WO2019026037A1

WO2019026037A1 - Method and system to identify context of a user in real/physical world in real time

Info

Publication number: WO2019026037A1
Application number: PCT/IB2018/055845
Authority: WO
Inventors: Deepak Jain; Deepak Singh
Original assignee: Deepak Jain; Deepak Singh
Priority date: 2017-08-03
Filing date: 2018-08-03
Publication date: 2019-02-07

Abstract

A system for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the system comprising: at least one entity device associated with the at least one entity; and a server arrangement coupled in communication with the at least one entity device, the server arrangement being configured to: obtain preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity; process the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and process the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM TO IDENTIFY CONTEXT OF A USER IN

REAL/PHYSICAL WORLD IN REAL TIME

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to field of context identification. More particularly, embodiments of the disclosure relate to systems and methods to identify context of a user in real/physical world in real time.

BACKGROUND

[0001] With advancement in technology, there is a rapid increase in opportunities for a service provider to reach consumers in a substantially easier and economic way. In recent times, various service providers (for example, such as brand owners, store owners and the like) have employed various online techniques such as, e-commerce websites, mobile applications and the like to provide various services such as, selling products online to the consumers. Moreover, conventional offline techniques for example, such as purchasing of the products from traditional market is also continuing since years. Notably, the consumers adopt a mode of purchasing the products depending upon his/her comfort, requirements and availability of the products. As a result, the consumers can opt for online and/or offline techniques for purchasing the products.

[0002] Generally, in conventional offline techniques, the consumer reaches out to the service provider in person, thereby selects and purchases the product from available options in the traditional market, store and so forth. Nowadays, conventional online techniques, enables the consumer to view available options of the products for purchase, select the products to purchase and so forth. Notably, in such online techniques, the service providers may employ e-commerce websites, social media and the like for advertisement of their products and services, thereby enhancing brand awareness, reputation and so forth associated therewith among the consumers.

[0003] However, there exist certain limitations associated with conventional techniques. Firstly, in conventional offline techniques, the service provider doesn't have any contextual information related to the consumer's behavior in real-world, thereby limiting the capability of the service provider to target the specific group of consumers. In an example, the consumer behavior in the real world may include contextual information related to the service provider (such as, a brand store) frequently visited by the consumer. In another example, the consumer behavior in the real world may include contextual information related to the products (such as, clothing, footwear and so forth) in which the consumer frequently interested and/or purchases. Secondly, in conventional online techniques, while the service provider may have the location data of the consumer the service provider doesn't have the contextual information related to the consumer's behavior in the real-world, thereby limiting their capability to understand a context of what the consumer is doing or wishes to do in the real world. For example the location data may reveal that the consumer is in a sports store, however there consumer's interest might be in purchasing sports clothing and not sports shoes. Another such example could be that an existing system may detect a consumer inside a large format apparel store but the consumer might be there to purchase anything among mens formal clothes, female casual wear, kids clothing, toys, shoes so on and so forth. The context of the consumer however can pinpoint to what exactly the consumers current interest is and is planning to buy. Therefore, such conventional techniques limit in their capability of managing contextual information of the consumer's behavior in real time in the real-world to the service providers. [0004] Therefore, in light of the foregoing discussion, there exists a need to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks associated with managing real world contextual information related to consumers.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

[0005] An object of the present disclosure is to overcome one or more disadvantages associated with conventional or existing systems and methods.

[0006] An object of the present disclosure provides the aforementioned system and method for managing real world contextual information of at least one entity.

[0007] An object of the present disclosure is to provide the real world contextual information to at least one service provider, thereby determining the at least one context- based action that is to be performed.

[0008] An object of the present disclosure is to store and analyse the contextual information of the at least one entity in the real world, thereby determining a behavior of the at least one entity.

[0009] An object of the present disclosure generates a well-defined engagement between the location information of the at least one entity, behavioral information of the at least one entity in real time and historical behavioral information of the at least one entity in the real world, thereby enabling the at least one service provider to reach out to the at least one entity.

[0010] An object of the present disclosure is to provide simple, more accurate and inexpensive system and method. [0011] An object of the present disclosure enables robust and flexible management of the contextual information and/or analytics of the at least one entity.

SUMMARY

[0012] In an embodiment, the system for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the system comprising: at least one entity device associated with the at least one entity; and a server arrangement coupled in communication with the at least one entity device, the server arrangement being configured to: obtain preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity; process the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and process the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action and/or context-based analytics that is to be performed.

[0013] In an embodiment, the method for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the method comprising: obtaining preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity; processing the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and processing the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0014] FIGs. 1 and 2 are schematic illustrations of a network environment wherein a system for managing contextual information of at least one entity is implemented, in accordance with different embodiments of the present disclosure; [0015] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary implementation of a sensor arrangement arranged within an indoor real-world environment of at least one entity, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0016] FIG. 4 illustrates a top view of fingerprinting of various locations of an entity within an indoor real- world environment of FIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

[0017] FIG. 5 illustrates steps of a method for managing contextual information of at least one entity, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0018] The present disclosure relates to field of context identification. More particularly, embodiments of the disclosure relate to systems and methods to identify context of a user (interchangeably referred as entity) in real/physical world in real time.

[0019] In an embodiment, the system for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the system comprising: at least one entity device associated with the at least one entity; and a server arrangement coupled in communication with the at least one entity device, the server arrangement being configured to: obtain preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity; process the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and process the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

[0020] In an embodiment, the method for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the method comprising: obtaining preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity; processing the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and processing the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed..

[0021] FIG. 1 is schematic illustrations of a network environment wherein a system for managing contextual information of at least one entity is implemented, in accordance with different embodiments of the present disclosure. The proposed system includes computing devices 102A, 102B and 102C (collectively and individually hereafter referred to as computing device 102) associated with an entity, communicates with the server arrangement 104, through a communication network 106.

[0022] Examples of the computing device 102 may include, but are not limited to, a portable computer, a kiosk, a tabletop device, a personal digital assistant, a handheld device, a smartphone, a wearable computing device and a workstation.

[0023] In an embodiment, the server arrangement 104 (hereafter interchangeable referred to as "brand/owner server arrangement"), can be implemented in a variety of computing systems, such as a laptop computer, a desktop computer, a notebook, a workstation, a server arrangement, a network server arrangement, a cloud-based environment and the like.

[0024] In one implementation, the communication network 106 can be a wireless network, a wired network, a short range network, a long range network or a combination thereof. The network 106 can be implemented as one of the different types of networks, such as intranet, local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), the internet, and the like. Further, the network 106 may either be a dedicated network or a shared network. The shared network represents an association of the different types of networks that use a variety of protocols, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless wide area network (WW AN), a wireless metropolitan area network (WMAN), a WiFi® network, Bluetooth, the internet, a visible light communication (VLC) network, a third-generation (3G) telecommunication network, a fourth-generation (4G) telecommunication network, a fifth-generation (5G) telecommunication network, or a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX®) network, and the like, to communicate with one another. Further the network 106 can include a variety of network devices, including routers, bridges, server arrangements, storage devices, and the like.

[0025] In some embodiments, the present disclosure describes the computing device 102, the server arrangement 104, and the communication network 106. However, a person ordinarily skilled in the art would appreciate that any number of computing devices 102 and/or the server arrangement 104 can be utilized to enable the aspects of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the communication network 106 can also be an interconnected network of multiple networks.

[0026] In an embodiment, the computing device 102 can include multiple components, for an instance, a processor, a memory unit, a user interface one or more sensors. The processor is programmed to execute one or more instructions/routines which are stored within the memory unit/non-transitory storage of the computing device 102. Additionally, the processor can represent a group of processors. The memory unit is configured to store any data/information related to the proposed system. Exemplary memory unit may include, but not limited to, fixed (hard) drives, magnetic tape, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMs), and magneto- optical disks, semiconductor memories, such as ROMs, PROMs, random access memories (RAMs), programmable read-only memories (PROMs), erasable PROMs (EPROMs), electrically erasable PROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions (e.g., computer programming code, such as software or firmware).

[0027] The user interface includes an interface which is utilized to interact with the user of the computing device 102. The user interface may enable the user to provide an input information by utilizing the keypad, touchpad, touchscreen or other such interfaces of the computing device 102. The user interface may also enable the user to provide contents on a display of the computing device 102 so as to make the contents visible to the user. Additionally or alternatively, the contents may also be presented to the user through an audio interface such as a speaker. In another example, the user interface may be utilized to receive the user inputs in a form of audio through a microphone.

[0028] The sensors are configured to obtain the preliminary information associated with the user and/or the computing device 102. Exemplary sensors may include an indoor location detection sensor, an outdoor location detection sensor, a motion sensor such as an accelerometer, an orientation sensor such as a gyroscope, a touch sensor, a temperature sensor such as a thermometer, a camera, a magnetometer, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a docking sensor to determine if the computing device 102 is docked to another device, and the like.

[0029] In an embodiment, the sensor based preliminary information can be pertaining to the at least one entity comprises at least one of: location information of the at least one entity, movement information of the at least one entity, digital activity information of the at least one entity, behavioral information of the at least one entity, personal information of the at least one entity, financial information of the at least one entity. In an example, the indoor location sensor is utilized to determine the computing device 102 and/or the user location within the real-world indoor/closed environment. The indoor location can be determined by the BLE beacon. In a similar fashion, the outdoor location sensor is utilized to determine the computing device 102 and/or the user location within the outdoor/open environment. Other location sensors such as Global Positioning System, mobile towers, Wi-Fi fingerprinting or beacons, audio beacons, magnetic finger printing, and the like can also be utilized. The beacons can be commissioned and/or fingerprinting mechanisms can be used by field engineers at locations of significance like the mall entries, the shops, an open market, a flea market, a restaurant, a bar, a hospital, an airport, a stadiums, a bus/railway station, a movie theatre, an OOH hoarding, a food court and any other commercial/non-commercial locations. Once a baseline is built, the fingerprinting data can be enhanced by the data collected from the computing device 102 of users identified to be on those locations, thereby crowd sourcing enhancements to the fingerprints. The data, which can be received from the computing device 102 and the location determination can be performed by using machine learning approaches in effect crowd sourcing fingerprints themselves. The fingerprinting data can also be generated by the third party sources/partners. In an embodiment, manual configuration of well-known signals and automatic identification of similar signals can be performed. The signals having unique signature can be used to identify the user's context without requirement of any of the aforementioned mechanisms. For example, hotel chains have well defined Wi-Fi SSID naming pattern. These SSID naming patterns along with other data can be used to identify user's location, which along with other information can be used to determine users' context. Moreover, Natural Language Processing and other machine learning mechanisms can be implemented to identify other such locations and associate context with them. In another embodiment, any exact location information may not be provided to the brands/app owners. The extent of the location information provided can be type of location (for example, a chain of retail stores without mentioning which specific store), city, area and pin code level. In an embodiment, the exact location can also be retrieved but for privacy purpose that can be masked.

[0030] Other preliminary information can be movement information of the user and/or the computing device 102. The movement information can include a trajectory path or a route followed by the user, the user doing a rush glance on items and quickly moving on. The preliminary information may also include digital activity information, wherein the digital activity information can be any or a combination of emails, SMS, social networking browsing, activity on different websites, online shopping, online ticketing etc. Exemplary preliminary information can also include behavioral information of the at least one user. The behavioural information pertains to: the brands choice of the user, how frequently user visits brand stores, preference of the user for online shopping, whether the user enquires a lot before shopping, the user is quick shopper, a user state, the user generally do online shopping by using vouchers or at the time of offers, and the like. In another example, a brand owner such as a shoe store owner can understand the visitor's payment habits and journey. The shoe store can understand where did the user's journey to look for a shoe started before they visited at a specific store and where did the user journey end. What happens to users who start their journey from their own store or from other stores? The system will also be able to give the profile difference between the users who spend less than or more than certain amount of time in the said store.

[0031] The personal information of the user includes, demographics data, age, gender, educational background etc. The financial information can include which electronic wallet user prefers for shopping, credit card related information, debit card related information, preferred online bank etc. Although all such information can be utilized as the preliminary information, however, before retrieving any preliminary information, the user permissions can be required. The computing device 102 can include an application/a mobile application/a software development kit (SDK) which is utilized to communicate preliminary information.

[0032] In an embodiment, the aforementioned, any or a combination of different types of preliminary information is processed to derive contextual information of the at least one entity. The contextual information is derived by utilizing one or more artificial intelligence algorithms. The derived contextual information is utilized by the brand owner for better engagement with the customer and accordingly perform context based action. The action can be different for each user, the action would be based on the received preliminary information. For an instance, one user can receive the medical or healthcare based promotional data while other user can receive educational test series. In an embodiment, one action which is most appropriate for the user at any point of time would be transmitted to the computing device 102. Alternatively, more than one actions can also be performed based on the contextual information. Alternatively this can be used for understanding user for future purposes. In an embodiment, the contextual information can be evaluated and/or stored in the computing device associated with user.

[0033] FIG. 2 is schematic illustrations of a network environment wherein a system for managing contextual information of at least one entity is implemented, in accordance with different embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0034] In an embodiment, the computing device 102, communicates with the server arrangement 104, through the network 106, wherein the network 106 can be communicably coupled with one or more brand owners/service providers 202A and 202B (collectively or individually referred as "service provider 202"). The service provider 202 can be communicably coupled with the server 104. In an alternate embodiment, the selected service providers from a pool of service providers can be communicably coupled to the server arrangement 104 and/or the network 106.

[0035] Throughout the present disclosure, the communication among the computing device 102, the server arrangement 104 and the service provider 202 can be unidirectional or bidirectional. For an instance, in bidirectional communication, the server arrangement 104 can communicate with the computing device 102 and vice versa the computing device 102 can also communicate with the server arrangement 104. In a similar manner, the server arrangement 104 can communicate with the service provider 202 and vice versa the service provider 202 can also communicate with the server arrangement 104. The communication speed over which the computing device 102, the server arrangement 104 and the service provider 202 communicates can be of any speed. For example, the high speed communication may include 20Mbps; low speed communication may include 500kbps.

[0036] Moreover, the contextual information is utilized to generate a context analysis report of the at least one entity, storing the contextual information and/or the context analysis report of the at least one entity, providing context-related service information to the at least one entity to the at least one entity. The context analysis report is utilized to describe the user general pattern: time of day of shopping, wallet shopping preference or cash, what is preferred online shopping or store shopping. The contextual information can be stored in a database associated with the server arrangement 104. The database can be within the server arrangement 104 or can be remotely accessed. The database may also include context-related service information, for example, in case user online shops for certain brand, the user can be informed when any showroom is launched nearby user location.

[0037] In an embodiment, the herein the proposed system employs at least one artificial intelligence algorithm for processing the preliminary information to derive the contextual information of the at least one entity. Such artificial algorithms may include, but not limited to, nearest neighbor, naive bayes, decision trees, linear regression, support vector machines (SVM), neural networks, machine learning algorithms etc.

[0038] In an embodiment, the server arrangement 104 is configured to communicate at least the contextual information of the at least one entity to the at least one service provider. The service provider can communicate with the user. Such communication may include, offers provided by the service provider, new services offered by the service provider and/or any other information.

[0039] In an embodiment, such communication/offers can be performed through notifications that are displayed on the computing device 102. These notifications can either have full content related to the intended action or they can trigger display of additional content. User's engagement with the notification and any additional content is tracked and used for further insights along with revenue tracking. In an embodiment, the alerts/ notifications can be in any form, including but not limited to, textual form, blink, audio and/or video file. In another aspect, textual alert can be transmitted as SMS and/or chat messenger message. In an aspect, upon receiving the alert, any application stored on a device related to pre-configured number can start execution such as turning on any audio file and/ or turning on torch. [0040] In an embodiment, the partners (brands/stores/app owners etc.) can integrate with the system to get data pattern in user behaviour and interaction patterns. For example, an e-commerce application can partner with the platform and can query to get anonymized profile of users that goes to certain type of departmental stores and their interests. They can also integrate their application with the SDK to trigger engagements with such users when they are in the right context. The system also helps partners that do not have online assets understand the offline and online behaviour of the users that interacts or ignore their messages. For example, an OOH billboard advertiser can query the system to understand the profile of user who went past the billboard and their actions after going past the billboard.

[0041] In another example, the system can be utilized determined user patterns to understand what kind of places their users visit and what kind of activities do they engage with, in the real world. The system can also provide deeper data patterns to the brand owners and other third party stores about the overall preferences of their users and their behavioral profile in real world. For example, a payment wallet can use the system to remind the user about their offers whenever the use is at a place and time where he needs to make a payment. Such reminders can increase the life time value of the user of the wallet. In an embodiment, the system can be queried by an advertising network/agency.

[0042] The service provider may receive feedback from the user so as to improve the user engagement by communicating next time according to the user's preferred context. The service provider performs future context based actions based on the received feedback. In an embodiment, the feedback can be an implicit feedback and/or an explicit feedback. The implicit feedback indicates the feedback which is automatically retrieved based on the user action or user non-action. The explicit feedback includes any explicit action, such as rating provided to the service or comments from the user. In an embodiment, the service provider can utilize one or more machine learning/artificial intelligence algorithms for better user engagement.

[0043] In an embodiment, apart from significant motion on device, other triggers such as geo fences can also be utilized to start monitoring user state. In another embodiment, when motion is detected, the sensor can determine the type of motion and duration of motion to determine new state of the user device. Based on the change in this state, user activity can be determined. Based on detected user activity, if required, other sensors can be used to determine user's location. In another embodiment, SDK can monitor user state till it determines a state where either a context or location can be determined. On identification of the user's context, the SDK can communicate with the proposed system. The overall system decides on the action for the context based on non- user/device triggers, available options and behavioural data. The same functionality can also be supported in the mobile application build without SDK.

[0044] In an embodiment, the system can create, recognize, index, organize and target the user' context based on, any or a combination of parameters, wherein the parameters may include gender, temperature, the user preferences, a user's social site account information, the computing device 102 cookies data, a user profile data, a user's chat data, a user's email data, time of day, demographics data, the advertisements click log, an identified user location, a user state, user behavior, relationship with other users present at the location at the same time, user purpose. The parameters defined in the instant disclosure document are completely exemplary in nature and any other suitable parameters, realized by a person ordinarily skilled in the art are within the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The aforementioned creation, recognition, index, organization and target the user' context can be implemented by one or more standard mechanisms. For an instance, location parameter can be determined by GPS, indexing can be performed by database management system (DBMS) indexing and hashing mechanisms etc. Further, every system operations (create, recognize, index, organize and target) is implemented for desired purpose, for an instance, index data structure is maintained so as to speed up the data retrieval

[0045] In another embodiment, the aforementioned parameters can be determined in a periodic fashion. In an alternate embodiment, the parameters can also be determined in real time or at any time later on.

[0046] In an embodiment, the identified user context can be classified as activity context, time context and location context. For example, if the person is driving a car at 9 PM in evening near 'Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France' , the activity context is driving, time context is 9PM and location context is Champ de Mars, 5 Avenue Anatole France (may be in the form of longitude/latitude).

[0047] In an implementation, the system can perform any or a combination of recognition, indexing, recording and analyzing purpose of a user's visit to a certain location and/or establishment (in real time as well as at a later time) based on aforementioned parameters and/or time, time spent in the said location and/or establishment, historical data of the user and historical data of other users visiting the same location/establishment.

[0048] In an implementation, the system can recognize, index, record and analyze most common purpose of a location/establishment (in real time as well as at a later time) based on purpose of user's visiting the location/establishment, historical data of visits and their engagement with the system, of the users visiting the location/establishment.

[0049] In an embodiment, the system can identify the best fitting/suiting content to be broadcasted to the user in real time based on real world location. In an embodiment, the content can be broadcasted by a brand owner, a hospital, a mall, etc. The broadcasted content may include, new offers of one or more product, coupons, discount offers etc., wherein such broadcasted content can be in any form, such as, text, still picture, motion picture or combination thereof. The content broadcasting can be performed manually or automatically.

[0050] In an embodiment, the artificial intelligence, machine learning mechanisms can also be implemented for automatically identifying parameters (user location, user state, user behavior, relationship with other users present at the location at the same time, user purpose etc.), identifying the user's context, executing operations (recognition, indexing, recording and analyzing purpose of a user's visit to a certain location etc.), and broadcasting content. The machine learning mechanisms may include bayesian statistic models, tree models, rules based models, fuzzy rules models, and the like.

[0051] In one embodiment, broadcasting content for one or more user features is learned based on log/history of user activities. This learned broadcasting content for one or more user features can then be analyzed together with the broadcasting content of a particular web page's content so as to identify a particular promotional broadcasting content for display.

[0052] In an embodiment, the system for defining the context of a user activity on the basis of the activity, location of the activity, and historic data of interactions, with the system, of users engaged in such activities. The user activities include, but not limited to, previous shopping data, suggestions to other users, visited websites, and the like.

[0053] In an embodiment, the system optimizes and controls the use of the multiple sensors on the mobile device based on the user's location and state as well as the beacons/devices/sensor data available at the user location, for identifying a user's location and dwell time at a location. In an embodiment, the appropriate selection of sensor and combination thereof is utilized to enable the aspects of the present disclosure. Appropriate selection of sensors are utilized for better power optimization of the computing device 102.

[0054] In an implementation, the system identifies relationship between a place and a user based on user visits history (including number of visits, frequency of visit in a given time, time of visit, day of visit, time spent at the place), engagement history with system communications at that place.

[0055] In an implementation, the system recognize relationships between mobile device and/or other computing device 102 owners, anonymously, based on the type and number of locations frequented together or individually, time spent together and number of occasions of being at the same place at the same time, engagement history with system communications at that place.

[0056] FIG. 3 illustrates a schematic view of an exemplary implementation of a sensor arrangement arranged within an indoor real-world environment of at least one entity, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0057] As illustrated, four users A, B, C and D are present in the indoor real-world environment 300. Multiple sensors such as 302A, 302B, 304, 306, 308 and 310 are configured to determine the preliminary information of the computing device 102 associated with the user.

[0058] FIG. 4 illustrates a top view of fingerprinting of various locations of an entity within an indoor real- world environment of FIG. 3, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. As illustrated, the indoor real-world environment 400 indicates a trajectory path 402 of a user from starting point and exit point. Such trajectory is significant in determining the user context while shopping. Based on determined context, the context based action can be performed. In an embodiment, the user can move in a straight path/trajectory, a curved path, a random path.

[0059] FIG. 5 illustrates steps of a method for managing contextual information of at least one entity, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In an aspect, the proposed method can include the steps of, at step 502, obtain preliminary information pertaining to entity, at step 504, process preliminary information to derive contextual information of entity, and at step 506, process contextual information of entity to determine context-based action that is to be performed.

[0060] In an embodiment, the sensors based data, user preferences, user's state/activities, browsing history, shopping habits etc. can be determined from multiple computing devices 102. Based on the derived data, contextual information of each user is determined to evaluate relationship between the users associated with the computing devices 102. For an instance, such relationship can indicate that the computing devices 102 owners are colleague or husband-wife or friends etc.

[0061] In an embodiment, the data patterns of the users can be accessed by the third party sources so as to enhance customer engagement thereof. For an instance, the electronic payment wallet can utilize this data to determine which category of users are primarily utilizing the electronic payment wallet, which particular brand owners are promoting the electronic payment wallet instead of cash, which location is in dominance of using the electronic payment wallet and which wallet brand is used, and the like.

[0062] In an embodiment, the contextual information can be created, recognized, indexed, organized and targeted by the server arrangement, based on the user's location, user's state, user's behavior, relationship among the users present at the same location at the same time, user's purpose for visiting the location; using all or any combination of the above, in real time or at any time later on while knowing the user identity or in a completely anonymous manner, where user identity is not captured by the system.

[0063] In an embodiment, the proposed system 100 recognizes, indexes, records and analyses the purpose of a user' s visit to a certain location and/or establishment (in real time as well as at a later time) and the most common purpose of location/establishment based on user' s state, time, time spent in the said location and/or establishment, historical data of the user and historical data of other users visiting the same location/establishment.

[0064] In an embodiment, the server arrangement identifies the best fitting content to be broadcasted to the user in real time based on real world location in real time, user state, user behavior, user purpose and combination of the same.

[0065] In an embodiment, the context of a location/establishment is defined on the basis of, individually or using any combination of, the location, location's most common purpose, characteristics of the place (individually as well as using a combination of these) of the establishment/location, and through data generated from continued interactions, with the system, of users visiting such location/establishment with the system. [0066] In an embodiment, the system defines the context of the user activity is determined on the basis of the activity, location of the activity, and historic data of interactions with the system, of users engaged in such activities.

[0067] In an embodiment, the sensor arrangement is optimized, by using the sensors on the device, based on the user's location and state as well as the beacons/devices/sensor data available at the user location, for identifying a user's location and dwell time at a location.

[0068] In an embodiment, the proposed system identifies relationship between a place and a user as well as relationship among device owners based on user visits history (including number of visits, frequency of visit in a given time, time of visit, day of visit, time spent at the place, visits to a location together or individually), engagement history with system communications at that place.

[0069] In an embodiment, the server arrangement generates user behavior analytics for Media agencies, mobile applications, retail stores or commercial establishments including but not limited to Out Of Home Media, digital media, television and Print media to track media effectiveness, visitor/user heat map, impact of communication based on user location, locations visited by the users, user state, relationship with other users present at the same location at the same time, user's purpose for visiting the location; using all or any combination of the above.

Advantages of the Invention

[0070] The present disclosure overcomes one or more disadvantages associated with conventional systems and methods. [0071] The present disclosure provides the aforementioned system and method for managing real world contextual information of at least one entity.

[0072] The present disclosure provides the real world contextual information to at least one service provider, thereby determining the at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

[0073] The present disclosure stores and analyses the contextual information of the at least one entity in the real world, thereby determining a behavior of the at least one entity.

[0074] The present disclosure generates a well-defined engagement between the location information of the at least one entity, behavioral information of the at least one entity in real time and historical behavioral information of the at least one entity in the real world, thereby enabling the at least one service provider to reach out to the at least one entity.

[0075] The present disclosure provides simple and inexpensive system and method.

[0076] The present disclosure enables robust and flexible management of the contextual information of the at least one entity

Claims

1. A system for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the system comprising:

at least one entity device associated with the at least one entity; and

- a server arrangement coupled in communication with the at least one entity device, the server arrangement being configured to:

obtain preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity;

process the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and

- process the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the server arrangement is configured to perform the at least one context-based action.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server arrangement is configured to communicate at least the contextual information of the at least one entity to the at least one service provider.

4. The system of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity comprises at least one of: location information of the at least one entity, movement information of the at least one entity, digital activity information of the at least one entity, behavioral information of the at least one entity, personal information of the at least one entity, financial information of the at least one entity.

5. The system of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the server arrangement employs at least one artificial intelligence algorithm for processing the preliminary information to derive the contextual information of the at least one entity.

6 The system of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the at least one context-based action comprises at least one of: generating a context analysis report of the at least one entity, storing the contextual information and/or the context analysis report of the at least one entity, providing context-related service information to the at least one entity to the at least one entity.

7. The system of any of claims 1 to 6, further comprising a sensor arrangement coupled to the server arrangement, wherein the server arrangement is configured to obtain sensor data pertaining to the at least one entity, via the sensor arrangement, such sensor data being a part of at least the preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the sensor arrangement is arranged in at least one of: an indoor real-world environment of the at least one entity, an outdoor real-world environment of the at least one entity, the at least one entity device, at least one service location of at least one service provider and/or at least one activity of at least one entity.

9. The system of claim 7 or 8, wherein the server arrangement is configured to generate at least one model of at least one real-world environment by employing the sensor data obtained by the sensor arrangement, the at least one real-world environment being associated with the at least one entity and/or the at least one service provider.

10. The system of claim 7, 8 or 9, wherein the sensor arrangement is implemented by way of at least one of: a global positioning system receiver, a beacon, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a camera, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a temperature sensor, a docking sensor, a Wi-Fi module.

11. The system of claim 1 ; wherein the server arrangement creates, recognizes, indexes, organizes, targets the context of the user based on any or a combination of: a user location, a user state, a user behavior, relationship with the other users present at the same location at same time, user's purpose for visiting the location; in real time or at any time later; while knowing the user identity or without knowing the user identity.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the system recognizes, indexes, records and analyzes purpose of a user's visit to a certain location and/or establishment (in real time as well as at a later time) and the most common purpose of location/establishment based on user state, time, time spent in the said location and/or establishment, historical data of the user and historical data of other users visiting the same location/establishment.

13. The system of claiml, wherein the server arrangement identifies the best content to be broadcasted to the user in real time based on any or a combination of: real world location in real time, a user state, a user behavior, a user purpose.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the context of a location/establishment is defined on the basis of any or a combination of: the location, location's most common purpose, characteristics of the place of the establishment/location, and through data generated from continued interactions, with the system, of user visiting such location/establishment.

15. The system of claim 1; wherein the context of the user activity is determined based on the activity, the location of the activity, and historic data of interactions with the system, of users engaged the activities.

16. The system of claim 1; wherein the sensor arrangement is optimized and used by using the of sensors associated with the computing device based on the user's location, the state, one or more beacons, one or more devices, one or more sensors configured at the user location to identify the user's location and dwell time at the location.

17. The system of claim 1; wherein the system identifies the relationship between the place and the user as well as relationship between the device owners based on user visits history, selected from a set of: including number of visits, frequency of visit in a given time, time of visit, day of visit, time spent at the place, visits to a location together or individually, engagement history with system communications at the place.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the server arrangement generates the user behavior analytics for the media agencies, the mobile applications, the retail stores or commercial establishments, an Out Of Home Media, a digital media, a television and print media to perform an action, selected from a set of: track the media effectiveness, the visitors/users heat maps, communication effect based on the user location, the locations visited by the users, the user state, the relationship with other users present at the same location at the same time, the user's purpose for visiting the location.

19. A method for managing contextual information of at least one entity, the method comprising:

obtaining preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity;

processing the preliminary information to derive contextual information of the at least one entity; and

- processing the contextual information of the at least one entity to determine at least one context-based action that is to be performed.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising performing the at least one context- based action.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising communicating at least the contextual information of the at least one entity to the at least one service provider.

22. The method of any of claims 19 to 21, wherein the preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity comprises at least one of: location information of the at least one entity, movement information of the at least one entity, digital activity information of the at least one entity, behavioral information of the at least one entity, personal information of the at least one entity, financial information of the at least one entity.

23. The method of any of claims 19 to 22, comprising employing at least one artificial intelligence algorithm for processing the preliminary information to derive the contextual information of the at least one entity.

24. The method of any of claims 19 to 23, wherein the at least one context-based action comprises at least one of: generating a context analysis report of the at least one entity, storing the contextual information and/or the context analysis report of the at least one entity, providing context-related service information to the at least one entity, providing information pertaining to services offered by at least one service provider to the at least one entity.

25. The method of any of claims 19 to 24, further comprising obtaining, via a sensor arrangement, sensor data pertaining to the at least one entity, such sensor data being a part of at least the preliminary information pertaining to the at least one entity.

26. The method of claim 19, comprising arranging the sensor arrangement in at least one of: an indoor real-world environment of the at least one entity, an outdoor real-world environment of the at least one entity, the at least one entity device, at least one service location of at least one service provider.

27. The method of claim 25 or 26, comprising generating at least one model of at least one real-world environment by employing the sensor data obtained by the sensor arrangement, the at least one real-world environment being associated with the at least one entity and/or the at least one service provider.

28. The method of claim 25, 26 or 27, wherein the sensor arrangement is implemented by way of at least one of: a global positioning system receiver, a beacon, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a magnetometer, a microphone, a camera, a radio transceiver, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a temperature sensor, a docking sensor, a Wi-Fi module.