Tele-communication system and methods

• US 10,567,444 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2018
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cogito Corporation
• Original Assignee: Cogito Corporation
• Inventors: Feast, Joshua, Azarbayejani, Ali, Place, Skyler
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Sm A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huang, Chen-Liang
• Application Number:
  US15/978,955
• Publication Number:
  US 20180262539A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users

Abstract

A system for tele-communication between mobile devices is described. The disclosed system can capture real-time data regarding a mobile device user'"'"'s receptivity to interacting, need to interact, and likely availability for interacting. The system can match this data with that of a second party; and can facilitate the connection of the mobile device user to the second party for a mutually beneficial interaction. The second party could be a friend or peer, or an organization/enterprise. Overall, the integrated system can save time, money, and effort of both parties by reducing or eliminating unnecessary attempts to connect where there is an insufficient likelihood of interaction success.

Claims

1. A system for tele-communication between mobile devices, comprising a cloud device comprising one or more cloud device processors configured to:

(i) connect, via a network, with a mobile communication device of a user, wherein the mobile communication device has one or more passive sensors and a mobile device processor configured to execute an application to collect, time-stamp, and/or store, in one or more probe datastores, raw probe data received from the one or more passive sensors;

(ii) receive, via the network, probe data from the one or more probe datastores on the mobile communication device, the probe data including audio data, signal strength data, global position (GPS) data, call logs, text message logs, survey results, search history data, contacts data, calendar data, and application usage data;

(iii) operate an inference engine to execute a receptivity model process to calculate one or more availability output values indicative of the availability of the user to interact based on the probe data, the operation comprising;

determining, from the probe data, signal strength;

determining, from the probe data, whether the mobile device is in a location where the user receives and places calls successfully;

determining, from the probe data, whether the mobile device has been used by the user within a predetermined time interval, and whether it is currently in use at time of operation; and

/or

determining, from the probe data, the presence of a scheduled event at time of operation;

(iv) operate the inference engine to execute a subscriber-benefit model process to calculate one or more interest output values indicative of the interest or need of the user to interact based on the probe data, the operation comprising;

determining, from the probe data, changes in call and/or text patterns; and

/or

determining, from the probe data, elocution or articulation patterns of the user and/or a flat affect to the voice of the user;

(v) operate a cloud user status service, which synchronizes user sharing settings received from the mobile communication device, and provide the one or more availability output values and/or the one or more interest output values to the mobile communication device and an additional mobile communication device of an additional subscriber;

(vi) receive, from the additional mobile communication device of an additional subscriber, a connection request to the mobile communication device of the user upon initiation action from the additional subscriber when the one or more availability output values are above a configured threshold value indicating that user is available for communication; and

(vii) transmit the connection request to the mobile communication device of the user, wherein the application is configured to operate a connection manager graphical user interface to display, upon receipt of the connection request, an interface for the user to;

either (a) reject a received communication request or (b) accept the received communication request and automatically initiate a communication connection by direct phone call or communication software.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more passive sensors are built into the mobile communication device, and/or connected to the mobile communication device, and/or are collected from files or data storage of the mobile communication device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein a probe configuration file on the mobile communication device identifies from which sensors the application collects raw probe data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to compress collected raw probe data and transmits the compressed data to the cloud device.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to transmit a user sharing configuration to the cloud device, wherein the user sharing configuration identifies which probes are used by the inference engine for user status updates to specific subscribers and/or groups of subscribers.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more passive sensors include physical probes for one or more of:

clock, accelerometer, gyroscope, battery status, signal strength, microphone, location, galvanic skin response, heart rate, eye movement, blood glucose, and/or fingerprint.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more passive sensors include data probes for one or more of:

call logs, text message logs, survey results, search history, contacts, calendar, social media usage, VOiP logs, and/or application usage.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to receive an inferred user status from the cloud device about the user and about one or more subscribers who are in contacts tracked on the mobile communication device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the application is configured to operate a connection manager graphical user interface for the user to initiate communication requests through the cloud device to one or more subscribers.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the cloud device further is configured to operate a cloud collection service, which requests and receives probe data from the mobile communication device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the cloud device further is configured to operate a cloud connection service to initiate and authenticate connection requests between the mobile communication device and the additional communication device.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the cloud device further is configured to operate cloud web services to provide a browser or application-driven interface to one or more subscribers.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the inference engine is configured to calculate a certainty value for every inferred availability output value or interest output value.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the receptivity model is context-independent.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the receptivity model is user-specific.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-benefit model is context independent.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-benefit model is user-specific and/or subscriber-specific.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the receptivity model is trained to infer that the user is available based on:

signal strength, battery life, and user-mobile device interaction history of the mobile device, the mobile device being in a location that the user historically has made or received calls, the mobile device not being in use in a current call, the mobile device not enduring motion indicative of operating a vehicle, and the absence of calendar events for the user overlapping the current time.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the subscriber-benefit model is trained to infer that the user is experiencing distress or depression based on, as indicated by received probes, heart rate, blood-glucose level, and/or skin conductance.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the interest or need of the user to interact is an interest or need to speak.