Context-awareness

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10748002-B2
Application number	US-201815965581-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2018
Priority date	Apr 27, 2018
Publication date	Aug 18, 2020
Grant date	Aug 18, 2020

Abstract

The discussion relates to context-aware environments. One example can include inwardly-facing cameras positioned around a periphery of an environment that defines a volume. The example can also include sensors positioned relative to the volume and configured to communicate with a user device in the volume. The example can also include an ambient perception component configured to track user locations in the volume and to detect user gestures relative to objects in the volume, and responsive to receiving a query from the user's device, to supplement the query with information derived from the objects.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
cameras positioned around a periphery of an environment that defines a volume;
sensors positioned within the volume of the environment;
an object database that stores data about objects in the environment and users associated with the environment; and,
a processor configured to process data from the cameras and the sensors to identify users that are in the environment, locations of the users in the environment, objects in the environment, and relationships between an individual user and an individual object in the environment. The processor further configured to compare the stored data to sensed data to identify relationships between the individual object and other objects in the environment, to propose one of the other objects to the user as an alternative to the individual object based at least in part upon a past purchase history of the user, a price sensitivity of the user, and a path of the user through the environment, and to provide location information for the one of the other objects relative to the location of the user in the environment.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the relationships comprise the individual user gesturing relative to the individual object.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the user gesturing comprises holding the individual object or pointing to the individual object.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the environment comprises a shopping environment.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the stored data comprises historical data about the individual user including purchases of the individual user at specific times of day, preferences of the user regarding individual aisles in the environment and preferences for particular vertical heights for object selection.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the past purchase history of the user includes brand loyalty data relating to the user's preference for specific brands.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the past purchase history of the user includes past purchases in the environment and in other environments.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the relationships between the individual user and the individual object comprise the individual user inspecting the individual object and the proposed one of the objects comprises a suggestion for the user to buy another brand of the individual object.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the suggestion includes a cost discount calculated for the individual user so that the another brand of the individual object is less expensive than the individual object.

10. A system, comprising:
inwardly-facing cameras positioned around a periphery of a shopping environment;
sensors positioned relative to the shopping environment and configured to communicate with a user device in the shopping environment; and,
an ambient perception component configured to track user locations in the shopping environment with data from the cameras, to detect a user gesture relative to an object of a first brand in the shopping environment with data from the cameras, to identify alternative brands of the object that are available in the shopping environment, to select an individual alternative brand of the object based at least in part upon a date and time that a user is in the shopping environment, past purchase history of the user in the shopping environment and other shopping environments including purchases of alternative branded objects, and to send information about the selected individual alternative brand of the object to the user device for presentation to the user in the shopping environment.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user gesture comprises pointing at the object.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user gesture comprises picking up the object.

13. The system of claim 10 , wherein the user gesture comprises looking at the object.

14. The system of claim 10 , wherein the information about the selected individual alternative brand of the object comprises an incentive.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the incentive includes a time sensitive coupon specific to the user and to the shopping environment.

16. A method, comprising:
identifying users within an environment;
detecting a gesture from an individual user relative to an object in the environment;
identifying a brand of the object;
determining whether similar objects of alternative brands are present in the environment;
employing a context knowledge graph to determine a probability of the individual user purchasing an individual similar object based at least in part upon a time of day, a path of the user within the environment, and a purchase history of the individual user relating to the alternative brands; and,
based at least in part upon the probability of the individual user purchasing the individual similar object, causing information about the individual similar object to be presented to the individual user.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the identifying a brand comprises identifying the object from sensor data and obtaining the brand from an object database relating to the environment.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the identifying a brand comprises identifying the object from sensor data and obtaining the brand from the context knowledge graph relating to the environment.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the brand, the object, and the individual similar object comprise nodes of the context knowledge graph.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the causing comprises sending the information to a personal device associated with the individual user.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Abhishek Abhishek
• Zuberi Khawar
• Liu Jie
• Aminpour Rouzbeh
• Zhang Zhengyou
• Dalloul Ali
• Lymberopoulos Dimitrios
• Goraczko Michel
• Capone Tony
• Wang Di
• Lu Yi
• Asmi Yasser B

Classifications

• G06V10/255

  Detecting or recognising potential candidate objects based on visual cues, e.g. shapes · CPC title

• G06V20/20

  in augmented reality scenes · CPC title

• G06F3/017 Primary

  Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures (interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883) · CPC title

• G06V20/64

  Three-dimensional [3D] objects · CPC title

• G06V40/20

  Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition (recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16) · CPC title