Systems and methods for assessing levels of personal risk

• US 9,380,429 B1
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Issued: 06/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gen Digital Inc.
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kurani, Ankit
• Primary Examiner(s): Lett, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US14/609,456
• Time in Patent Office: 515 Days
• Field of Search: 455/575.8
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/265 Personal security, identity or safety
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 50/30 for calculating health indices; for individual health risk assessment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]

Abstract

A disclosed computer-implemented method for assessing levels of personal risk may include (1) collecting, from a computing system, initial information that describes a user at an initial period of time, (2) determining, based on the initial information, an expected state of the user, (3) receiving, from the computing system, additional information that describes the user at a subsequent period of time after the initial period of time, (4) calculating a risk score by comparing the additional information with the expected state to determine a degree of divergence from the expected state, and (5) performing a safety action based on the risk score. The expected state and/or the additional information may each specify a medical state and/or a location. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for assessing levels of personal risk, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

collecting, from at least one computing system, initial information that describes a user at an initial period of time;

determining, based at least in part on the initial information, an expected state of the user, the expected state comprising an expected medical state and an expected location;

receiving, from the computing system, additional information that describes the user at a subsequent period of time after the initial period of time, the additional information comprising an additional medical state and an additional location;

calculating a risk score by comparing the additional information with the expected state to determine a degree of divergence from the expected state, the risk score comprising a single value that indicates an aggregated combination of the following as inputs;

a degree of divergence between the additional medical state and the expected medical state;

a degree of divergence between the additional location and the expected location;

a degree of divergence between at least one wireless-enabled computing device found in proximity to the user at the subsequent period of time and at least one wireless-enabled computing device expected to be found in proximity to the user;

performing a safety action based on the risk score in response to determining that the single value of the risk score satisfies a predetermined threshold, the safety action comprising the computing system transmitting a security notification to a guardian of the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the additional medical state comprises heart rate information and is collected by a wearable computing system that tracks a medical state of the user;

the additional location is collected by a smart phone of the user that is separate from the wearable computing system;

the wireless-enabled computing device found in proximity to the user at the subsequent period of time is found by the smart phone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises a smart computing system that tracks a location of the user using at least one of:

a global geo-positioning network;

an indoor positioning system;

a Wi-Fi-based positioning system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the expected state of the user further comprises extracting a user-annotated event that describes a planned location associated with a planned time.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein extracting the user-annotated event further comprises scanning one of:

an e-mail inbox;

a text-message conversation;

social media.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises a smart phone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the risk score further comprises comparing the additional information to a risk map that identifies known regions of dangerous activity.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the risk score further comprises determining whether the additional location is a known location.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing system comprises a smart watch.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the risk score further comprises:

calculating an expected heart rate of the user by determining an average heart rate;

determining a degree of divergence between the additional medical state of the user and the average heart rate.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the initial information comprises a list of expected wireless-enabled computing devices that represents wireless-enabled computing devices that are expected to be found in proximity to the user;

the additional information comprises a list of discovered wireless-enabled computing devices that represents wireless-enabled computing devices that are discovered in proximity to the user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein calculating the risk score further comprises comparing the list of discovered wireless-enabled computing devices to the list of expected wireless-enabled computing devices.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the safety action further comprises at least one of:

requesting medical aid to the user'"'"'s location;

notifying a public safety center;

notifying the user.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the expected medical state corresponds to at least one of:

the user'"'"'s heart rate;

the user'"'"'s respiratory rate;

the user'"'"'s blood pressure.

15. A system for assessing levels of personal risk, the system comprising:

a collection module, stored in memory, that collects, from at least one computing system, initial information that describes a user at an initial period of time;

a determination module, stored in memory, that determines, based at least in part on the initial information, an expected state of the user, the expected state comprising an expected medical state and an expected location;

a reception module, stored in memory, that receives, from the computing system, additional information that describes the user at a subsequent period of time after the initial period of time, the additional information comprising an additional medical state and an additional location;

a calculation module, stored in memory, that calculates a risk score by comparing the additional information with the expected state to determine a degree of divergence from the expected state, the risk score comprising a single value that indicates an aggregated combination of the following as inputs;

a degree of divergence between the additional medical state and the expected medical state;

a degree of divergence between the additional location and the expected location;

a degree of divergence between at least one wireless-enabled computing device found in proximity to the user at the subsequent period of time and at least one wireless-enable computing device expected to be found in proximity to the user;

a safety module, stored in memory, that performs a safety action based on the risk score in response to determining that the single value of the risk score satisfies a predetermined threshold, the safety action comprising the computing system transmitting a security notification to a guardian of the user;

at least one physical processor configured to execute the collection module, the determination module, the reception module, the calculation module, and the safety module.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing system comprises a wearable computing system that tracks a medical state of the user.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the computing system comprises a smart computing device that tracks a location of the user using at least one of:

a global geo-positioning network;

an indoor positioning system;

a Wi-Fi-based positioning system.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the determination module further determines the expected state of the user by extracting a user-annotated event that describes a planned location associated with a planned time.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the determination module extracts the user-annotated event by scanning one of:

an e-mail inbox;

a text-message conversation;

social media.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:

collect, from at least one computing system, initial information that describes a user at an initial period of time;

determine, based at least in part on the initial information, an expected state of the user, the expected state comprising an expected medical state and an expected location;

receive, from the computing system, additional information that describes the user at a subsequent period of time after the initial period of time, the additional information comprising an additional medical state and an additional location;

calculate a risk score by comparing the additional information with the expected state to determine a degree of divergence from the expected state, the risk score comprising a single value that indicates an aggregated combination of the following as inputs;

a degree of divergence between the additional medical state and the expected medical state;

a degree of divergence between the additional location and the expected location;

a degree of divergence between at least one wireless-enabled computing device found in proximity to the user at the subsequent period of time and at least one wireless-enabled computing device expected to be found in proximity to the user;

perform a safety action based on the risk score in response to determining that the single value of the risk score satisfies a predetermined threshold, the safety action comprising the computing system transmitting a security notification to a guardian of the user.