Patent Issued for Personalized user interface systems and methods (USPTO 11163725): United Services Automobile Association

2021 NOV 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- According to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx journalists, a patent by the inventors Gaeta, Michael Joseph (San Antonio, TX, US), Tijerina, Oscar Roberto (San Antonio, TX, US), filed on October 30, 2020, was published online on November 2, 2021.

The assignee for this patent, patent number 11163725, is United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States).

Reporters obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The present disclosure relates generally to systems and methods for providing information on a user interface, and more specifically to systems and methods for providing word clouds and/or image clouds to personalize a user interface.

“This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to help provide the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it is understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Modern businesses offer customers an array of online services (e.g., via the Internet), including online access to customer accounts and other information. Customers may access the online services via a wide variety of devices, such as personal computers, tablets, mobile phones. It is presently recognized that there is a need for more user-friendly user interfaces to enable customers to efficiently access online services.”

In addition to obtaining background information on this patent, NewsRx editors also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below.

“In an embodiment, a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium includes machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to access user information, generate a cloud representation having a plurality of word clouds with varying levels of emphasis based at least in part on the user information, and output the cloud representation on a display of a computing device. The plurality of word clouds include one or more word clouds, one or more image clouds, or both.

“In an embodiment, a tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium includes machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to access user information, receive information related to a computing device, generate a cloud representation comprising a plurality of word clouds comprising varying levels of emphasis based at least in part on the user information and the information related to the computing device, and output the cloud representation to a display of a computing device.

“In an embodiment, a method includes accessing, using one or more processors, user information. The method also includes generating, using the one or more processors, a cloud representation comprising a plurality of clouds comprising varying levels of emphasis based at least in part on the user information, wherein the plurality of clouds comprises one or more word clouds, one or more image clouds, or both. The method further includes outputting, using the one or more processors, the cloud representation to a display of a computing device.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to: access a status of each of a plurality of accounts of a user; generate a cloud representation comprising a plurality of clouds for display on a computing device, wherein the plurality of clouds comprises one or more word clouds, one or more image clouds, or both, and wherein a cloud of the plurality of clouds is associated with an account of the plurality of accounts of the user; set a level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to identifying an outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user, wherein the level of emphasis correlates to a presentation characteristic of the cloud; and decrease the level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds and completion of the outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user.

“2. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to access user preferences and to generate the cloud representation based on the user preferences.

“3. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to access data indicative of prior interactions between the user and the plurality of clouds and to generate the cloud representation based on the prior interactions between the user and the plurality of clouds.

“4. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine a respective predicted relevance for each cloud of the plurality of clouds based on the user preferences, the prior interactions, or both.

“5. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to adjust the cloud representation in response to receipt of user input to add a word, an image, or both to at least one cloud of the plurality of clouds.

“6. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the presentation characteristic includes a letter size, an image size, a type of font, a color, a location on an electronic display of the computing device, or any combination thereof.

“7. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein: the cloud of the plurality of clouds is a first cloud of the plurality of clouds, the account of the plurality of accounts of the user is a first account of the plurality of accounts of the user, a second cloud of the plurality of clouds is associated with a second account of the plurality of accounts of the user, and the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to set a respective level of emphasis for the second cloud of the plurality of clouds that is lower than the level of emphasis for the first cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to identifying no respective outstanding task for the second account of the plurality of accounts of the user.

“8. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to increase the respective level of emphasis for the second cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to identifying a respective outstanding task for the second account of the plurality of accounts of the user.

“9. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the account of the plurality of accounts of the user comprises a bank account of the user.

“10. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the outstanding task comprises a bill due for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user.

“11. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the account of the plurality of accounts of the user is accessible via the selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds to thereby enable the user to complete the outstanding task via a graphical user interface.

“12. The tangible, non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the machine-readable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to decrease the level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to the completion of the outstanding task for the account without the selection of the cloud.

“13. A system, comprising: a processor; and a memory accessible by the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising: accessing information related to each of a plurality of accounts of a user; generating a cloud representation comprising a plurality of clouds for display on a computing device, wherein the plurality of clouds comprises one or more words clouds, one or more image clouds, or both, and wherein a cloud of the plurality of clouds is associated with an account of the plurality of accounts of the user; setting a high level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to identifying an outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user, wherein the level of emphasis correlates to a presentation characteristic of the cloud; and decreasing the high level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds to a low level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations comprise outputting the cloud representation to an electronic display of the computing device.

“15. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations comprise generating the cloud representation based on information related to the computing device.

“16. The system of claim 13, wherein the outstanding task comprises a bill due, a low balance, a renewal due, or any combination thereof.

“17. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations comprise decreasing the high level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds to the low level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to completion of the outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user without the selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds.

“18. A method, comprising: accessing, using one or more processors, information related to each of a plurality of accounts of a user; generating, using the one or more processors, a cloud representation comprising a plurality of clouds for display on a computing device, wherein the plurality of clouds comprises one or more words clouds, one or more image clouds, or both, and wherein a cloud of the plurality of clouds is associated with an account of the plurality of accounts of the user; setting, using the one or more processors, a level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to the information related to the plurality of accounts of the user indicating an outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user, wherein the level of emphasis correlates to a presentation characteristic of the cloud; and decreasing, using the one or more processors, the level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds.

“19. The method of claim 18, comprising providing access to respective information related to the account of the plurality of accounts via the selection of the cloud of the plurality of clouds.

“20. The method of claim 18, comprising decreasing the level of emphasis for the cloud of the plurality of clouds in response to completion of the outstanding task for the account of the plurality of accounts of the user.”

For more information, see this patent: Gaeta, Michael Joseph. Personalized user interface systems and methods. U.S. Patent Number 11163725, filed October 30, 2020, and published online on November 2, 2021. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11163725.PN.&OS=PN/11163725RS=PN/11163725

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