Multiple choice decision engine for an electronic personal assistant

• US 9,904,891 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2016
• Issued: 02/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 01/25/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telepathy Labs, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Telepathy Labs, Inc.
• Inventors: Stolarz, Damien Phelan, Diaz, David Joseph, Rossfeld, James, Raven, Scott, O'Malley, Christopher, Kurpinski, Christopher
• Primary Examiner(s): Pulliam, Christyann
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tran, Mai T
• Application Number:
  US15/229,799
• Publication Number:
  US 20160358091A1
• Time in Patent Office: 571 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/242 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/011 Emotion or mood input determined on the basis of sensed human body parameters such as pulse, heart rate or beat, temperature of skin, facial expressions, iris, voice pitch, brain activity patterns
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/01 Input arrangements or combined input and output arrangements for interaction between user and computer G06F3/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/012 Head tracking input arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks

Abstract

To simplify assisting a user in their day-to-day activities, a communication for performing an action may be sent to a user in the form of a query, where the query includes the most likely set of choices for the action arranged in a group of dichotomous (e.g., yes/no) or multiple choice answers. In this manner, a user may respond to the query by simply selecting one of the dichotomous or multiple choice answers. Historical logs of past actions, responses, queries, and so forth, may be used to predict future user actions or needs, and to formulate future queries for sending to the user. These techniques may be implemented, for example, through a remote coordination server or directly through a user'"'"'s personal electronics device.

Claims

1. A method of operating a personal electronics device comprising:

receiving a communication at the personal electronics device;

analyzing the communication based on one or more user data sources associated with a user of the personal electronics device to determine a set of choices in response to the communication, where the set of choices have associated actions, where the one or more user data sources includes a historical log of past actions taken by the user of the personal electronics device, and where the analyzing includes discerning one or more patterns from the historical log of past actions to determine the set of choices;

creating, by a processor of the personal electronics device, a query from the set of choices, the query including dichotomous or multiple choice questions arranged in a hierarchical structure to select among the set of choices and to obtain information for performing the associated actions, the hierarchical structure having a root and leaves, where the root of the hierarchical structure corresponds to at least one of the set of choices, and a plurality of the leaves of the hierarchical structure correspond to respective ones of the associated actions;

presenting at least a portion of the query to the user in a user interface of the personal electronics device;

receiving answers in response to a plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions through the user interface;

based on the answers in response to the plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions, traversing the hierarchical structure, by the processor, to reduce the set of choices to a first choice from the set of choices and to obtain the information for performing a first action of the associated actions, the first action associated with the first choice, to thereby ensure correct performance by the personal electronics device; and

performing the first action associated with the first choice using the personal electronics device.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising adapting a future query based on one or more responses to one or more earlier queries.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to on one of a plurality of communication channels.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to by one or more physical movements of the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the one or more physical movements of the user includes one or more of a shaking or a nodding of a user'"'"'s head.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to by the user expressing a particular emotion.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions arranged in the hierarchical structure narrows down a decision made by the user for the performing the first action.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the receiving answers in response to the plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions includes receiving text dictated by the user.

9. A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on a personal electronics device, performs the steps of:

receiving a communication at the personal electronics device;

analyzing the communication based on one or more user data sources associated with a user of the personal electronics device to determine a set of choices in response to the communication, where the set of choices have associated actions, where the one or more user data sources includes a historical log of past actions taken by the user of the personal electronics device, and where the analyzing includes discerning one or more patterns from the historical log of past actions to determine the set of choices;

creating, by a processor of the personal electronics device, a query from the set of choices, the query including dichotomous or multiple choice questions arranged in a hierarchical structure to select among the set of choices and to obtain information for performing the associated actions, the hierarchical structure having a root and leaves, where the root of the hierarchical structure corresponds to at least one of the set of choices, and a plurality of the leaves of the hierarchical structure correspond to respective ones of the associated actions;

presenting at least a portion of the query to the user in a user interface of the personal electronics device;

receiving answers in response to a plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions through the user interface;

based on the answers in response to the plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions, traversing the hierarchical structure, by the processor, to reduce the set of choices to a first choice from the set of choices and to obtain the information for performing a first action of the associated actions, the first action associated with the first choice, to thereby ensure correct performance by the personal electronics device; and

performing the first action associated with the first choice using the personal electronics device.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the computer executable code further performs the step of adapting a future query based on one or more responses to one or more earlier queries.

11. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to on one of a plurality of communication channels.

12. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to by one or more physical movements of the user.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 wherein the one or more physical movements of the user includes one or more of a shaking or a nodding of a user'"'"'s head.

14. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the at least a portion of the query presented to the user is responded to by the user expressing a particular emotion.

15. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein each of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions arranged in the hierarchical structure narrows down a decision made by the user for the performing the first action.

16. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the receiving the answers includes receiving text dictated by the user.

17. A personal electronics device comprising:

a processor;

a memory; and

a user interface, the processor coupled to the memory and to the user interface, the processor configured to

receive a communication,

analyze the communication based on one or more user data sources associated with a user of the personal electronics device to determine a set of choices in response to the communication, where the set of choices have associated actions, where the one or more user data sources includes a historical log of past actions taken by the user of the personal electronics device, and where the analyzing includes discerning one or more patterns from the historical log of past actions to determine the set of choices,

create a query from the set of choices, the query including a group of dichotomous or multiple choice questions arranged in a hierarchical structure to select among the set of choices and to obtain information for performing the associated actions, the hierarchical structure having a root and leaves, where the root of the hierarchical structure corresponds to at least one of the set of choices, and a plurality of the leaves of the hierarchical structure correspond to respective ones of the associated actions,

present, on the user interface, at least a portion of the query,

receive, at the user interface, answers in response to a plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions,

based on the answers in response to the plurality of the dichotomous or multiple choice questions, traverse the hierarchical structure to reduce the set of choices to a first choice from the set of choices and to obtain the information for performing a first action of the associated actions, the first action associated with the first choice, to thereby ensure correct performance by the personal electronics device; and

perform the first action associated with the first choice using the personal electronics device.