U.S. patent application number 13/556344 was filed with the patent office on 2014-01-16 for matching audio advertisements to items on a shopping list in a mobile device.
This patent application is currently assigned to INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION. The applicant listed for this patent is Alan G. Cole, Siddique A. Mohammed, Victor S. Moore, Shandapani Shanmugam. Invention is credited to Alan G. Cole, Siddique A. Mohammed, Victor S. Moore, Shandapani Shanmugam.
Application Number | 20140019234 13/556344 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49914777 |
Filed Date | 2014-01-16 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140019234 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Cole; Alan G. ; et
al. |
January 16, 2014 |
Matching Audio Advertisements to Items on a Shopping List in a
Mobile Device
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for matching audio
advertisements to items on a shopping list in a mobile device.
Audio advertisements are matched to items on a shopping list by
obtaining the shopping list from a mobile device of the user;
applying a speech recognizer to at least one audio advertisement
detected on a microphone of the mobile device; identifying one or
more key words in the at least one audio advertisement; comparing
the one or more identified key words to one or more items on the
shopping list stored on the mobile device; and storing the
information related to the at least one advertisement if the one or
more identified key words match the one or more items.
Inventors: |
Cole; Alan G.; (Katonah,
NY) ; Mohammed; Siddique A.; (Bangalore, IN) ;
Moore; Victor S.; (Lake City, FL) ; Shanmugam;
Shandapani; (Bangalore, IN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Cole; Alan G.
Mohammed; Siddique A.
Moore; Victor S.
Shanmugam; Shandapani |
Katonah
Bangalore
Lake City
Bangalore |
NY
FL |
US
IN
US
IN |
|
|
Assignee: |
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES
CORPORATION
Armonk
NY
|
Family ID: |
49914777 |
Appl. No.: |
13/556344 |
Filed: |
July 24, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
13546176 |
Jul 11, 2012 |
|
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13556344 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/14.49 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/0271 20130101;
G06Q 30/0255 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/14.49 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/02 20120101
G06Q030/02 |
Claims
1. An apparatus for matching one or more audio advertisements to
one or more items on a shopping list, the apparatus comprising: a
memory; and at least one hardware device, coupled to the memory,
operative to: obtain said shopping list from a mobile device of
said user; apply a speech recognizer to at least one audio
advertisement detected on a microphone of said mobile device;
identify one or more key words in said at least one audio
advertisement; compare said one or more identified key words to one
or more items on said shopping list stored on said mobile device;
and store said information related to said at least one
advertisement if said one or more identified key words match said
one or more items.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one hardware
device is further configured to present said stored information
related to said at least one advertisement to said user.
3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one hardware
device is further configured to extract one or more key words from
said shopping list prior to said step of applying a speech
recognizer to at least one audio advertisement.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one hardware
device is further configured to rank a plurality of advertisements
based on a relevance score.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said at least one hardware
device is further configured to store said identified one or more
key words in said at least one audio advertisement in a Dedicated
Memory Location (DML).
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said speech recognizer
executes on one or more of said mobile device of said user and
another computing device.
7. An article of manufacture for matching one or more audio
advertisements to one or more items on a shopping list, comprising
a tangible machine readable recordable medium containing one or
more programs which when executed implement the steps of: obtaining
said shopping list from a mobile device of said user; applying a
speech recognizer to at least one audio advertisement detected on a
microphone of said mobile device; identifying one or more key words
in said at least one audio advertisement; comparing said one or
more identified key words to one or more items on said shopping
list stored on said mobile device; and storing said information
related to said at least one advertisement if said one or more
identified key words match said one or more items.
8. The article of manufacture of claim 7, further comprising the
step of presenting said stored information related to said at least
one advertisement to said user.
9. The article of manufacture of claim 7, further comprising the
step of extracting one or more key words from said shopping list
prior to said step of applying a speech recognizer executing on
said mobile device to at least one audio advertisement.
10. The article of manufacture of claim 7, further comprising the
step of ranking a plurality of advertisements based on a relevance
score.
11. The article of manufacture of claim 7, further comprising the
step of storing said identified one or more key words in said at
least one audio advertisement in a Dedicated Memory Location
(DML).
12. The article of manufacture of claim 7, wherein said speech
recognizer executes on one or more of said mobile device of said
user and another computing device.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 13/546,176, filed Jul. 11, 2012, incorporated
by reference herein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to techniques for matching
audio advertisements to items on a shopping list.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] In today's busy world, consumers and retailers alike often
employ technology to improve the shopping experience. Retailers,
for example, look to technology to lower the cost of each
transaction and to employ targeted marketing techniques to present
consumers with advertising that is targeted to the particular needs
and habits of a given consumer.
[0004] Consumers often make purchases of household goods, for
example, based on items listed on a shopping list. The traditional
hand-written shopping list, however, is often replaced by a digital
list stored in a mobile device of the user. Consumers can often
dictate their shopping list into a mobile device. In addition, a
number of techniques are known for automatically generating an
electronic shopping list for a consumer (for example, with items
from a selected recipe).
[0005] A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for
using mobile devices to improve the shopping experience for
consumers and/or retailers. United States Published Patent
Application No. 2008/0052168, for example, discloses techniques for
providing targeted advertising to a group of individuals in public
places and public carriers. United States Published Patent
Application No. 2007/0174115 discloses techniques for presenting
customized presentation offers to a consumer having a shopping
device. In addition, United States Published Patent Application No.
2006/0047577 discloses techniques for matching a shopping list with
an order that items are found in a given store.
[0006] While such technology advances have improved the shopping
experience of consumers and/or retailers, a need still remains for
improved techniques for making the shopping list in a mobile device
more intelligent such that it can leverage the information from a
number of different audio sources.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Generally, methods and apparatus are provided for matching
audio advertisements to items on a shopping list in a mobile
device. According to one aspect of the invention, one or more audio
advertisements are matched to one or more items on a shopping list
by obtaining the shopping list from a mobile device of the user;
applying a speech recognizer to at least one audio advertisement
detected on a microphone of the mobile device; identifying one or
more key words in the at least one audio advertisement; comparing
the one or more identified key words to one or more items on the
shopping list stored on the mobile device; and storing the
information related to the at least one advertisement if the one or
more identified key words match the one or more items.
[0008] The stored information related to the at least one
advertisement can optionally be presented to the user. Key words
can optionally be extracted from the shopping list prior to
applying the speech recognizer to the audio advertisements. The
list of advertisements can optionally be ranked based on a
relevance score. The identified key words from the advertisement
can optionally be stored in a Dedicated Memory Location (DML).
[0009] A more complete understanding of the present invention, as
well as further features and advantages of the present invention,
will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description
and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary advertisement matching
system that incorporates aspects of the present invention;
[0011] FIG. 2 is a flow chart describing an exemplary
implementation of an advertisement matching process that
incorporates aspects of the present invention;
[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary shopping list data 300 for a
shopping list residing on a mobile device of a user;
[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary advertisement record for a
broadcast advertisement; and
[0014] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an advertisement matching
system that can implement the processes of the present
invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0015] The present invention provides methods and apparatus for
matching audio advertisements to items on a shopping list in a
mobile device. Generally, aspects of the present invention make
shopping lists in mobile devices, such as smart phones, more
intelligent and dynamic by applying speech recognition techniques
to audio advertisements. According to one aspect of the invention,
a speech recognizer converts audio advertisements to text or
another relevant format in order to identify keywords of interest.
The identified keywords can be matched to one or more items on the
shopping list of a user. As used herein, a "shopping list"
comprises any listing of one or more items to be purchased by a
user, including an ingredient list, a shopping cart for an
e-commerce web site, and "to do" entries on a calendar that are
related to a purchase (such as "buy milk").
[0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary advertisement matching
system 100 that incorporates aspects of the present invention. As
shown in FIG. 1, the exemplary advertisement matching system 100
may be implemented on a mobile device, such as a smart phone, of a
user. The exemplary advertisement matching system 100 comprises a
speech recognition module 110 and a shopping list module 120. The
exemplary speech recognition module 110 and shopping list module
120 may be implemented, for example, as client applications on the
mobile device 100 of a user. The exemplary speech recognition
module 110 listens to advertisements at stage 112, recognizes text
from the advertisement at stage 114, and parses the advertisement
at stage 116. It is noted that the speech recognition module 110
can perform speech recognition directly on the mobile device of the
user, or may transmit the audio information to a server or another
computing device to perform the speech recognition.
[0017] As discussed hereinafter, an advertisement matching process
200, as discussed further below in conjunction with FIG. 2, listens
to audio advertisements 150 in a background mode, performs speech
recognition on the advertisements using the speech recognition
module 110 and then parses the recognized text of the
advertisements to match the advertisements to items on a shopping
list using the shopping list module 120. The audio advertisements
150 may be broadcasted, for example, from any audio source 160,
such as radio or another audio source.
[0018] The exemplary shopping list module 120 synchronizes items on
a shopping list 130 to generate the necessary notes and messages
140 from the audio advertisements 150, as discussed further
below.
[0019] FIG. 2 is a flow chart describing an exemplary
implementation of an advertisement matching process 200 that
incorporates aspects of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2,
the exemplary advertisement matching process 200 initially stores
the shopping list 130 in the mobile device 100 of the user during
step 210.
[0020] Thereafter, one or more advertisements 150 are broadcasted,
for example, from an FM radio or another audio source during step
220. The speech recognition module 110 listens to the
advertisements 150 in a background mode during step 230. The speech
recognition module 110 matches certain words from the
advertisements 150 to items in the shopping list 130 during step
240.
[0021] Thereafter, the speech recognition module 110 stores
information from the advertisement 150 during step 250 in a
Dedicated Memory Location (DML) 400, as discussed further below in
conjunction with FIG. 4. The exemplary shopping list module 120
scans the items in the shopping list 130 during step 260 and tags
the shopping list data 300, as discussed further below in
conjunction with FIG. 3, with the information from the
advertisement 150.
[0022] As shown in step 270 and as discussed further below in
conjunction with FIGS. 3 and 4, the tag for the advertisement 150
contains specific data related to the advertisement 150. As shown
in FIG. 2, the tag for the advertisement 150 optionally pops up as
a message to the user during step 280 when the user activates the
mobile device 100.
[0023] FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary shopping list data 300 for a
shopping list 130 residing on a mobile device 100 of a user. The
exemplary shopping list data 300 comprises a plurality of records
310-1 through 310-N, each associated with a different item in the
shopping list 130. Each exemplary record 310 identifies the item by
one or more of name, quantity, pattern, color, type and brand. In
addition, each exemplary record 310 comprises exemplary advertising
tag information 320, such as a link to the details of the
advertisement 150.
[0024] FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary advertisement record 400 for
a broadcast advertisement 150. The exemplary advertisement record
400 comprises a field 410 containing the transcribed text of the
broadcasted advertisement 150 and a field 420 comprising the
generated information for the Advertisement Tag 320. The exemplary
field 420 comprises an advertiser name, a commodity name, a brand
name and a summary of the offer.
[0025] While FIG. 2 shows an exemplary sequence of steps, it is
also an embodiment of the present invention that these sequences
may be varied. Various permutations of the algorithms are
contemplated as alternate embodiments of the invention.
[0026] While exemplary embodiments of the present invention have
been described with respect to processing steps in a software
program, as would be apparent to one skilled in the art, various
functions may be implemented in the digital domain as processing
steps in a software program, in hardware by a programmed
general-purpose computer, circuit elements or state machines, or in
combination of both software and hardware. Such software may be
employed in, for example, a hardware device, such as a digital
signal processor, application specific integrated circuit,
micro-controller, or general-purpose computer. Such hardware and
software may be embodied within circuits implemented within an
integrated circuit.
[0027] As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, aspects of
the present invention may be embodied as a system, method or
computer program product. Accordingly, aspects of the present
invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an
entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident
software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and
hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a
"circuit," "module" or "system." Furthermore, aspects of the
present invention may take the form of a computer program product
embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer
readable program code embodied thereon.
[0028] Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s)
may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer
readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A
computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not
limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,
infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any
suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples (a
non-exhaustive list) of the computer readable storage medium would
include the following: an electrical connection having one or more
wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access
memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable
read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a
portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage
device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of
the foregoing. In the context of this document, a computer readable
storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or
store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction
execution system, apparatus, or device.
[0029] A computer readable signal medium may include a propagated
data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein,
for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a
propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including,
but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable
combination thereof. A computer readable signal medium may be any
computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage
medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program
for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system,
apparatus, or device.
[0030] Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be
transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited
to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any
suitable combination of the foregoing.
[0031] Computer program code for carrying out operations for
aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination
of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented
programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and
conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C"
programming language or similar programming languages. The program
code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the
user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the
user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the
remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote
computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type
of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area
network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external
computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet
Service Provider).
[0032] Aspects of the present invention are described below with
reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of
methods, apparatus (systems) and computer program products
according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood
that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block
diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations
and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program
instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided
to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose
computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to
produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing
apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts
specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0033] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer readable medium that can direct a computer, other
programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to
function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored
in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture
including instructions which implement the function/act specified
in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0034] The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a
computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other
devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on
the computer, other programmable apparatus or other devices to
produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions
which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus
provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in
the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0035] FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an advertisement matching
system 500 that can implement the processes of the present
invention. As shown in FIG. 5, memory 530 configures the processor
520 to implement the advertisement matching methods, steps, and
functions disclosed herein (collectively, shown as 580 in FIG. 5).
The memory 530 could be distributed or local and the processor 520
could be distributed or singular. The memory 530 could be
implemented as an electrical, magnetic or optical memory, or any
combination of these or other types of storage devices. It should
be noted that each distributed processor that makes up processor
520 generally contains its own addressable memory space. It should
also be noted that some or all of computer system 500 can be
incorporated into a personal computer, laptop computer, handheld
computing device, application-specific circuit or general-use
integrated circuit.
[0036] The flowcharts and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate
the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible
implementations of systems, methods and computer program products
according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this
regard, each block in the flowcharts or block diagrams may
represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises
one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified
logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some
alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may
occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two
blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially
concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the
reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will
also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or
flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block
diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by
special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified
functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and
computer instructions.
[0037] It is to be understood that the embodiments and variations
shown and described herein are merely illustrative of the
principles of this invention and that various modifications may be
implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the
scope and spirit of the invention.
* * * * *