Parametric user profiling

• US 20070117557A1
• Filed: 11/21/2005
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Conopco (Unilever PLC)
• Original Assignee: Conopco (Unilever PLC)
• Inventors: Adjali, Iqbal, Hurling, Robert, De Boni, Marco, Dias, Malcolm, Bataveljic, Ogi
• Application Number:
  US11/284,297
• Publication Number:
  US 20070117557A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions

Abstract

An apparatus for behaviour monitoring on mobile computing devices and a method of operating such devices for adaptively profiling users and for optimising user profile storage requirements. The method comprising monitoring a behaviour of the user by interpreting one or more interactions between the device and the user and storing information relating to the behaviour of the user in at least a partially parameterised form. The method further comprising determining whether the user is exhibiting any changes in behaviour as a function of a variation in one or more parameters within the stored information.

Claims

1. A method of operating a mobile computing device for interacting with a user and detecting changes in the behaviour of the user, comprising:

monitoring a behaviour of the user by interpreting one or more interactions between the device and the user;

storing information relating to the behaviour of the user in at least a partially parameterised form; and

determining whether the user is exhibiting any changes in behaviour as a function of a variation in one or more parameters within the stored information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing includes storing the information in a temporal database comprising one or more parametric tables to receive the information relating to the behaviour of the user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising linearly increasing the size of the one or more parametric tables with an increasing number of users.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising maintaining a constant size of the one or more parametric tables with an increasing number of user sessions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein storing includes storing the information in one or more of the following parametric tables:

a previous session value table, a mean value table and an instantaneous-variance measure table.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating the stored information with each interaction between the device and the user.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing includes storing the information locally on the device and/or remotely on a gateway server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein interpreting an interaction involves determining a mode of use of the device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein interpreting an interaction involves processing a signal received from one or more biometric sensors associated with the device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein interpreting includes defining, or updating, a user profile for the user based on their behaviour.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the information includes storing the user profile in at least a partially parameterised form.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein determining includes assessing whether a mean and/or variance parameter value has changed relative to a previous value.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring a behaviour of the user includes:

receiving real-time data relating to physical attributes of the user; and

using the data relating to the physical attributes to interpret one or more interactions between the device and the user.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a communications session with a remote gateway server;

transmitting to the server the information relating to the behaviour of the user;

and

updating a redundant temporal database within the server, comprising one or more parametric tables, with the transmitted information.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting to the user a content based on the monitored behaviour of the user and/or the determined behavioural changes of the user.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a mobile computing device for interacting with a user and detecting changes in the behaviour of the user, including;

means for monitoring a behaviour of the user by interpreting one or more interactions between the device and the user;

means for storing information relating to the behaviour of the user in at least a partially parameterised form; and

means for determining whether the user is exhibiting any changes in behaviour as a function of a variation in one or more parameters within the stored information;

and

a remote gateway server for communicating with the mobile computing device, including a redundant temporal database comprising one or more parametric tables for receiving stored information from the mobile computing device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the mobile computing device is one of the following devices:

a mobile phone, a laptop, a PDA and a tablet PC.

18. A mobile computing device for interacting with a user and for detecting changes in the behaviour of the user, comprising:

means for monitoring a behaviour of the user by interpreting one or more interactions between the device and the user;

means for storing information relating to the behaviour of the user in at least a partially parameterised form; and

means for determining whether the user is exhibiting any changes in behaviour as a function of a variation in one or more parameters within the stored information.

19. The device of claim 18, further comprising one or more biometric sensors for determining physical attributes of the user.

20. A remote gateway server for communicating with a mobile computing device, comprising:

means for receiving from the mobile computing device information relating to the behaviour of the user in at least a partially parameterised form; and

a redundant temporal database comprising one or more parametric tables for receiving the information from the mobile computing device.

21. Apparatus as described substantially herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.