Personalized, automated receptionist

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9519827-B2
Application number	US-201414582517-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 24, 2014
Priority date	Dec 24, 2014
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer program products for creating a personalized, automated receptionist are provided herein. A method for providing an automated receptionist for a host user includes obtaining one or more images of a work environment of the host user; processing the one or more images to determine if at least one visitor is present in the work environment; and if the at least one visitor is determined to be present in the work environment, notifying the host user that the at least one visitor is present in the work environment, wherein at least one of the steps are performed by at least one hardware device. The method may be initiated, for example, when the host user is not present in the work environment. The automated receptionist can optionally (i) provide a greeting to the at least one visitor; (ii) enable communication between the at least one visitor and the host user; and/or (iii) provide one or more information items to the at least one visitor when the host user is not present.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for providing an automated receptionist for a host user, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computing device to cause the computing device to perform the following steps:
performing a learning process comprising:
obtaining one or more images of a work environment of said host user;
processing, using at least one hardware device, said one or more images to determine if one or more of at least one visitor and said host user are present in said work environment, wherein said processing comprises:
learning, using at least one hardware device, a name of said at least one visitor, wherein said learning comprises processing one or more items of speech of one or more of said at least one visitor and said host user;
associating, using at least one hardware device, one or more faces in said one or more images of said at least one visitor with one or more of said learned names of said at least one visitor; and
if said visitor is determined to be present in said work environment, notifying said host user that said visitor is present in said work environment.

2. A system for providing an automated receptionist for a host user, said system comprising:
a memory; and
at least one hardware device coupled to the memory and configured for:
performing a learning process comprising:
obtaining one or more images of a work environment of said host user;
processing, using at least one hardware device, said one or more images to determine if one or more of at least one visitor and said host user are present in said work environment, wherein said processing comprises:
learning, using at least one hardware device, a name of said at least one visitor, wherein said learning comprises processing one or more items of speech of one or more of said at least one visitor and said host user;
associating, using at least one hardware device, one or more faces in said one or more images of said at least one visitor with one or more of said learned names of said at least one visitor; and
if said visitor is determined to be present in said work environment, notifying said host user that said visitor is present in said work environment.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured for learning one or more commands for said automated receptionist from said host user.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured for initiating said method when said host user is not in said work environment.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured for providing a greeting to said at least one visitor.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein said greeting includes said learned name of said at least one visitor.

7. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured for enabling communication between said at least one visitor and said host user, wherein said host user is not in said work environment.

8. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured for providing one or more information items to said at least one visitor when said host user is not in said work environment.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein said one or more information items are provided to said at least one visitor following a determination that said at least one visitor has authorization for accessing said one or more information items.

10. The system of claim 2 , wherein said said step of notifying said host user that said at least one visitor is present in said work environment further comprises a notification of an identity of said at least one visitor.

11. The system of 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured to evaluate at least one of said obtained associations of said one or more faces and said one or more names of said at least one visitor.

12. The system of claim 2 , wherein said step of associating said one or more faces in said one or more images of said at least one visitor further comprises employing provided names of said at least one visitor.

13. The system of claim 2 , wherein one or more faces in said one or more images of said at least one visitor are correlated with one or more of calendar, email and contacts of said host user.

14. The system of claim 2 , wherein said at least one hardware device is further configured to provide audio and visual information to the host user if the said at least one visitor is unknown to the host user.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Guo Shang Q
• Jones Christopher P
• Lenchner Jonathan
• Masters Nathan
• Mazzella Daniel A
• Oravec James A

Classifications

• G10L15/22

  Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue · CPC title

• G06F21/6218

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G10L13/00

  Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06N5/04

  Inference or reasoning models · CPC title