CONTEXT DEMOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION SYSTEM

• US 20140280138A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Li, Jianguo, Ali, Mir F., Davis, Paul C., Russell, Dale W., You, Di
• Granted Patent: US 9,135,248 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Systems, methods, and devices for determining contexts and determining associated demographic profiles using information received from multiple demographic sensor enabled electronic devices, are disclosed. Contexts can be defined by a description of spatial and/or temporal components. Such contexts can be arbitrarily defined using semantically meaningful and absolute descriptions of time and location. Demographic sensor data is associated with or includes context data that describes the circumstances under which the data was determined. The demographic sensor data can include demographic sensor readings that are implicit indications of a demographic for the context. The sensor data can also include user reported data with explicit descriptions of a demographic for the context. The demographic sensor data can be filtered by context data according a selected context. The filtered sensor data can then be analyzed to determine a demographic profile for the context that can be output to one or more users or entities.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computer system, demographic data from a plurality of distributed electronic devices, wherein the demographic data comprises context data and corresponding implicit demographic data sensed by the plurality of distributed electronic devices for a plurality of contexts;

determining, by the computer system, a first context in the plurality of contexts;

determining, by the computer system, a first portion of the demographic data determined to include context data that matches the first context;

analyzing, by the computer system, the implicit demographic data in first the portion of the demographic data to generate a plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context; and

generating, by the computer system, a first demographic profile for the first context based on the plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, an associated pair comprising the first context and the first demographic profile; and

outputting, by the computer system, the associated pair.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the first portion of the demographic data comprises mapping the implicit demographic data in the first portion of the demographic data to the plurality of demographic characteristics.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the demographic data further comprises corresponding explicit demographic data determined by the plurality of distributed electronic devices for the plurality of contexts,

wherein the explicit demographic data comprises a plurality of user reported demographic characteristics, and

wherein generating the first demographic profile is further based on the plurality of user reported demographic characteristics in first the portion of the demographic data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprises a plurality of mobile electronic devices configured to sense the implicit demographic data.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a plurality of recommendations based on the first demographic profile for the first context, and

sending, by the computer system, the plurality of recommendations to a portion of the plurality of mobile electronic devices,

wherein the plurality of recommendations are based on the demographic profile for the first context.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

determining, by the computer system, a second context in the plurality of contexts;

determining, by the computer system, a second portion of the demographic data determined to include context data that matches the second context;

analyzing, by the computer system, the implicit demographic data in the second portion of the demographic data to generate a plurality of demographic characteristics for the second context; and

generating, by the computer system, a second demographic profile for the second context based on the plurality of demographic characteristics for the second context.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising updating the plurality of recommendations based on the second demographic profile for the second context.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first context comprises a first time associated with a location, and the second context comprises a second time associated with the location.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein a difference between the first demographic profile and the second demographic profile describes a trend in demographics related to the first context and the second context.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the pluralities of recommendations are further based on demographic preferences associated with the portion of the plurality of mobile electronic devices.

12. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of distributed electronic devices further comprises a plurality of stationary electronic devices configured to sense implicit demographic data, wherein each stationary electronic device is configured to sense implicit demographic data for a particular context in the plurality of contexts.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first portion of the plurality of distributed electronic devices comprises a portion of the plurality of mobile electronic devices and a portion of the plurality of stationary electronic devices.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein demographic data received from the plurality of mobile electronic devices is weighted differently from demographic data received from the plurality of stationary electronic devices in analyzing the first portion of the demographic data to generate the plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first context comprises a dynamically determined geographic location.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first portion of demographic data further comprises a plurality of confidence scores, wherein analyzing the first portion of the demographic data further comprises weighting the first portion of demographic data in response to the plurality of confidence scores to generate the plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the context data is determined by the plurality of distributed electronic devices, and wherein the context data comprises a plurality of particular locations.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the context data further comprises a plurality of times.

19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that, when executed, control an electronic device to be configured for:

receiving demographic data from a plurality of distributed electronic devices, wherein the demographic data comprises context data and corresponding implicit demographic data sensed by the plurality of distributed electronic devices for a plurality of contexts;

determining a first context in the plurality of contexts;

determining a first portion of the demographic data determined to include context data that matches the first context;

analyzing the implicit demographic data in first the portion of the demographic data to generate a plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context; and

generating a first demographic profile for the first context based on the plurality of demographic characteristics for the first context.

20. An electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a demographic sensor;

an electronic communication interface; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium containing instructions, that when executed, control the processor to be configured to;

activate the demographic sensor to determine a demographic sensor reading;

determine context data for the demographic sensor reading, wherein the context data describes the circumstances in which the demographic sensor reading was determined;

generate demographic sensor data comprising the context data and the demographic sensor reading;

send the demographic sensor data to one or more remote service providers through the electronic communication interface; and

receive, from a first remote service provider in the one or more remote service providers through the electronic communication interface, summary demographic sensor data for a particular context, wherein the summary demographic sensor data comprises demographic sensor data, received by the first remote service provider from a plurality of other electronic devices, and determined to include context data that matches the particular context.