Patent Application
20190332569
The present disclosure generally relates to technical problems encountered in providing machine learning on computer systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the integration of deep learning into generalized additive mixed-effect frameworks.
The rise of the Internet has occasioned two disparate yet related phenomena: the increase in the presence of social networking services, with their corresponding member profiles visible to large numbers of people, and the increase in the use of these social networking services to perform searches or obtain information. An example of a common search or recommendation provided on a social networking service is the search for jobs that have been posted on, or linked to by, the social networks.
A technical problem encountered by social networking services in managing online job searches is that determining how to serve the most appropriate and relevant information with minimal delay becomes significantly challenging as the number of sources and volumes of information shared via the social networking services grows at an unprecedented pace. This includes determining how to recommend, for example, job openings and course offerings as well as determining which feed items to surface in an online feed.
Personalization of job search and other results is also desirable. For example, when users search for a query like “software engineer”, depending on the skills, background, experience, location, and other factors about the users, the odds that the users will interact with the results (such as by applying to an underlying job) can be drastically different. For example, a person skilled in user interfaces would see a very different set of job results compared to someone specializing in hardware. Indeed, even people having the same skill sets and current job could have different odds of interacting with the same results.
Results may also be presented without an explicit search performed by a user, specifically in the form of recommendations. Recommender systems are automated computer programs that match items to users in different contexts. In order to achieve accurate recommendations on a large scale, machine learned models are used to estimate user preferences from user feedback data. Such models are constructed using large amounts of high-frequency data obtained from past user interactions with objects or results.
Historically, models to rank job search results in response to a query or perform other recommendations have heavily utilized text and entity-based features extracted from the query and job postings to derive a global ranking or recommendation. An example of such models is a generalized linear model (GLM). A GLM is a generalization of linear regression that allows for response variables that have error distribution models other than a normal distribution. The GLM generalizes linear regression by allowing the linear model to be related to the response variable via a link function and by allowing the magnitude of the variance of each measurement to be a function of its predicted value.
GLMs may utilize the following prediction formula: g(|yij|)=x′ijw, where this formula predicts the response of user i to item j, and xij is a feature vector, w is a coefficient vector,
|yij| is an expectation of response, and g( ) is a link function.
However, in scenarios where data is abundant, having a more fine-grained model at the user or item level would potentially lead to more accurate prediction, as the user's personal preferences on items and the item's specific attraction for users could be better captured.
Use of a generalized additive mixed-effect (GAME) framework provides significant power and scalability in modeling personalized interactions. From the technical standpoint, however, its performance is subjected to the input knowledge of different entities (e.g., member, jobs, news updates, etc.). The deeper the understanding of these entities and the interactions among them, the better the modeling outcomes can be. The flipside, however, is that, without this deep understanding, the GAME framework does not provide enough reliability, despite its scalability and personalization capabilities.
Some embodiments of the technology are illustrated, by way of example and not limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings.
The present disclosure describes, among other things, methods, systems, and computer program products that individually provide various functionality. In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of different embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present disclosure may be practiced without all of the specific details.
In an example embodiment, knowledge discovery using deep learning is combined with the scalability and personalization capabilities of generalized additive mixed effect (GAME) modeling.
In one example embodiment, predictions/recommendations are made even more accurate by using three models instead of a single generalized linear mixed effect (GLMix) model. Specifically, rather than having a single GLMix model with different coefficients for, for example, users and items, three separate models are used and then combined. Each of these models has different granularities and dimensions. A global model may model the similarity between user attributes (e.g., from the member profile or activity history) and item attributes. A per-user model may model user attributes and activity history. A per-item model may model item attributes and activity history. Such a model may be termed a generalized additive mixed effect (GAME) model. Similar GAME models may be used for other types of predictions.
In the context of a job search result ranking or recommendation, this results in the following components:
The following is a description of how a GAME model enables such a level of personalization. Let ymjt denote the binary response of whether user m would apply for job j in context t, where the context usually includes the time and location where the job is shown. qm is used to denote the feature vector of user m, which includes the features extracted from the user's public profile, e.g., the member's title, job function, education history, industry, etc. sj is used to denote the feature vector of job j, which includes features extracted from the job post, e.g. the job title, desired skills and experiences, etc. Let xmjt represent the overall feature vector for the (m, j, t) triple, which can include qm and sj for feature-level main effects, the outer product between qm and sj for interactions among member and job features, and features of the context. It may be assumed that xmjt does not contain member IDs or item IDs as features, because IDs will be treated differently from regular features. The GAME model for predicting the probability of user m applying for job j using logistic regression is:
g(E[ymjt])=x′mjtb+s′jαm+q′mβj
where
is the link function, b is the global coefficient vector (also called fixed effect coefficients; and αm and βj are the coefficient vectors specific to user m and job j, respectively. αm and βj are called random effect coefficients, which capture user m's personal preference on different item features and job.'s attraction for different member features. For a user m with many responses to different items in the past, this is able to accurately estimate her personal coefficient vector αm and provide personalized predictions. On the other hand, if user m does not have much past response data, the posterior mean of αm will be close to zero, and the model for user m will fall back to the global fixed effect component x′mjtb. The same behavior applies to the per-job coefficient vector βj.
An application program interface (API) server 114 and a web server 116 are coupled to, and provide programmatic and web interfaces respectively to, one or more application servers 118. The application server(s) 118 host one or more applications 120. The application server(s) 118 are, in turn, shown to be coupled to one or more database servers 124 that facilitate access to one or more databases 126. While the application(s) 120 are shown in
Further, while the client-server system 100 shown in
The web client 106 accesses the various applications 120 via the web interface supported by the web server 116. Similarly, the programmatic client 108 accesses the various services and functions provided by the application(s) 120 via the programmatic interface provided by the API server 114.
In some embodiments, any website referred to herein may comprise online content that may be rendered on a variety of devices including, but not limited to, a desktop personal computer (PC), a laptop, and a mobile device (e.g., a tablet computer, smartphone, etc.). In this respect, any of these devices may be employed by a user to use the features of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, a user can use a mobile app on a mobile device (any of the machines 110, 112 and the third-party server 130 may be a mobile device) to access and browse online content, such as any of the online content disclosed herein. A mobile server (e.g., API server 114) may communicate with the mobile app and the application server(s) 118 in order to make the features of the present disclosure available on the mobile device.
In some embodiments, the networked system 102 may comprise functional components of a social networking service.
As shown in
An application logic layer may include one or more various application server modules 214, which, in conjunction with the user interface module(s) 212, generate various user interfaces (e.g., web pages) with data retrieved from various data sources in a data layer. In some embodiments, individual application server modules 214 are used to implement the functionality associated with various applications 120 and/or services provided by the social networking service.
As shown in
Once registered, a user may invite other members, or be invited by other members, to connect via the social networking service. A “connection” may constitute a bilateral agreement by the users, such that both users acknowledge the establishment of the connection. Similarly, in some embodiments, a user may elect to “follow” another user. In contrast to establishing a connection, the concept of “following” another user typically is a unilateral operation and, at least in some embodiments, does not require acknowledgement or approval by the user that is being followed. When one user follows another, the user who is following may receive status updates (e.g., in an activity or content stream) or other messages published by the user being followed, relating to various activities undertaken by the user being followed. Similarly, when a user follows an organization, the user becomes eligible to receive messages or status updates published on behalf of the organization. For instance, messages or status updates published on behalf of an organization that a user is following will appear in the user's personalized data feed, commonly referred to as an activity stream or content stream. In any case, the various associations and relationships that the users establish with other users, or with other entities and objects, are stored and maintained within a social graph in a social graph database 220.
As users interact with the various applications 120, services, and content made available via the social networking service, the users' interactions and behavior (e.g., content viewed, links or buttons selected, messages responded to, etc.) may be tracked, and information concerning the users' activities and behavior may be logged or stored, for example, as indicated in
In some embodiments, the databases 218, 220, and 222 may be incorporated into the database(s) 126 in
Although not shown, in some embodiments, the social networking system 210 provides an API module via which applications 120 and services can access various data and services provided or maintained by the social networking service. For example, using an API, an application may be able to request and/or receive one or more recommendations. Such applications 120 may be browser-based applications 120, or may be operating system-specific. In particular, some applications 120 may reside and execute (at least partially) on one or more mobile devices (e.g., phone or tablet computing devices) with a mobile operating system. Furthermore, while in many cases the applications 120 or services that leverage the API may be applications 120 and services that are developed and maintained by the entity operating the social networking service, nothing other than data privacy concerns prevents the API from being provided to the public or to certain third parties under special arrangements, thereby making the navigation recommendations available to third-party applications 128 and services.
Although the search engine 216 is referred to herein as being used in the context of a social networking service, it is contemplated that it may also be employed in the context of any website or online services. Additionally, although features of the present disclosure are referred to herein as being used or presented in the context of a web page, it is contemplated that any user interface view (e.g., a user interface on a mobile device or on desktop software) is within the scope of the present disclosure.
In an example embodiment, when user profiles are indexed, forward search indexes are created and stored. The search engine 216 facilitates the indexing and searching for content within the social networking service, such as the indexing and searching for data or information contained in the data layer, such as profile data (stored, e.g., in the profile database 218), social graph data (stored, e.g., in the social graph database 220), and member activity and behavior data (stored, e.g., in the member activity and behavior database 222), as well as job postings. The search engine 216 may collect, parse, and/or store data in an index or other similar structure to facilitate the identification and retrieval of information in response to received queries for information. This may include, but is not limited to, forward search indexes, inverted indexes, N-gram indexes, and so on.
For purposes of this document, the combining of deep learning knowledge discovery with GAME modeling is described with respect to models pertaining to job recommendations in a social networking service. Nevertheless, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that these techniques can be applied to other types of models in social networking services, such as feed recommendations, profile recommendations, course suggestions, etc.
This “query” may be sent to a job posting database query formulation component 304, which formulates an actual job posting database query, which will be sent, via a job posting database interface 306, to job posting database 308. Job posting results responsive to this job posting database query may then be sent to the job posting result ranking engine 310, again via the job posting database interface 306. The job posting result ranking engine 310 then ranks the job posting results and sends the ranked job posting results back to the user interface for display to the user.
The job posting result ranking engine 310 may comprise a training component 402 and a job posting result processing component 404. The training component 402 feeds sample job postings results 406 and sample member data 407 into a feature extractor 408 that extracts one or more features 410 for the sample job postings results 406 and sample member data 407. The sample job postings results 406 may each include job postings results produced in response to a particular query as well as one or more labels, such as a job posting application likelihood score, which is a score indicating a probability that a user with corresponding sample member data 407 will apply for the job associated with the corresponding sample job postings result 406.
Sample user data 407 may include, for example, a history of job searches and resulting expressions of interest (such as clicking on job posting results or applications to corresponding jobs) in particular job posting results for particular users. In some example embodiments, sample user data 407 can also include other data relevant for personalization of the query results to the particular user, such as a user profile for the member or a history of other user activity.
A machine learning algorithm 412 produces the job posting result ranking model 400 using the extracted features 410 along with the one or more labels. In the job posting result processing component 404, candidate job postings results 414 resulting from a particular query are fed to a feature extractor 416 along with member data 415. The feature extractor 416 extracts one or more features 418 from the candidate job postings results 414 and member data 415. These features 418 are then fed to the job posting result ranking model 400, which outputs a job posting application likelihood score for each candidate job postings result for the particular query.
This job posting application likelihood score for each candidate job posting result may then be passed to a job posting result sorter 420, which may sort the candidate job postings results 414 based on their respective job posting application likelihood scores.
It should be noted that the job posting result ranking model 400 may be periodically updated via additional training and/or user feedback. The user feedback may be either feedback from members performing searches, or from companies corresponding to the job postings. The feedback may include an indication about how successful the job posting result ranking model 400 is in predicting member interest in the job posting results presented.
The machine learning algorithm 412 may be selected from among many different potential supervised or unsupervised machine learning algorithms 412. Examples of supervised learning algorithms include artificial neural networks, Bayesian networks, instance-based learning, support vector machines, random forests, linear classifiers, quadratic classifiers, k-nearest neighbor, decision trees, and hidden Markov models. Examples of unsupervised learning algorithms include expectation-maximization algorithms, vector quantization, and information bottleneck method. In an example embodiment, a multi-class logistical regression model is used.
In an example embodiment, the machine learning algorithm 412 may actually comprise one or more machine learning algorithms that train three separate models that may be combined in order to form the job posting result ranking model 400.
Of course, the above techniques can be extended to other types of models than ranking models, such as job posting result ranking model 400. For example, rather than use the predictions to rank job results in response to a query, a system could use the predictions to recommend one or more job postings to a user without the user expressly requesting a job search. Furthermore, the techniques can be extended to other types of predictions for items other than job postings or job results, such as feed objects.
As described briefly above, in some example embodiments, the scalability bottleneck is overcome by applying parallelized block coordinate descent under a bulk synchronous parallel (BSP) paradigm. Traditionally, the fitting algorithms for random effect models required random effect coefficients r to be integrated out either analytically or numerically, which becomes infeasible when facing industry-scale large data sets. Similarity, both deterministic and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling that operate on Γ as a whole become cumbersome.
In an example embodiment, a parallel block-wise coordinate descent-based iterative conditional mode process may be used, where the posterior mode of the random effect coefficients Γr, for each random effect r, is treated as a block-wise coordinate to be optimized in the space of unknown parameters. Given the scores, the optimization problems for updating the fixed effects b and the random effects Γr are as follows:
Incremental updates for
may be performed for computational efficiency. More specifically, when the fixed effects b get updated, snnew=snold−x′nbold+x′nbnew may be applied for updating s, and when the random effects Γ get updated, snnew=snold−z′ynγr,l(r,n)old+z′rnγr,l(r,n)new may be used.
At iteration k of the model algorithm: (E[ymit])=x′mjtb+s′jαm+q′mβj, let sk denote the current value of s={sn}n∈Ω. Let P denote the dimension of fixed effect feature space, i.e., xn∈p and Pr denote the dimension of the feature space for random effect r, i.e., zrn∈
p
where Nr denotes the number of random effects of type r (e.g., number of users). For the set of sample responses y(Ω)={yn}n∈Ω, |Ω| is used to denote the size of Ω, i.e., the total number of training samples. Additionally, || is the number of types of random effects, and M is the number of computing nodes in the cluster. These numbers can be used to compute the network input/output cost of the disclosed techniques, with this network input/output cost typically being one of the major technical challenges in scaling up in a distributed computing environment.
The process involves preparing the training data for fixed effect model training with scores, updating the fixed effect coefficients (b), and updating the scores s. Then the training data for random effects model training is prepared with scores and the random effect coefficients and scores are updated. The random effects model training and updating can then continue for each additional random effects model.
(MP). In some cases, convergence can be improved by updating b multiple times before updating the random effects, for each iteration.
The main technical challenge in designing a scalable architecture for GLMix on data sets with a large number of random effects is that the dimension of the random effect coefficient space can potentially be as large as NrPr. Therefore, if the same approach as the one used in updating fixed effects is used, the network communication cost for updating the random effects for r becomes MNrPr. Given some data of moderate size, for example, if Nr=106, Pr=10′ and a cluster with M=100, the network input/output cost amounts to 1013. As a result, one key to making the process scalable is to avoid communicating or broadcasting the random effect coefficient across the computing nodes in the cluster.
Before the random effect updating phase and as a pre-processing step, for each random effect r and ID l, the feature vectors zrn are combined to form a feature matrix Zrl, which comprises all of the zrn that satisfy i(r,n)=l. At iteration k and for random effect r, the current values of s={snk}n∈Ω may be shuffled using the same strategy, i.e., or ID l, snk may be grouped to form a vector Slk, which comprises all of the snk that satisfy i(r,n)=l. With the right partitioning strategies, Slk can be made to collocate with the corresponding feature matrix Zrl, to prepare the training data for updating the random effects r using
This is depicted at 512 in
With the training data ready for each ID l, an optimizer can be applied again to solve the optimization problem locally, such that the random effects γrl can be learned in parallel without any additional network communication cost.
It should be noted that, because both the coefficients and data collocate in the same node, the scores can be updated locally within the same step, as depicted at 514 in (|Ω|), and
(|
∥Ω|) for |
| random effects.
Since the optimization problem can be solved locally, it is possible to further reduce the memory complexity C. Although the overall feature space size is Pr for random effect r, sometimes the underlying dimension of the feature matrix Zrl could be smaller than Pr, due to the lack of support for certain features. For example, a member who is a software engineer is unlikely to be served jobs with the required skill “medicine”. Hence there will not be any data for the feature/job skill=medicine for this user's random effects, and in such a scenario, Zrl would end up with an empty column. As a result, for each random effect r and ID l, Zrl can be condensed by removing all the empty columns and reindexing the features to form a more compact feature matrix, which would also reduce the size of random effect coefficients γrl, and potentially improve the overall efficiency of solving the local optimization problem.
The result is that the fixed effects training 500 trains the fixed effects model and produces some residuals. These residuals are then used in the random effects training 502 to train the random effects model, which also produces some residuals. These residuals are then used in an additional effects training 504. This process iterates, passing the residuals from the additional effects training 504 back to the fixed effects training 500. These iterations continue until convergence occurs.
The residuals at each stage are the errors produced by whatever model is used by each stage. This allows any type of model to be used at any stage. Thus, the fixed effects model can be a completely different type of model than the random effects model. The residuals are the difference between the values produced by the model and a target.
It should be noted that the training process described above with respect to
In an example embodiment, deep learning may be integrated with the GAMe model through transfer learning. In this case, deep learning generated features are injected into different parts of GAME models. Deep learning features are represented as additional features for each training instance, for example xdeep
It should be noted that there may be other layers in the deep learning model 700 that are not pictured, such as input and output layers, convolutional layers (which apply a convolutional operation to the input), pooling layers (which combine the outputs of neuron clusters at one layer into a single neuron in the next layer), and normalization layers. Convolutional layers, pooling layers, fully connected layers 702, and normalization layers are known collectively as hidden layers. It should also be noted that there may be any number of fully connected layers 702, and embodiments are thus not limited to the three depicted here.
In an example embodiment, the features learned at the final fully connected layer 702C are injected into the GAME paradigm, as described with respect to
In an example embodiment, rather than treating the deep learning aspects as a fixed black box, the weights for at least some of the deep learning models(s) may be updated using feedback from the GAME paradigm. This may be known as joint learning, because the GAME paradigm learns from the deep learning aspect while the deep learning aspect learns from the GAME paradigm.
At operation 906, a third set of features derived from data in the social networking service is obtained. In some example embodiments, the third set of features is identical to the first set of features. At operation 908, the third set of features is fed into a generalized additive mixed effect (GAME) model. The GAME model comprises a fixed effect training portion and a random effects training portion. The fixed effect training portion uses the third set of features and utilizes batch gradient descent to output a second prediction and a residual. The random effects training portion uses a fourth set of features and the residual to output a third prediction.
At operation 910, during training of the fixed effect training portion and the random effects training portion, either the third set of features or fourth set of features is augmented with the second set of features from the first deep learning model 600, causing the GAME model to be trained based on the second set of features learned by the first deep learning model 600. Similar techniques may be used to train additional portions of the GAME model using features learned in other deep learning models.
At operation 912, weights learned by the batch gradient descent of either the fixed effects training portion or the random effects training portion are obtained. At operation 914, the weights are used to train the first fully connected layer 702A of the first deep learning model 600.
The first prediction is attempting to determine a likelihood of a particular occurrence, which can be thought of as a certain type of output. For example, the likelihood of an occurrence may be the likelihood that a user will engage with a particular feed item. The second and/or third predictions may then also be predicting that same type of output.
In various implementations, the operating system 1004 manages hardware resources and provides common services. The operating system 1004 includes, for example, a kernel 1020, services 1022, and drivers 1024. The kernel 1020 acts as an abstraction layer between the hardware and the other software layers, consistent with some embodiments. For example, the kernel 1020 provides memory management, processor management (e.g., scheduling), component management, networking, and security settings, among other functionality. The services 1022 can provide other common services for the other software layers. The drivers 1024 are responsible for controlling or interfacing with the underlying hardware, according to some embodiments. For instance, the drivers 1024 can include display drivers, camera drivers, BLUETOOTH® or BLUETOOTH® Low Energy drivers, flash memory drivers, serial communication drivers (e.g., Universal Serial Bus (USB) drivers), Wi-Fi® drivers, audio drivers, power management drivers, and so forth.
In some embodiments, the libraries 1006 provide a low-level common infrastructure utilized by the applications 1010. The libraries 1006 can include system libraries 1030 (e.g., C standard library) that can provide functions such as memory allocation functions, string manipulation functions, mathematic functions, and the like. In addition, the libraries 1006 can include API libraries 1032 such as media libraries (e.g., libraries to support presentation and manipulation of various media formats such as Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG4), Advanced Video Coding (H.264 or AVC), Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 (MP3), Advanced Audio Coding (AAC), Adaptive Multi-Rate (AMR) audio codec, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG or JPG), or Portable Network Graphics (PNG)), graphics libraries (e.g., an OpenGL framework used to render in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D) in a graphic context on a display), database libraries (e.g., SQLite to provide various relational database functions), web libraries (e.g., WebKit to provide web browsing functionality), and the like. The libraries 1006 can also include a wide variety of other libraries 1034 to provide many other APIs to the applications 1010.
The frameworks 1008 provide a high-level common infrastructure that can be utilized by the applications 1010, according to some embodiments. For example, the frameworks 1008 provide various graphic user interface (GUI) functions, high-level resource management, high-level location services, and so forth. The frameworks 1008 can provide a broad spectrum of other APIs that can be utilized by the applications 1010, some of which may be specific to a particular operating system 1004 or platform.
In an example embodiment, the applications 1010 include a home application 1050, a contacts application 1052, a browser application 1054, a book reader application 1056, a location application 1058, a media application 1060, a messaging application 1062, a game application 1064, and a broad assortment of other applications, such as a third-party application 1066. According to some embodiments, the applications 1010 are programs that execute functions defined in the programs. Various programming languages can be employed to create one or more of the applications 1010, structured in a variety of manners, such as object-oriented programming languages (e.g., Objective-C, Java, or C++) or procedural programming languages (e.g., C or assembly language). In a specific example, the third-party application 1066 (e.g., an application developed using the ANDROID™ or IOS™ software development kit (SDK) by an entity other than the vendor of the particular platform) may be mobile software running on a mobile operating system such as IOS™, ANDROID™, WINDOWS® Phone, or another mobile operating system. In this example, the third-party application 1066 can invoke the API calls 1012 provided by the operating system 1004 to facilitate functionality described herein.
The machine 1100 may include processors 1110, memory 1130, and I/O components 1150, which may be configured to communicate with each other such as via a bus 1102. In an example embodiment, the processors 1110 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 1112 and a processor 1114 that may execute the instructions 1116. The term “processor” is intended to include multi-core processors that may comprise two or more independent processors (sometimes referred to as “cores”) that may execute instructions 1116 contemporaneously. Although
The memory 1130 may include a main memory 1132, a static memory 1134, and a storage unit 1136, all accessible to the processors 1110 such as via the bus 1102. The main memory 1132, the static memory 1134, and the storage unit 1136 store the instructions 1116 embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1116 may also reside, completely or partially, within the main memory 1132, within the static memory 1134, within the storage unit 1136, within at least one of the processors 1110 (e.g., within the processor's cache memory), or any suitable combination thereof, during execution thereof by the machine 1100.
The I/O components 1150 may include a wide variety of components to receive input, provide output, produce output, transmit information, exchange information, capture measurements, and so on. The specific I/O components 1150 that are included in a particular machine 1100 will depend on the type of machine 1100. For example, portable machines such as mobile phones will likely include a touch input device or other such input mechanisms, while a headless server machine will likely not include such a touch input device. It will be appreciated that the I/O components 1150 may include many other components that are not shown in
In further example embodiments, the I/O components 1150 may include biometric components 1156, motion components 1158, environmental components 1160, or position components 1162, among a wide array of other components. For example, the biometric components 1156 may include components to detect expressions (e.g., hand expressions, facial expressions, vocal expressions, body gestures, or eye tracking), measure biosignals (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, perspiration, or brain waves), identify a person (e.g., voice identification, retinal identification, facial identification, fingerprint identification, or electroencephalogram-based identification), and the like. The motion components 1158 may include acceleration sensor components (e.g., accelerometer), gravitation sensor components, rotation sensor components (e.g., gyroscope), and so forth. The environmental components 1160 may include, for example, illumination sensor components (e.g., photometer), temperature sensor components (e.g., one or more thermometers that detect ambient temperature), humidity sensor components, pressure sensor components (e.g., barometer), acoustic sensor components (e.g., one or more microphones that detect background noise), proximity sensor components (e.g., infrared sensors that detect nearby objects), gas sensors (e.g., gas detection sensors to detect concentrations of hazardous gases for safety or to measure pollutants in the atmosphere), or other components that may provide indications, measurements, or signals corresponding to a surrounding physical environment. The position components 1162 may include location sensor components (e.g., a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver component), altitude sensor components (e.g., altimeters or barometers that detect air pressure from which altitude may be derived), orientation sensor components (e.g., magnetometers), and the like.
Communication may be implemented using a wide variety of technologies. The I/O components 1150 may include communication components 1164 operable to couple the machine 1100 to a network 1180 or devices 1170 via a coupling 1182 and a coupling 1172, respectively. For example, the communication components 1164 may include a network interface component or another suitable device to interface with the network 1180. In further examples, the communication components 1164 may include wired communication components, wireless communication components, cellular communication components, near field communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components to provide communication via other modalities. The devices 1170 may be another machine or any of a wide variety of peripheral devices (e.g., a peripheral device coupled via a USB).
Moreover, the communication components 1164 may detect identifiers or include components operable to detect identifiers. For example, the communication components 1164 may include radio frequency identification (RFID) tag reader components, NFC smart tag detection components, optical reader components (e.g., an optical sensor to detect one-dimensional bar codes such as Universal Product Code (UPC) bar code, multi-dimensional bar codes such as Quick Response (QR) code, Aztec code, Data Matrix, Dataglyph, MaxiCode, PDF417, Ultra Code, UCC RSS-2D bar code, and other optical codes), or acoustic detection components (e.g., microphones to identify tagged audio signals). In addition, a variety of information may be derived via the communication components 1164, such as location via Internet Protocol (IP) geolocation, location via Wi-Fi® signal triangulation, location via detecting an NFC beacon signal that may indicate a particular location, and so forth.
The various memories (i.e., 1130, 1132, 1134, and/or memory of the processor(s) 1110) and/or the storage unit 1136 may store one or more sets of instructions 1116 and data structures (e.g., software) embodying or utilized by any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. These instructions (e.g., the instructions 1116), when executed by the processor(s) 1110, cause various operations to implement the disclosed embodiments.
As used herein, the terms “machine-storage medium,” “device-storage medium,” and “computer-storage medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably. The terms refer to a single or multiple storage devices and/or media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store executable instructions 1116 and/or data. The terms shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media, including memory internal or external to the processors 1110. Specific examples of machine-storage media, computer-storage media, and/or device-storage media include non-volatile memory, including by way of example semiconductor memory devices, e.g., erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and flash memory devices; magnetic disks such as internal hard disks and removable disks; magneto-optical disks, and CD-ROM and DVD-ROM disks. The terms “machine-storage media,” “computer-storage media,” and “device-storage media” specifically exclude carrier waves, modulated data signals, and other such media, at least some of which are covered under the term “signal medium” discussed below.
In various example embodiments, one or more portions of the network 1180 may be an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a VPN, a LAN, a WLAN, a WAN, a WWAN, a MAN, the Internet, a portion of the Internet, a portion of the PSTN, a plain old telephone service (POTS) network, a cellular telephone network, a wireless network, a Wi-Fi® network, another type of network, or a combination of two or more such networks. For example, the network 1180 or a portion of the network 1180 may include a wireless or cellular network, and the coupling 1182 may be a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) connection, a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) connection, or another type of cellular or wireless coupling. In this example, the coupling 1182 may implement any of a variety of types of data transfer technology, such as Single Carrier Radio Transmission Technology (1×RTT), Evolution-Data Optimized (EVDO) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) technology, third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) including 3G, fourth generation wireless (4G) networks, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), Long-Term Evolution (LTE) standard, others defined by various standard-setting organizations, other long-range protocols, or other data-transfer technology.
The instructions 1116 may be transmitted or received over the network 1180 using a transmission medium via a network interface device (e.g., a network interface component included in the communication components 1164) and utilizing any one of a number of well-known transfer protocols (e.g., HTTP). Similarly, the instructions 1116 may be transmitted or received using a transmission medium via the coupling 1172 (e.g., a peer-to-peer coupling) to the devices 1170. The terms “transmission medium” and “signal medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms “transmission medium” and “signal medium” shall be taken to include any intangible medium that is capable of storing, encoding, or carrying the instructions 1116 for execution by the machine 1100, and include digital or analog communications signals or other intangible media to facilitate communication of such software. Hence, the terms “transmission medium” and “signal medium” shall be taken to include any form of modulated data signal, carrier wave, and so forth. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.
The terms “machine-readable medium,” “computer-readable medium,” and “device-readable medium” mean the same thing and may be used interchangeably in this disclosure. The terms are defined to include both machine-storage media and transmission media. Thus, the terms include both storage devices/media and carrier waves/modulated data signals.
