Earbud Sensor Gaze Tracking for Passive Product Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current contextual advertising in-store experiences require active user participation, such as visual searches, to collect context data, limiting the ability to passively gather relevant information for targeted advertising.
Innovation Solution
A method using earbuds with sensors to passively collect data on a user's gaze direction and location within a facility, correlating this information with a content map to determine viewed products, thereby generating context data for targeted advertising without user intervention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If active user participation (visual search) is required to collect context data, then measurement precision of user interest can be improved, but ease of operation deteriorates as users must actively engage
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses sensors in earbuds to automatically track user gaze direction and product viewing behavior without requiring active user participation. The earbuds self-collect context data by monitoring head orientation and correlating it with product locations in the store, eliminating the need for users to perform visual searches while maintaining accurate measurement of user interest.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction of active visual search with sensor-based detection. Accelerometers and gyroscopes in the earbuds detect head movements and gaze direction, substituting the manual action of pointing a camera at products with automatic inertial measurement and computational tracking of user attention.
2Ease of operation
If passive collection methods are used, then ease of operation is improved, but measurement precision of context data deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary computational model that correlates sensor data with product locations. The earbuds capture head orientation data, and a processor correlates this with stored product location information to determine which products the user viewed, maintaining measurement precision through indirect but reliable correlation rather than direct observation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds the dimension of temporal correlation by tracking gaze direction over time and correlating it with product locations. Instead of single-point measurement, the system accumulates gaze data across multiple time points and uses ray intersection algorithms to accurately map sustained attention to specific products, improving precision through temporal integration.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the passive collection of context data, allowing for more effective and targeted advertising by accurately identifying products of interest based on user gaze and location, improving advertising relevance and store inventory management.
Implementation Method 1
the sensor data from each earbud includes data captured by one or more accelerometers and gyroscopes
Implementation Method 2
the sensor data from each earbud includes data captured by one or more accelerometers and gyroscopes
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems (312) and methods (400) are provided for passively collecting context data associated with in-store shopping by a user. In this regard, one or more processors (202, 204) may receive, from each earbud in a pair of earbuds (238) worn by a user, sensor data corresponding to an orientation of each respective earbud (240, 242). Based on the received sensor data, the one or more processors (202, 204) may determine the gaze directions of the user as the user travels within a store and one or more products viewed by the user while traveling within the store by comparing, using a content map (128) of the store, the gaze directions of the user to product locations storing products, wherein the one or more products are the context data.