MULTIPLE CHOICE DECISION ENGINE FOR AN ELECTRONIC PERSONAL ASSISTANT

• US 20160358092A1
• Filed: 08/05/2016
• Published: 12/08/2016
• 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
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,892 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 computerized personal assistant comprising:

receiving a communication directed to a personal electronics device at a remote coordination server;

analyzing the communication based on one or more user data sources to determine a most likely set of choices in response to the communication for a user of the personal electronics device;

creating a query for the user from the most likely set of choices, the query including one or more possible user decisions arranged in a group of dichotomous or multiple choice answers;

sending the query from the remote coordination server to the personal electronics device for presentation to the user;

receiving a response from the user at the remote coordination server; and

performing an action according to the response.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining a historical log of actions of the user on the remote coordination server, and predicting potential future user actions or needs of the user based on the historical log.

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

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the query sent to the user can be responded to on one or more of a plurality of available communication mediums.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the query sent to the user is responded to by one or more physical movements of the user.

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

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the query sent to the user is responded to by the user expressing a particular emotion.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the query includes sending the user a hierarchy of queries in series, each query narrowing down a decision made by the user for performing the action.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the response includes receiving text dictated by the user.

10. A computer program product comprising non-transitory computer executable code embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium that, when executing on one or more remote coordination servers, performs the steps of:

receiving a communication directed to a personal electronics device at a remote coordination server;

analyzing the communication based on one or more user data sources to determine a most likely set of choices in response to the communication for a user of the personal electronics device;

creating a query for the user from the most likely set of choices, the query including one or more possible user decisions arranged in a group of dichotomous or multiple choice answers;

sending the query from the remote coordination server to the personal electronics device for presentation to the user;

receiving a response from the user at the remote coordination server; and

performing an action according to the response.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the computer executable code further performs the steps of maintaining a historical log of actions of the user on the remote coordination server, and predicting potential future user actions or needs of the user based on the historical log.

12. The computer program product of claim 10 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.

13. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the query sent to the user can be responded to on one or more of a plurality of available communication mediums.

14. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the query sent to the user is responded to by one or more physical movements of the user.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 wherein the one or more physical movements of the user includes one or more of a shaking or nodding of the user'"'"'s head.

16. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the query sent to the user is responded to by the user expressing a particular emotion.

17. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein sending the query includes sending the user a hierarchy of queries in series, each query narrowing down a decision made by the user for performing the action.

18. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein receiving the response includes receiving text dictated by the user.

19. A system comprising:

a personal electronics device including a first communications interface; and

a remote coordination server including a processor, a memory, and a second communications interface for establishing a network connection with the personal electronics device through the first communications interface, the processor configured to receive a communication directed to the personal electronics device, analyze the communication based on one or more user data sources to determine a most likely set of choices in response to the communication for a user of the personal electronics device, create a query for the user from the most likely set of choices, send the query to the personal electronics device for presentation to the user, receive a response from the user, and perform an action according to the response, wherein the query includes one or more possible user decisions arranged in a group of dichotomous or multiple choice answers.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the memory is configured to maintain a historical log of actions of the user, and the processor is further configured to predict potential future user actions or needs of the user based on the historical log.