Customizable Interfacing Agents, Systems, And Methods

• US 20120259826A1
• Filed: 03/30/2012
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2011
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Rym Zalila-Wenkstern
• Original Assignee: Rym Zalila-Wenkstern
• Inventors: Zalila-Wenkstern, Rym
• Application Number:
  US13/436,468
• Publication Number:
  US 20120259826A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/706
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing

Abstract

Customizable interfacing agents, systems, and methods are provided. In one embodiment, a method for interfacing a user to service providers includes receiving a set of user attributes associated, with a user to form a user profile, receiving a request for data from the user, and sending the request to one or more service providers. The method also includes receiving response data from the one or more service providers in response to sending the request to the one or more service providers. The method also includes filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form user-customized response data, and presenting the user-customized response data to the user.

Claims

1. A method for interfacing a user to service providers, the method comprising:

receiving a set of user attributes associated with a user to form a user profile;

receiving a request for data from the user;

sending the request to one or more service providers;

receiving response data from the one or more service providers in response to sending the request to the one or more service providers;

filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form user-customized response data; and

presenting the user-customized response data to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request for data from the user comprises receiving one or more search terms from the user;

wherein sending the request to the one or more service providers comprises sending the one or more search terms to one or more search engine service providers;

wherein receiving the response data from the one or more service providers comprises receiving one or more search results from the one or more search engine service providers;

wherein filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises filtering the one or more search results using the user profile to form user-customized search results; and

wherein presenting the user-customized response data to the user comprises presenting the user-customized search results to the user.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

changing the request for data from the user using the user profile to form a modified request;

wherein sending the request to the one or more service providers comprises sending the modified request to the one or more service providers.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving the request for data from the user comprises receiving one or more search terms from the user;

wherein changing the request for data from the user using the user profile to form the modified request comprises changing the one or more search terms from the user using the user profile to form a set of modified search terms;

wherein sending the modified request to the one or more service providers comprises sending the set of modified search terms to one or more search engine service providers;

wherein receiving the response data from the one or more service providers comprises receiving one or more search results from the one or more search engine service providers;

wherein filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises filtering the one or more search results using the user profile to form user-customized search results; and

wherein presenting the user-customized response data to the user comprises presenting the user-customized search results to the user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein changing the one or more search terms from the user using the user profile to form the set of modified search terms comprises adding additional search terms to the one or more search terms using the user profile to form the set of modified search terms.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein changing the request for data from the user using the user profile to form the modified request comprises changing the request for data from the user using a first set of user attributes of the user profile to form the modified request;

and

wherein filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using a second set of user attributes of the user profile to form the user-customized response data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein each of the user attributes in the first set of user attributes is different from each of the user attributes in the second set of user attributes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the request for data is associated with a particular type of service;

and

wherein sending the request to the one or more service providers comprises sending the request to a plurality of service providers, each of the plurality of service providers associated with the particular type of service.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the request to the one or more service providers comprises sending the request to at least one of a social networking service provider, a news service provider, a search engine service provider, or another interfacing agent.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein filtering the response data from the one or more service providers using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises comparing the response data to the user profile to determine the user-customized response data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein comparing the response data to the user profile to determine the user-customized response data comprises:

retaining one or more portions of the response data relevant to the user profile for inclusion into the user-customized response data; and

discarding one or more portions of the response data non-relevant to the user profile for exclusion from the user-customized response data.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is implemented by an interfacing agent executed by a communication device associated with the user.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein an agent host comprises a set of interfacing agents and a set of service agents, wherein each interfacing agent in the set of interfacing agents is associated with a particular user, and wherein each service agent in the set of service agents performs a particular task for one or more of the interfacing agents.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

responsive to a determination that an agent host in a set of agent hosts is over-utilized, migrating a subset of interfacing agents from the over-utilized agent host to a less utilized agent host; and

responsive to a determination that all agent hosts in the set of agent hosts are over-utilized, creating a new agent host and migrating a subset of interfacing agents from the over-utilized agent hosts to the new agent host.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the request to one or more service providers and receiving response data from the one or more service providers in response to sending the request to the one or more service providers is performed via a scraper.

16. A method for providing an interface between interfacing agents, the method comprising:

receiving a set of user attributes associated with a user to form a user profile;

receiving a request for data from the user;

sending the request to one or more interfacing agents, each of the one or more interfacing agents associated with a respective user profile for a respective user;

receiving response data from the one or more interfacing agents in response to sending the request to the one or more interfacing agents;

filtering the response data from the one or more interfacing agents using the user profile to form user-customized response data; and

presenting the user-customized response data to the user.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein filtering the response data from the one or more interfacing agents using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises comparing the user profile of the user to the one or more respective user profiles for the one or more respective users associated with the one or more interfacing agents to determine the user-customized response data.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein receiving the request for data from the user comprises receiving a request for user-identifying data for one or more users;

wherein receiving the response data from the one or more interfacing agents comprises receiving user-identifying response data for at least a portion of the respective users associated with the one or more interfacing agents;

wherein filtering the response data from the one or more interfacing agents using the user profile to form the user-customized response data comprises filtering the user-identifying response data using the user profile to form user-customized user-identifying data; and

wherein presenting the user-customized response data to the user comprises presenting the user-customized user-identifying data to the user.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

interfacing an interfacing agent associated with the user with one or more interfacing agents associated with respective users identified by the user-customized user-identifying data.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the response data comprises data associated with the respective user profiles for the one or more interfacing agents.

21. A system for interfacing a user, the system comprising:

an interfacing agent implementable on a communication device, the interfacing agent adapted to communicate with a plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents, the interfacing agent to receive a request for data from a user and send the request to at least one of the plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents, the interfacing agent to receive response data from the at least one of the plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents in response to sending the request to the at least one of the plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents, the interfacing agent further comprising;

a user profile comprising a set of user attributes associated with the user; and

a filtering engine to filter the response data from the at least one of the plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents using the user profile to form user-customized response data, the interfacing agent to present the user-customized response data to the user.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the interfacing agent further comprises:

a request customization engine to change the request for data from the user using the user profile to form a modified request, the interfacing agent to send the modified request to the at least one of the plurality of service providers and external interfacing agents.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the interfacing agent is adapted to communicate with the plurality of service providers via a scraper.