RECOMMENDING MOBILE DEVICE ACTIVITIES

• US 20120084292A1
• Filed: 09/15/2011
• Published: 04/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VCVC III LLC (Vulcan, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VCVC III LLC (Vulcan, Inc.)
• Inventors: Liang, Jisheng, Bhatti, Satish, Hunsinger, Will
• Granted Patent: US 9,405,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/741
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation

Abstract

Techniques for recommending mobile device activities, such as accessing mobile applications and/or mobile Web pages, are described. Some embodiments provide an Activity Recommendation System (“ARS”) configured to recommend relevant activities for a user to perform with a mobile device, based on context of the mobile device. In one embodiment, the ARS recommends mobile applications based content items (e.g., Web pages, images, videos) that are being currently accessed via the mobile device. The ARS may process information about mobile applications and content items to determine semantic information, such as entities and/or categories referenced or associated therewith. The ARS may then use the semantic information to determine mobile applications that have semantic information that is at least similar to that of a content item accessed via a mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for recommending mobile device activities, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a content item accessed by a mobile device;

determining semantic information about the indicated content item, including at least one of;

one or more entities referenced by the indicated content item, one or more entities related to the referenced one or more entities, or one or more categories of the referenced one or more entities and/or the related one or more entities;

determining a mobile device activity, the activity having one or more associated entities and/or categories in common with the determined semantic information; and

transmitting information about the determined activity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the semantic information about the indicated content item includes processing text of a Web page to identify the one or more entities referenced by the indicated content item.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the semantic information about the indicated content item includes accessing a semantic network to determine the one or more entities related to the referenced one or more entities.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the semantic information about the indicated content item includes accessing a semantic network to determine the one or more categories of the referenced one or more entities and/or the related one or more entities.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

processing a corpus of text documents to generate a semantic network that represents a plurality of entities, relationships between entities of the plurality of entities, and categories associated with entities of the plurality of entities.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the activity includes determining a mobile application that is configured to be executed on the mobile device and that provides functions that are related to the content item.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined activity includes accessing a mobile device application, and further comprising:

determining entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile device applications by processing information about the plurality of mobile device applications, the information including at least one of a name, a summary, a description, a review, a rating, and an identifier; and

determining whether the determined semantic information includes one or more of the determined entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile device applications.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the activity includes determining a mobile Website that is configured to be accessed by the mobile device and that provides functions that are related to the content item.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the determined activity includes accessing a mobile Website, and further comprising:

determining entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile Web sites by processing text content from the plurality of mobile Web sites; and

determining whether the determined semantic information includes one or more of the determined entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile Web sites.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the content item is at least one of a Web page, an audio item, and a video item.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the information about the determined activity includes presenting an indication of the activity on a display of the mobile device.

12. A method for discovering mobile applications, the method comprising:

generating an index of semantic information for multiple mobile applications, the semantic information including entities and/or categories related to the multiple mobile applications;

receiving a semantic search query, the query specifying at least one entity or category;

determining one or more of the multiple mobile applications that have semantic information matching the received semantic search query; and

transmitting indications of the determined one or more mobile applications.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein generating the index includes processing information about each of the multiple mobile applications, including at least one of a summary of the application, a description of the application, a title for the application, instructions for using the application, and a review of the application.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein processing the information about each of the multiple mobile applications includes determining an entity and/or a category referenced by the information.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein generating the index includes storing a mapping between an entity or category and one or more of the multiple mobile applications that are related to the entity or category.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein determining the one or more mobile applications includes accessing the index to locate mobile applications that are mapped to the entity or category specified by the semantic search query.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the semantic search query includes receiving a search query that requests mobile applications about a specified entity or category, and wherein determining the one or more mobile applications includes locating one or more mobile applications that are about the specified entity or category.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the semantic search query includes receiving a search query that requests mobile applications that are indirectly related to a specified entity or category, and wherein determining the one or more mobile applications includes locating one or more mobile applications that are about an entity or category that is related to the specified entity or category.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein the multiple mobile applications include applications that execute at least in part on mobile devices.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein the multiple mobile applications include Web sites configured for use by mobile devices.

21. The method of claim 12 wherein receiving the semantic search query includes receiving the semantic search query from a mobile application recommender module executing on a mobile device, the recommender module configured to transmit the semantic search query in response to a content item accessed via the mobile device, the content item referencing the specified at least one entity or category.

22. A computer-readable medium having contents that, when executed by a computing system, enable the computing system to recommend mobile device activities, by performing a method comprising:

receiving an indication of a content item accessed by a mobile device;

determining semantic information about the indicated content item, including at least one of;

one or more entities referenced by the indicated content item, one or more entities related to the referenced one or more entities, or one or more categories of the referenced one or more entities and/or the related one or more entities;

determining a mobile device activity, the activity having one or more associated entities and/or categories in common with the determined semantic information; and

transmitting information about the determined activity.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the determined activity includes the mobile device accessing a mobile device application, and wherein the method further comprises:

determining entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile device applications by processing information about the plurality of mobile device applications, the information including at least one of a name, a summary, a description, a review, a rating, and an identifier; and

determining whether the determined semantic information includes one or more of the determined entities and categories associated with the a plurality of mobile device applications.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory in the computing system, and wherein the contents are instructions that, when executed, cause the computing system to perform the method.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory in a tablet computing device, and wherein the contents are instructions that, when executed, cause the tablet computing system to perform the method.

26. A computing system configured to recommend content, comprising:

a memory;

a module that is stored on the memory and that is configured, when executed, to;

receive an indication of a content item accessed by a mobile device;

determine semantic information about the indicated content item, including at least one of;

one or more entities referenced by the indicated content item, one or more entities related to the referenced one or more entities, or one or more categories of the referenced one or more entities and/or the related one or more entities;

determine a mobile device activity, the activity having one or more associated entities and/or categories in common with the determined semantic information; and

transmit information about the determined activity.

27. The computing system of claim 26, wherein the module is further configured to:

generate an index of semantic information for multiple mobile applications, the semantic information including entities and/or categories related to the multiple mobile applications;

receive a semantic search query, the query specifying at least one entity or category;

determine one or more of the multiple mobile applications that have semantic information matching the received semantic search query; and

transmit indications of the determined one or more mobile applications.

28. The computing system of claim 26 wherein the module includes software instructions for execution in the memory of the computing system.

29. The computing system of claim 26 wherein the module is an activity recommendation system.

30. The computing system of claim 26 wherein the module is configured to recommend activities to at least one of a personal digital assistant, a smart phone, a laptop computer, and/or a third-party application.

31. The computing system of claim 26 wherein the mobile device is a tablet computer.