PROVIDING CONTEXTUAL CONTENT BASED ON ANOTHER USER

• US 20120209907A1
• Filed: 02/14/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Andrews, Anton O. A., Powell, Ryan, Mohr, Andre O. M., Park, Jae P.
• Application Number:
  US13/027,066
• Publication Number:
  US 20120209907A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9536 Search customisation based on social or collaborative filtering

Abstract

A content aggregation and distribution service, which can execute in a cloud computing environment, provides content based on a broadcast user'"'"'s topics of interest to a subscriber user based on the context of the subscriber. An example of a broadcast user is a celebrity. Content is automatically gathered about the broadcast user'"'"'s designated topics of interest from online resources, and filtered and distributed based on a context of the subscriber. Some examples of online resources are websites, social networking sites, and purchase transaction systems. An example of broadcast content is a recommendation which may have been entered directly to the service or posted by the celebrity in his or her social networking account. Both the broadcast user and the subscriber can control respectively the distribution and reception of content with subscription settings. For examples, the settings may set limitations with respect to topics, contexts, and subscriber profile data.

Claims

1. A method for providing content related to a user to another user based on a context of the other user, comprising:

subscribing a user account of a second user to a user account of a first user;

automatically gathering content about one or more topics of interest for the first user from online resources;

receiving context information from one or more client modules executing on one or more computer devices associated with the second user;

filtering content gathered for the first user for contextual relevance to the second user; and

reporting the filtered content to one or more client modules executing on the one or more devices associated with the second user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the filtering content gathered for the first user for contextual relevance to the second user further comprises filtering content gathered for the first user independently of the current context of the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the context information for the second user includes a physical location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the context information for the second user includes a mode associated with one or more computer devices associated with the second user upon which a client module is executing.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the mode is a work mode.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the first user related to content distribution to subscribers;

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the subscriber second user for receiving content gathered for the first user account; and

wherein

reporting the filtered content to one or more client modules executing on the one or more devices associated with the second user is performed based on the one or more subscription settings for the first user account and the one or more subscription settings for the subscriber second unit account.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the first user related to content distribution to subscribers further comprises;

receiving a selection of one or more topics of interest to the first user available for content sharing with subscribers independent of an online source for the content, and

storing the selection of one or more topics for sharing in the subscription settings for the first user account; and

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the subscriber second user for receiving content gathered for the first user account further comprises;

receiving a selection of one or more topics of interest to the first user for which the subscriber wants to receive content from the first user independent of the online source for the content; and

storing the selection of one or more topics for which to receive content in the subscription settings for the second user account.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein:

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the first user related to content distribution to subscribers further comprises;

receiving a selection of one or more context limitations on content to be shared with subscribers, and

storing the selection of one or more context limitations for sharing in the subscription settings for the first user account; and

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the subscriber second user for receiving content gathered for the first user account further comprises;

receiving a selection of one or more context limitations for the second user for content being received from the first user account, and

storing the selection of one or more context limitations for content being received from the first user account in the subscription settings for the second user account.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein:

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the subscriber second user for receiving content gathered for the first user account further comprises;

receiving a selection of one or more device limitations for the second user for content being received from the first user account, and

storing the selection of one or more device limitations for content being received from the first user account in the subscription settings for the second user account.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein:

obtaining one or more subscription settings from the first user related to content distribution to subscribers further comprises;

receiving from the first user a selection of one or more authorization criteria for content to be shared with subscribers; and

storing the selection of one or more authorization criteria in the subscription settings for the first user account.

11. A system for providing content related to a user to another user based on a context of the other user, comprising:

a first set of one or more computers comprising a radar service that is in communication with one or more client modules executing on computer devices associated with a first user and a second user, the first set of one or more computers receives indications of topics of interest and context information from a first client module associated with the first user and from a second client module associated with the second user;

a second set of one or more computers comprising an executing intelligence system in communication with the first set of one or more computers comprising the radar service, the second set of one or more computer stores one or more indexes of resources to search for information available for aggregation;

the first set of one or more computers uses the indications of topics of interest from the first client module and the one or more indexes to automatically and continuously gather content about the topics of interest to the first user; and

the first set of one or more computers filters the gathered content based on the topics of interest of the first user and the context information provided by the second client module for the second user and pushes the filtered content to one or more client modules executing on computer devices associated with the second user.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the first set of one or more computers include a relevancy engine which participates in filtering the gathered content by assigning a relevancy score to the gathered content based on how pertinent the gathered content is to the context of the second user.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the first set of one or more computers include magnets, which are persistent and personalized software modules that automatically and continuously collect information about a topic of interest.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein:

the first set of one or more computers include one or more recommendation engines, the magnets use the recommendation engines to identify content via a network; and

the first set of one or more computers include a relevancy engine that participates in filtering the gathered content by assigning a relevancy score to the gathered content based on how pertinent the gathered content is to the context of the second user.

15. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on the one or more processor readable storage devices, the processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method for providing content related to a user to another user based on a context of the other user, the method comprising:

subscribing a user account of a second user to a user account of a first user;

automatically gathering content about one or more topics of interest for the first user from online resources;

determining a context based on context information received from one or more client modules executing on one or more computer devices associated with the second user;

filtering the content gathered for the first user based on relevance to the context of the second user; and

reporting the filtered content to one or more client modules executing on one or more user computer devices in accordance with device limitations indicated by the second user for receiving the filtered content.

16. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 15, wherein reporting the filtered content to one or more client modules executing on one or more user computer devices in accordance with device limitations indicated by the second user for receiving the filtered content further comprises:

determine if a user computer device selected for receiving the filtered content is available for receiving the content; and

responsive to the selected device being available, sending the filtered content to the selected device for outputting to the second user.

17. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 16, wherein determining if a user computer device selected for receiving the filtered content for output is available for receiving the content further comprises:

determining whether context information for the user computer device indicates the user computer device is unavailable based on a network connection mode type for the user computer device.

18. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 16, wherein the selected user output device is communicated with indirectly via one or more different user computer devices and determining if the user output device selected for receiving the filtered content for output is available for receiving the content further comprises:

determining whether the one or more different user computer devices is in communication with the selected user output device and is in a vicinity of the second user; and

responsive to the selected user output device being in communication with one of the different user computer devices and being in a vicinity of the second user, sending the filtered content to the one of the different user computer devices with an indication to display the filtered content on the selected user output device.

19. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 18 wherein the selected user output device is a human wearable display device.

20. The one or more processor readable storage devices of claim 19 wherein the human wearable display device is a mixed reality see-through device.