Method and business process to maintain privacy in distributed recommendation systems
First Claim
1. A method to enable a wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that are appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
- receiving sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
processing the sensor signals with a context inference engine;
outputting a current context result from the processing by the context inference engine;
forming a context-activity pair by selecting an activity and pairing it with the current context result;
searching a database of recommendations using the context-activity pair; and
providing recommendations to the user in response to the searching step.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed recommendation system and method are disclosed that provides greater privacy for the user'"'"'s private data. The method distributes the tasks of a recommendation system between wireless devices and network servers, so as to protect the privacy of end users. The system and method provide greater privacy for context-sensitive, adaptive, user interfaces for Internet service usage by wireless devices. The user'"'"'s wireless device sends a current context-activity pair to a network server in response to either the user'"'"'s selection of an activity or automatically. The server then responds an appropriate recommendation. Recommendations received from the server by the wireless device are filtered to identify new or significant information. As the system makes new recommendations to users in response to context-activity pairs submitted by their wireless devices, the server gathers the new context-activity pairs and recommendations and adds them to its context-activity pair database.
-
Citations
45 Claims
-
1. A method to enable a wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that are appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
receiving sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
processing the sensor signals with a context inference engine;
outputting a current context result from the processing by the context inference engine;
forming a context-activity pair by selecting an activity and pairing it with the current context result;
searching a database of recommendations using the context-activity pair; and
providing recommendations to the user in response to the searching step. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
-
-
22. An apparatus to enable a wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that is appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
a processor;
a memory coupled to the processor, programmed to perform the steps of;
receiving sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
processing the sensor signals with a context inference engine;
outputting a current context result from the processing by the context inference engine;
forming a context-activity pair by selecting an activity and pairing it with the current context result;
causing a database of recommendations to be searched using the context-activity pair; and
providing recommendations to the user in response to the searching step. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
-
-
25. A wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that is appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
a sensor for providing sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
a context inference engine coupled to the sensor, for processing the sensor signals;
said context inference engine providing a current context result from the processing;
a processor coupled to the context inference engine, for forming a context-activity pair by selecting an activity and pairing it with the current context result;
a database coupled to the processor, for providing recommendations using the context-activity pair; and
an output device coupled to the database, for providing the recommendations to the user in response to the context-activity pair.
-
-
26. A system to provide recommendations to the user of a wireless device that is appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
a sensor in the wireless device for providing sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
a processor coupled to the context inference engine, for forming a context-activity pair information by selecting an activity and pairing it with current sensor information derived from said sensor signals, said processor sending the context-activity pair information to a server;
a context inference engine in the server coupled to the wireless device, for processing the context-activity pair information, said context inference engine providing a current context result from the processing;
a database coupled to the processor, for providing recommendations using the current context-activity pair; and
an output device in the wireless device and coupled to the database, for providing the recommendations to the user.
-
-
27. A business method to enable a wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that are appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
characterizing a current environment of the wireless device with a current context result;
forming a context-activity pair by selecting an activity and pairing it with the current context result;
accessing a database of recommendations using the context-activity pair without including any user personal data; and
providing recommendations to the wireless device from the database.
-
-
36. A method to enable a wireless device to provide recommendations to its user that are appropriate to the device'"'"'s current environment, comprising:
-
receiving sensor signals characterizing a current environment of the wireless device;
processing the sensor signals with a context inference engine to produce a set of current context results;
forming a set of context-activity pairs by selecting an activity and pairing it with the set of current context results;
accessing a set of related service history items from a history log;
forming context-activity pair information from the set of current context results and the set of related service history items;
searching a database of recommendations using the context-activity pair information; and
providing recommendations to the user in response to the searching step.
-
Specification