Aggregate context inferences using multiple context streams

• US 9,582,755 B2
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/07/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Ding, Li, Narayanan, Vidya, Lee, Jin Won, Kuhn, Lukas D., Grokop, Leonard Henry, Sadasivam, Shankar, Manolakos, Alexandros
• Primary Examiner(s): Sitiriche, Luis
• Application Number:
  US13/799,337
• Publication Number:
  US 20130297547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,448 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10

Abstract

Methods, systems, computer-readable media, and apparatuses for inferring context are provided. In one potential implementation, first context information associated with a first duration is identified, second context information is accessed to determine a context segmentation boundary; and the first context information and the second context information is then aggregated to generate an inferred segmented aggregated context. In a further implementation, the first context information is used to average inferred contexts, and the context segmentation boundary is used to reset a start time for averaging the first context information.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing first context information for a device, the first context information associated with a first duration;

accessing second context information for the device;

determining a context segmentation boundary based at least in part on the second context information, the context segmentation boundary indicating an expected change from a first device context to a second device context;

deriving an inferred segmented aggregated context for the device based at least in part on an average inferred context based on averaging the first context information over at least a portion of the first duration, the second context information, and the context segmentation boundary.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first context information is ambient sound from a microphone and wherein the second context information is speech information from the microphone.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining the first context information associated with the first duration at a mobile device using one or more sensors;

and

obtaining the second context information using second sensors different from the one or more sensors, wherein the second sensors are at the mobile device or a different device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving the inferred segmented aggregated context comprises resetting the average inferred context to begin a new average context starting at a time associated with the context segmentation boundary.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the time associated with the context segmentation boundary comprises a time at which the context segmentation boundary was detected;

and

wherein a mobile device context setting associated with the inferred segmented aggregated context is delayed for a predetermined time following identification of the context segmentation boundary.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving the inferred segmented aggregated context comprises:

associating the first context information with a first potential context;

determining that the second context information is inconsistent with the first potential context; and

identifying the inferred segmented aggregated context, the inferred segmented aggregated context being consistent with the second context information and different from the first potential context.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein accessing the second context information and determining the context segmentation boundary comprises computing individual context inferences of limited temporal relevance to identify expected context transitions.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein deriving an inferred segmented aggregated context is based on at least one of direct receipt of a context segmentation boundary from sensor data, detecting a change point based on the first context information and the second context information, or temporal clustering of sensor data from a plurality of sensors.

9. A method comprising:

determining, by a computing device, a first set of context inferences covering a first time period, wherein the first set of context inferences is determined from sensor data of the computing device;

determining from the first set of context inferences, a context segmentation boundary associated with a first time, the context segmentation boundary indicating an expected change from a first device context to a second device context;

determining, by the computing device, an average inferred second context based on averaging second context inferences from the sensor data associated with a second time following the first time within the first time period;

determining an inferred segmented aggregated context for the computing device from the second device context and the average inferred second context and the context segmentation boundary; and

selecting a set of device settings for the computing device based on the inferred segmented aggregated context.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising identifying the context segmentation boundary from calendar data prior to determining the context segmentation boundary from the first set of context inferences.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising identifying the context segmentation boundary from social networking check-in data prior to determining the context segmentation boundary from the first set of context inferences.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the sensor data comprises microphone data detected based on an audio environment of the computing device.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein the sensor data comprises location data detected based on a location of the computing device.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the sensor data comprises Bluetooth identifiers associated with Bluetooth™

devices proximate to the computing device.

15. The method of claim 9 wherein the sensor data comprises accelerometer data and wherein the context segmentation boundary is detected based on a change in the accelerometer data.

16. The method of claim 9 wherein the inferred segmented aggregated context is computed from the first set of context inferences and the average inferred second context by selecting a most commonly occurring individual context inference over a second time period, wherein the second time period is a subset of the first time period.

17. The method of claim 9 further comprising:

determining a confidence value associated with the inferred segmented aggregated context; and

determining that the confidence value is above a confidence threshold prior to selecting the set of device settings for the computing device based on the inferred segmented aggregated context.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the inferred segmented aggregated context is computed from individual context inferences of the first set of context inferences and the average inferred second context by averaging a likelihood or a log-likelihood associated with each potential context, and outputting a highest value context as the inferred segmented aggregated context.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein the confidence value is computed as a function of averaged likelihood or averaged log-likelihood values for each potential context.

24. The method of claim 9, wherein determining an inferred segmented aggregated context comprises excluding context inferences prior to the context segmentation boundary.

20. A mobile device comprising:

a processor;

a first sensor coupled to the processor; and

a non-transitory storage medium coupled to the processor, the storage medium including instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the mobile device to;

access first context information for the mobile device, the first context information associated with a first duration;

access second context information for the mobile device;

determine a context segmentation boundary based at least in part on the second context information, the context segmentation boundary indicating an expected change from a first device context to a second device context;

derive an inferred segmented aggregated context for the mobile device based at least in part on an average inferred context based on averaging the first context information over at least a portion of the first duration, the second context information, and the context segmentation boundary.

25. The mobile device of claim 20, wherein the instructions, that when executed by the processor, further cause the mobile device to:

determine a confidence value for the inferred segmented aggregated context; and

responsive to determining that the confidence value is above a confidence threshold, selecting a set of device settings for the computing device based on the inferred segmented aggregated context.

26. The mobile device of claim 20 wherein the first sensor comprises a microphone and wherein the first context information comprises sound information recorded by the microphone;

and

wherein the second context information comprises a meeting reminder stored in a calendar within the storage medium as part of a calendar application operated by the processor.

21. A device comprising:

means for determining a first set of context inferences covering a first time period, wherein the first set of context inferences is determined from sensor data of a mobile device;

means for determining from the first set of context inferences, a context segmentation boundary associated with a first time, the context segmentation boundary indicating an expected change from a first device context to a second device context;

means for determining an average inferred second context based on averaging second context inferences from the sensor data associated with a second time following the first time within the first time period;

means for determining an inferred segmented aggregated context for the mobile device from the second context and the average inferred second context and the context segmentation boundary; and

means for selecting a set of device settings for the mobile device based on the inferred segmented aggregated context.

22. The device of claim 21 further comprising:

means for identifying the context segmentation boundary from calendar data prior to determining the context segmentation boundary from the first set of context inferences.

23. The device of claim 21 further comprising:

means for determining a confidence value associated with the inferred segmented aggregated context; and

means for determining that the confidence value is above a confidence threshold prior to selecting the set of device settings based on the inferred segmented aggregated context, wherein the inferred segmented aggregated context is computed from individual context inferences of the first set of context inferences and the average inferred second context by averaging a likelihood or a log-likelihood associated with each potential context, and outputting a highest value context as the inferred segmented aggregated context.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a device to:

determine, by the device, a first set of context inferences covering a first time period, wherein the first set of context inferences is determined from sensor data of the device;

determine from the first set of context inferences, a context segmentation boundary associated with a first time, the context segmentation boundary indicating an expected change from a first device context to a second device context;

determine, by the device, an average inferred second context based on averaging second context inferences from the sensor data associated with a second time following the first time within the first time period;

determine an inferred segmented aggregated context for the device from the second device context and the average inferred second context and the context segmentation boundary; and

select a set of device settings for the device based on the inferred segmented aggregated context.

28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the sensor data comprises device location data;

and

wherein the computer-readable instructions are further configured to cause the device to determine from the first set of context inferences, the context segmentation boundary associated with the first time delineating a first context prior to the first time from the second context following the first time within the first time period comprises identifying a movement across a door threshold to enter a room.

29. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 28, wherein the inferred segmented aggregated context comprises a meeting context associated with the room.