Using structured communications to quantify social skills

• US 9,514,656 B2
• Filed: 06/02/2015
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• 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:
  US14/728,493
• Publication Number:
  US 20150269869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 553 Days
• Field of Search: 455/412.1, 455/127.1, 455/518, 370/328, 705/14.53, 705/7.42, 707/328, 434/156
• 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 an observation platform to measure and assess social skills are disclosed. 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 assess social skills, comprising:

collecting, at a computer system, at least a first set of data and a second set of data from at least one device;

generating, at a computer system, primary statistics and metrics from first said first set of data and said second set of data; and

generating, at one of said computer system and a cloud computer system, secondary statistics related to a user associated with said at least one device to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user, wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct an assessment of a social engagement quotient (SEQ) metric based on data associated with said primary statistics for any users that are identified by system.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said first set of data comprises information pertaining to geographic locations of said at least one device.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 further comprises:

making said assessment available to a third party for use by said third party in making decisions regarding appropriate roles for users, performance assessments and/or for combining groups of users into teams by determining a mixture of SEQ personality types for identified users currently using multiple observation platforms in multiple geographic locations, wherein said third party is selected from the group of third parties consisting of a person, a plurality of people, or a third-party computer system.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein said assessment is for use by said third party in determining a mixture of SEQ personality types for identified users currently using said observation platform.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said second set of data pertains to context data derived from communications between said at least one device and a second device wherein said communications are intercepted at said computer system.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein said communications are relayed from said at least one device to said second device via said computer system.

7. The method as recited in claim 5 wherein a portion of said communications corresponds to an audible source.

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

9. The method as recited in claim 1 wherein said assessment is for use by a third party in determining a mixture of SEQ personality types for identified users currently using said observation platform, wherein said third party is selected from the group of third parties consisting of a person, a plurality of people, or a third-party computer system.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein said observation platform is divided into geographic zones and/or role groupings and said mixture of SEQ personality types is applied to said geographic zones and/or role groupings.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein historical assessments of SEQ are used to predict and adjust future mixtures of employees using said observation platform.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein said observation platform is divided into geographic zones and/or role groupings and said future mixtures of employees is applied to said geographic zones and/or role groupings.

13. A non-transitory computer-usable storage medium having instructions embodied therein that when executed cause a computer system to perform a method for using an observation platform to measure and assess social skills, said method comprising:

collecting, at a computer system, at least a first set of data and a second set of data from at least one device;

generating, at a computer system, primary statistics and metrics from first said first set of data and said second set of data; and

generating, at one of said computer system and a cloud computer system, secondary statistics related to a user associated with said at least one device to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user, wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct an assessment of a social engagement quotient (SEQ) metric based on data associated with said primary statistics for any users that are identified by system.

14. The non-transitory computer-usable storage medium as recited in claim 13 wherein said first set of data comprises information pertaining to geographic locations of said at least one device and wherein said second set of data pertains to context data derived from communications between said at least one device and a second device wherein said communications are intercepted at said computer system.

15. A platform for using structured communications to measure and assess social skills, said platform comprising:

at least one device for generating a first set of data and a second set of data; and

a computer system for collecting at least said first set of data and said second set of data from said first device and for generating primary statistics and metrics from first said first set of data and said second set of data and for generating secondary statistics related to a user associated with said at least one device to generate an assessment of said user wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said user, wherein said generating said secondary statistics is accomplished using an inference rule with an algorithm to construct an assessment of a social engagement quotient (SEQ) metric based on data associated with said primary statistics for any users that are identified by system.

16. The platform as recited in claim 15 wherein said first set of data comprises information pertaining to geographic locations of said at least one device and wherein said second set of data pertains to context data derived from communications between said at least one device and a second device wherein said communications are intercepted at said computer system.

17. The platform as recited in claim 15 further comprising:

a plurality of devices each for generating a first set of data and a second set of data; and

wherein said computer system is further for collecting said first set of data and said second set of data from each of said plurality of devices and further for generating secondary statistics related to respective users associated with each of said plurality of devices to generate an assessment of said respective users wherein said secondary statistics quantify social behaviors of said each user.