SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRESENTING INTERMEDIARIES

• US 20100251147A1
• Filed: 03/27/2009
• Published: 09/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bedingfield, James Carlton SR., DONOVAN, JOHN, Roden, Barbara
• Granted Patent: US 9,489,039 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/764
• 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 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/40 of characters, e.g. humans, animals or virtual beings
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/80 2D [Two Dimensional] animation, e.g. using sprites
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42201 biosensors, e.g. heat sensor for presence detection, EEG sensors or any limb activity sensors worn by the user input arrangements for interaction with the human body based on nervous system activity detection G06F3/015
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4751 for defining user accounts, e.g. accounts for children
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6187 involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

A system that incorporates teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, an intermediary engine having a controller, and a storage medium for storing instructions to be executed by the controller. The instructions, when executed by the controller, can cause the controller to receive a measure of a mood of an individual, invoke an intermediary according to the measure of the mood of the individual, and present the intermediary to an entity requesting to interact with the individual. The measure of the mood can be synthesized from collected information associated with a behavior of the individual, and can have a plurality of dimensions. The mood can also indicate an availability of the individual and a receptiveness of the individual to accept a request to interact with an entity. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. An intermediary engine, comprising:

a controller; and

a storage medium for storing instructions to be executed by the controller;

wherein the instructions, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to;

receive a measure of a mood of an individual, wherein the measure of the mood is synthesized from collected information associated with a behavior of the individual, wherein the mood indicates an availability of the individual and a receptiveness of the individual to accept a request to interact with an entity, and wherein the measure of the mood has a plurality of dimensions;

invoke an intermediary according to the measure of the mood of the individual; and

present the intermediary to an entity requesting to interact with the individual.

2. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to:

select an interactive avatar having characteristics determined from the measure of the mood of the individual; and

present the entity the interactive avatar as a representative embodiment of the intermediary.

3. The intermediary engine of claim 2, wherein the controller is operative to direct interactions between the interactive avatar and the entity according to instructions received from a negotiation engine.

4. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to:

select a human agent according to the measure of the mood of the individual; and

present the entity the human agent as a representative embodiment of the intermediary.

5. The intermediary engine of claim 4, wherein the controller is operative to direct interactions between the human agent and the entity according to instructions received from a negotiation engine.

6. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the intermediary presented to the entity interacts with the entity by way of one of an audible speech-only exchange, an image-only exchange, and a combination thereof.

7. The intermediary engine of claim 6, comprising an interactive voice response system that interacts with the entity according to the audible speech-only exchange.

8. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the intermediary is presented in combination with a metaphor created by a metaphor engine according to the measure of the mood of the individual.

9. The intermediary engine of claim 8, wherein the metaphor corresponds to one of a plurality of nested metaphors.

10. The intermediary engine of claim 9, wherein the controller is operative to:

receive from the negotiation engine a directive to change the intermediary responsive to the metaphor engine switching to another one of the nested metaphors; and

present a new intermediary in combination with the new metaphor.

11. The intermediary engine of claim 10, wherein the new intermediary comprises one of a human agent and interactive avatar.

12. The intermediary engine of claim 8, wherein the controller is operative to select the intermediary from a plurality of selectable intermediaries according to a context of the metaphor.

13. The intermediary engine of claim 12, wherein the context of the metaphor comprises one of an entertainment context, an occupational context, and a privacy context.

14. The intermediary engine of claim 8, wherein the controller is operative to:

present the combined metaphor and intermediary at a communication device of the individual;

receive from the communication device a directive to modify at least a portion of the combined metaphor and intermediary; and

present the updated combined metaphor and intermediary to the entity requesting to interact with the individual.

15. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the controller is operative to invoke and present the intermediary responsive to at least one of a negotiation engine directing the intermediary engine to invoke the intermediary and the measure of the mood of the individual being less than receptive to interact with the entity.

16. The intermediary engine of claim 1, wherein the intermediary engine operates in one of an interactive television (iTV) communication system, an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) communication system, a fixed-line circuit-switched communication system, a cellular communication system, and an Internet Service Provider (ISP) communication system.

17. The intermediary engine of claim 15, wherein the iTV communication system comprises at least one of an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) communication system, an interactive satellite TV communication system, and an interactive cable TV communication system.

18. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions to:

receive a measure of a mood of an individual to interact with an entity, wherein the measure has a plurality of dimensions, and wherein the measure indicates a receptiveness of the individual to accept a request from the entity to interact with the individual; and

invoke an intermediary according to the measure of the mood of the individual.

19. The storage medium of claim 18, comprising computer instructions to present the intermediary to an entity requesting to interact with the individual.

20. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the intermediary is a human agent, and wherein the storage medium comprises computer instructions to direct interactions between the human agent and the entity according to instructions received from a negotiation engine.

21. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the intermediary is an interactive avatar, and wherein the storage medium comprises computer instructions to direct interactions between the interactive avatar and the entity according to instructions received from a negotiation engine.

22. The storage medium of claim 18, wherein the intermediary presented to the entity interacts with the entity by way of one of an audible speech-only exchange, an image-only exchange, and a combination thereof.

23. The storage medium of claim 18, comprising computer instructions to present the intermediary in combination with a metaphor.

24. The storage medium of claim 23, comprising computer instructions to:

receive from a negotiation engine a directive to adapt the intermediary responsive to a transition to another metaphor; and

present the adapted intermediary in combination with the new metaphor.

25. The storage medium of claim 23, comprising computer instructions to select the intermediary from a plurality of selectable intermediaries according to a context of the metaphor, wherein the context of the metaphor comprises one of an entertainment context, an occupational context, and a privacy context, and wherein the metaphor comprises one of an audible metaphor, an image metaphor, and a combination thereof.

26. The storage medium of claim 23, comprising computer instructions to:

present the combined metaphor and intermediary at a communication device of the individual;

receive from the communication device a directive to modify at least a portion of the combined metaphor and intermediary; and

present the updated combined metaphor and intermediary to the entity requesting to interact with the individual.

27. An avatar engine, comprising:

a controller; and

a storage medium for storing instructions to be executed by the controller;

wherein the instructions, when executed by the controller, cause the controller to identify an avatar according to a measure of a mood of an individual to interact with an entity, wherein the measure of the mood is received from a synthesis engine, wherein the measure of the mood has a plurality of dimensions, and wherein the measure of the mood indicates a receptiveness of the individual to accept a request from the entity to interact with the individual.

28. The avatar engine of claim 27, wherein the controller is operative to:

receive from a negotiation engine instructions for interacting with the individual;

present the entity the avatar; and

engage in a communication exchange with the entity by way of the avatar according to the instructions received from the negotiation engine.

29. The avatar engine of claim 28, wherein the communication exchange comprises one of an image-only communication exchange, and a combined image and audible speech exchange.

30. The avatar engine of claim 27, wherein the controller is operative to:

select the avatar from a plurality of selectable avatars according to at least one of a directive received from a negotiation engine and a context of a metaphor generated by a metaphor engine; and

present the avatar in combination with the metaphor created by the metaphor engine.

31. A method, comprising invoking an intermediary to interact with an entity responsive to receiving a measure of a mood of an individual to interact with the entity.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the intermediary is one of a human agent and an interactive avatar, and wherein the method comprises directing interactions between the intermediary and the entity according to instructions received from a negotiation engine.

33. The method of claim 31, selecting the intermediary according to an identification of the entity.