Human presence detection

• US 10,373,475 B2
• Filed: 12/01/2017
• Issued: 08/06/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gear, Gavin, Subramanian, Nikhil, Paulson, Kevin, Scott, Jason, Petrbok, Milos
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunnings, Travis R
• Application Number:
  US15/829,176
• Publication Number:
  US 20180089986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 613 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3231 Monitoring the presence, absence or movement of users
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/22 responsive to presence or absence of persons
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/14 Direct-mode setup
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

Methods and a computing device are disclosed. A computing device may aggregate a number of inputs indicative of a presence or an absence of a human being within a proximity of the computing device. A source of at least one of the inputs may be a human presence sensor. A source of other inputs may provide an indication of the presence of a human being with corresponding estimated probabilities or corresponding estimated reliabilities which may provide an estimate of an accuracy of respective indications. In some embodiments, if any of the number of inputs indicate the presence of a human being, the computing device may determine that a human being is present. In other embodiments, if a corresponding estimated probability or reliability of an input is less than a predetermined value, then the input may be discarded when determining whether a human being is present.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor, the memory including code that is executable by the at least one processor to cause the computing device to;

aggregate a plurality of inputs, at least one first input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a human presence sensor comprising a short-range wireless transceiver in possession of a human being, and at least one second input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a touch input device for detecting a presence or an absence of the human being within proximity of the computing device by detecting one or more human touches;

obtain one or more estimated probabilities of the presence of the human being from the plurality of inputs;

determine that the human being is present based on the one or more estimated probabilities; and

cause the computing device to perform a first one or more actions when the human being is determined to be present.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless transceiver comprises a Bluetooth-enabled device.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the touch input device comprises a device that detects a user input in response to an individual physically touching the touch input device.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the code is further executable to cause the computing device to:

determine the human being is present when any of the obtained estimated probabilities is greater than a predetermined value.

5. The computing device of claim 4, wherein the corresponding estimated probability of the presence of the human being, with respect to the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs, deteriorates over time after the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs indicates the presence of the human being within the proximity of the computing device.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the human presence sensor comprises an ambient light sensor.

7. The computing device of claim 1 wherein the human presence sensor comprises an orientation sensor.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the human presence sensor provides the at least one second input to indicate one from a group consisting of present, not present, and unknown.

9. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs comprises an input from the touch input device and an input from at least one other human presence sensor.

10. A machine-implemented method of detecting a presence or an absence of a human within proximity to a computing device, the machine-implemented method comprising:

aggregating a plurality of inputs, at least one first input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a human presence sensor comprising a short-range wireless transceiver in possession of a human being, and at least one second input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a touch input device for detecting a presence or an absence of the human being within proximity of the computing device by detecting one or more human touches;

obtaining one or more estimated probabilities of the presence of the human being from the plurality of inputs;

determining that the human being is present based on the one or more estimated probabilities; and

causing the computing device to behave in a predetermined manner when the determining determines that the human being is present, wherein

the machine-implemented method is performed by the computing device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said short-range wireless transceiver is a Bluetooth-enabled device.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the touch input device comprises a device that detects a user input in response to an individual physically touching the touch input device.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining the human being is present comprises determining that the human being is present when any of the obtained estimated probabilities is greater than a predetermined value.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the corresponding estimated probability of the presence of the human being, with respect to the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs, deteriorates over time after the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs indicates presence of the human being within the proximity of the computing device.

15. A machine-implemented method of detecting a presence or an absence of a human being, the machine-implemented method comprising:

aggregating a plurality of inputs, at least one first input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a human presence sensor comprising a short-range wireless transceiver in possession of a human being, and at least one second input of the plurality of inputs being associated with a touch input device for detecting a presence or an absence of the human being within proximity of a computing device by detecting one or more human touches;

obtaining one or more estimated probabilities of the presence of the human being from the plurality of inputs;

determining that the human being is absent based on the one or more estimated probabilities; and

causing the computing device to behave in a predetermined manner when the determining determines that the human being is absent, wherein

the machine-implemented method is performed by the computing device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said short-range wireless transceiver is a Bluetooth-enabled device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the touch input device comprises a device that detects a user input in response to an individual physically touching the touch input device.

18. The method of claim 15,

wherein the determining the human being is absent comprises determining that the human being is absent when the at least one of the obtained estimated probabilities is less than a predetermined value.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the human presence sensor comprises a work station lock.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining corresponding estimated probabilities of the presence of the human being from each of the plurality of inputs, wherein the corresponding estimated probability of the presence of the human being, with respect to the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs, deteriorates over time after the at least one second input of the plurality of inputs indicates the presence of the human being within the proximity of the computing device; and

determining the human being is present based on at least one of the obtained estimated probabilities being greater than a predetermined value;

wherein the determining the human being is absent comprises determining that the human being is absent when the at least one of the obtained estimated probabilities is less than a predetermined value.