Electronic personal companion

• US 10,055,771 B2
• Filed: 11/21/2016
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Douglas Fish, Skylar P. Fish
• Original Assignee: Robert Douglas Fish, Skylar P. Fish
• Inventors: Fish, Robert D., Fish, Skylar P.
• Primary Examiner(s): ALAM, SHAHID AL
• Application Number:
  US15/357,686
• Publication Number:
  US 20170161811A1
• Time in Patent Office: 638 Days
• Field of Search: 707770
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/908 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/20 in augmented reality scenes
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/00 Teaching not covered by other main groups of this subclass teaching or practice apparatus for gun-aiming or gun-laying F41G3/26
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence

Abstract

Personal companions crowd-source and/or crowd-share characterizations, and optionally raw data, from real-world, virtual and/or mixed-reality experiences. Characterizations can advantageously be stored in one or more self-evolving, structured databases, and can be organized according to objects, actions, events and thoughts. Characterizations can be weighted differently for different users, and “forgotten” over time, especially in favor of maintaining higher level characterizations. Personal companions can be used to obtain additional information, and conduct interpersonal, commercial, or other interactions or transactions.

Claims

1. A system comprising a device having electronics configured to interact with a human being by:

crowd-sourcing characteristic-value pairs for objects and actions from at least first and second users, by;

(a) receiving sensor-based ambient data corresponding to an instance of a physical object located within an environment of the first user;

(b) utilizing the information derived from the ambient data to initiate an audible, at least partially computer generated, question and answer conversation with the first user, by asking a question to the first user to assist in characterizing the instance of the object;

(c) receiving an answer from the first user in response to the question;

(d) utilizing the answer to inter characteristic-value pairs that generically characterize the object; and

logically bind the characteristic-value pairs to the object;

repeating steps (a) through (d) for at least the second user; and

passively obtaining additional sensor-based ambient data in a first environment of the human being, using the crowd-sourced characteristic-value pairs to identify an additional instance of the object in the first environment, and inferring a correlation between the additional instance of the object and an action taken by the human being in the first environment;

storing the inferred correlation in a distal service; and

passively obtaining further sensor-based ambient data in a second environment of the human being, using the crowd-sourced characteristic-value pairs to identify a further instance of the object in the first environment, and using the inferred correlation to execute an instance of the action on behalf of the human being.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the device includes further electronics sufficient to execute the action using an e-commerce transaction.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronics is further configured to initiate the action by initiating a conversation.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the device includes an image sensor, and at least one of the additional sensor-based ambient data and the further sensor-based ambient data is produced by the image sensor.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the additional sensor-based ambient data and the further sensor-based ambient data is received from a source external to the housing of the device.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronics is further configured to verbally identify the object to the first user during the conversation.