Personification of Software Agents

• US 20110131507A1
• Filed: 12/02/2009
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Butcher, Thomas C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,935 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Personification techniques for software agents are described. In an implementation, a plurality of software agents is personified in a user interface to be selectable as friends in a social network service. Each of the software agents is executable to make one or more recommendations based on criteria of the software agent, respectively. Recommendations made by particular software agents are communicated via user accounts of the social network service that have selected the particular software agents as friends.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a computing device, the method comprising:

personifying a plurality of software agents in a user interface to be selectable as friends in a social network service, each said software agent is executable to make one or more recommendations based on criteria of the software agent, respectively; and

communicating recommendations made by particular said software agents via user accounts of the social network service that have selected the particular said software agents as friends.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of software agents are personified in a user interface that also include representations of user accounts of the social network service, the representations of the user accounts being selectable to add the user account as a friend in the social network service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendations are communicated via a status update included in a network feed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendations are communicated via an email or a SMS text.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the personifying is performed using anthropomorphism to give one or more human characteristics to the software agent that correspond to the criteria of the software agent that are used to make the one or more recommendations.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the personifying is performed using an icon that has the one or more human characteristics.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the personified software agents are selectable to view the criteria to be used to make the recommendations.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one said recommendation specifies particular content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one said recommendation specifies a live event.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one said recommendation suggests another user account to be specified as a friend of the user account.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one said recommendation is made using the criteria of a respective said software agent and one or more criteria of a human user of the social network service that is specified as a friend of the user account.

12. One or more tangible computer-readable media comprising instructions stored thereon that, responsive to execution on a computing device, causes the computing device to output a graphical user interface having a plurality of representations of friends that are selected to permit output of status updates in a network feed of a social network service, in which one or more of the representations are representative of users of the social network service, respectively, and at least one of the representations is representative of a software agent that is configured to provide recommendations in the network feed.

13. The one or more tangible computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the at least one representation of the software agent is selectable to view one or more criteria used by the software agent to make the recommendations.

14. The one or more tangible computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the at least one representation of the software agent is selectable to view respective said recommendations.

15. The one or more tangible computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the recommendations specify particular content.

16. The one or more tangible computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the recommendations specify a live event.

17. A social network service implemented via one or more computing devices, the social network service configured to:

execute a plurality of software agents, each having one or more criteria that are usable to make recommendations;

provide a user interface having an icon for each of the plurality of software agents, the icon representative of the criteria of a respective said software agent and selectable to add the respective said software agent as a friend associated with a user'"'"'s account in the social network service; and

communicate the recommendations made by a selected said software agent that is associated with the user'"'"'s account in the social network service.

18. The social network service of claim 17, wherein at least one said icon personifies one or more human characteristics that correspond to the criteria of the software agent that are used to make the one or more recommendations.

19. The social network service of claim 18, wherein the personification is performed using an icon that has the one or more human characteristics.

20. The social network service of claim 17, wherein the recommendations are communication in a network feed provided by the social network service along with one or more status updates.