Systems and methods for contextual services using voice personal assistants

• US 10,515,384 B2
• Filed: 08/15/2016
• Issued: 12/24/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Bruno, John, Durvasula, Sastry Vsm, Muthukrishnan, Sathish, Narsipur, Keshav, Basheerahammed, Sibish Neelikattil
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao, Vincent M
• Application Number:
  US15/237,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20170330215A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,226 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/102 Entity profiles

Abstract

A system may store a first merchant identifier in response to a registration of a first merchant and a user identifier in response to a registration of a user. The system may also store an access permission to control access by the first merchant to a first context. The access permission may be configured for retrieval by a query including at least one of the user identifier or the first merchant identifier. A user may access the system using a voice personal assistant. The system may authenticate the user based on spoken input to the voice personal assistant. The system may return the first context in response to a first application programming interface (API) call and in response to the access permission authorizing access to the first context. The system may facilitate transactions using a voice personal assistant.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a contextual services management system, an access permission to subsets of user contextual information about a user for a subset of a plurality of merchants while the user is communicating with a voice personal assistant;

receiving, by the contextual services management system, a user voice input comprising a contextual services wake word as a registration and approval for initiating communications between the voice personal assistant and the contextual services management system;

receiving, by the contextual services management system, a request for an initiation of a session with a cloud computing system, in response to the voice personal assistant receiving the user voice input comprising the contextual services wake word,

wherein the voice personal assistant requests the contextual services wake word from the user,

wherein the contextual services wake word activates a streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the cloud computing system, and

wherein the contextual services wake word causes the cloud computing system to activate the streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the contextual services management system;

authenticating, by the contextual services management system, user credentials of the user and the contextual services wake word for receiving contextual services;

receiving, by the contextual services management system, the streaming session with the voice personal assistant, in response to the authenticating;

determining, by the contextual services management system, API permissions for API call levels for each merchant of the plurality of merchants for accessing the subsets of the user contextual information about the user;

receiving, by the contextual services management system, and based on the user voice input to the voice personal assistant, a request for an item;

determining, by the contextual services management system, user preferences for the item;

determining, by the contextual services management system, the subset of the plurality of merchants based on the request for the item, the user preferences and API permissions;

providing, by the contextual services management system, and based on the request for the item and the permissions, the user contextual information to the subset of the plurality of merchants;

requesting, by the contextual services management system, a first offer for an item from each of the plurality of merchants based on the user contextual information;

determining, by the contextual services management system, that a first merchant provides the item at a lowest price based on the first offer; and

transmitting, by the contextual services management system, the first offer from the first merchant in the plurality of merchants to the voice personal assistant,

wherein the voice personal assistant broadcasts the first offer and the first merchant displays the first offer on a webpage customized based on the user contextual information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, by the contextual services management system, a second offer from the first merchant to the voice personal assistant, wherein the first merchant selects the second offer based on the user contextual information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising transmitting, by the contextual services management system, transaction account information to the first merchant in response to the user accepting the first offer.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining, by the contextual services management system, that the user is using a vehicle internet enabled device; and

transmitting, by the contextual services management system, instructions to the vehicle internet enabled device to provide directions to the first merchant.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising detecting, using a BLE beacon, a mobile device of the user in a location of the first merchant.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the user contextual information includes user persona, user permissions, user payment status, social media data, social media input, social media behavior, credit reporting agency data, frequency of transactions, number of transactions, transaction categorizations, interests, interactions with the plurality of merchants, SKU scanned by the user, items added to a shopping cart, user preferences, user interests, past locations of the user device, current location of the user device, user spend history, product comparisons, future transactions of interest to the user, products of interest to the user, inventory data, preferred consumers of the first merchant, preferred types of consumers of the first merchant and merchant location.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing, by the contextual services management system, a recommendation to the user to defer a purchase based on historical transaction account information to preserve cash flow.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the voice personal assistant stores user preferences, the user contextual information, a white listing of partners and a default transaction account.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the user contextual information includes information associated with a user device including transactions entered, applications opened, searches performed, communication bandwidth, internet history, geodata, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) activities, travel direction, travel speed, travel patterns, search patterns, frequently visited locations and web sites visited.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising initiating, by the contextual services management system, conversation services between at least one of the user, another user or the first merchant.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising allowing, by the contextual services management system, access to a sub-persona of another person associated with the user.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising saving, by the contextual services management system, the first item in a data repository of the contextual services management system, in response to the request for the item from the user.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising comparing, by the contextual services management system, the first item from a first merchant website with a second item from a second merchant website.

14. A computer-based system, comprising:

a processor; and

a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor, the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the processor, an access permission to subsets of user contextual information about a user for a subset of a plurality of merchants while the user is communicating with a voice personal assistant;

receiving, by the processor, a user voice input comprising a contextual services wake word as a registration and approval for initiating communications between the voice personal assistant and the processor;

receiving, by the processor, a request for an initiation of a session with a cloud computing system, in response to the voice personal assistant receiving the user voice input comprising the contextual services wake word,

wherein the voice personal assistant requests the contextual services wake word from the user,

wherein the contextual services wake word activates a streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the cloud computing system, and

wherein the contextual services wake word causes the cloud computing system to activate the streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the processor;

authenticating, by the processor, user credentials of the user and the contextual services wake word for receiving contextual services;

receiving, by the processor, the streaming session with the voice personal assistant, in response to the authenticating;

determining, by the processor, API permissions for API call levels for each merchant of the plurality of merchants for accessing the subsets of the user contextual information about the user;

receiving, by the processor, and based on the user voice input to the voice personal assistant, a request for an item;

determining, by the processor, user preferences for the item;

determining, by the processor, the subset of the plurality of merchants based on the request for the item, the user preferences and API permissions;

providing, by the processor, and based on the request for the item and the permissions, the user contextual information to the subset of the plurality of merchants;

requesting, by the processor, a first offer for an item from each of the plurality of merchants based on the user contextual information;

determining, by the processor, that a first merchant provides the item at a lowest price based on the first offer; and

transmitting, by the processor, the first offer from the first merchant in the plurality of merchants to the voice personal assistant,

wherein the voice personal assistant broadcasts the first offer and the first merchant displays the first offer on a webpage customized based on the user contextual information.

15. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the computer-based system, an access permission to subsets of user contextual information about a user for a subset of a plurality of merchants while the user is communicating with a voice personal assistant;

receiving, by the computer-based system, a user voice input comprising a contextual services wake word as a registration and approval for initiating communications between the voice personal assistant and the computer-based system;

receiving, by the computer-based system, a request for an initiation of a session with a cloud computing system, in response to the voice personal assistant receiving the user voice input comprising the contextual services wake word,

wherein the voice personal assistant requests the contextual services wake word from the user,

wherein the contextual services wake word activates a streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the cloud computing system, and

wherein the contextual services wake word causes the cloud computing system to activate the streaming session between the voice personal assistant and the computer-based system;

authenticating, by the computer-based system, user credentials of the user and the contextual services wake word for receiving contextual services;

receiving, by the computer-based system, the streaming session with the voice personal assistant, in response to the authenticating;

determining, by the computer-based system, API permissions for API call levels for each merchant of the plurality of merchants for accessing the subsets of the user contextual information about the user;

receiving, by the computer-based system, and based on the user voice input to the voice personal assistant, a request for an item;

determining, by the computer-based system, user preferences for the item;

determining, by the computer-based system, the subset of the plurality of merchants based on the request for the item, the user preferences and API permissions;

providing, by the computer-based system, and based on the request for the item and the permissions, the user contextual information to the subset of the plurality of merchants;

requesting, by the computer-based system, a first offer for an item from each of the plurality of merchants based on the user contextual information;

determining, by the computer-based system, that a first merchant provides the item at a lowest price based on the first offer; and

transmitting, by the computer-based system, the first offer from the first merchant in the plurality of merchants to the voice personal assistant,

wherein the voice personal assistant broadcasts the first offer and the first merchant displays the first offer on a webpage customized based on the user contextual information.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising transmitting, by the computer-based system, a second offer from the first merchant to the voice personal assistant, wherein the first merchant selects the second offer based on the user contextual information.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising transmitting, by the computer-based system, transaction account information to the first merchant in response to the user accepting the first offer.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising:

determining, by the computer-based system, that the user is using a vehicle internet enabled device; and

transmitting, by the computer-based system, instructions to the vehicle internet enabled device to provide directions to the first merchant.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 18, further comprising detecting, using a BLE beacon, a mobile device of the user in a location of the first merchant.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19, further comprising transmitting, by the computer-based system, a second offer from the first merchant to the mobile device of the user.