Provision of on premise ambient service method and apparatus

• US 10,558,722 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2017
• Issued: 02/11/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Sarwar, Usman, Kumar, Anil
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller, Brian E
• Application Number:
  US15/476,803
• Publication Number:
  US 20180286155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,047 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/257 electronically G07C9/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0861 using biometrical features, e.g. fingerprint, retina-scan cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using biological data H04L9/3231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/186 Video door telephones

Abstract

Ambient service apparatuses and methods associated with providing ambient service in a premise are disclosed herein. In embodiments, an apparatus for providing on premise ambient service may be provided. The apparatus may include a profile engine to interact with a cloud ambient service provider to receive at least one of a profile of a user of a premise or a profile of one or more visitors of the premise, wherein the profiles are associated with the provision of ambient service to a visitor of the premise on behalf of the user. The apparatus may further include a management module coupled to the profile engine to interact with one or more peripherals at the premise to provide ambient service to one or more visitors of the premise, on behalf of the user, based at least in part on the user or visitor profile. Other embodiments may be disclosed or claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus to be employed as an ambient services gateway disposed at a premises, the apparatus comprising:

a profile engine arranged to interact with a cloud ambient service provider, the profile engine is to receive at least one social profile, the at least one social profile being a profile of a user of the premises, wherein the at least one social profile is associated with provision of ambient service to the user, wherein the user of the premises is an owner of the premises or a visitor to the premises;

a management module coupled to the profile engine, the management module is arranged to control transmission of control signaling to one or more peripheral devices at the premises to instruct the one or more peripheral devices to provide an ambient service to the user based at least in part on ambient service instructions; and

an inference engine, coupled to the profile engine and the management module, the inference engine is arranged to generate the ambient service instructions for providing the ambient service to the user based at least in part on the at least one social profile and data pertaining to interactions between the management module or the user and one or more other persons at the premises wherein the one or more other persons are owners of the premises or visitors to the premises.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when the user is a visitor to the premises, the user profile is to include service preferences of the user for guests and for strangers.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the management module is arranged to identify the user upon arrival to the premises.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the management module is arranged to identify the user based on data associated with interaction with at least one of the one or more peripheral devices, including at least one of visual analytic data or cell International Mobile Equipment Identity.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the social profile of the user is a social profile for one of a guest, a recognized stranger, or an unknown stranger.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the profile engine is arranged to control a communication interface to communicate with the cloud ambient service provider through a first communication link, and

the management module is arranged to control the communication interface to communicate with the one or more peripheral devices through respective second communication links, wherein the second communication links are different than the first communication link.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the management module is arranged to monitor interactions of the user with one or more other devices at the premises, and store information regarding the interactions for later use by the profile engine.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the profile engine is arranged to control a communication interface to transmit the information regarding the interactions to the cloud ambient service provider.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the inference engine is arranged to further generate ambient service recommendations for the user'"'"'s approval in advance of arrival of other users.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the ambient service recommendations include one or more of food or gifts to order, stores or online services from which to order, brands and ingredients of food items, or brands and quality level of gifts to obtain.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein, upon user approval of the ambient services recommendations, the inference engine is arranged to direct the management module to implement the preferred ambient services recommendations.

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more peripheral devices include one or more of a gate, a door, a mailbox, a camera, a lamp, a light, an entertainment system, a food service device, a visitor communication device, and a user communication device.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein, following a visit by the visitor to the premises, the management module is arranged to control a communication interface to send data to the cloud ambient service provider to update the social profile.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more peripheral devices include one or more of one or more sensors, one or more actuators, one or more switches, one or more Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and one or more machine-type communication (MTC) devices.

15. A method to be performed by an ambient services gateway providing on premises ambient services, the method comprising:

obtaining or receiving, by the ambient services gateway from a cloud ambient service provider, at least one social profile of a user of a premises, wherein the at least one social profile of the user is associated with provision of ambient services to the user, wherein the user of the premises is an owner of the premises or a visitor to the premises;

generating, by the ambient services gateway, ambient service instructions for providing the ambient services to the user based at least in part on the at least one social profile and data associated with interactions between a computing device or the user and one or more other persons observed at the premises, wherein the one or more other persons are owners of the premises or visitors to the premises; and

transmitting, by the ambient services gateway, the ambient service instructions to one or more peripheral devices at the premises, the ambient service instructions for instructing the one or more peripheral devices to provide the ambient services to the user based at least in part on ambient service instructions.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

identifying, by the ambient services gateway, one or more other users based on data associated with interactions with the user at the premises including at least one of visual analytic data or cell International Mobile Equipment Identity.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

generating, by the ambient services gateway, real-time ambient service decisions based at least in part on the at least one social profile of the user and based on data associated with interactions between the computing device or the user and one or more other users at the premises.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

monitoring, by the ambient services gateway, interactions of the user with one or more other users at the premises; and

transmitting, by the ambient services gateway, updated user profile data or user interaction data to the cloud ambient service provider.

19. A cloud computing system to provide ambient service data to one or more ambient service apparatuses, the one or more ambient service apparatuses to provide ambient services at corresponding premises, the cloud computing system comprising:

a communication management subsystem comprising one or more servers, the communication management subsystem arranged to;

obtain, from respective ambient service apparatuses of the one or more ambient service apparatuses, information pertaining to users located at the corresponding premises, and

send social profiles of the users to the respective ambient service apparatuses for provision of ambient services at the corresponding premises in response to receipt, from the respective ambient service apparatuses, of an indication that one or more users has arrived at the corresponding premises;

one or more hardware accelerators arranged as an interaction inference subsystem, the interaction inference subsystem is arranged to create the social profiles for the users based at least in part on the obtained information, and update respective social profiles in response to receipt, from the respective ambient service apparatuses, of indications of monitored interactions between the users located at the respective premises; and

one or more data storage systems arranged to store a profile database, the profile database to store the social profiles and receive updates to the stored social profiles, wherein the social profiles include data or instructions to indicate actuation of various peripheral devices at the corresponding premises for various interactions between users at the corresponding premises.

20. The cloud computing system of claim 19, wherein the communication management subsystem is arranged to crawl or search for information on the users from one or more online sources, the one or more online sources at least including a social media platform.

21. The cloud computing system of claim 19, wherein the interaction inference subsystem is arranged to initially obtain user preferences for dealing with other users at the premises, and to create the profiles based on the user preferences and the information obtained by a communications module.

22. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media comprising instructions, wherein execution of the instructions by one or more processors of an ambient services gateway is to cause the ambient services gateway to:

obtain at least one social profile of a user of a premises, wherein the at least one social profile of the user is associated with provision of ambient services to the user, wherein the user of the premises is an owner of the premises or a visitor to the premises;

generate ambient service instructions for providing the ambient services to the user based at least in part on the at least one social profile and data associated with interactions between the computing device or the user and one or more other persons observed at the premises, wherein the one or more other persons are owners of the premises or visitors to the premises; and

control transmission of the ambient service instructions to one or more peripheral devices at the premises, the ambient service instructions for instructing the one or more peripheral devices to provide the ambient services to the user based at least in part on ambient service instructions.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 22, wherein execution of instructions is to cause the ambient services gateway to:

monitor interactions of the user with one or more other users at the premises; and

control transmission of updated user profile data or user interaction data to a cloud ambient service provider based on the monitored interactions.