The present invention relates to communications systems in general and, more particularly, to a user device for creating, storing and using personal information relating to a real world event.
People often find it interesting to reminisce about what they and others were doing when some major “earth shaking” event (“ESE”) occurred in their lives. An ESE may be anything ranging from a global or national scale event, such as the September 11th terrorist attack, to a perhaps more personally meaningful event. For example, a grandfather may be more interested in knowing what he was doing when his grand child was born than what he was doing when the terrorist attack occurred.
Reminiscing about an ESE may be prompted by some external environmental stimuli that we encounter, such as sights, sounds, smells and the like. Perhaps more frequently, however, such reflection may result from our conversations with people we know or meet. For example, it is not uncommon to be asked by someone what we were doing at the time an ESE occurred.
Currently, we must rely on our own less than perfect memories to recall, not only the details of the ESE, but also our personal information relating to it—namely, where we were at the time, what we were doing, whom we were with, etc. Alternatively, we are left to devise our own methods for recording and storing such information for later retrieval. For example, we may write a diary or journal entry about an ESE, take a photograph and label it according to the event, etc. Nevertheless, we then have to remember both that we recorded such information and where we stored it, again being left to the mercy of our memories.
What is needed is a mechanism to facilitate an individual's creation, storage and presentation of information relating to ESEs and his sharing of such information with others.
The above-identified problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved in the art by an apparatus and method for creating a data set relating to a real-world event.
An exemplary method for a user device to create a data set relating to an event, includes: observing an event; creating metadata relating to the event; collecting data to generate a data set relating to the event; and adding the metadata to data of the data set. In one embodiment, observing notice of an event may include receiving notice of the event from, e.g., a third-party, such as a news service provider. Additionally, the exemplary method may further include observing a profile for generating the data set relating to the event and collecting the data in accordance with the profile.
Other and further aspects of the present invention will become apparent during the course of the following description and by reference to the attached drawings.
In the following description of the various embodiments, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustration various embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural and functional modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to like parts,
As shown in
In one embodiment of the invention, user device 100a may observe a real-world event. As further shown in
The notice of the event may include information identifying the event, such as, e.g., a name and/or description, a location, a category of the event (e.g., world news, national news, local news, sports, etc.), etc. In one embodiment, a user of device 100a may subscribe via, e.g., SMS, MMS or a web interface, to receive such notices and specify the types of events of interest to him in accordance with a user profile. In one embodiment, rather than receiving notice from an event provider 120, the notice may be received from a user of device 100a monitoring his environment. As also shown in
Once notice of an event has been received, user device 100a may create an ESE data set corresponding to the event, as will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with
As the ESE data set is being created, it may be stored in device 100a. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, a user of device 100a may remotely store all or some of the content of the data set in a network or in a personal storage device, such as a PC computer, as illustrated in
User device 100a may also include a CPU 200 and associated memory 205 containing programming for controlling, in accordance with the present invention, data processing and transfer operations among the various elements of device 100a via a data transfer bus 250. As shown in
As further shown in
Additionally, user device 100a may also include one or more sensors 230 for capturing content in creating ESE data sets. These may include one or more of a camera, a microphone, location sensors (e.g., GPS, RFID, etc.), environmental sensors (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, altitude, etc.), speed sensors (e.g., accelerometer), etc. One or more of these sensors may be operated automatically by device 100a and/or manually by a user of device 100a to collect content during a period of ESE data set creation, as will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with
Moreover, user device 100a may also monitor and store information concerning its own presence information, i.e., data relating to the state of the device. These states may include, but are not intended to be limited to, “in a meeting”, “on holiday” or the like. Thus, the context of device 100a may be sensor information alone, presence information alone or any combination thereof.
It will be readily appreciated that user device 100a may also include other conventional hardware and functionality, which may be employed in operating user device 100 as a mobile phone, but which are well known to those skilled in the art, and thus, are not shown in
In step 302, user device 100a may observe an event. In one embodiment, an event may be observed by receiving notice of the event from a third-party, such as an event provider 120 or another user device 100b. As will be discussed in detail in connection with step 314, device 100a may alternatively receive notice of an event from a user of device 100a who has monitored his environment and detected an event. In yet an alternate embodiment, device 100a may observe an event by, e.g., using one or more of sensors 205 to measure one or more parameters, either quantitatively or qualitatively, against a threshold. For example, device 100a may observe an environmental condition at a particular location and date such as the temperature exceeding 95° Fahrenheit in New York City in April.
User device 100a may forward notice of the event to another user device 100b using any communication method including, e.g., SMS, MMS, e-mail or even voice mail. (Step 304) Notice may be forwarded either automatically or in response to a user instruction to do so after the device has prompted the user either audibly or visually to determine whether the notice should be forwarded. In one embodiment, the recipients may be specified in an action profile associated with a “type” of ESE to which the event belongs, as will be discussed in detail hereinafter in connection with step 312. In that case, a determination of ESE type, and thus, action profile, is made upon observation of the event. In an alternate embodiment, the recipients of the notice may be selected by the user, either individually or by virtue of their being members of a predefined group, from an address book installed on device 100a. This selection may be performed in advance of receiving the notice and automatically used by device 100a, or it may be performed at the time of receipt of the notice. In one embodiment, recipient devices 100b may send back different ESE data sets, as will be discussed in detail hereinafter, that relate to the event of which they received notice from device 100a. (Step 305) The ESE data sets sent back to device 100a may either have been created by devices 100b or received by them from yet other user devices.
Rather than forwarding a notice of an event, or in addition thereto, user device 100a may create an ESE data set for an event. As shown in
In one embodiment, an ESE data set may be one of a plurality of predefined types 400. For example, as shown in
It is to be understood that even in the case where an ESE data set is automatically created, device 100a may select an appropriate ESE data set type, as illustrated in step 313 of
Each ESE data set type, in turn, may be associated with an action profile that defines various parameters of the ESE data set to be created, such as the time period of data collection, the type of data to be collected, the source(s) of the data, the method(s) of collection, etc.
As shown in
The profile may also define the type of information to be collected and the method(s) of collection (e.g., manually, automatically or both). The manually collected, but automatically stored, information may include any video, image, audio or text files created or received by the user during the period of data collection including SMS or MMS messages, e-mails and browsed content as well as notes and other text or presentation files created or used during the period of collection. In addition, the user device 100a may prompt the user to actively collect one or more such items of information during the relevant time period, or the user may do this of his own initiative. Thus, for example, the user may type some text to memorialize his thoughts of the moment, or take a photograph or video or make an audio recording of himself and/or his surroundings.
In contrast, the automatically collected and stored information may include context information, such as that provided by one or more sensors, and/or presence information, such as a state of device 100a. As previously mentioned, the sensors may include, but are not limited to, a camera, a microphone, location sensors (e.g., GPS, RFID, etc.), environmental sensors (e.g., temperature, humidity, pressure, altitude, etc.), speed sensors (e.g., accelerometer), etc., that may be either integral or peripheral to user device 100a. Thus, in the case of a peripheral sensor, for example, device 100a may access a web camera to automatically collect video, image and/or audio data. The automatically collected data may also include information about other devices to which device 100a is connected, or in proximity of, during the period of data collection. This may be accomplished using well-known device and/or service discovery mechanisms, such as those readily available in connection with various short-range wireless protocols, such as Bluetooth.
As further shown in
As indicated above, ESE data sets may be shared with other devices 100b. Thus, an action profile may also define the devices to which an ESE data set and/or notice of an event may be transmitted.
It will be appreciated that the information in each action profile may vary depending on the associated ESE type. For example, national events may be deemed to be most important to the user, and thus, an action profile associated with a “National” ESE type will likely specify a longer period of collection, more external data sources, etc., than the profiles of other ESE types. In a similar fashion, a profile corresponding to a “Minor” ESE type, may specify collecting data for the shortest duration and from the fewest sources in contrast with profiles associated with other ESE types.
Returning to
Whether an ESE data set is created automatically or manually, in step 318, a name, and perhaps, a description or other data, such as time and date information, relating to the ESE data set is created. This, in turn, may occur either automatically or manually. For example, device 100a may automatically create a name and description from information contained in the notification received from event provider 120. Alternatively, a name and description may be manually created by the user's entering of such information via user input interface 215. Additionally, time and date information, or information concerning the location of device 100a, may be automatically created when creation of an ESE data set is initiated.
Once a name and description and/or other data have been created, in step 320, device 100a creates metadata for use in storing and later retrieving an ESE data set, as will be discussed in detail hereinafter. The metadata may be based on the name, description, time and date information, location information and/or the like. For example, exemplary metadata for an event may be “ESE: birth of first grandchild; May 12, 2004; 13:45”. After the requisite metadata has been created, then, in step 322, content for the event may be collected in accordance with the previously selected profile. In step 324, the previously created metadata is added to the collected content by way of, e.g., embedding it within the content, storing it with the content or otherwise associating it with the content. In step 326, the collected content is stored either locally in device 100a or some other personal storage device 150 or remotely in a network storage device 130 for future retrieval for either presentation to the user or for sharing with users of other devices 100b. The created ESE data set (and those collected from other devices 100b) may be stored in any form, including but not limited to, a list, a folder, a cluster, a web document, an album, a presentation or the like or any combination thereof.
As shown in
In step 330, a user of device 100a may retrieve one or more ESE data sets for presentation on device 100a. In one embodiment, the user may be able to select an ESE data set for presentation from a display setting forth an indicator of each data set, such as an icon, a thumbnail or the text name and/or description of the data set. The displayed information from which a selection is made may be in the form of a list, a folder, a cluster, a web document, an album or the like. Additionally, an indicator of an ESE data set may appear as one type of media file on a calendar or in a media management system or application, such as a media diary like Nokia Lifeblog, on a time-line based on date and/or time metadata that was created for the dataset.
The indicator of each ESE data set, such as the text name/and description, in turn, whether in a list, on a calendar, on a time-line, etc., is associated with the previously created metadata and it is the metadata that is used to retrieve the content for presentation to the user. Upon selecting an indicator of a particular ESE data set, the user may be provided with an indicator of all of the content that is available for the event and can select one or more of the items of content for presentation. This too may be presented in the form of a list, a folder, a cluster, a web document, an album, a presentation or the like. Similarly, the actual content of the ESE data set may be presented in the form of a list, a folder, a cluster, a web document, an album, a presentation or the like. As will be readily appreciated, presentation allows the user to easily relive the event and, in particular, recall his personal experience relative to the event. Alternatively, device 100a may use an HTTP connection to a web server and a weblogging software's API in order to post an ESE data set on-line, thereby reaching a broader audience to share in his personal experiences.
In step 332, the user may retrieve one or more of the ESE data sets for transmission to one or more other devices 100b using, e.g., MMS. Retrieval may be performed in the same manner as discussed above in connection with step 330. The intended recipients may each be selected from a list of individuals or may belong to a predefined group that the user has selected. In addition, the sharing rights associated with the action profile of the particular ESE data set sought to be shared may be observed.
In step 334, user device 100a may receive an ESE data set from another user device 100b. If the received ESE data set relates to the same event as an ESE data set already stored by device 100a, in step 336, device 100a may combine the received content with the previously stored content. This may be accomplished, e.g., by assigning the metadata of the previously stored ESE data set to the content of the ESE data set received from the peer device 100b. Alternatively, or in addition thereto, device 100a may, in turn, send the previously stored ESE data set to device 100b. (Step 338)
The many features and advantages of the present invention are apparent from the detailed specification, and thus, it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention which fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Furthermore, since numerous modifications and variations will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired that the present invention be limited to the exact construction and operation illustrated and described herein, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents which may be resorted to are intended to fall within the scope of the claims.