Abstract: A user's context history is analyzed to build a personality model describing the user's personality and interests. The personality model includes a plurality of metrics indicating the user's position on a plurality of personality dimensions, such as desire for novelty, tendency for extravagance, willingness to travel, love of the outdoors, preference for physical activity, and desire for solitude. A customized recommendation agent is then built based on the personality model, which selects a recommendation from a corpus to present to the user based on an affinity between the user's personality and the selected recommendation.

Abstract: A user's context history is analyzed to build a personality model describing the user's personality and interests. The personality model includes a plurality of metrics indicating the user's position on a plurality of personality dimensions, such as desire for novelty, tendency for extravagance, willingness to travel, love of the outdoors, preference for physical activity, and desire for solitude. A customized recommendation agent is then built based on the personality model, which selects a recommendation from a corpus to present to the user based on an affinity between the user's personality and the selected recommendation.

Abstract: A user's context history is used to help select contextual information to provide to the user. Context data describing the user's current context is received and a plurality of information items corresponding to the user's current context are identified from a contextual information corpus. A personalized user behavior model for the user is applied to determine the likelihood that each of the identified information items will be of value to the user. One or more of the information items are selected based on the corresponding likelihoods and the selected information items are provided for presentation to the user.

Abstract: Embodiments create and label context slices from observation data that together define a storyline of a user's movements. A context is a (possibly partial) specification of what a user was doing in the dimensions of time, place, and activity. Contexts can vary in their specificity, their semantic content, and their likelihood. A storyline is composed of a time-ordered sequence of contexts that partition a given span of time. A storyline is created through a process of data collection, slicing and labeling. Raw context data can be collected from a variety of observation sources with various error characteristics. Slicing refines the chaotic collection of contexts produced by data collection into a single consistent storyline composed of a sequence of contexts representing homogeneous time intervals. Labeling adds more specific and semantically meaningful data (e.g., geography, venue, activity) to the storyline produced by slicing.

Abstract: A user's context history is used to help select contextual information to provide to the user. Context data describing the user's current context is received and a plurality of information items corresponding to the user's current context are identified from a contextual information corpus. A personalized user behavior model for the user is applied to determine the likelihood that each of the identified information items will be of value to the user. One or more of the information items are selected based on the corresponding likelihoods and the selected information items are provided for presentation to the user.

Abstract: A user's context history is analyzed to build a personality model describing the user's personality and interests. The personality model includes a plurality of metrics indicating the user's position on a plurality of personality dimensions, such as desire for novelty, tendency for extravagance, willingness to travel, love of the outdoors, preference for physical activity, and desire for solitude. A customized recommendation agent is then built based on the personality model, which selects a recommendation from a corpus to present to the user based on an affinity between the user's personality and the selected recommendation.

Abstract: A customized recommendation agent for the user is built using a behavioral model. The customized recommendation agent selects recommendations from a corpus to present to the user, based on the behavioral model and the user's current or predicted future context. The customized recommendation agent can be shared by the user with others, thus allowing others to access recommendations that may appeal to the user, for example, for use in planning joint activities. Because the user's recommendation agent is independent from the user's actual history, preferences can be shared without revealing a user's specific behavior.

Abstract: Embodiments create and label context slices from observation data that together define a storyline of a user's movements. A context is a (possibly partial) specification of what a user was doing in the dimensions of time, place, and activity. Contexts can vary in their specificity, their semantic content, and their likelihood. A storyline is composed of a time-ordered sequence of contexts that partition a given span of time. A storyline is created through a process of data collection, slicing and labeling. Raw context data can be collected from a variety of observation sources with various error characteristics. Slicing refines the chaotic collection of contexts produced by data collection into a single consistent storyline composed of a sequence of contexts representing homogeneous time intervals. Labeling adds more specific and semantically meaningful data (e.g., geography, venue, activity) to the storyline produced by slicing.