LOGGING AND ANALYZING COMPUTER USER'S CONTEXT DATA

• US 20100262573A1
• Filed: 06/28/2010
• Published: 10/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Newell, Dan, Robarts, Jim, Abbott, Ken, Freedman, Josh
• Granted Patent: US 8,626,712 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/163 Wearable computers, e.g. on a belt
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/901 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures for retrieval from the web G06F16/951
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/00 Security arrangements for protecting computers, components thereof, programs or data against unauthorised activity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/016 Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/921 Spatial
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/941 Human sciences
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/962 Entity-attribute-value

Abstract

A facility for logging context attributes is described. For each of a set of selected context attributes, the facility, determines a target frequency with which values of the selected context attribute are to be logged. For each of the set of selected context attributes, the facility obtains values of the selected context attribute at a frequency approximating the target frequency determined for the selected context attribute. Then, for each obtained context attribute value, the facility writes the obtained value to a storage device in a manner that identifies its context attribute.

Claims

1. A method in a computing device for retroactively analyzing a log of context attribute values associated with a user of the computing device, each context attribute value contained by the log being stored with an indication of a corresponding data item and an indexing value, the computing device comprising a characterization module and at least one application, the method comprising:

employing a processor executing computer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

operate the characterization module to;

receive a specification for analyzing values among the stored values, the specification specifying one or more context attributes, a range of indexing values, and an analysis technique;

retrieve stored values for the specified context attributes associated with the user of the computing device within the specified range of indexing values, wherein a first subset of the stored values for one of the specified context attributes is associated with a first source device, and a second subset for the stored values for the one of the specified context attributes is associated with a second source device; and

apply the specified analysis technique to the retrieved values to produce an analysis of the context attributes that infers information representing at least one of the user'"'"'s physical activity, emotional state, or cognitive load; and

operate the at least one application to receive and use the inferred information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the indexing values are effective times associated with the data items; and

the specified analysis technique is a summarization technique.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first source device is a source of geographic information, and the second source device is a source of physiological information relating to a user of the computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

a rule designed for analyzing context attribute values in real-time to produce a result is available in the computing device; and

the specified analysis technique includes determining a result that would have been produced had the rule had been applied to analyze the specified context attribute values at the time the values were generated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the available rule is obtained from a second, distinct computing device in which the available rule has already been adopted; and

the method further comprises adopting the rule for future real-time application when it is determined that a successful result would have been produced had the rule been applied to analyze the specified context attribute values at the time the values were generated.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the specified analysis technique identifies a recurring pattern in the retrieved context attribute values; and

the method further comprises;

determining that a most recent pattern recurrence is identified in context attribute values having effective times only shortly preceding the present time;

determining that the retrieved context values include context values reflecting an action taken by a user subsequent and proximal to at least one earlier occurrence of the pattern; and

based upon both determinations, making preparations in anticipation of repetition of the action by the user.

10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the analysis subsystem determines that the status of the user relates to embarking on a mode of transportation.

11. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to act as a specification receiver that receives a specification for analyzing values among the stored context attribute values, the specification specifying one or more context attributes associated with a user of the computing device, a range of effective times, and an analysis technique.

12. The computing device of claim 11, wherein:

the value retrieval subsystem retrieves stored values from the memory for the one or more specified context attributes based on the specification; and

the analysis subsystem applies the analysis technique selected based on the specification.

7. A computing device for retroactively analyzing a log of context attribute values, each context attribute value contained by the log being stored with an indication of a corresponding data item, the computing device comprising:

a memory; and

a processor configured to act as;

a value retrieval subsystem that retrieves stored values from the memory for one or more specified context attributes, wherein a first subset of the retrieved values associated with one of the specified context attributes is associated with a first data source providing geographic information, and a second subset of the retrieved values associated with the one of the specified context attributes is associated with a second data source providing physiological information about a user; and

an analysis subsystem that applies an analysis technique to the retrieved values to determine a status of the user based on the geographic information and the physiological information.

8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the computing device is a mobile computer system.

9. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the computing device in which the method is performed is a body-supported computer system.

13. The computing device of claim 7, wherein the analysis subsystem determines a cognitive load of the user.

14. A method in a computing device for retrospectively analyzing experiences of a human user of a general-purpose computing device, comprising:

employing a processor executing a computer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable storage medium to implement the following acts;

for each of a set of data items relating to experiences of the human user, iteratively obtaining and storing values of a selected subset of the set of data items, each stored value of a data item being stored with an indication of the data item and an indication of an effective time of the stored value, wherein at least one data item obtains values from a plurality of data sources, the data sources comprising at least one of a source of geographic information and physiological information;

receiving a specification for analyzing values among the stored values that specifies one or more data items, a range of effective times, and an analysis technique;

retrieving stored values for the specified data items within the specified range of effective times and retrieving the real time values for the remaining non-specified data items;

applying the specified analysis technique to the retrieved values to produce an analysis of experiences of the human user; and

selecting an operating characteristic of the computing device based on inferring a current or future status of the human user based on the analysis of experiences of the human user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting the operating characteristic of the computing device comprises selecting an output behavior for the computing device.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting an output behavior comprises presenting information in a format that restricts access to the information.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising receiving a specification of a user-selected mediation technique.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein storing values of the selected subset of the set of data items comprises storing the values in a sparse matrix.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a user specification of a user-selected mediation technique; and

employing the user-selected mediation technique to select which one of the plurality of data sources will supply values for the analysis.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the computing device in which the method is performed is a general-purpose mobile computer system.