Context dependent recognition

• US 9,116,962 B1
• Filed: 04/03/2014
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Pance, Aleksandar
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Phong
• Application Number:
  US14/244,753
• Time in Patent Office: 509 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/740, 707/758, 707/765
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3322 using system suggestions G06F16/3325 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Context data can be used to determine the current context and/or to predict the future context of a user. When the disclosed technology knows of the user'"'"'s likely context, it can prepare for object recognition (e.g., image recognition, speech recognition, etc.) by (downloading and) locally storing (i.e., holding) object data related to the context. This allows for the object recognition to be performed locally and for any additional information about the object to be provided without communication over a network, thereby reducing resources such as time, cost, and processing power. If, however, the object data related to the context is not available locally, such object data can still be downloaded from a server/cloud. In some embodiments, if a likely future context is predicted and the object data related to that future context is not available locally, the object data can be downloaded from a server/cloud prior to the future context.

Claims

1. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one sensor device; and

a memory device including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the computing device to;

obtain a previous context relating to a previous environment in which the computing device was previously located;

determine a future context corresponding to a future environment in which the computing device will be located based at least in part on the previous context;

obtain object data associated with the future context based at least in part on information included in the previous context;

obtain context data associated with a current environment in which the computing device is located using the at least one sensor device;

determine location information of the computing device based at least in part on the context data, the location information including an indication that the current environment corresponds to a location associated with the future context;

provide identifying information of one or more objects related to the location to a user of the computing device based at least in part on the location information, the one or more objects corresponding to at least a portion of the object data;

obtain an object data catalog for each of a plurality of contexts in which the computing device is determined to be located;

load the object data catalog that corresponds to one of the plurality of contexts in response to the user of the computing device being in a corresponding one of the plurality of contexts;

activate the at least one sensor device of the computing device that is associated with the loaded object data catalog;

obtain contextual information using the at least one sensor device, the contextual information including a representation of an object; and

determine an object corresponding to at least a portion of the loaded object data catalog.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine that the object data is not stored locally on the computing device;

download, from one or more devices external to the computing device, the object data; and

store the downloaded object data locally on the computing device.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the object data is stored locally on the computing device, and the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine that a match between the representation of the object and the at least a portion of the object data is not able to be located using the locally stored object data;

transmit a request, to a storage device remote from the computing device, for determining the match; and

receive the identifying information from the storage device in response to the transmitted request.

4. A method implemented by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:

determining a future context corresponding to a future environment in which the computing device will be located based at least in part on a previous context associated with the computing device, the previous context relating to a previous environment in which the computing device was previously located;

obtaining object data associated with the future context based at least in part on information included in the previous context;

obtaining context data associated with a current environment in which the computing device is located using at least one sensor device of the computing device;

determining location information of the computing device based at least in part on the context data, the location information including an indication that the current environment corresponds to a location associated with the future context;

providing identifying information of one or more objects related to the location to a user of the computing device based at least in part on the location information, the one or more objects corresponding to at least a portion of the object data;

obtaining an object data catalog for each of a plurality of contexts in which the computing device is determined to be located;

loading the object data catalog that corresponds to one of the plurality of contexts in response to the user of the computing device being in a corresponding one of the plurality of contexts;

activating a sensor device of the computing device that is associated with the loaded object data catalog;

obtaining contextual information using the activated sensor device, the contextual information including a representation of an object; and

determining that the object corresponds to at least a portion of the loaded object data catalog.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein obtaining the context data comprises:

receiving at least a portion of the context data from respective sensor devices of a plurality of sensor devices of the computing device.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

combining the at least a portion of the context data from each of the respective ones of the plurality of sensor devices to complete the context data.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining that the object data is not stored locally on the computing device;

downloading, from one or more devices external to the computing device, the object data; and

storing the downloaded object data locally on the computing device.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining that a match between the representation of the object and the at least a portion of the object data is not able to be located using the locally stored object data;

transmitting a request, to a storage device remote from the computing device, for determining the match; and

receiving the identifying information from the storage device in response to the transmitted request.

9. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

combining the context data with information relating to an electronic marketplace to determine targeted information; and

providing the targeted information to the electronic marketplace.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

obtaining at least one of a user history of the computing device or previous contexts associated with the computing device, the future context being determined using at least one of the user history or the previous contexts.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions, the instructions when executed by at least one processor of a computing device causing the computing device to:

determine a future context corresponding to a future environment in which the computing device will be located based at least in part on a previous context associated with the computing device, the previous context relating to a previous environment in which the computing device was previously located;

obtain object data associated with the future context based at least in part on information included in the previous context;

obtain context data associated with a current environment in which the computing device is located using at least one sensor device of the computing device;

determine location information of the computing device based at least in part on the context data, the location information including an indication that the current environment corresponds to a location associated with the future context;

provide identifying information of one or more objects related to the location to a user of the computing device based at least in part on the location information, the one or more objects corresponding to at least a portion of the object data;

obtain an object data catalog for each of a plurality of contexts in which the computing device is determined to be located;

load the object data catalog that corresponds to one of the plurality of contexts in response to the user of the computing device being in a corresponding one of the plurality of contexts;

activate a sensor device of the computing device that is associated with the loaded object data catalog;

obtain contextual information using the activated sensor device, the contextual information including a representation of an object; and

determine that the representation of the object corresponds to at least a portion of the loaded object data catalog.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

receive at least a portion of the context data from respective ones of a plurality of sensor devices of the computing device.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

combine the at least a portion of the context data from each of the respective ones of the plurality of sensor devices to complete the context data.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine that the object data is not stored locally on the computing device;

download, from one or more devices external to the computing device, the object data; and

store the downloaded object data locally on the computing device.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

determine that a match between the representation of the object and the at least a portion of the object data is not able to be located using the locally stored object data;

transmit a request, to a storage device remote from the computing device, for determining the match; and

receive the identifying information from the storage device in response to the transmitted request.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

combine the context data with information relating to an electronic marketplace to determine targeted information; and

provide the targeted information to the electronic marketplace.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computing device to:

obtain at least one of a user history of the computing device or previous contexts associated with the computing device, the future context being determined using at least one of the user history or the previous contexts.