Electronic device, system, method and computer program

• US 10,224,026 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2017
• Issued: 03/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Bordewieck, Aurel, Cardinaux, Fabien, Hagg, Wilhelm, Kemp, Thomas, Uhlich, Stefan, Hohl, Fritz
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Eric
• Application Number:
  US15/447,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20170270915A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications

Abstract

An electronic device comprising circuitry configured to record sensor data that is obtained from data sources and to retrieve information from the recorded sensor data using concepts that are defined by a user.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

circuitry configured to

record sensor data that is obtained from data sources,

receive a description that identifies specific characteristics of the recorded sensor data and that relates a group of activities to each other,

define a concept based on the description,

update a concept database to include the defined concept,

find a subset of the recorded sensor data that has the specific characteristics in common, and

retrieve information from the subset of the recorded sensor data in response to a query from a user about the concept stored in the updated concept database.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to record sensor data without any intervention from the user.

3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein a concept is defined based on a dialogue between the electronic device and the user.

4. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept through a question and answer process between the user and the electronic device.

5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept by reference to sensor data related to another concept.

6. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept by relating to or modifying an existing concept.

7. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept by using linguistic information.

8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept by visualization of results and confirmation by the user.

9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to define the concept by reference to an existing concept which is generic across a plurality of users.

10. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to use methods of linguistic semantics in order to find a relation of the concept to a set of existing concepts.

11. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to use semantic analysis to distinguish existing concepts combined together in a query.

12. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to receive the description from the user.

13. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein each of the activities in the group of activities are performed by the user.

14. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the description defines a range of sensor data values as the specific characteristics.

15. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the query from the user includes a question about the extent to which the concept applies to the recorded sensor data.

16. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to record the sensor data at least during the performance of the activities.

17. A system comprising,

circuitry which is configured to

record sensor data that is obtained from data sources,

receive a description that identifies specific characteristics of the recorded sensor data and that relates a group of activities to each other,

define a concept based on the description,

update a concept database to include the defined concept,

find a subset of the recorded sensor data that has the specific characteristics in common, and

retrieve information from the subset of the recorded sensor data in response to a query from a user about the concept stored in the updated concept database.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the circuitry is further configured to receive the description from the user.

19. A method comprising:

recording, by processing circuitry, sensor data that is obtained from data sources;

receiving a description that identifies specific characteristics of the recorded sensor data and that relates a group of activities to each other;

defining a concept based on the description;

updating a concept database to include the defined concept;

finding a subset of the recorded sensor data that has the specific characteristics in common; and

retrieving, by processing circuitry, information from the subset of the recorded sensor data in response to a query from a user about the concept stored in the updated concept database.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

receiving the description from the user.

21. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program comprising instructions that when executed cause a processor to perform:

recording sensor data that is obtained from data sources;

receiving a description that identifies specific characteristics of the recorded sensor data and that relates a group of activities to each other;

defining a concept based on the description;

updating a concept database to include the defined concept;

finding a subset of the recorded sensor data that has the specific characteristics in common; and

retrieving information from a subset of the recorded sensor data in response to a query from a user about the concept stored in the updated concept database.

22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 21 further storing an instruction that when executed causes the processor to perform receiving the description from the user.