options being selected, (d) updating the user interface so that the user interface further comprises a tracking item corresponding to the tracking rule, and (e) deriving a tracking result by querying the updated fact dataset according to the tracking rule in response to the tracking item being selected.
The non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium provided by the present invention stores a computer program, wherein the computer program comprises a plurality of codes. When the codes of the computer program are loaded into an electronic computing apparatus, the codes executed by the electronic computing apparatus performs the data tracking method described in the above paragraph.
The user interface provided by the data tracking technology (including the apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium) of the present invention allows a user to secure a target audience related to a fact dataset by simple operation(s) (which is equivalent to tagging the target audience with some label) via simple operations. In response to the operations performed by the user, the data tracking technology provided by the present invention establishes a tracking rule for the target audience and establishes a corresponding tracking item on the user interface for subsequent tracking. Thereafter, the user can track the target audience that has been secured previously by selecting the tracking item on the user interface and thereby achieve the effect of one-click tracking.
The detailed technology and preferred embodiments implemented for the subject invention are described in the following paragraphs accompanying the appended drawings for people skilled in this field to well appreciate the features of the claimed invention.
In the following description, a data tracking apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium thereof provided by the present invention will be explained with reference to embodiments thereof. However, these embodiments of the present invention are not intended to limit the present invention to any environment, applications, or implementations described in these embodiments. Therefore, description of these embodiments is only for purpose of illustration rather than to limit the scope of the present invention. It shall be appreciated that, in the following embodiments and the attached drawings, elements unrelated to the present invention are omitted from depiction. Furthermore, dimensions of elements and dimensional proportions among individual elements in the attached drawings are provided only for ease of depiction and description, but not to restrict the scope of the present invention.
A first embodiment of the present invention is a data tracking apparatus 1 and a schematic view of which is depicted in
The storage device 11 stores a fact dataset 12. The fact dataset 12 defines a plurality of attributes (not shown) and comprises a plurality of fact records (not shown), wherein each of the fact records comprises a plurality of fact data (not shown) corresponding to the attributes one-to-one. Please note that the way that the storage device 13 stores the fact dataset 12 is not limited by the present invention. For example, the fact dataset 12 may be stored in a database management system installed in the storage device 13, but it is not limited thereto.
The fact dataset 12 is continuously updated by a stream of data (not shown). In some embodiments, the data tracking apparatus 1 may be provided with a transceiving interface (not shown) to continuously receive a stream of data and then the processor 13 updates the fact dataset 12 by the new fact data in the stream of data (i.e., adding new fact records to the fact dataset 12 to cover the new fact data). The aforesaid transceiving interface may be a wired interface or a wireless interface, which is electrically connected to the processor 13. The aforesaid stream of data may be data generated by an Internet of Things (IoT) system, data generated by a mobile application, or data generated by a large-scale Web service, but it is not limited thereto.
In this embodiment, the display screen 15 displays a user interface 14, wherein the user interface 14 comprises a plurality of options related to the fact dataset 12. The options comprised in the user interface 14 may be selected by a user (e.g., clicking the option to be selected by a mouse, touching the option to be selected on the touch display screen, but it is not limited thereto) so that the user can inspect the fact dataset 12 from different levels. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface 14 may be all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset 12. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface 14 may be a plurality of statistical data related to the fact dataset 12. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface 14 may be all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset 12 and a plurality of statistical data related to the fact dataset 12.
For better understanding, a specific example is provided herein for the subsequent description. However, please note that the specific example is not used to limit the scope of the present invention. In the specific example, the fact records included in the fact dataset 12 are bus travel data of cities in Taiwan and the user interface 14 is an interface for inspecting the fact dataset 12.
It is assumed that a user activates the user interface 14 at a certain time point on a certain day to inspect the fact dataset 12, and the user interface 14 shown on the display screen 15 in response to the activation of the user interface 14 by the user is illustrated in
It is assumed that the user selects one of the options (i.e., the statistical data 20a, 20b, 20c, 20d, 20e, and 20f) on the user interface 14 to drill down. For convenience, it is assumed that the user selects the statistical data 20a (i.e., the counts of travelling buses in Taipei City). In response to the statistical data 20a being selected by the user, the user interface 14 shown on the display screen 15 is changed as illustrated in
During the process of inspecting the fact dataset 12 from different levels via the user interface 14, the user may secure a target audience by operating on the user interface 14 and tag a label to the target audience for subsequent tracking. In this specific example, the user interface 14 further comprises an option of adding a new tracking item 16, and the user may select the option of adding a new tracking item 16 for securing the target audience and therby tag the target audience by a label for subsequent tracking.
For better understanding, it is assumed that when the user inspects the fact dataset 12 on the user interface 14 as shown in
Please refer to
After the user tags the target audience (i.e., the counts of driving buses having a driving speed in the range of 60 to 80 Km/h in Taipei City) with a label and establishes the tracking rule via the user interface 14 provided by the data tracking apparatus 1, the user may track the target audience that is previously secured via the user interface 14 when there is a need. In this specific example, the user interface 14 comprises an option regarding existing tracking items 18, and the user may select the option regarding the existing tracking item 18 for further operation and thereby track the target audience that has been secured previously.
It is assumed that the user activates the user interface 14 at a certain time point on a certain day thereafter to inspect the fact dataset 12 again. In response to the user interface 14 being activated by the user, the display screen 15 shows the user interface 14 as illustrated in
Since the user wants to track the target audience that has been secured previously, the user selects the option regarding the existing tracking items 18. In response to the option of the existing tracking items 18 being selected by the user, the user interface 14 shown in the display screen 15 is changed to further comprise the tracking item 182 that has been established previously as shown in
Likewise, the user may track the target audience that has been secured previously again via performing the same operation(s) subsequently. For example, the user tracks the target audience that has been secured previously again on May 20, 2019. Specifically, the user performs the same operation(s) on the user interface 14 and the processor 13 derives a tracking result 186 by querying the updated fact dataset 12 according to the tracking rule 180 corresponding to the tracking item 182 again as shown in
In the above specific example, the options comprised in the user interface 14 that are related to the fact dataset 12 are a plurality of statistical data that are related to the fact dataset 12. Please note that, in some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface 14 that are related to the fact dataset 12 may be all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset 12. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface 14 may be all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset 12 along with the statistical data related to the fact dataset 12. According to the above description, those of ordinary skill in the art shall appreciate that no matter the options comprised in the user interface 14 that are related to the fact dataset 12 belong to which kind(s), the user can secure a target audience on the user interface 14 via the aforesaid operations. In response to the operations performed by the user, the processor 13 will establish a tracking rule for the target audience and establish a corresponding tracking item on the user interface 14 for the subsequent tracking. The details will not be repeated herein.
According to the above description, the user interface 14 provided by the data tracking apparatus 1 allows a user to secure a target audience related to the fact dataset 12 (which is equivalent to tagging the target audience with a label) via simple operations. In response to the operations performed by the user, the data tracking apparatus 1 establishes a tracking rule for the target audience and establishes a corresponding tracking item on the user interface 14 for subsequent tracking. Thereafter, the user can track the target audience that has been secured previously by selecting the tracking item on the user interface 14 and thereby achieve the effect of one-click tracking.
A second embodiment of the present invention is a data tracking method and a flowchart of which is illustrated in
In this embodiment, the steps S201 and S203 are continuously executed. That is, the steps S201 and S203 will be executed as long as there is new fact data in the stream of data. Specifically, in step S201, the electronic computing apparatus receives a stream of data continuously. In step S203, the electronic computing apparatus updates the fact dataset by the steam of data continuously (i.e., new fact records will be continuously added to the fact dataset).
In another aspect, in step S205, the electronic computing apparatus displays a user interface on a display screen, wherein the user interface comprises a plurality of options related to the fact dataset. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface include all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset. In some embodiments, the data tracking method further executes a step (not shown) of displaying a plurality of statistical data related to the fact dataset on the display screen. For those embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface comprise the statistical data. In some embodiments, the options comprised in the user interface may comprise all of or part of the attributes of the fact dataset as well as the statistical data displayed on the display screen.
Thereafter, in step S207, the electronic computing apparatus establishes a tracking rule in response to one of the options being selected. In step S209, the electronic computing apparatus updates the user interface so that the user interface further comprises a tracking item corresponding to the tracking rule. In some embodiments, the data tracking method further comprises a step of storing the tracking rule (not shown). In step S211, the electronic computing apparatus derives a tracking result by querying the updated fact dataset according to the tracking rule in response to the tracking item being selected.
In addition to the aforesaid steps, the data tracking method of the second embodiment can execute all the operations and steps of the data tracking apparatus 1 set forth in the first embodiment, have the same functions, and deliver the same technical effects as the first embodiment. How the second embodiment executes these operations and steps, has the same functions, and delivers the same technical effects as the first embodiment will be readily appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the explanation of the first embodiment, and thus will not be further described herein.
The data tracking method described in the second embodiment may be implemented as a computer program having a plurality of codes. The computer program is stored in a non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium, which may be a read only memory (ROM), a flash memory, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a compact disk (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a mobile disk, a database accessible to networks, or any other storage media with the same function and well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. After the codes of the computer program loaded into an electronic computing apparatus (e.g., the data tracking apparatus 1), the computer program executes the data tracking method as described in the second embodiment.
According to the above descriptions, the user interface provided by the data tracking technology (including the apparatus, method, and non-transitory tangible machine-readable medium) of the present invention allows a user to secure a target audience related to a fact dataset (which is equivalent to tagging the target audience with a label) via simple operations. In response to the operations performed by the user, the data tracking technology provided by the present invention establishes a tracking rule for the target audience and establishes a corresponding tracking item on the user interface for subsequent tracking. Thereafter, the user can track the target audience that has been secured previously by selecting the tracking item on the user interface and thereby achieve the effect of one-click tracking.
The above disclosure is related to the detailed technical contents and inventive features thereof. People skilled in this field may proceed with a variety of modifications and replacements based on the disclosures and suggestions of the invention as described without departing from the characteristics thereof. Nevertheless, although such modifications and replacements are not fully disclosed in the above descriptions, they have substantially been covered in the following claims as appended.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 108117895 | May 2019 | TW | national |
