METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USING AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE FOR GENERATING, USING, OR UPDATING AN ENRICHED USER PROFILE

• US 20130246595A1
• Filed: 09/03/2012
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hugh O'Donoghue, Scott Beith, Sean Corrigan
• Inventors: O'DONOGHUE, Hugh, WHALE, Peter Charles, HEALY, Colm, PEGUM, Andrew, CORRIGAN, Sean, BEITH, Scott, HOUGH, Jason
• Application Number:
  US13/602,252
• Publication Number:
  US 20130246595A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 Hardware identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for communication are provided in which a communications device is operable to obtain an attribute associated with an enriched user profile including three or more informational elements. In one aspect, at least one of the three or more informational elements may include a contextual sub-element. The communications device may be operable to populate an organizational matrix using the three or more informational elements, and determine a repetitious structure based at least in part on analysis of the populated organizational matrix. In one aspect, the device may determine a relevance value associated with the attribute based at least in part on the determined repetitious structure and predict a second attribute based at least in part on the determined relevance and the repetitious structure. In one aspect, the device may query the organizational matrix using a querying criterion.

Claims

1. A method of communications, comprising:

obtaining an attribute associated with an enriched user profile including three or more informational elements, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements includes a contextual sub-element;

populating an organizational matrix using the three or more informational elements; and

determining a repetitious structure based at least in part on analysis of the populated organizational matrix.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a relevance value associated with the attribute based at least in part on the determined repetitious structure; and

predicting a second attribute based at least in part on the determined relevance and the repetitious structure.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein predicting the second attribute further comprises:

detecting a modification to the attribute within a first threshold period of time;

determining a first pattern associated with the detected modification to the attribute based on the repetitious structure; and

searching the organizational matrix for a second pattern associated with the second attribute within a matching threshold of the first pattern.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining an event associated with the second attribute; and

using the event associated with the second attribute to predict occurrence of the event.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein two of the three or more informational elements are time based, and wherein one of the two time-based informational elements is at least one of a period of a day, days of a week, or months of a year.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements used to populate the organizational matrix is dynamically changed.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the attribute further comprises:

obtaining the three or more informational elements from at least one component associated with a communications device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the at least one component is at least one of an application associated with the communications device, a sensor associated with the communications device, a hardware component associated with the communications device, or any combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute comprises at least one of information associated with an event start time, an event time duration, an event end time, or any combination thereof.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein obtaining the attribute further comprises obtaining a second instance of an informational element for at least one of the informational element;

and

updating the at least one of the informational element with the second instance of the informational element.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining further comprises obtaining a second attribute, and wherein the determining the repetitious structure further comprises determining a temporal order of event occurrence between the attribute and the second attribute.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

querying the organizational matrix using a querying criterion.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the querying further comprises:

selecting at least one of the three or more informational elements as the querying criterion.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the selecting further comprises:

determining a level of user privacy; and

selecting the at least one of the three or more informational elements based on the level of user privacy.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the organizational matrix is represented as a cube, wherein the at least one querying criterion comprises at least two querying criteria that represent a plane of the cube.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the contextual sub-element is at least one of a location associated with a user, a time of day, a day of the week, an activity associated with the user, a level of user interaction with the communications device, a user'"'"'s recent interaction with the communications device, an available resource associated with the communications device, a sensor output associated with the communications device, a battery life value associated with the communications device, news relevant to the user, an item scheduled in a calendar application, weather information, traffic information, a proximity value of the communications device to another device, a proximity value of the communications device to another user, server derived content, or any combination thereof.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the attribute includes a non-contextual sub-element, and wherein the non-contextual sub-element is at least one of a user'"'"'s gender, the user'"'"'s age, another device associated with the user, the user'"'"'s media interest, the user'"'"'s financial information, the user'"'"'s game interest, an association with a second user, the user'"'"'s profession, or any combination thereof.

18. The method of claim 1, populating the organizational matrix further comprises:

time stamping the obtained attribute; and

removing the attribute from the organizational matrix after a threshold period of time has elapsed based on the time stamp.

19. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

means for obtaining an attribute associated with an enriched user profile including three or more informational elements, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements includes a contextual sub-element;

means for populating an organizational matrix using the three or more informational elements; and

means for determining a repetitious structure based at least in part on analysis of the populated organizational matrix.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for determining a relevance value associated with the attribute based at least in part on the determined repetitious structure; and

means for predicting a second attribute based at least in part on the determined relevance and the repetitious structure.

21. The apparatus of claim 19, further comprising:

means for querying the organizational matrix using a querying criterion.

22. A computer program product, comprising:

a computer-readable medium comprising;

at least one instruction causing for causing a computer to obtain an attribute associated with an enriched user profile including three or more informational elements, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements includes a contextual sub-element;

at least one instruction for causing the computer to populate an organizational matrix using the three or more informational elements; and

at least one instruction for causing the computer to determine a repetitious structure based at least in part on analysis of the populated organizational matrix.

23. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises:

at least one instruction for causing the computer to determine a relevance value associated with the attribute based at least in part on the determined repetitious structure; and

at least one instruction for the computer to predict a second attribute based at least in part on the determined relevance and the repetitious structure.

24. The computer program product of claim 22, wherein the computer-readable medium further comprises:

at least one instruction for causing the computer to query the organizational matrix using a querying criterion.

25. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

an organizational matrix module configured to;

obtain an attribute associated with an enriched user profile including three or more informational elements, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements includes a contextual sub-element;

populate an organizational matrix using the three or more informational elements; and

determine a repetitious structure based at least in part on analysis of the populated organizational matrix.

26. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

determine a relevance value associated with the attribute based at least in part on the determined repetitious structure; and

predict a second attribute based at least in part on the determined relevance and the repetitious structure.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

detect a modification to the attribute within a first threshold period of time;

determine a first pattern associated with the detected modification to the attribute based on the repetitious structure; and

search the organizational matrix for a second pattern associated with the second attribute within a matching threshold of the first pattern.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

determine an event associated with the second attribute; and

use the event associated with the second attribute to predict occurrence of the event.

29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein two of the three or more informational elements are time based, and wherein one of the two time-based informational elements is at least one of a period of a day, days of a week, or months of a year.

30. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein at least one of the three or more informational elements used to populate the organizational matrix is dynamically changed.

31. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

obtain the three or more informational elements from at least one component associated with a communications device.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the at least one component is an application associated with the communications device, a sensor associated with the communications device, a hardware component associated with the communications device, or any combination thereof.

33. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the attribute comprises at least one of information associated with an event start time, an event time duration, an event end time, or any combination thereof.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

obtain a second instance of an informational element for at least one of the informational element; and

update the at least one of the informational element with the second instance of the informational element.

35. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

obtain a second attribute; and

determine a temporal order of event occurrence between the attribute and the second attribute.

36. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

query the organizational matrix using a querying criterion.

37. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

select at least one of the three or more informational elements as the querying criterion.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

determine a level of user privacy; and

select the at least one of the three or more informational elements based on the level of user privacy.

39. The apparatus of claim 36, wherein the organizational matrix is represented as a cube, wherein the at least one querying criterion comprises at least two querying criteria that represent a plane of the cube.

40. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the contextual sub-element is at least one of a location associated with a user, a time of day, a day of the week, an activity associated with the user, a level of user interaction with the communications device, a user'"'"'s recent interaction with the communications device, an available resource associated with the communications device, a sensor output associated with the communications device, a battery life value associated with the communications device, news relevant to the user, an item scheduled in a calendar application, weather information, traffic information, a proximity value of the communications device to another device, a proximity value of the communications device to another user, server derived content, or any combination thereof.

41. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the attribute includes a non-contextual sub-element, and wherein the non-contextual sub-element is at least one of a user'"'"'s gender, the user'"'"'s age, another device associated with the user, the user'"'"'s media interest, the user'"'"'s financial information, the user'"'"'s game interest, an association with a second user, the user'"'"'s profession, or any combination thereof.

42. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the organizational matrix module is further configured to:

time stamp the obtained attribute; and

remove the attribute from the organizational matrix after a threshold period of time has elapsed based on the time stamp.