Leader and follower management system for wearable devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9986400-B2
Application number	US-201715421524-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 1, 2017
Priority date	Jun 30, 2015
Publication date	May 29, 2018
Grant date	May 29, 2018

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 computer program product for initiating a following process between a first wearable computing device and a second wearable computing device, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to identify a first gesture, utilizing a camera of a first wearable computing device, made by a first user of the first wearable computing device;
program instructions to send an offer to a second wearable computing device, wherein the offer is to follow the first user;
program instructions to receive 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; and
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to follow the first user, wherein program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to follow the first user comprise:
program instructions to send to the second wearable computing device, information related to, at least, the current location of the first wearable computing device;
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay a first 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, wherein the visual element comprises an indicator proximate to the first user;
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay a second visual element onto the view of the surroundings of the second wearable computing device, wherein the second visual element comprises an article about a point of interest identified by the first user of the first wearable computing device; and
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay a third visual element onto the view of the surroundings of the second wearable computing device, wherein the third visual element comprises a timer indicating an amount of time left in a following session.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising:
program instructions to receive a request to send an offer to follow the first user from the second wearable computing device.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising:
program instructions to, subsequent to receiving the indication of the acceptance of the offer from the second wearable computing device, receive a confirmation of the acceptance of the offer from the first user.

4. The computer program product 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:
program instructions to determine that the received authentication information matches a previously stored authentication information requirement.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , further comprising:
program instructions to receive 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 computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising:
program instructions to identify a third gesture made by the first user of the first wearable computing device;
program instructions to determine a location of the point of interest, based, at least in part, on the third gesture;
program instructions to send at least information related to the location of the point of interest to the second wearable computing device; and
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay an additional visual element onto the view of the surroundings of the second wearable computing device, wherein the additional visual element comprises an additional indicator in proximity to the location of the point of interest.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 , wherein the additional visual element further comprises an image of the point of interest taken by the first user.

8. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the first wearable computing device and the second wearable computing device are selected from the group consisting of: a bracelet and a necklace.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay the first visual element onto the view of surroundings of the second wearable computing device comprise:
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay the first visual element onto a heads-up display within a field of view of the second user.

10. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay the first visual element onto the view of surroundings of the second wearable computing device comprise:
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to overlay the first visual element onto a feed captured by a camera of the second wearable computing device.

11. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein program instructions to send the offer to the second wearable computing device further comprise program instructions to send an identity of the first user and a text description of a purpose of the offer to follow the first user.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the offer includes a request for authentication information, further comprising:
program instructions to receive an image, captured via a camera of the first wearable computing device, that includes a face;
program instructions to identify 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 permitted to follow the first user without providing the authentication information.

13. A computer system for initiating a following process between a first wearable computing device and a second wearable computing device, the computer system comprising:
one or more computer processors, one or more computer readable storage media, and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more processors, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to identify a first gesture, utilizing a camera of a first wearable computing device, made by a first user of the first wearable computing device;
program instructions to send an offer to a second wearable computing device, wherein the offer is to follow the first user;
program instructions to receive 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; and
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to follow the first user, wherein program instructions to cause the second wearable computing device to follow the first user comprise:
program instructions to send to the second wearable computing device, information related to, at least, the current location of the first wearable computing device;
program instructions to cause the second wearable computing devic

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

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

Classifications

• H04B1/385

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

• H04W4/80

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• 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

• 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