APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A PERSISTENT COMPANION DEVICE

• US 20140277735A1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ntt Disruptions Co.
• Original Assignee: Jibo, Inc.
• Inventors: Breazeal, Cynthia
• Granted Patent: US 10,391,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/259
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 11/0005 Manipulators having means for high-level communication with users, e.g. speech generator, face recognition means
• CPC Class Codes: B25J 9/0003 Home robots, i.e. small robots for domestic use
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 2217/005 Blur detection
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 2217/007 Details of energy supply or management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/60 Control of cameras or camera modules
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet

Abstract

A method includes providing a telecommunications enabled robotic device adapted to persist in an environment of a user, receiving an instruction to photograph one or more persons in the environment according to a time parameter and photographing the one or more persons in accordance with the time parameter resulting in one or more photographs.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing a telecommunications enabled robotic device adapted to persist in an environment of a user;

receiving an instruction to photograph one or more persons in the environment according to a first parameter; and

photographing the one or more persons in accordance with the first parameter resulting in at least one of a photograph and a video.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first parameter is a time parameter.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the time parameter is selected from the group consisting of a predetermined amount of time, a rate at which photographs are to be taken, a start time and end time.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein photographing the one or more persons comprises utilizing at least one sensory input to identify each of the one or more persons to be photographed.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one sensory input is selected from the group consisting of an auditory input, a visual input, a touch input and a remote device input.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein photographing the one or more persons comprises utilizing at least one of sound location and facial detection or facial recognition to identify each of the one or more persons to be photographed.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first parameter causes the robot device to search for a person to photograph or video, select the target person to photo or video, and track the target via movement while capturing photo or video.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising uploading the at least one of a photograph and a video to the cloud.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising enabling a user to perform an action on the at least one of a photograph and a video the action selected from the group consisting of deleting, editing and cropping.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising uploading the at least one of a photograph and a video to a social media website.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising emailing or otherwise digitally sending at least one of a photograph and a video to a social media website or to another device, or receiving an image or video from another device.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

observing an emotional state of a person to be photographed; and

emitting, in response to the observed emotional state, a queue to provoke a preferred emotional state of the person.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the preferred emotional state of the person is smiling.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein said queue is derived, at least in part, from data received from the cloud.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving from a user a second parameter; and

photographing the one or more persons in accordance with the second parameter.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the second parameter is a requirement to take at least one photograph of each of the one or more persons or a video.

17. The method of claim 15 further comprising broadcasting a request to the persons to be photographed, or receiving an input from the persons, to improve the image composition.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the request directs the at least one of the one or more persons to remain stationary.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

broadcasting a request for an identifier of at least one of the one or more persons;

receiving an identifier from the at least one of the one or more persons; and

associating the received identifier with at least one of a photograph and a video of the at least one of the one or more persons.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the instruction is received from the user.

21. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium forming a part of a telecommunications enabled robotic device adapted to persist in an environment of a user the computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

providing a telecommunications enabled robotic device adapted to persist in an environment of a user;

receiving an instruction to photograph one or more persons in the environment according to a first parameter; and

photographing the one or more persons in accordance with the first parameter resulting in at least one of a photograph and a video.

22. The computer program of claim 21 wherein the first parameter is a time parameter.

23. The computer program of claim 22 wherein the time parameter is selected from the group consisting of a predetermined amount of time, a rate at which photographs are to be taken, a start time and end time.

24. The computer program of claim 21 wherein photographing the one or more persons comprises utilizing at least one sensory input to identify each of the one or more persons to be photographed.

25. The computer program of claim 24 wherein the at least one sensory input is selected from the group consisting of an auditory input, a visual input, a touch input and a remote device input.

26. The computer program of claim 21 wherein photographing the one or more persons comprises utilizing at least one of sound location and facial recognition to identify each of the one or more persons to be photographed.

27. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising uploading the at least one of a photograph and a video to the cloud.

28. The computer program of claim 25 further comprising enabling a user to perform an action on the at least one of a photograph and a video the action selected from the group consisting of deleting, editing and cropping.

29. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising uploading the at least one of a photograph and a video to a social media website.

30. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising emailing the at least one of a photograph and a video to a social media website.

31. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising:

observing an emotional state of a person to be photographed; and

emitting, in response to the observed emotional state, a queue to provoke a preferred emotional state of the person.

32. The computer program of claim 31 wherein the preferred emotional state of the person is smiling.

33. The computer program of claim 31 wherein said queue is derived, at least in part, from data received from the cloud.

34. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising:

receiving from a user a second parameter; and

photographing the one or more persons in accordance with the second parameter.

35. The computer program of claim 34 wherein the second parameter is a requirement to take at least one photograph of each of the one or more persons.

36. The computer program of claim 34 further comprising broadcasting a request to at least one of the one or more persons to remain stationary.

37. The computer program of claim 21 further comprising:

broadcasting a request for an identifier of at least one of the one or more persons;

receiving an identifier from the at least one of the one or more persons; and

associating the received identifier with at least one of a photograph and a video of the at least one of the one or more persons.

38. The computer program of claim 21 wherein the instruction is received from the user.