Sparse profile augmentation using a mobile aggregate profiling system

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for augmenting a user profile of a subject user. In general, the user profile of the subject user is augmented based on aggregate profile data for a group of users relevant to a current location of the subject user. In one embodiment, the group of users is a crowd of users currently located at a location that is relevant to the current location of the subject user. In another embodiment, the group of users is a number of users historically, or previously, located at locations relevant to the current location of the subject user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 obtaining aggregate profile data for a group of users relevant to a current location of a subject user; and   augmenting a user profile of the subject user based on the aggregate profile data for the group of users relevant to the current location of the subject user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the group of users is a crowd of users that is currently located at a location that is relevant to the current location of the subject user. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein the aggregate profile data for the group of users is an aggregate profile of the crowd of users that includes a plurality of keywords from user profiles of the users in the crowd and, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords, a number of occurrences of the keyword in the user profiles of the users in the crowd. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user comprises augmenting the user profile of the subject user based on the aggregate profile of the crowd of users such that one or more keywords from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users are added to the user profile of the subject user. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user further comprises, for each of the one or more keywords from the aggregate profile added to the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences of the keyword in the user profiles of the users in the crowd; and 
 adding the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 3  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user comprises:
 selecting one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users based on the number of occurrences of each of the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users; 
 generating a question for each of the one or more keywords; 
 providing the question for each of the one or more keywords to the subject user; 
 receiving an answer from the subject user for the question for at least one of the one or more keywords that is indicative of whether the subject user has an interest in the at least one of the one or more keywords; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user based on the answer from the subject user for the question for the at least one of the one or more keywords. 
 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the one or more keywords for which questions were provided to the subject user and for which an answer was received, updating the user profile of the subject user such that the user profile of the subject user includes the keyword and a fixed probability that reflects the answer from the subject user. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users for which a question was provided to the subject user but an answer was not received from the subject user:
 determining whether the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user; and 
 if the keyword is not already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences for the keyword from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users; and 
 adding the keyword and the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user further comprises, if the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a new probability for the keyword as a function of an old probability for the keyword from the user profile of the subject user and the number of occurrences for the keyword from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user to include the new probability for the keyword. 
 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users for which a question was not provided to the subject user:
 determining whether the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user; and 
 if the keyword is not already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences for the keyword from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users; and 
 adding the keyword and the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user further comprises, if the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a new probability for the keyword as a function of an old probability for the keyword from the user profile of the subject user and the number of occurrences for the keyword from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user to include the new probability for the keyword. 
 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 6  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user further comprises:
 providing a preliminary question to the subject user that asks the subject user for a topic of interest; and 
 receiving an answer to the preliminary question from the subject user that includes the topic of interest; 
 wherein selecting the one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users comprises selecting the one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the aggregate profile of the crowd of users based on the number of occurrences of each of the plurality of keywords from the aggregate profile of the crowd of users and the topic of interest provided by the subject user. 
 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the group of users is a plurality of users historically located at locations that are relevant to the current location of the subject user. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein obtaining the aggregate profile data comprises obtaining a historical aggregate profile for the plurality of users historically located at locations that are relevant to the current location of the subject user during one or more previous time windows. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the aggregate profile data for the group of users is a historical aggregate profile for the plurality of users historically located at locations that are relevant to the current location of the subject user, the historical aggregate profile comprising a plurality of keywords and, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords, a number of occurrences of the keyword in user profiles of the plurality of users. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user comprises augmenting the user profile of the subject user based on the historical aggregate profile such that one or more keywords from the historical aggregate profile are added to the user profile of the subject user. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user further comprises, for each keyword of the one or more keywords from the historical aggregate profile added to the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences of the keyword in the user profiles of the plurality of users; and 
 adding the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user comprises:
 selecting one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile based on the number of occurrences of each of the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile; 
 generating a question for each of the one or more keywords; 
 providing the question for each of the one or more keywords to the subject user; 
 receiving an answer from the subject user for the question for at least one of the one or more keywords that is indicative of whether the subject user has an interest in the at least one of the one or more keywords; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user based on the answer from the subject user for the question for the at least one of the one or more keywords. 
 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the one or more keywords for which questions were provided to the subject user and for which an answer was received, updating the user profile of the subject user such that the user profile of the subject user includes the keyword and a fixed probability that reflects the answer from the subject user. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile for which a question was provided to the subject user but an answer was not received from the subject user:
 determining whether the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user; and 
 if the keyword is not already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences for the keyword from the historical aggregate profile; and 
 adding the keyword and the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user further comprises, if the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a new probability for the keyword as a function of an old probability for the keyword from the user profile of the subject user and the number of occurrences for the keyword from the historical aggregate profile; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user to include the new probability for the keyword. 
 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 19  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user comprises, for each keyword of the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile for which a question was provided to the subject user but an answer was not received from the subject user:
 determining whether the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user; and 
 if the keyword is not already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a probability for the keyword as a function of the number of occurrences for the keyword from the historical aggregate profile; and 
 adding the keyword and the probability for the keyword to the user profile of the subject user. 
 
 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22  wherein updating the user profile of the subject user further comprises, if the keyword is already included in the user profile of the subject user:
 computing a new probability for the keyword as a function of an old probability for the keyword from the user profile of the subject user and the number of occurrences for the keyword from the historical aggregate profile; and 
 updating the user profile of the subject user to include the new probability for the keyword. 
 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 18  wherein augmenting the user profile of the subject user further comprises:
 providing a preliminary question to the subject user that asks the subject user for a topic of interest; and 
 receiving an answer to the preliminary question from the subject user that includes the topic of interest; 
 wherein selecting the one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile comprises selecting the one or more keywords from the plurality of keywords in the historical aggregate profile based on the number of occurrences of each of the plurality of keywords from the historical aggregate profile and the topic of interest provided by the subject user. 
 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising repeating the steps of obtaining aggregate profile data and augmenting the user profile of the subject user based on the aggregate profile data for each of one or more subsequent locations of the subject user. 
     
     
         26 . A computing device comprising:
 a communication interface communicatively coupling the computing device to a network; and   a controller associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
 obtain aggregate profile data for a group of users relevant to a current location of a subject user; and 
 augment a user profile of the subject user based on the aggregate profile data for the group of users relevant to the current location of the subject user. 
   
     
     
         27 . A computer-readable medium storing software for instructing a controller of a computing device to:
 obtain aggregate profile data for a group of users relevant to a current location of a subject user; and   augment a user profile of the subject user based on the aggregate profile data for the group of users relevant to the current location of the subject user.