Method and apparatus for generating, using, or updating an enriched user profile

• US 9,253,282 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2012
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/18/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Beith, Scott, O'Donoghue, Hugh, Whale, Peter Charles, Healy, Colm, Pegum, Andrew, Corrigan, Sean, Hough, Jason, Sheehan, Anthony M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US13/602,248
• Publication Number:
  US 20130238686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,247 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4451 User profiles; Roaming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0254 based on statistics
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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 12/06 Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/71 Hardware identity
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for communication are provided in which a communications device is operable to provide an improved user experience or to improve the performance and/or operation of the device through use of an enriched user profile. In one aspect, the communications device may obtain an attribute including a user specific informational element from a component operable on the communications device. The communications device may generate a profile synopsis from the attribute by abstracting at least a portion of the user specific informational element from the attribute, and transmit the profile synopsis. The communications device may receive an enhanced informational element derived from an aggregation of profile synopses from a plurality of devices and may generate an enriched user profile by augmenting the attribute with at least a portion of the received enhanced informational element.

Claims

1. A method of communications, comprising:

determining an attribute associated with a user of a communications device based at least in part on data captured from a component operable on the communications device, wherein the attribute includes one or more user specific informational elements that comprise user specific data associated with the user of the communications device;

generating a profile synopsis that abstracts the determined attribute associated with the user to remove at least a portion of the one or more user specific informational elements that include the user specific data associated with the user of the communications device, wherein the removed portion of the one or more user specific informational elements includes at least location information;

transmitting the profile synopsis to a server, wherein the server adds the profile synopsis to an aggregate data model derived from profile synopses from a plurality of devices;

receiving an enhanced informational element from the server in response to the transmitted profile synopsis, wherein the enhanced informational element comprises information in the aggregate data model determined to be lacking in the transmitted profile synopsis; and

generating, at the communications device, an enriched user profile that augments the determined attribute associated with the user of the communications device with at least a portion of the received enhanced informational element.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining further comprises:

detecting a component type for the component;

determining the attribute associated with the user of the communications device based on the component type; and

extracting the data captured from the component operable on the communications device based on the component type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the component is at least one of an application associated with the communications device, a sensor associated with the communications device, a hardware component associated with the communications device, or any combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user specific informational element is at least one of a user interest, place information, location information, communications device sensor derived data, communications device hardware derived data, a user characteristic, user demographics information, a browser history, application usage history, a call history, communications device background activity, traffic utilization data, a communications device charge level, a communications device charge state, user input, or any combination thereof.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting and receiving occur once during a group profile aggregation period.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user specific informational element comprises at least one of a contextual sub-element, a non-contextual sub-element, or any combination thereof.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the contextual sub-element is at least one of a location associated with a user, a time of day, a day of a week, an activity associated with the user, a level of user interaction with the communications device, the user'"'"'s recent interaction with the communications device, an available resource associated with the communications device, a sensor output associated with the communications device, a battery life value associated with the communications device, news relevant to the user, an item scheduled in a calendar application, weather information, traffic information, a proximity value of the communications device to other devices, a proximity value of the communications device to other users, server derived content, or any combination thereof.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein generating the profile synopsis further comprises removing at least a portion of the contextual sub-element of the user specific informational element.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein removing at least the portion of the contextual sub-element further comprises removing at least one of the location information or information that individually identifies the user of the communications device from the contextual sub-element.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-contextual sub-element is at least one of a user'"'"'s gender, the user'"'"'s age, another device associated with the user, the user'"'"'s media interest, the user'"'"'s financial information, the user'"'"'s game interest, an association with a second user, the user'"'"'s profession, or any combination thereof.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the server does not store the profile synopsis and disassociates a link between the profile synopsis and the user of communications device once the transmitted profile synopsis is added to the aggregate data model.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the profile synopsis is transmitted to the server based on one or more of a prompt received from the server or one or more resources available to the communications device.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a prompt to one or more of retrieve the enhanced informational element from the server or contribute data to be added to the aggregate group profile data model stored at the server, wherein the profile synopsis is generated in response to the prompt.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in the enhanced informational element received from the server is determined to be lacking in the transmitted profile synopsis based on the information in the enhanced informational element being one or more of missing, outdated, or inaccurate in the transmitted profile synopsis.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a profile server query to the server, the transmitted profile server query further modifies at least a portion of the one or more user specific informational elements to disassociate the determined attribute from the user;

receiving metadata that includes contextual information to supplement the enriched user profile from the server in response to the transmitted profile server query; and

augmenting the enriched user profile with the received metadata, wherein augmenting the enriched user profile comprises one or more of adding the received metadata to information in the determined attribute associated with the user or replacing information in the determined attribute associated with the user with the received metadata.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a proxy user identifier to identify the communications device;

transmitting the proxy user identifier to a second server to allow the second server access to at least a portion of the profile synopsis; and

receiving personalized content determined at the second server based on at least the portion of the profile synopsis to which the second server is allowed access.

17. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

means for determining an attribute associated with a user of a communications device based at least in part on data captured from a component operable on the communications device, wherein the attribute includes one or more user specific informational elements that comprise user specific data associated with the user of the communications device;

means for generating a profile synopsis that abstracts the determined attribute associated with the user to remove at least a portion of the one or more user specific informational elements that include the user specific data associated with the user of the communications device, wherein the removed portion of the one or more user specific informational elements includes at least location information;

means for transmitting the profile synopsis to a server configured to add the profile synopsis to an aggregate data model derived from profile synopses from a plurality of devices;

means for receiving an enhanced informational element from the server in response to the transmitted profile synopsis, wherein the enhanced informational element comprises information in the aggregate data model determined to be lacking in the transmitted profile synopsis; and

means for generating, at the communications device, an enriched user profile that augments the determined attribute associated with the user of the communications device with at least a portion of the received enhanced informational element.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the means for determining further comprises:

means for detecting a component type for the component;

means for determining the attribute associated with the user of the communications device based on the component type; and

means for extracting the data captured from the component operable on the communications device based on the component type.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the means for generating the profile synopsis further comprises means for removing at least a portion of a contextual sub-element of the user specific informational element.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the means for removing at least the portion of the contextual sub-element further comprises means for removing at least one of the location information or information that individually identifies the user of the communications device from the contextual sub-element.

21. An apparatus for communications, comprising:

a processor configured to determine an attribute that includes one or more user specific informational elements associated with a user of a communications device based at least in part on data captured from a component operable on the communications device and to generate a profile synopsis that abstracts the determined attribute associated with the user to remove at least a portion of the one or more user specific informational elements that include user specific data associated with the user from the attribute, wherein the removed portion of the one or more user specific informational elements includes at least location information;

a transmitter configured to transmit the profile synopsis to a server configured to add the profile synopsis to an aggregate data model derived from profile synopses from a plurality of devices; and

a receiver configured to receive an enhanced informational element that comprises information in the aggregate data model determined to be lacking in the transmitted profile synopsis from the server in response to the transmitted profile synopsis, wherein the processor is further configured to augment the determined attribute associated with the user of the communications device with at least a portion of the received enhanced informational element to generate, at the communications device, an enriched user profile that includes at least the augmented attribute.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to:

detect a component type for the component;

determine the attribute associated with the user of the communications device based on the component type; and

extract the data captured from the component operable on the communications device based on the component type.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the component is at least one of an application associated with the communications device, a sensor associated with the communications device, a hardware component associated with the communications device, or any combination thereof.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the user specific informational element is at least one of a user interest, place information, location information, communications device sensor derived data, communications device hardware derived data, a user characteristic, user demographics information, a browser history, application usage history, a call history, communications device background activity, traffic utilization data, a communications device charge level, a communications device charge state, user input, or any combination thereof.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit the profile synopsis and receive the enhanced informational element once during a group profile aggregation period.

26. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the user specific informational element comprises at least one of a contextual sub-element, a non-contextual sub-element, or any combination thereof.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the contextual sub-element is at least one of a location associated with a user, a time of day, a day of a week, an activity associated with the user, a level of user interaction with the communications device, the user'"'"'s recent interaction with the communications device, an available resource associated with the communications device, a sensor output associated with the communications device, a battery life value associated with the communications device, news relevant to the user, an item scheduled in a calendar application, weather information, traffic information, a proximity value of the communications device to other devices, a proximity value of the communications device to other users, server derived content, or any combination thereof.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the processor is further configured to remove at least a portion of the contextual sub-element of the user specific informational element.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the processor is further configured to remove at least one of the location information or information that individually identifies the user of the communications device information from the contextual sub-element.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the non-contextual sub-element is at least one of a user'"'"'s gender, the user'"'"'s age, another device associated with the user, the user'"'"'s media interest, the user'"'"'s financial information, the user'"'"'s game interest, an association with a second user, the user'"'"'s profession, or any combination thereof.

31. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising one or more instructions for causing a communications device to:

determine an attribute associated with a user of a communications device based at least in part on data captured from a component operable on the communications device, wherein the attribute includes one or more user specific informational elements that comprise user specific data associated with the user of the communications device;

generate a profile synopsis that abstracts the determined attribute associated with the user to remove at least a portion of the one or more user specific informational elements that include the user specific data associated with the user of the communications device, wherein the removed portion of the one or more user specific informational elements includes at least location information;

transmit the profile synopsis to a server configured to add the profile synopsis to an aggregate data model derived from profile synopses from a plurality of devices;

receive, from the server, an enhanced informational element that comprises information in the aggregate data model determined to be lacking in the transmitted profile synopsis in response to the transmitted profile synopsis; and

generate, at the communications device, an enriched user profile that augments the determined attribute associated with the user of the communications device with at least a portion of the received enhanced informational element.

32. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the communications device to:

detect a component type for the component;

determine the attribute associated with the user of the communications device based on the component type; and

extract the data captured from the component operable on the communications device based on the component type.

33. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 31, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the communications device to remove at least a portion of a contextual sub-element of the user specific informational element.

34. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the one or more instructions further cause the communications device to remove at least one of the location information or information that individually identifies the user of the communications device from the contextual sub-element.