Virtual position display and indicators

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9407704-B2
Application number	US-201313965577-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 13, 2013
Priority date	Aug 13, 2013
Publication date	Aug 2, 2016
Grant date	Aug 2, 2016

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatuses for identifying and/or displaying an availability or virtual position of a user are provided. In some examples, a virtual position display may be provided and may include a plurality of user indicators. The user indicators may include an availability of the user. In some examples, a user may adjust a position of a user indicator. Adjustment of the user indicator closer to another user indicator may indicate an increased availability status of the user, while adjustment of the indicator away from another user indicator may indicate a decreased availability of the user. In some examples, the user indicator may include a level of activity indication received from one or more sensing devices associated with the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory storing computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to:
receive data identifying a plurality of users and a location within a building of each user of the plurality of users;
generate a virtual position display including a plurality of user indicators and displaying the location of each user of the plurality of users, each user indicator of the plurality of user indicators being associated with a user of the plurality of users;
communicate the virtual position display including the plurality of user indicators to the plurality of users including at least a first user and a second user, the plurality of user indicators including at least a first user indicator associated with the first user and a second user indicator associated with the second user;
determine, whether a proximity between the first user indicator and the second user indicator on the virtual position display is at or within a predetermined first threshold distance;
responsive to determining that the proximity is at or within the predetermined first threshold distance, provide, on the virtual position display, an indication of a first availability of one of the first user and the second user;
responsive to determining that the proximity is not at or within the predetermined first threshold distance, determine whether a proximity between the first user indicator and the second user indicator on the virtual position display is at or within a predetermined second threshold distance different from the first threshold distance;
responsive to determining that the proximity is at or within the predetermined second threshold distance, provide, on the virtual position display, an indication of a second availability of one of the first user and the second user, the second availability being different from the first availability;
responsive to determining that the proximity is not at or within the predetermined first threshold distance or the predetermined second threshold distance, provide, on the virtual position display, an indication of a third availability of one of the first user and the second user, the third availability being different from the first availability and the second availability,
wherein a position of one or more of the plurality of user indicators may be adjusted to adjust the identified first availability;
receive, from a motion sensing device in a location of the first user, motion information indicating a level of activity of the first user;
receive, from a camera associated with the first user, image information indicating the level of activity of the first user;
receive, from a noise sensing device, audio information indicating the level of activity of the first user, the audio information including an audio signal;
determine whether a conflict exists between the motion information, image information, and audio information;
responsive to determining that the conflict exists, prioritize one of the motion information, image information, and audio information based on a predetermined priority; and
provide, to the plurality of users including the second user via the virtual position display, an indication of the level of activity of the first user based on the predetermined priority of the motion information, image information and audio information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the image from the camera is a near real-time image and wherein the indication of the level of activity of the first user includes a distorted version of the image from the camera.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the audio information indicating the level of activity includes a near real-time audio feed of sound detected by the noise sensing device, the sound detected by the noise sensing device being associated with the first user.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the indication of the level of activity of the first user includes a distorted version of the near real-time audio feed of sound detected by the noise sensing device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further including instructions that, when executed, cause the apparatus to:
responsive to determining that the proximity is at or within the predetermined first threshold distance, modifying at least one of the first user indicator and the second user indicator to be an enhanced user indicator, the enhanced user indicator including a volume of audio indication higher than the first user indicator and the second user indicator.

6. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a virtual position display system, data identifying a plurality of users and a location within a building of each user of the plurality of users;
generating, by the virtual position display system, a virtual position display including a plurality of user indicators and displaying the location of each user of the plurality of users, each user indicator of the plurality of user indicators being associated with a user of the plurality of users;
communicating, by the virtual position display system, the virtual position display including the plurality of user indicators to the plurality of users including at least a first user and a second user, the plurality of user indicators including at least a first user indicator associated with the first user and a second user indicator associated with the second user;
determining, by the virtual position display system, whether a proximity between the first user indicator and the second user indicator on the virtual position display is at or within a predetermined first threshold distance;
responsive to determining that the proximity is at or within the predetermined first threshold distance, providing, on the virtual position display, an indication of a first availability of one of the first user and the second user;
responsive to determining that the proximity is not at or within the predetermined first threshold, determining whether a proximity between the first user indicator and the second user indicator on the virtual position display is at or within a predetermined second threshold distance different from the first threshold distance;
responsive to determining that the proximity is at or within the predetermined second threshold distance, providing, on the virtual position display, an indication of a second availability of one of the first user and the second user, the second availability being different from the first availability;
responsive to determining that the proximity is not at or within the predetermined first threshold distance or the predetermined second threshold distance, providing, on the virtual position display, an indication of a third availability of one of the first user and the second user, the third availability being different from the first availability and the second availability,
wherein a position of one or more of the plurality of user indicators may be adjusted to adjust the identified first availability;
receiving, from a motion sensing device in a location of the first user, motion information indicating a level of activity of the first user;
receive, from a camera associated with the first user, image information indicating the level of activity of the first user;
receive, from a noise sensing device, audio information indicating the level of activity of the first user, the audio information including an audio signal;
determine whether a conflict exists between the motion information, image information, and audio information;
responsive to determining that the conflict exists, prioritize one of the motion information, image information, and audio information based on a predetermined priority; and
providing, to the plurality of users including the second user via

Assignees

• Bank Of America

Inventors

• Yu Sounil
• Binder Dale

Classifications

• H04L67/18 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/4069

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04W4/023 Primary

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title

• H04L67/22

  Electricity · mapped topic