Haptic feedback during phone calls

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10659614-B1
Application number	US-201816196875-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Nov 20, 2018
Priority date	Nov 20, 2018
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

A method for providing haptic feedback to participants of multi-party phone conversations that includes opening a communications session with a conference system for at least two users each having user specific communications devices, user specific conduct measuring devices, and user specific haptic feedback device registered with the conference system. Analyzing content of the communications session from content received by the conference system through the user specific communications device for at least one of the users; and capturing status for said at least two users from data measured by the user specific conduct measuring device for the at least two users. Determining with the conference system if the content of the communications session and the status of said at least two users calls for input by the user through said user specific communications device. Sending a feedback signal from the conference system to the user specific haptic feedback device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method for providing haptic feedback to participants of multi-party phone conversations comprising:
opening a communications session with a conference system for a conversation between at least two users, wherein each of the at least two users has a user specific communications device registered with the conference system over which the conversation is being transmitted, a user specific conduct measuring device registered with the conference system, and a user specific haptic feedback device registered with the conference system;
analyzing content of the conversation of the communications session between the at least two users from content received by the conference system through the user specific communications device for at least one of the users;
capturing status for said at least two users from data measured by the user specific conduct measuring device for the at least two users, the status indicating the level of involvement of the at least two users in the conversation;
determining with the conference system if the content of the communications session and the status of said at least two users calls for input by the user to the conversation through said user specific communications device; and
sending a feedback signal from the conference system to the user specific haptic feedback device of the user that the conference system has determined that the communications session has called for said input, the user specific haptic feedback device delivering the feedback signal to the user.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the specific communications device includes a telephone with a mute function.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the specific conduct measuring device includes an internet of things (IOT) device including at least one of a camera and a microphone.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the specific conduct measuring device includes a voice assistant.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the user specific haptic feedback device asserts a signal by physical interaction with the user by an electric motor, an electro-magnetic actuator, a linear resonant actuator, a piezoelectric actuator, a shape memory alloy, an electro-active polymer, a solenoid, an eccentric rotating mass motor (“ERM”), a linear resonant actuator (“LRA”), a high bandwidth actuator, an electroactive polymer (“EAP”) actuator, an electrostatic friction display, an ultrasonic vibration generator, an electrostatic friction (“ESF”) device, and ultrasonic surface friction (“USF”) or a combination thereof.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the specific haptic feedback device has a form factor to be worn on a wrist of the user.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the analyzing of the content of the communications session from the content received by the conference system through the user specific communications device for the at least one of the users comprises:
capturing a phone conversation for all participants from said user specific communication device; and
measuring a volume for said participants from said user specific communication device.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the measuring of the volume comprises determining for said participants whether a said user specific communication device is on mute.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 7 , wherein capturing status for said at least two users from data measured by the user specific conduct measuring device for the at least two users comprises determining with the camera of the user specific conduct measuring device a direction of users while talking with respect to the user specific communication device, determining a distance of users while talking with respect to the user specific communication device, determining whether user is speaking with another party directly while the multi-party phone conversation is pending or a combination thereof.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein said determining with the conference system if the content of the communications session and the status of said at least two users calls for input by the user through said user specific communications device comprises determining that the user is attempting to contribute to the multi-party phone conversation by speaking into the user specific communication device while it is set on said mute.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1 , wherein said determining with the conference system if the content of the communications session and the status of said at least two users calls for input by the user through said user specific communications device comprises determining that the communications session includes the name of an individual user, determining the individual user is not facing said user specific communications device with the user specific conduct measuring device, and issuing said calls for input by the user.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 2 , wherein said determining with the conference system if the content of the communications session and the status of said at least two users calls for input by the user through said user specific communications device comprises determining that the communications session includes background noise not relevant to the multi-party conversation being measured from the user specific communications device, determining the specific communications device is not muted; and issuing said calls for input to the user corresponding to the specific communications device.

13. The computer implemented method of claim 12 , wherein the back ground noise can be conversation with a user and an person that is not a party to the communications session.

14. A system for providing feedback to participants of multi-party phone conversations comprising:
a registration database that includes a plurality of user accounts including addresses for user specific communications device registered with the conference system, a user specific conduct measuring devices, and a user specific haptic feedback devices;
a content input recorder for receiving communications content from a communications session for a conversation between at least two users from content received through the user specific communications device for at least two of the users in the registration database;
a conduct input recorder for recording a status for said at least two users from data measured by the user specific conduct measuring device, the status indicating the level of involvement of the at least two users in the conversation;
an individual status calculator including at least one hardware device processor for performing a set of instruction stored on at least one memory device, the individual status calculator analyzing the content of the conversation of the communications session between the at least two users received from the user specific communications device from the at least two users, analyzing the status of said at least two users measured by the user specific conduct measuring device signals, and calculating whether an individual status for one of said at least two users calls for an input through said user specific communications device by said user having the individual status calling for said input; and
a feedback signal transmitter that sends a signal for input through said user specific communications device to a user having the individual status calling for said input, the user specific haptic feedback device delivering the feedback signal to the user having the individual status calling for

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bender Michael
• Childress Rhonda L
• Pham Minh Q
• Eckert Kim A

Classifications

• H04M3/569

  using the instant speaker's algorithm (speech detection per se G10L25/78) · CPC title

• G06F3/016

  Input arrangements with force or tactile feedback as computer generated output to the user · CPC title

• H04M3/563 Primary

  User guidance or feature selection · CPC title

• H04M1/72569

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04M1/7253

  Electricity · mapped topic