Method and apparatus of managing information about a person

• US 20030035567A1
• Filed: 04/15/2002
• Published: 02/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Liao, Yuan-Fu, Horng, Jyh-Kuen, Yeh, Li-Fen, Chang, Ying-Hui
• Granted Patent: US 7,058,208 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/115
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 9/37 using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/26 Recognition of special voice characteristics, e.g. for use in lie detectors; Recognition of animal voices

Abstract

A method and an electronic device (preferably a Personal Digital Assistant, PDA or a palm computer) for providing information about a physical person, comprising: a microphone for recording audio data and/or a camera for recording image data of the physical person. A processor with a memory for processing the audio and/or visual data to recognize the identity of the physical person and retrieving the stored information about the recognized identity is provided. A user interface is used to deliver the stored information to a user. The information may comprise business card information and/or other information about the person. Moreover, information representative of the person'"'"'s emotional/personal status/mood may be recorded, retrieved, and provided to the user via the user interface.

Claims

1. A method of providing information about a physical person, the method comprising the steps of:

recording audio and/or image data of the physical person;

processing the audio and/or visual data to recognize the identity of the physical person;

retrieving stored information about the recognized identity; and

supplying the stored information to a user.

2. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

processing the audio data to determine the voice print and/or tone of voice of the person; and

storing a representation of the voice print and/or tone of voice.

3. A method according to claim 2 further comprising the step of associating a representation of a tone of voice with a representation of a mood.

4. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

processing the image data to determine facial expressions of the person; and

storing a representation of the facial expressions.

5. A method according to claim 4 further comprising the step of associating a representation of a facial expression with a representation of a mood.

6. A method according to claim 1 further comprising the step of providing a user with the option of storing information about a person and associating that information with data that are characteristic for the person.

7. An apparatus for providing information about a physical person, comprising:

a recorder for recording audio and/or image data of the physical person;

a processor with a memory for processing the audio and/or visual data to recognize the identity of the physical person, and for retrieving stored information about the recognized identity; and

a user interface for supplying the stored information to a user.

8. An apparatus according to claim 7 wherein the processor is arranged to associate a representation of a tone of voice with a representation of a mood.

9. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processor is arranged to associate a representation of a facial expression with a representation of a mood.

10. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the processor is arranged to combine a representation of a facial expression and a representation of a tone of voice with a representation of a mood.

11. An apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the apparatus is arranged to provide a user with the option of storing information about a person and associating that information with data that are characteristic for the person.

12. An apparatus according to claim 7 arranged to compare a current representation of mood with a previously stored representation in a history of representations of mood;

and supply information to the user about the result of the comparison.