LARGE VENUE SURVEILLANCE AND REACTION SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING DYNAMICALLY ANALYZED EMOTIONAL INPUT

• US 20170046566A1
• Filed: 09/06/2016
• Published: 02/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Software AG USA Incorporated (Software AG)
• Original Assignee: Software AG USA Incorporated (Software AG)
• Inventors: SMITH, Leighton, SMITH, Gareth
• Granted Patent: US 9,996,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/53 Recognition of crowd images, e.g. recognition of crowd congestion
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/174 Facial expression recognition

Abstract

Certain example embodiments relate to large venue surveillance and reaction systems and/or methods that take into account both subjective emotional attributes of persons having relations to the large venues, and objective measures such as, for example, actual or expected wait times, current staffing levels, numbers of customers to be serviced, etc. Pre-programmed scenarios are run in real-time as events stream in over one or more electronic interfaces, with each scenario being implemented as a logic sequence that takes into account at least an aspect of a representation of an inferred emotional state. The scenarios are run to (a) determine whether an incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, and/or (b) dynamically determine a responsive action to be taken. A complex event processing engine may be used in this regard. The analysis may be used in certain example embodiments to help improve customer satisfaction at the large venue.

Claims

1. (canceled)

2. An information processing system, comprising:

at least one data feed; and

a memory storing a plurality of trigger scenarios, at least some of the trigger scenarios being represented by a set of rules that takes into account at least (a) information regarding an inferred emotional state and (b) additional data that is unrelated to inferred emotional state; and

processing resources including at least one processor;

wherein the processing resources are configured to at least;

facilitate the receipt of information corresponding to system-relevant events over the at least one data feed;

evaluate at least some of the trigger scenarios stored in the memory in view of at least some of the system-relevant events corresponding to the information received via the at least one data feed to determine whether an incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred; and

in response to a determination that a given incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, select an action to be taken, the action being selected as an appropriate response for the given incident.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein at least some of the trigger scenarios specify one or more possible actions that may be taken and criteria for determining when such possible action(s) should be taken.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein at least some of the trigger scenarios are pre-programmed default trigger scenarios.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein at least some other trigger scenarios are adaptable over time.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein at least some of the trigger scenarios are automatically adaptable over time.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the processing resources are further configured to at least assess feedback regarding evaluated trigger scenarios and automatically generate suggested modifications thereto.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein suggestable modifications include adding a new trigger scenario, removing an existing trigger scenario, and updating an existing trigger scenario.

9. The system of claim 2, wherein information receivable via the at least one data feed is structured to embed a representation of an inferred emotional state.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein representations of inferred emotional states include quantifications of perceived subjective emotional feelings of individuals, derived from video and/or social media related instructions of said individuals.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein quantified representations of inferred emotional states are scored in accordance with a rubric.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the rubric includes assignments of numerical scores to different discrete levels of each emotional state.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the rubric is automatically updatable over time.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein system-relevant events include one or more objective measures of activities associated with an area of interest.

15. The system of claim 2, wherein at least some of the trigger scenarios specify a plurality of possible actions that may be taken, wherein the plurality of possible actions in the respective trigger scenarios are defined to escalate in intensity in accordance with a corresponding increase in severity of the incident.

16. A method of monitoring an area of interest, the method comprising:

receiving information corresponding to system-relevant events over at least one data feed;

evaluating, using at least one processor, one or more trigger scenarios in view of at least some of the system-relevant events corresponding to the information received via the at least one data feed to determine whether an incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, a plurality of trigger scenarios being stored to a memory, at least some of the trigger scenarios being represented by a set of rules that takes into account at least (a) information regarding an inferred emotional state and (b) additional data that is unrelated to inferred emotional state;

responsive to a determination that a given incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, selecting an action to be taken, the action being selected as an appropriate response for the given incident; and

issuing an instruction to cause the action to be taken.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein at least one of the trigger scenarios is a default trigger scenario that has been automatically adapted over time.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein information receivable via the at least one data feed is structured to embed a representation of an inferred emotional state.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein representations of inferred emotional states include quantifications of perceived subjective emotional feelings of individuals, derived from video and/or social media related instructions of said individuals.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein quantified representations of inferred emotional states are scored in accordance with an automatically updatable rubric that includes assignments of numerical scores to different discrete levels of each emotional state.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein system-relevant events include one or more objective measures of activities associated with an area of interest.

22. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing instructions that, when executed, monitor an area of interest in connection with a computer system that is controlled by the instructions to at least:

receive information corresponding to system-relevant events over at least one data feed;

evaluate one or more trigger scenarios in view of at least some of the system-relevant events corresponding to the information received via the at least one data feed to determine whether an incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, a plurality of trigger scenarios being stored to a memory, at least some of the trigger scenarios being represented by a set of rules that takes into account at least (a) information regarding an inferred emotional state and (b) additional data that is unrelated to inferred emotional state;

responsive to a determination that a given incident might be occurring and/or might have occurred, select an action to be taken, the action being selected as an appropriate response for the given incident; and

issue an instruction to cause the action to be taken.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein at least one of the trigger scenarios is a default trigger scenario that has been automatically adapted over time.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein information receivable via the at least one data feed is structured to embed a representation of an inferred emotional state.

25. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein representations of inferred emotional states include quantifications of perceived subjective emotional feelings of individuals, derived from video and/or social media related instructions of said individuals.

26. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein quantified representations of inferred emotional states are scored in accordance with an automatically updatable rubric that includes assignments of numerical scores to different discrete levels of each emotional state.