Patent Issued for Virtual sidekick in a health management platform user interface (USPTO 11721440): Verily Life Sciences LLC

2023 AUG 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Adkins, Aurora (Redwood City, CA, US), Boyd Schachter, Lucy (Jamaica Plain, MA, US), Powers, Bella (Redwood City, CA, US), Roy, Nikhil (Sunnyvale, CA, US), Rudick, Thomas (San Francisco, CA, US), Shan, Peilun (San Francisco, CA, US), filed on March 22, 2021, was published online on August 8, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11721440 is Verily Life Sciences LLC (Mountain View, California, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Quality of life for patients facing chronic health conditions such as diabetes can be significantly improved through taking active measures to manage such conditions. Active measures for managing a chronic health condition can include, for example, exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, actively monitoring physiological data, taking medications as prescribed, and other measures. Clinical physicians and health coaches can help patients manage chronic health conditions; however, due to infrequent interaction, patients are left to take most active measures on their own.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “Overview

“A patient with a chronic health condition such as diabetes may need encouragement and motivation to help manage his or her chronic health condition. Clinical interactions with patients are infrequent, so it can be difficult for a clinician to follow transitions in the health state of a patient and intervene to assist the patient in managing a chronic health condition. Automated solutions involving virtual health coaches and or virtual doctors have been developed; however, existing automated solutions can be cold and clinical and can turn the patient away, thereby affecting the management of that patient’s chronic health condition.

“Introduced here, therefore, is a computer-implemented health management platform that includes a virtual sidekick configured to assist a patient in managing a chronic health condition. As used herein, a “virtual sidekick” refers to a computer-simulated character or other entity that can be presented to a patient via an interface of the health management platform. For example, actions and/or appearances of a virtual sidekick can be simulated using one or more computer programs and visual representations based on such simulations of the virtual sidekick can be rendered and displayed to a patient via a display of a user computing device.

“The virtual sidekick can “assist” a patient in managing a chronic health condition in various direct and/or indirect ways. Direct assistance in managing a chronic health condition may include, for example, explicit recommendations presented by the virtual sidekick for the patient to perform certain activities (e.g., exercise), eat certain foods (e.g., healthier options), take health measurements (e.g., take blood glucose measurements), consult with health professionals, review educational materials, etc. For example, if the patient needs to exercise more, the virtual sidekick can explicitly recommend, through visual and/or audible communication, a particular exercise for the user to perform

“Conversely, indirect assistance may refer to various indirect actions, visual cues, passive interactions, etc. that are tailored to subtly influence a patient’s behavior in a certain direction to manage a chronic health condition. For example, in some embodiments, the appearance and/or actions by the virtual sidekick can be tailored to build a relationship between the virtual sidekick and the patient thereby increasing the behavioral influence the virtual sidekick has on the patient. In some embodiments, the virtual sidekick may be presented as an individual (not necessarily the patient) that is facing similar challenges as the patient. For example, if the patient has diabetes, the virtual sidekick can be depicted as also having diabetes. In this sense, and in contrast to a virtual health coach or virtual doctor, the virtual sidekick can act as a partner to the patient in the patient’s journey to manage his or her chronic health condition. In some embodiments, the virtual sidekick may be configured to be fallible to enable a patient to relate to the virtual sidekick. For example, the virtual sidekick may falter or make mistakes to provide a contrast to the patient without normalizing failures. In some embodiments, the virtual sidekick can be presented in a virtual scene that includes one or more reverse augmented realty elements that are indicative of a physical context of the patient. This can help instill, in the patient, a feeling of proximity to the virtual sidekick. For example, the virtual scene may depict visual elements indicative of the patient’s physical location and/or weather conditions at the patient’s physical location. In some embodiments, the virtual sidekick may dynamically respond to the patient, for example, through audible and/or visual expressions or other actions.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: causing, by a computer system, display of a graphical user interface (GUI) at a user computing device, wherein the computer system is associated with a health management platform; receiving, by the computer system, input data from a plurality of data sources; and presenting, by the computer system based on the input data, a virtual sidekick that is configured to recommend an action in an effort to assist a user in managing a chronic health condition in the GUI, wherein the virtual sidekick is presented in a virtual scene including a reverse augmented reality element indicative of a physical context associated with the user, and wherein the reverse augmented reality element is a graphical element that is indicative of a physical location of the user, a weather condition at the physical location, an object in proximity to the user, or an activity performed by the user.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computer system, updated input data from one or more of the plurality of data sources; and dynamically updating, by the computer system, presentation of the virtual sidekick in response to and based on the updated input data.

“3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on the input data, contextual information associated with the user, wherein the contextual information includes information indicative of any one or more of: the chronic health condition of the user, a health state of the user, a mood of the user, an activity performed by the user, the physical location of the user, or the weather condition at the physical location; wherein presentation of the virtual sidekick is based on the contextual information associated with the user; and detecting, by the computer system, a change in the contextual information associated with the user as the updated input data are received from the one or more of the plurality of data sources; wherein presentation of the virtual sidekick is dynamically updated in response to detecting the change in the contextual information associated with the user.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the virtual sidekick includes: simulating the virtual sidekick using a computer program, the computer program including any one or more of: a predefined user interaction script; or an artificial intelligence model.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein presenting the virtual sidekick includes: selecting, based on the input data, a computer program associated with a particular predefined virtual sidekick from a plurality of computer programs associated with a plurality of predefined virtual sidekicks; and simulating the virtual sidekick using the selected computer program.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying, by the computer system based on the input data, the chronic health condition of the user, wherein presenting the virtual sidekick includes: configuring a computer program to simulate the virtual sidekick as having a substantially similar chronic health condition as the user; and simulating the virtual sidekick using the configured computer program.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on physiological data included in the input data, a health state of the user; wherein presentation of the virtual sidekick includes a visual representation of the virtual sidekick based on the health state of the user.

“8. The method of claim 7, wherein the visual representation of the virtual sidekick corresponds to the health state of the user.

“9. The method of claim 7, further comprising: identifying, by the computer system, a predefined activity to improve the health state of the user; and dynamically updating, by the computer system, the visual representation of the virtual sidekick to depict the virtual sidekick performing or attempting to perform the predefined activity.

“10. The method of claim 9, wherein dynamically updating the visual representation of the virtual sidekick to depict the virtual sidekick performing or attempting to perform the predefined activity includes dynamically adjusting the visual representation of the virtual sidekick to depict the virtual sidekick making a mistake while performing or attempting to perform the predefined activity.

“11. The method of claim 10, wherein the predefined activity includes any of: using a health monitoring device to acquire updated physiological data; performing a fitness activity; or swapping a first food item for a second food item in a meal.

“12. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on the input data, a health goal for the user, wherein the health goal is associated with management of the chronic health condition of the user; receiving, by the computer system, updated input data from one or more of the plurality of data sources; detecting, by the computer system based on the updated input data, an activity performed by the user; and determining, by the computer system, that the activity performed by the user satisfies a milestone associated with the health goal; and dynamically updating, by the computer system, a visual representation of the virtual sidekick to depict a reaction by the virtual sidekick to the activity performed by the user, wherein the reaction by the virtual sidekick is configured to encourage the user to complete the health goal.

“13. The method of claim 12, wherein the reaction by the virtual sidekick includes a visual expression by the virtual sidekick that emulates a supportive expression by a caretaker or another person with a substantially similar chronic health condition as the user.

“14. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the computer system, updated input data from one or more of the plurality of data sources; detecting, by the computer system based on the updated input data, a first activity performed by the user; and dynamically updating, by the computer system, a visual representation of the virtual sidekick to depict the virtual sidekick performing a second activity that corresponds to the first activity performed by the user.

“15. The method of claim 14, wherein the second activity: mirrors the first activity; or is a response to the first activity.

“16. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on location data included in the input data, the physical location of the user, wherein the location data are received from the user computing device; wherein the reverse augmented reality element is indicative of the physical location of the user.

“17. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on weather data included in the input data, the weather condition at the physical location of the user; wherein the reverse augmented reality element is indicative of the weather condition at the physical location of the user.

“18. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining, by the computer system based on physiological data included in the input data, a health state of the user; and identifying, by the computer system, a predefined activity to improve the health state of the user, wherein the predefined activity is associated with the object in proximity to the user; wherein the reverse augmented reality element is indicative of the object associated with the predefined activity.

“19. The method of claim 18, wherein the predefined activity is an exercise activity and wherein the object associated with the exercise activity is an exercise equipment.

“20. The method of claim 18, wherein the predefined activity is a food swap activity and wherein the object is a food item.

“21. The method of claim 18, wherein the predefined activity is a health measurement activity and wherein the object is a health monitoring device used to perform the health measurement activity.

“22. The method of claim 1, wherein the input data includes any one or more of: an input received from the user computing device, the input based on an interaction by the user with the GUI at the user computing device; physiological data received from a health monitoring device; fitness data received from a fitness tracking device; sensor data received from a sensor device; location data received from the user computing device; or weather data received from an online weather service.

“23. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual sidekick is presented as an animated character.

“24. A computer system comprising: a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including instructions, which when executed by the processor, cause the computer system to: cause display of a graphical user interface (GUI) at a user computing device, wherein the computer system is associated with a health management platform; receive input data from a plurality of data sources, the input data including contextual information associated with a user of the user computing device; and present, based on the input data, a virtual sidekick that is configured to recommend an action in an effort to assist the user in managing a chronic health condition in the GUI, wherein the virtual sidekick is presented in a virtual scene including a reverse augmented reality element indicative of a physical context associated with the user, and wherein the reverse augmented reality element is a digitally presented element that is indicative of a physical location of the user, a weather condition at the physical location, an object in proximity to the user, or an activity performed by the user.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent, see: Adkins, Aurora. Virtual sidekick in a health management platform user interface. U.S. Patent Number 11721440, filed March 22, 2021, and published online on August 8, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11721440)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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