Electronic communication warning and modification

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9414779-B2
Application number	US-201213611825-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 12, 2012
Priority date	Sep 12, 2012
Publication date	Aug 16, 2016
Grant date	Aug 16, 2016

Abstract

A system and article of manufacture for electronic communication warning and modification include automatically detecting an emotional state of a sender of an electronic communication, encoding the detected emotional state of the sender, using input from at least one additional source, as metadata, embedding the metadata in the electronic communication to create an annotated version of the electronic communication, and transmitting the annotated version of the electronic communication to a recipient.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable instructions tangibly embodied thereon which, when implemented, cause a computer to carry out a plurality of method steps comprising:
automatically detecting an emotional state of a sender of an electronic communication wherein said automatically detecting comprises:
analyzing sender biometrics comprising one or more physiological measurements and/or one or more motor-behavioral measurements derived from engagement with a keyboard, a pointer and/or a touch-screen of a sender device used by the sender to generate the electronic communication; and
correlating, via a hardware processor, said sender biometrics with multiple biometric measurements amassed in a database using one or more statistical learning methods, wherein the multiple biometric measurements amassed in the database correspond to one or more emotional states;
encoding the detected emotional state of the sender, using input from at least one additional source, as metadata;
embedding the metadata in the electronic communication to create an annotated version of the electronic communication;
delaying transmission of the annotated version of the electronic communication to a recipient by a pre-determined amount of time that is a function of: (i) a moving average of the detected emotional state of the sender computed over a given interval of time and (ii) an evaluated amount of a risk of miscommunication, evaluated based on content of the electronic communication, in relation to a given risk of communication threshold;
redirecting, during the pre-determined amount of time associated with said delaying, (i) the annotated version of the electronic communication to a designated third party reviewer and (ii) an alert to the designated third party reviewer that a review and/or an automated mediation between the sender and the designated third party reviewer is required, wherein said redirecting is based on the detected emotional state of the sender, and wherein the designated third party reviewer comprises at least one of (a) a caregiver of the sender, (b) a manager of the sender, and (c) an individual identified as trusted by the sender;
providing a signal to the sender in connection with said delaying, wherein said signal comprises:
a notification of said delaying of the transmission of the annotated version of the electronic communication to the recipient; and
a prompt enabling the sender to modify the pre-determined amount of time of said delaying via one or more mechanisms;

extracting the metadata from the annotated version of the electronic communication of the recipient;
converting the metadata into a representation of the detected emotional state of the sender to present to the recipient with the annotated version of the electronic communication, wherein said converting comprises implementing a machine-learning element to interpret a context of the recipient based on the detected emotional state of the sender, and in accordance with one or more user attributes derived from a user profile of the recipient; and
transmitting, subsequent to (a) said delaying by the pre-determined amount of time and (b) said redirecting, (i) the representation of the emotional state of the sender and (ii) the annotated version of the electronic communication to the recipient in accordance with at least one pre-determined preference specified by the recipient in a recipient profile.

2. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the electronic communication comprises an email, an instant message, a voice mail, a communication in a virtual universe, an animated communication, a video segment, a text message, a tweet, and/or a forwarding of a separate message.

3. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the at least one pre-determined recipient preference comprises receiving the annotated version of the electronic communication in computer graphic form and/or in audio form.

4. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the detected emotional state of the sender is in a form of a graphic, a color change, an animation, a sound, and/or at least one keyword.

5. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the method steps comprise:
receiving input from the sender, recipient, and/or third party in a form of a subsequent training to provide notification that the emotional state was not represented appropriately to the recipient.

6. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein said automatically detecting the emotional state of the sender comprises analyzing at least one of sender typing speed, sender typing errors, and sender typing rhythm.

7. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein said automatically detecting the emotional state of the sender comprises analyzing sender biometrics derived from eye tracking.

8. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein said automatically detecting the emotional state of the sender comprises analyzing a sender voice characteristic.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein the method steps comprise:
providing the sender with a notification of the detected emotional state, wherein the notification comprises at least one of an audio message, a tactile message, a speech message, a tone, an image, a lack of responsiveness in a communication device, a vibration, a color change on a screen, a change in avatar appearance in a virtual world, and a change of appearance of an environment in a virtual world.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein said automatically detecting the emotional state of the sender comprises analyzing gesture recognition of the sender.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 1 , wherein said automatically detecting the emotional state of the sender comprises scanning the electronic communication to identify one or more keywords that indicate a particular emotional state of the sender.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11 , wherein said identifying one or more keywords that indicate a particular emotional state is based on discovered and/or learned emotional states derived in connection with user feedback.

13. A system for exchanging an electronic communication in annotated form based on a detected emotional state of a sender of the electronic communication, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative for:
automatically detecting an emotional state of the sender of the electronic communication wherein said automatically detecting comprises:
analyzing sender biometrics comprising one or more physiological measurements and/or one or more motor-behavioral measurements derived from engagement with a keyboard, a pointer and/or a touch-screen of a sender device used by the sender to generate the electronic communication; and
correlating, via a hardware processor, said sender biometrics with multiple biometric measurements amassed in a database using one or more statistical learning methods, wherein the multiple biometric measurements amassed in the database correspond to one or more emotional states;

encoding the detected emotional state of the sender, using input from at least one additional source, as metadata;
embedding the metadata in the electronic communication to create an annotated version of the electronic communication;
delaying transmission of the annotated version of the electronic communication to a recipient by a pre-determined amount of time that is a function of: (i) a moving average of the detected emotional state of the sender computed over a given interval of time and (ii) an evaluated amount o

Assignees

• Kanevsky Dimitri
• Kozloski James R
• Pickover Clifford A
• Sainath Tara N
• IBM

Inventors

• Kanevsky Dimitri
• Kozloski James R
• Pickover Clifford A
• Sainath Tara N

Classifications

• G06Q10/40

  Business processes related to social networking or social networking services · CPC title

• A61B5/163

  by tracking eye movement, gaze, or pupil change · CPC title

• G06Q10/107

  Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing] · CPC title

• A61B5/165 Primary

  Evaluating the state of mind, e.g. depression, anxiety · CPC title

• G10L25/63 Primary

  for estimating an emotional state · CPC title