Thematic response to a computer user's context, such as by a wearable personal computer

A method in a computing device for providing an appropriate response to a contextual situation based on at least one of multiple themes, a context being represented by a plurality of context attributes and their associated values, each of the themes representing a contextual situation by specifying multiple context attributes related to the contextual situation and by specifying criteria for determining values of the specified context attributes that match the contextual situation, each of the themes associated with at least one type of response that is appropriate to the contextual situation, the method comprising:

• receiving an indication of a context that includes values for at least some of the plurality of context attributes;
• identifying one of the multiple themes that matches the indicated context by using the specified criteria for the theme to determine that the included values of the indicated context contain values of the specified context attributes for the theme that match the contextual situation for the theme;
• selecting one of the types of responses that are associated with the identified theme;
• and
• providing the selected type of response.

A computing device for providing an appropriate response to a contextual situation based on at least one of multiple themes, a context being represented by a plurality of context attributes and their associated values, each of the themes representing a contextual situation by specifying multiple context attributes related to the contextual situation and by specifying criteria for determining values of the specified context attributes that match the contextual situation, each of the themes associated with at least one type of response that is appropriate to the contextual situation, comprising:

• a context component capable of receiving an indication of a context that includes values for at least some of the plurality of context attributes;
• a theme identification component capable of identifying one of the multiple themes that matches the indicated context by using the specified criteria for the theme to determine that the included values of the indicated context contain values of the specified context attributes for the theme that match the contextual situation for the theme;
• and
• a thematic response generator component capable of selecting one of the types of responses that are associated with the identified theme and of providing the selected type of response.

A computer system for providing an appropriate response to a contextual situation based on at least one of multiple themes, a context being represented by a plurality of context attributes and their associated values, each of the themes representing a contextual situation by specifying multiple context attributes related to the contextual situation and by specifying criteria for determining values of the specified context attributes that match the contextual situation, each of the themes associated with at least one type of response that is appropriate to the contextual situation, comprising:

• means for receiving an indication of a context that includes values for at least some of the plurality of context attributes;
• means for identifying one of the multiple themes that matches the indicated context by using the specified criteria for the theme to determine that the included values of the indicated context contain values of the specified context attributes for the theme that match the contextual situation for the theme;
• and
• means for selecting one of the types of responses that are associated with the identified theme and for providing the selected type of response.

A computer-readable medium whose contents cause a computing device to provide an appropriate response to a contextual situation based on at least one of multiple themes, a context being represented by a plurality of context attributes and their associated values, each of the themes representing a contextual situation by specifying multiple context attributes related to the contextual situation and by specifying criteria for determining values of the specified context attributes that match the contextual situation, each of the themes associated with at least one type of response that is appropriate to the contextual situation, by:

• receiving an indication of a context that includes values for at least some of the plurality of context attributes;
• identifying one of the multiple themes that matches the indicated context by using the specified criteria for the theme to determine that the included values of the indicated context contain values of the specified context attributes for the theme that match the contextual situation for the theme;
• selecting one of the types of responses that are associated with the identified theme;
• and
• providing the selected type of response.

A computer-implemented method for use on a wearable computer having a plurality of input devices worn by the user, the method comprising:

• under control of first and second attribute providing modules, receiving respective first and second data signals from at least two of the plurality of input devices worn by the user;
• under control of the first and second attribute providing modules, generating first and second attribute values in response to the first and second data signals, respectively, wherein the first and second attribute values each reflect a state of the user, a state of the user's physical surroundings, or a state of the user's logical data and telecommunications environment, and wherein the first and second attribute values together represent a thematic data set characterizing the user's context;
• under control of an attribute exchange module, receiving the first and second attribute values from the first and second attribute providing modules, respectively;
• under control of the attribute exchange module, storing the first and second attribute values;
• under control of at least one attribute processing module, receiving the first and second attribute values;
• and
• under control of at least one attribute processing module, providing an output signal in response to the first and second attribute values, wherein the output signal models a characteristic of a current state of the user, and wherein the modeled characteristic of the user's current state cannot be directly measured from the first and second attribute values.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed cause a portable computing device having a plurality of input devices to perform the method comprising:

• receiving first, second, third and fourth data signals from at least some of the plurality of input devices;
• providing first and second attribute values in response to the first and second data signals, wherein the first and second attribute values each reflect a state of the user, a state of the user's physical surroundings, or a state of the user's logical data and telecommunications environment, wherein the first and second attribute values together represent a first thematic data set characterizing the user's context;
• providing third and fourth attribute values in response to the first and second data signals, wherein the third and fourth attribute values each reflect a state of the user, a state of the user's physical surroundings, or a state of the user's logical data and telecommunications environment, wherein the third and fourth attribute values together represent a second thematic data set, different from the first thematic data set, that characterizing the user's context;
• receiving the first thematic data set by a first client process;
• and
• processing the first thematic data set in the first client process and providing a first output signal in response thereto, wherein the processing of the first thematic data set and providing of the first output signal by the first client process is independent of the second thematic data set.

A computer-implemented method for providing an appropriate response to at least one of multiple themes, each of the themes representing a contextual situation and each associated with at least one type of response that is appropriate to the represented contextual situation of that theme, the method comprising:

• receiving an indication of a current theme;
• selecting one of the types of responses that are associated with the current theme;
• and
• providing the selected type of response.