Apparatus and method for determining co-location of services

• US 9,583,121 B2
• Filed: 05/15/2015
• Issued: 02/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/16/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alphonso, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Alphonso, Inc.
• Inventors: Kalampoukas, Lampros, Chordia, Ashish, Kodige, Raghu Srinivas
• Primary Examiner(s): Huber, Paul
• Application Number:
  US14/713,928
• Publication Number:
  US 20150331938A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/955 using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/03 characterised by the type of extracted parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/27 characterised by the analysis technique
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/58 of audio determination or detection of speech characteristics in general G10L25/00; speech recognition in general G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/004 for microphones H04R29/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

Co-location of devices is determined by receiving at a query engine from a device, a remote audio signature and associated remote device identification and device location data and comparing in the query engine remote audio signatures stored in a database to the remote audio signature. The remote database further stores remote device identification and device location data associated with the stored audio signatures. The query engine only performs the comparisons for remote audio signatures that have the same location data. The query engine thereby limits its query set of remote audio signatures in the database. A processor reports a remote device identification associated with the remote audio signature of the device received over the communication channel and the remote device identification associated with the stored remote audio signature when an audio signature received over the communication channel matches an audio signature stored in the database within a threshold confidence level.

Claims

1. An apparatus for determining co-location of devices comprising:

a receiver connected to a communication channel configured to receive from a device over the communication channel;

(i) a remote audio signature,

(ii) a remote device identification associated with the device, and

(iii) location data of the device associated with the remote audio signature, wherein the location data identifies only a non-geographically specific network location;

a database including;

(i) one or more stored remote audio signatures,

(ii) a remote device identification associated with each of the stored audio signatures, and

(iii) location data of the devices associated with each of the stored audio signatures, wherein the location data identifies only a non-geographically specific network location;

a query engine connected to said database configured to compare the one or more stored remote audio signatures to the remote audio signature received over said communication channel,

wherein the query engine only performs the comparisons for remote audio signatures that have the same network location, the query engine thereby limiting its query set of remote audio signatures in the database; and

a processor responsive to said query engine configured to report a remote device identification associated with the remote audio signature of the device received over the communication channel and the remote device identification associated with the stored remote audio signature when an audio signature received over said communication channel matches an audio signature stored in said database within a threshold confidence level,

wherein the reported remote device identifications identify likely co-located devices without attributing the device location data or device location of one device to the device location data or device location of another device.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the remote audio signatures in the database define a comparison set, the apparatus further comprising:

a database controller configured to remove expired audio signatures from the comparison set.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a database controller configured to limit matching queries to no more than a preset number of stored audio signatures.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising:

a database controller configured to delete audio signatures in said database after a predetermined time period.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the receiver is further configured to receive from the device over the communication channel (iv) a timestamp of the remote audio signature, and wherein the database further includes (iv) a timestamp of each of the stored audio signatures, and wherein the query engine only performs the comparisons for remote audio signatures that have the same location data and timestamps within a predefined proximity of time, the query engine thereby further limiting its query set of remote audio signatures in the database.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the processor is further configured to store the remote audio signature received from the communication channel and its associated remote device identification and device location data in the database for use in subsequent comparisons if (i) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have the same location data as any of the stored remote audio signatures, or (ii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have a timestamp within a predefined proximity of time of any audio signature in the database, or (iii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not match an audio signature in the database within a threshold confidence level.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the query engine is further configured to store any remote audio signatures received from the communication channel and their associated remote device identification and device location data in the database for use in subsequent comparisons if (i) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have the same location data as any of the stored remote audio signatures, or (ii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not match an audio signature in the database within a threshold confidence level.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the network location is one of a Wi-Fi identifier and local network information.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device is a smartphone or tablet.

10. A method for determining co-location of devices comprising the steps of:

receiving, over a communication channel at a query engine from a device, a remote audio signature and associated remote device identification and device location data, wherein the location data identifies only a non-geographically specific network location;

comparing in the query engine remote audio signatures stored in a database to the remote audio signature received over said communication channel, the remote database further storing remote device identification and device location data associated with the stored audio signatures, wherein the location data identifies only a non-geographically specific network location, and

wherein the query engine only performs the comparisons for remote audio signatures that have the same network location, the query engine thereby limiting its query set of remote audio signatures in the database; and

reporting by a processor a remote device identification associated with the remote audio signature of the device received over the communication channel and the remote device identification associated with the stored remote audio signature when an audio signature received over said communication channel matches an audio signature stored in said database within a threshold confidence level,

wherein the reported remote device identifications identify likely co-located devices without attributing the device location data or device location of one device to the device location data or device location of another device.

11. A method according to claim 10 wherein the remote audio signatures in the database define a comparison set, the method further comprising the step of:

removing expired audio signatures from the comparison set.

12. A method according to claim 10 further comprising the step of:

limiting matching queries to no more than a preset number of stored audio signatures.

13. A method according to claim 10 further comprising the step of:

deleting audio signatures in said database after a predetermined time period.

14. The method according to claim 10 wherein the query engine further receives over the communication channel a timestamp of the remote audio signature, and wherein the database further includes a timestamp of each of the stored audio signatures, and wherein the query engine only performs the comparisons for remote audio signatures that have the same location data and timestamps within a predefined proximity of time, the query engine thereby further limiting its query set of remote audio signatures in the database.

15. The method according to claim 14 further comprising the step of:

storing the remote audio signature received from the communication channel and its associated remote device identification and device location data in the database for use in subsequent comparisons if (i) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have the same location data as any of the stored remote audio signatures, or (ii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have a timestamp within a predefined proximity of time of any audio signature in the database, or (iii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not match an audio signature in the database within a threshold confidence level.

16. The method according to claim 10 further comprising the step of:

storing the remote audio signature received from the communication channel and its associated remote device identification and device location data in the database for use in subsequent comparisons if (i) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not have the same location data as any of the stored remote audio signatures, or (ii) the remote audio signature received from the communication channel does not match an audio signature in the database within a threshold confidence level.

17. The method according to claim 10 wherein the network location is one of a Wi-Fi identifier and local network information.

18. The method according to claim 10 wherein the device is a smartphone or tablet.