Using structured communications to quantify social skills

• US 9,053,449 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2013
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Theatro Labs Inc.
• Original Assignee: Theatro Labs Inc.
• Inventors: Russell, Steven Paul, Todd, Christopher N., VanBuskirk, Guy R., Fitzgerald, Partrick, Kumar, Ravi Shankar
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan, Phuoc H
• Application Number:
  US13/972,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20130339105A1
• Time in Patent Office: 657 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/518, 455/127.1, 370/328, 705/7.42
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 19/04 Speaking with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/00 Electrically-operated educational appliances working with questions and answers G09B7/00; simulators G09B9/00; advertising or displaying in general G09F
• 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 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

Embodiments for using structured communications to quantify social skills and social behavioral factors. Communications between at least two devices are intercepted and/or relayed by a computer system wherein a portion of the communications correspond to an audible source and wherein the forwarding or processing of communications is based on a combination of historical, contextual and/or commanded information derived from current and past communications by the computer system. Primary statistics are measured based on the communications and contextual information. Secondary statistics are derived related to a user wherein the secondary statistics quantify social skills and behavioral factors of the user in one or more dimensions against one or more profiles or roles.

Claims

1. A method for using an observation platform to measure and quantify social skills, comprising:

intercepting and relaying, at a computer system, communications between at least two devices wherein a portion of said communications correspond to an audible source and wherein said relaying said communications is based on context information derived from said communications by said computer system;

measuring primary statistics based on said communications at said computer system;

generating secondary statistics related to a user associated with one of said at least two devices to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user; and

making said assessment available to a third party.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said third party is selected from the group of third parties consisting of a person, a plurality of persons, and a second computer system.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said comprise information indicative of a geographic location of one of said two devices and wherein said computer system infers said geographic location of said one of said two devices based on said information.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct a weighted sum based on data associated with said primary statistics.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment further comprises high order statistics generated through an application of an inference rule to said secondary statistics.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said communications are relayed an observation platform and said secondary statistics are based on data from said observation platform and from data generated outside of said observation platform.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is for use by said third party in making decisions for combining groups of users into teams.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is for use by a related computer system or other non-human device used to signal, control, supervise, quantify, analyze or otherwise utilize the assessment information.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment quantifies metrics that conveys an ability and willingness of said user to communicate, educate, or engage with others.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is related to a group of users.

11. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is dynamically updated based on new secondary statistics based on new primary statistics.

12. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said devices and said computer system are associated with a retail environment.

13. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said primary statistics are selected from the group of primary statistics consisting of:

engagement time, available times, location maps, talk time, listen time, number of listeners, geographic location of device, locations traversed including speed and direction, length of said communication, under what circumstances, who initiated communications to which groups and individuals, presence information, type of communication, key words, keywords spoken or listened to, tone, emotion, lengths of speeches, lengths of speech segments, what policies are used for the communications, when and where two or more individuals dwell in close proximity to each other or to specific locations, speed of movement and pausing of listening individuals during/after talking or listening, and frequency that listeners delay hearing a message or drop out from what a speaker is saying, and/or promptness of responses to what was heard.

14. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

generating a visual representation based on said assessment that maps information from said assessment geographical or logical maps, graphs or spatial representations.

15. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is combined with external statistics selected from the group of external statistics consisting of:

length of employment, languages spoken, job identity, employment hours, location assignments, skills possessed, desired skills, roles, responsibilities, and social engagement quotient (SEQ).

16. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein a communication of said communication sent from one of said at least two devices via a plurality of signals.

17. A non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method for using structured communications to quantify social skills, said method comprising:

intercepting and relaying, at a computer system, communications between at least two devices wherein a portion of said communications correspond to an audible source and wherein said relaying said communications is based on context information derived from said communications by said computer system;

measuring primary statistics based on said communications at said computer system;

generating secondary statistics related to a user associated with one of said at least two devices to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user; and

making said assessment available to a third party.

18. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said third party is selected from the group of third parties consisting of a person, a plurality of persons, and a second computer system.

19. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said communications comprise information indicative of a geographic location of one of said two devices and wherein said computer system infers said geographic location of said one of said two devices based on said information.

20. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct a weighted sum based on data associated with said primary statistics.

21. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment further comprises high order statistics generated through an application of an inference rule to said secondary statistics.

22. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said communications are relayed via an observation platform and said secondary statistics are based on data from said observation platform and from data generated outside of said observation platform.

23. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment is for use by said third party in making decisions for combining groups of users into teams.

24. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment quantifies metrics that conveys a measurement of an ability and willingness of said user to communicate.

25. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment is related to a group or plurality of groups of users.

26. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment is dynamically updated based on new secondary statistics based on new communications.

27. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said two devices and said computer system are associated with a retail environment.

28. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said primary statistics are selected from the group of primary statistics consisting of:

engagement time, available times, location maps, talk time, listen time, number of listeners, geographic location of device, locations traversed including speed and direction, length of said communication, under what circumstances, who initiated communications to which groups and individuals, presence information, type of communication, key words, keywords spoken or listened to, tone, emotion, lengths of speeches, lengths of speech segments, what policies are used for the communications, when and where two or more individuals dwell in close proximity to each other or to specific locations, speed of movement and pausing of listening individuals during/after talking or listening, and frequency that listeners delay hearing a message or drop out from what a speaker is saying, and/or promptness of responses to what was heard.

29. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 further comprising:

generating a visual representation based on said assessment that maps information from said assessment to geographical or logical maps, graphs, or spatial representations.

30. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein said assessment is combined with external statistics selected from the group of external statistics consisting of:

length of employment, languages spoken, job identity, employment hours, location assignments, skills possessed, desired skills, roles, responsibilities, and social engagement quotient (SEQ).

31. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 17 wherein a communication of said communication sent from one of said at least two devices via a plurality of signals.

32. An observation platform for using structured communications to generate statistics, comprising:

a plurality of devices for sending and receiving communications; and

a computer system for;

intercepting and relaying said communications between said plurality of devices wherein a portion of said communications correspond to an audible source and wherein said relaying said communications is based on context information derived from said communications by said computer system;

measuring primary statistics based on said communications;

generating secondary statistics related to a user associated with one of said plurality of devices to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user; and

making said assessment available to a third party.

33. The observation platform as recited in claim 32 wherein said third party is selected from the group of third parties consisting of a person, a plurality of persons, and a second computer system.

34. The observation platform as recited in claim 32 wherein said communications comprise information indicative of a geographic location of one of said plurality of devices and wherein said computer system infers said geographic location of said one of said two devices based on said information.

35. The observation platform as recited in claim 32 wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct a weighted sum based on data associated with said primary statistics.

36. The observation platform as recited in claim 32 wherein said assessment quantifies metrics that conveys an ability and willingness of said user to communicate.

37. The observation platform as recited in claim 32 wherein said primary statistics are selected from the group of primary statistics consisting of:

engagement time, available times, location maps, talk time, listen time, number of listeners, geographic location of device, locations traversed including speed and direction, length of said communication, under what circumstances, who initiated communications to which groups and individuals, presence information, type of communication, key words, keywords spoken or listened to, tone, emotion, lengths of speeches, lengths of speech segments, what policies are used for the communications, when and where two or more individuals dwell in close proximity to each other or to specific locations, speed of movement and pausing of listening individuals during/after talking or listening, and frequency that listeners delay hearing a message or drop out from what a speaker is saying, and/or promptness of responses to what was heard.