Users can electronically access services either online or offline. Electronically accessing services online refers to accessing services in a network environment, such as by visiting websites over the Internet to access services provided by such websites. Electronically accessing services offline refers to accessing services at physical locations associated with retail outlets or other establishments, such as by using kiosks.
When electronically accessing services, users often have to provide personal information about themselves. Having to enter personal information can be associated with various issues. First, it may be inconvenient for the user to have to enter personal information each time the user accesses a service. Moreover, in some cases, a user may have concerns relating to privacy or security of personal information submitted to a party that the user may not trust.
Some embodiments of the invention are described with respect to the following figures:
Users can use computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smartphones, or other types of electronic devices to electronically access services provided in an online environment, such as at websites available over the Internet. Moreover, electronic kiosks or other types of user interface systems are increasingly becoming available at various retail outlets or other establishments. For example, stores can provide kiosks to allow users to select items to purchase. Increasingly, airlines are providing kiosks at airports to allow travelers to check into their flights as well as to purchase other items.
When a user is accessing a service provided by a new service provider in which the user had not previously established a relationship, it is typical for the user to be prompted to enter various personal information about the user, including preferences and/or interests of the user. Having to enter the personal information of the user each time the user accesses a new service can be inconvenient. Moreover, when accessing a particular service, the user's preferences, interests, or other information may change based on the context of accessing the particular service. For example, the user may have different preferences depending upon whether the user is accessing the service at home or at work, or during the weekend or on a weekday. The user preferences may also change depending upon the purpose of the user in accessing the service. For example, the user may be accessing the service as a researcher as part of the user's work. Alternatively, the user may be accessing the service for the purpose of engaging in online electronic gaming. These different contexts or purposes when accessing a service are examples of different personae of a user associated with the service.
More generally, when accessing a service, depending on the context associated with access of the service, the user may wish to provide different user profile personae, which are different user profiles suited to represent the different personae of a user. A user profile persona is a structured construct that contains information both directly and indirectly pertaining to a user's preferences, interests, behavior, background, and other information. Multiple user profile personae of a user are typically related to each other, and may share common information as they all pertain to the same user.
In accordance with some embodiments, multiple user profile personae associated with the user are maintained such that different ones of the user profile personae are selected by a profile selection mechanism based on the context of accessing the particular service. Multiple user profile personae associated with a user can be described by corresponding different files, or they may be part of the same file with different sections describing the corresponding different profile personae.
One exemplary context is context based on day of the week. For example, if the user is accessing the service during the weekend, a first of the user profile personae may be selected for accessing the service. Alternatively, when the user is accessing the service during a week day, another one of the user profile personae can be selected for accessing the service.
As further examples, different user profile personae can be selected based on locations of the user. Moreover, different profile personae can be selected based on a current task being performed by the user. For example, from calendar information, it can be determined that during a particular time window, the user is in a meeting—if the profile selection mechanism according to some embodiments detects that the user is accessing a service during this time window, then the profile selection mechanism will attempt to select a user profile persona that may be relevant to the meeting to be used for accessing the service.
Also, information relating to the social network of a user may be used for selecting user profile personae. It can be determined that during particular times of the day, a user may frequently interact with other users online, such that any access of a service during such time periods may cause selection of a user profile persona that may be more relevant to the group of participants of the particular social network.
As yet another example, the profile selection mechanism may detect that the user is accessing a new service associated with a new service provider, which may indicate that the user may not trust this new service provider. In such a scenario, the profile selection mechanism will attempt to select a profile persona that contains a minimal amount of information about the user that the user is willing to share with such a service provider. As yet another alternative, a false profile persona can be provided that includes fake or false information for privacy reasons.
More generally, the context in which a user accesses a service impacts the user's behavior, preferences, and/or interests when accessing the service. The context includes the environment of the user (e.g., location of the user), time information, tasks being performed by the user, whether the service accessed is associated with a trusted or non-trusted service provider, a social network of the user, and so forth. A user may wear different hats and have different modes when interacting with a service.
Data relating to the multiple user profile personae may be maintained in a device associated with a user. For example, the device can be mobile device, such as a mobile telephone, a PDA, a notebook computer, or any other electronic device that can store such data relating to user profile personae. Alternatively, the data relating to the user profile personae can be maintained on a desktop computer that is used by the user for accessing services online. The user profile personae can be stored on storage media of the device associated with the user, or alternatively, the user profile personae can be maintained on storage media external to the device, where the device stores referential information that identifies the location(s) where the user profile personae are located. If stored at an external location, the user profile personae can be stored on a device connected to a network to allow for network access.
As yet another alternative, portions of user profile personae may be kept in the device, while remaining portions of the user profile personae may be kept at storage locations external to the device. For example, a user profile personae may include a summary section and a detailed section. The summary section can be kept on the device, while the detailed section can be kept external to the device to avoid consuming excessive storage resources of the device.
The online touchpoints 104A and 104C are coupled to a network 140 (e.g., Internet), to allow the touchpoints 104A and 104C to access service provider sites 142 that provide corresponding services.
Each of the touchpoints 104A-104C is able to communicate over a link 106 with the device 100. The link 106 may be a wireless link, such as a radio frequency (RF) link, an infrared (IR) link, a Bluetooth link, a proximity-based link, a wireless personal area network (PAN) link, or other type of wireless link. Alternatively, the link 106 can be a wired link, such as a USB (universal serial bus) link, or other type of wired link.
The device includes a storage media 110 (e.g., one or more disk-based storage devices, or one or more semiconductor storage devices, etc.), that can store user profile personae 112 and rules 114 for selecting which of the user profile personae 112 to use based on a determined context when accessing a service.
The device 100 further includes a profile persona manager 116 that interacts with a rule engine 118 for selecting one of the user profile personae 112 when the user accesses a service, based on context information provided by one or more context information sources 120. The context information sources 120 can include one or more sensors (e.g., sensors to detect a location of a user), a time clock, a calendar that lists the appointments associated with user, a task application that identifies tasks being performed by the user, a mechanism to detect a social network of the user, a mechanism to detect whether a service accessed is associated with an existing or new service provider, and so forth. The context information sources 120 provide context information to the rule engine 118. The context obtained from the context information sources 120 is used by the rule engine 118 to select one of the user profile personae 112 when the user 102 is accessing a service using a touchpoint 104. The selected user profile persona is then provided by the profile persona manager 116 to a touchpoint 104 over the link 106.
Note that the user profile personae 112 and rules 114, the profile persona manager 116, and rule engine 118 can also or alternatively be stored on the touchpoint 104A or 104C when the user is accessing services in an online environment. In such context, the device 100 does not have to be present to allow for selection of user profile personae based on context. As yet another alternative, the mobile device 100 can be the touchpoint, and a user can access a service over the network 140 through the mobile device 100. In this role as touchpoint, the mobile device 100 is able to communicate profile information to the service without an intermediary.
A sensor for determining a location of a user can be a GPS (global positioning system)-based sensor that uses GPS information to determine the location of a user. Alternatively, the sensor for indicating the location of the user can be a cell tower triangulation-based sensor that communicates with cell-based stations to triangulate a position of the user. Alternatively, the sensor for indicating the location of a user can be an RFID (radio frequency identifier) sensor that is able to communicate with RFID tags provided at various locations to indicate where the device 100 may be located. As yet another alternative, the sensor for indicating the location of the user can be a built-in camera of the device 100, where the built-in camera can acquire images or video of the environment in which the user is located, and based on such acquired images or video, determine a location or environment of the user.
In some embodiments, the user profile personae 112 can be expressed using machine-accessible semantics according to a predefined format. For example, the user profile personae 112 may be expressed using the standards from the Semantic Web, and using the standard web ontology language (OWL) and resource description framework (RDF). By using a predefined format to express the user profile personae, different service providers will be able to employ the information kept in the user profile personae 112. In other words, the multiple user personae can be interpreted and used across multiple services and service providers.
The user profile personae 112 can be created in any number of ways. For example, the user profile personae 112 can be aggregations of profiles already created elsewhere for the user. Alternatively, the profile persona manager 116 can create the user profile personae 112 based on information input by the user 102 as the user accesses various services over the network 140.
The rules 114 that are used by the rule engine 118 to select a user profile persona include contextual rules that select a contextually relevant user profile persona based on context information provided by the context information sources 120. The rules 114 can further include one or more of the following: simple IF-THEN conditional rules in which for a particular service a predetermined corresponding user profile persona is automatically selected; rules specifying that at least a subset of the user profile personae are to be presented to the user to allow the user to select a suitable user profile persona for accessing a particular service; rules specifying that past selections of user profile personae are to be used to decide which user profile persona to select for a particular service; and any combination of the above.
The rules can map one service to multiple user profile personae, and/or the rules can map multiple services to a single profile persona.
Once a user profile persona is selected, the user profile persona can be communicated to the touchpoint 104 at which the user is accessing the service. In one example use scenario, a user may log in to the touchpoint 104, where the login allows the device 100 to determine the service that is being sought by the user 102. For this service, the profile persona manager 116 initiates the user profile persona selection process, and causes the rule engine 118 to receive the context information for selecting one of the user profile personae 112. The selected user profile persona is communicated over the link 106 to the touchpoint 104, where the user profile persona is then provided to service provider software (which can be executed at the touchpoint 104 or at a location remote from the touchpoint 104) for customizing the service according to the information in the selected user profile persona.
The device 100 then determines (at 204) a context related to a service access by the user. This context is determined based on context information provided by context information sources 120 (
Next, the device 100 selects (at 206) one of the plural user profile personae to use for the service, based on the context. The selection of the plural user profile personae can be performed by the rule engine 118 of
Next, the selected user profile persona is provided (at 208) by the device 100 to the touchpoint 104 to enable customization of a service being accessed by the user.
In some cases, the rule engine 118 may select multiple user profile personae in response to the detected context. These multiple user profile personae may be considered to be the most relevant user profile personae for the detected context. In such cases, the profile persona manager 116 can perform an additional action to further select from among the multiple user profile personae. For example, the multiple user profile personae can be presented to the user, and the user can select which to use. Alternatively, the profile persona manager 116 can further apply other rules (in addition to the context-based rules), such as the IF-THEN conditional rules or the rule that selects a profile persona based on prior selection, as discussed above.
The device 100 detects (at 304) access of a service at a touchpoint. For example, the device 100 can perform short-range communications with a touchpoint, and for determining whether the user 102 associated with the device 100 is attempting to access a service through the touchpoint.
For the service that is being accessed, the device 100 identifies (at 306) relevant user profile persona(e). For a given service, there may be one or multiple user profile personae that are applicable, from a among all the stored user profile personae.
Next, the device 100 determines (at 308) if multiple user profile personae have been identified. If not, then the single user profile persona is provided (at 314) to the touchpoint to enable customization of the service based on the user profile persona. However, if it is determined (at 308) that multiple user profile personae have been identified, then the process proceeds to perform selection from among the multiple user profile personae. Context information from the context information sources is received (at 310) by the device 100. Then, rules 114 in the device 100 are applied (at 312) by the rule engine 118 to select from among the identified user profile personae. The selected profile persona is then provided (at 314) to the touchpoint to enable customization of the service.
Various benefits may be provided by some embodiments of the invention. From the perspective of the user, a more satisfying experience can be achieved when the user accesses a service, since the most relevant user profile persona is used to provide a customized service for the user. A user can also have flexibility to decide what information, preferences, and/or interests to reveal by deciding which user profile personae to activate for consideration by the profile persona manager 116 of
Instructions of software described above (including the profile persona manager 116 and rule engine 118 of
Data and instructions (of the software) are stored in respective storage devices, which are implemented as one or more computer-readable or computer-usable storage media. The storage media include different forms of memory including semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic or static random access memories (DRAMs or SRAMs), erasable and programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) and flash memories; magnetic disks such as fixed, floppy and removable disks; other magnetic media including tape; and optical media such as compact disks (CDs) or digital video disks (DVDs). Note that the instructions of the software discussed above can be provided on one computer-readable or computer-usable storage medium, or alternatively, can be provided on multiple computer-readable or computer-usable storage media distributed in a large system having possibly plural nodes. Such computer-readable or computer-usable storage medium or media is (are) considered to be part of an article (or article of manufacture). An article or article of manufacture can refer to any manufactured single component or multiple components.
In the foregoing description, numerous details are set forth to provide an understanding of the present invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these details. While the invention has been disclosed with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.