Mobile device loss prevention using audio and spatial indicia

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016343235-A1
Application number	US-201514718985-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 21, 2015
Priority date	May 21, 2015
Publication date	Nov 24, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A processor of a first loss-prevention configured mobile device detects a second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device. Responsive to detecting the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices in proximity, spatial separation of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device beyond a configured separation distance is detected. A voice of an owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device is detected at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device located beyond the configured separation distance. An alert is generated at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device that indicates that the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device is separated from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method, comprising:
detecting, via a processor of a first loss-prevention configured mobile device, a second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device; detecting, responsive to detecting the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices in proximity, spatial separation of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device beyond a configured separation distance; detecting, at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device located beyond the configured separation distance, a voice of an owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device; and generating an alert at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device that indicates that the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device is separated from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring a loss-prevention friends profile comprising:
for each of at least the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices:
a loss-prevention profile record that comprises a user identifier (ID) of an owner of the respective loss-prevention configured mobile device, a voice sample profile of the respective owner, and a mobile device identifier (ID) of the respective loss-prevention configured mobile device.

3 . The method of claim 1 , where:
detecting, via the processor of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device, the second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device comprises:
detecting the second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device for a configured duration of time specified within a loss-prevention friends profile, where the configured duration of time comprises a proximity monitoring threshold time to begin monitoring to detect spatial separation of the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices beyond the configured separation distance; and
detecting, responsive to detecting the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices in proximity, the spatial separation of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device beyond the configured separation distance comprises:
detecting, responsive to detecting the second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity for the configured duration of time, the spatial separation of the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices beyond an audio processing threshold distance specified within the loss-prevention friends profile.

4 . The method of claim 1 , where the configured separation distance is specified within a loss-prevention friends profile as an audio processing threshold distance, and where:
detecting, responsive to detecting the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices in proximity, the spatial separation of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device beyond the configured separation distance comprises:
obtaining the audio processing threshold distance specified within the loss-prevention friends profile;
monitoring relative locations of the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices; and
detecting movement of at least one of the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices that results in the at least two loss-prevention configured mobile devices spatially separating beyond the audio processing threshold distance.

5 . The method of claim 1 , where detecting, at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device located beyond the configured separation distance, the voice of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device comprises:
capturing audio detected by the first loss-prevention configured mobile device; performing voice recognition of the captured audio; and determining that a recognized voice within the captured audio matches a voice sample profile of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device.

6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising obtaining a loss-prevention friends profile configured with voice sample profiles of at least the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device, and where:
determining that the recognized voice within the captured audio matches the voice sample profile of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device comprises:
comparing the recognized voice sequentially to the voice sample profiles configured within the loss-prevention friends profile; and
determining that the recognized voice matches one of the voice sample profiles within the loss-prevention friends profile.

7 . The method of claim 1 , where:
detecting, at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device located beyond the configured separation distance, the voice of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device comprises:
identifying a voice sample profile of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device configured within a loss-prevention friends profile using a recognized voice identified within audio captured by the first loss-prevention configured mobile device; and
retrieving, from the loss-prevention friends profile, an owner identifier (ID) of the owner and a mobile device identifier (ID) of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device correlated with the recognized voice; and
generating the alert at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device that indicates that the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device is separated from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device comprises:
generating the alert with output comprising the owner ID of the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device, the mobile device ID of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device, and a global positioning system (GPS) location of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device.

8 . A system, comprising:
an output device; and a processor of a first loss-prevention configured mobile device programmed to:
detect a second loss-prevention configured mobile device in proximity of the first loss loss-prevention configured mobile device;
detect, responsive to detecting the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices in proximity, spatial separation of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device beyond a configured separation distance;
detect via the first loss-prevention configured mobile device located beyond the configured separation distance, a voice of an owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device; and
generate, using the output device, an alert at the first loss-prevention configured mobile device that indicates that the owner of the second loss-prevention configured mobile device is separated from the second loss-prevention configured mobile device.

9 . The system of claim 8 , where the processor of the first loss-prevention configured mobile device is further programmed to configure a loss-prevention friends profile comprising:
for each of at least the first and the second loss-prevention configured mobile devices:
a loss-prevention profile record that comprises a user identifier (ID) of an owner of the respective loss-prevention configured mobile device, a voice sample profile of the respective owner, and a mobile device identifier (ID) of the respective loss-prevention confi

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Belvin Marcus L
• Hillary Matthew C
• Rubinger Benjamin I

Classifications

• G08B21/24 Primary

  Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms · CPC title

• H04L67/303

  Terminal profiles · CPC title

• H04W4/025

  using location based information parameters · CPC title

• G08B25/08

  using communication transmission lines {(G08B13/19658, G08B21/0286, G08B25/016 take precedence)} · CPC title