Leader and follower management system for wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9628945-B2
Application number	US-201514877243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2015
Priority date	Jun 30, 2015
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

A wearable computing device identifies a gesture made by the user of the wearable computing device. The wearable computing device sends an offer to a second wearable computing device, where the offer is to follow the user. The wearable computing device receives an indication of acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device, where the acceptance of the offer comprises an identified gesture made by the user of the second wearable computing device. The wearable computing device sends information related to at least the current location of the wearable computing device to the second wearable computing device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for initiating a following process between a first wearable computing device and a second wearable computing device, the method comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors, a first gesture made by a first user of a first wearable computing device;
sending, by one or more processors, an offer to a second wearable computing device, wherein the offer is to follow the first user;
receiving, by one or more processors, an indication of an acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device, wherein the acceptance of the offer comprises an identified second gesture made by a second user of the second wearable computing device;
causing the second wearable computing device to follow the first user, wherein causing the second wearable computing device to follow the first user comprises:
sending, by one or more processors, to the second wearable computing device, information related to, at least, the current location of the first wearable computing device; and
causing the second wearable computing device to overlay a visual element onto a view of surroundings of the second wearable computing device, based on the information related to, at least, the current location of the first wearable computing device;

receiving an image, captured via a camera of the first wearable computing device, that includes a face;
identifying, by one or more processors, that the face corresponds to a third user utilizing a facial recognition technique; and
determining, by one or more processors, that the third user is included within a list of users who are not permitted to follow the first user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, a request to send an offer to follow the first user from the second wearable computing device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
subsequent to receiving the indication of the acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device, receiving, by one or more processors, a confirmation of the acceptance of the offer from the first user.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the offer includes a request for authentication information and the indication of the acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device further includes the authentication information; further comprising:
determining, by one or more processors, that the received authentication information matches a previously stored authentication information requirement.

5. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
receiving, by one or more processors, an indication from the first user of acceptance of the portion of authentication information received from the second wearable computing device; and
wherein the indication from the first user comprises a gesture.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors, a third gesture made by the first user of the first wearable computing device;
determining, by one or more processors, a location of a point of interest, based, at least in part, on the third gesture;
sending, by one or more processors, at least information related to the location of the point of interest to the second wearable computing device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device each comprise at least one of: a watch, a bracelet, a necklace, a ring, and a pair of glasses.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the second wearable computing device to overlay the visual element onto the view of surroundings of the second wearable computing device comprises:
causing the second wearable computing device to overlay the visual element onto a heads-up display within a field of view of the second user.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein causing the second wearable computing device to overlay the visual element onto the view of surroundings of the second wearable computing device comprises:
causing the second wearable computing device to overlay the visual element onto a feed captured by a camera of the second wearable computing device.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dow Eli M
• Harvey Joseph D
• Fitzsimmons Thomas D
• Rohde Douglas E

Classifications

• H04W4/029

  Location-based management or tracking services · CPC title

• G06F3/1454

  involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay · CPC title

• H04B1/385

  Transceivers carried on the body, e.g. in helmets · CPC title

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04W4/21 Primary

  for social networking applications · CPC title