System for intelligent consumer earcons

• US 7,792,820 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2007
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Basson, Sara H., Kelley, Edward E., Kanevsky, Dimitri, Gopinath, Ramesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Uyen T.
• Application Number:
  US11/860,868
• Publication Number:
  US 20090081995A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,078 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/713
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/30 Determination of the location of a subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42017 Customized ring-back tones
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4211 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4878 Advertisement messages

Abstract

A system for implementing intelligent consumer earcons, includes: one or more communication devices for carrying out conversations between users and for playing of earcons; one or more tracking and monitoring devices; one or more servers configured with software for implementing the earcons; one or more storage devices for storing a database of earcons, and for storing user profile and preference databases; one or more networks configured for signal communication between the communication devices, the tracking and monitoring devices, the servers, and the storage devices; wherein the monitoring devices are configured to monitor the user, user audio content, and the user'"'"'s environment; wherein the earcons are chosen from the database of earcons based on the user profile and preferences database; and wherein the playing of individual earcons from the database of earcons is based on the monitored user audio content and environment.

Claims

1. A system for implementing intelligent consumer earcons, the system comprising:

one or more communication devices for carrying out conversations between users and for playing of earcons;

one or more tracking and monitoring devices configured to monitor the user, user audio content, and the user'"'"'s environment;

one or more servers configured with software for implementing the earcons;

one or more storage devices for storing a database of earcons, and for storing user profile and preference databases;

one or more networks configured for signal communication between the communication devices, the tracking and monitoring devices, the servers, and the storage devices;

wherein the earcons are chosen from the database of earcons based on the user profile and preferences database; and

wherein the playing of individual earcons from the database of earcons is based on the monitored user audio content and environment.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the database of earcons is comprised of at least one of the following:

company, product, service, retail location, and earcon length information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user and observationally supplied user profile information;

and

wherein the monitoring of the user and the user environment provides the observationally supplied user profile information.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user biometric data;

and

wherein the user biometric data comprises one or more of gender of the user;

age of the user;

accent of the user;

native language of the user;

dialect of the user;

socioeconomic classification of the user;

educational level of the user; and

emotional state of the user.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user preferences;

wherein the user preferences includes types of companies, products, services the user wants to receive earcons about; and

wherein the user preferences further comprise specified audio levels, lengths, and points in the usage of the communication device and the conversation for playing the earcons.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring devices that are used to analyze user audio content utilizes speech recognition to detect and interpret conversational content;

wherein based on the interpreted conversational content earcons are chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of user audio content is used to determine pauses in the user'"'"'s conversation;

and

wherein based on the determined pauses and their respective length, earcons are chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the user environment comprises tracking the location of the user;

and

wherein the tracking of user location comprises the use of at least one of the following;

global positioning system (GPS) satellites and related electronic device chip sets within the communication devices, cellular phone infrastructure, and Internet gateways;

wherein based on the user location an earcon is chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device; and

wherein the communication devices comprise one or more of;

cellular phones, fixed landline phone, mobile computing devices, and desktop computers; and

wherein the cellular phones, the mobile computing devices, and the desktop computers are configured with voice over Internet protocol (VOIP).

9. An article comprising one or more computer-readable storage media containing instructions that when executed enable a computer to implement a method of implementing an earcon;

wherein the method further comprises;

forming a database of earcons;

forming a user profile and preferences database;

monitoring user audio content;

monitoring user environment;

selecting a series of earcons from the database of earcons based on the user profile and preferences database; and

playing one or more earcons from the series of earcons on a user'"'"'s communication device based on the monitored user audio content and user environment.

10. The article of claim 9, wherein the database of earcons is comprised of at least one of the following:

company, product, service, retail location, and earcon length information.

11. The article of claim 9, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user and observationally supplied user profile information;

and

wherein the monitoring of the user environment provides the observationally supplied user profile information.

12. The article of claim 9, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user biometric data;

and

wherein the user biometric data comprises one or more of gender of the user;

age of the user;

accent of the user;

native language of the user;

dialect of the user;

socioeconomic classification of the user;

educational level of the user; and

emotional state of the user.

13. The article of claim 9, wherein the user profile and preferences database is comprised of user preferences;

wherein the user preferences includes types of companies, products, services the user wants to receive earcons about; and

wherein the user preferences further comprise specified audio levels, lengths, and points in the usage of the communication device and the conversation for playing the earcons.

14. The article of claim 9, wherein the monitoring of user audio content comprises using a speech recognition system to detect and interpret conversational content;

and

wherein based on the interpreted conversational content earcons are chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device.

15. The article of claim 9, wherein the monitoring of user audio content is used to determine pauses in the user'"'"'s conversation;

wherein based on the determined pauses and their respective length, earcons are chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device;

wherein the monitoring of the user environment comprises tracking the location of the user;

wherein the tracking of user location comprises the use of at least one of the following;

global positioning system (GPS) satellites and related electronic device chip sets within the communication devices, cellular phone infrastructure, and Internet gateways and

wherein based on the user location an earcon is chosen for playback on the user'"'"'s communications device.