Method and apparatus for determining probabilistic context awareness of a mobile device user using a single sensor and/or multi-sensor data fusion

An electronic device, comprising:

• a computing device configured to:
• extract sensor specific features from sensing data;
• generate a motion activity vector, a voice activity vector, and a spatial environment vector as a function of the sensor specific features;
• process the motion activity vector, voice activity vector, and spatial environment vector so as to determine a base level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings, the base level context having a plurality of aspects each based on at least one of the motion activity vector, voice activity vector, and spatial environment vector;
• wherein at least one aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is one of:
• a mode of locomotion of a user carrying the electronic device, a nature of biologically generated sounds within audible distance of the user, or a nature of physical space around the user;
• and
• determine meta level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings as a function of the base level context, wherein the meta level context comprises at least one inference made from at least two aspects of the plurality of aspects of the base level context.

An electronic device, comprising:

• a printed circuit board (PCB) having at least one conductive trace thereon;
• a system on chip (SoC) mounted on the PCB and electrically coupled to the at least one conductive trace;
• and
• a sensor chip mounted on the PCB in a spaced apart relation with the SoC and electrically coupled to the at least one conductive trace such that the sensor chip and SoC are electrically coupled, and configured to acquire sensing data;
• wherein the sensor chip comprises:
• a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensing unit;
• an embedded processing node configured to:
• preprocess the sensing data,
• extract sensor specific features from the sensing data,
• generate a motion activity posteriorgram, a voice activity posteriorgram, and a spatial environment posteriorgram as a function of the sensor specific features,
• process the motion activity posteriorgram, voice activity posteriorgram, and spatial environment posteriorgram so as to determine a base level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings, the base level context having a plurality of aspects,
• wherein a first aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is determined based upon the motion activity posteriorgram, a second aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is determined based upon the voice activity posteriorgram, and a third aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is determined based upon the spatial environment posteriorgram, and
• determine meta level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings as a function of the base level context and at least one known pattern, wherein the meta level context comprises at least one inference made from at least two aspects of the plurality of aspects of the base level context.

A method of operating an electronic device, the method comprising:

• acquiring sensing data from a sensing unit;
• extracting sensor specific features from the sensing data, using a computing device;
• generating a motion activity vector, a voice activity vector, and a spatial environment vector as a function of the sensor specific features, using the computing device;
• processing the motion activity vector, voice activity vector, and spatial environment vector so as to determine a base level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings, the base level context having a plurality of aspects based on the motion activity vector, voice activity vector, and spatial environment vector, using the computing device;
• wherein one aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is a mode of locomotion of a user carrying the electronic device, and another aspect of the plurality of aspects of the base level context is a nature of biologically generated sounds within audible distance of the user or a nature of physical space around the user;
• and
• determining meta level context of the electronic device relative to its surroundings as a function of the base level context, wherein the meta level context comprises at least one inference made from at least two aspects of the plurality of aspects of the base level context, using the computing device.