WO2009116955A2

WO2009116955A2 - System and method for using personalized content to mediate and measure person to person relationships

Info

Publication number: WO2009116955A2
Application number: PCT/SG2009/000096
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sriperumal Venugopal
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2008-03-19
Filing date: 2009-03-18
Publication date: 2009-09-24
Anticipated expiration: 2010-09-19
Also published as: SG155792A1; WO2009116955A9

Abstract

This present invention relates to a system and method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons, wherein the relationship is one of many types. The system mediates an interactive sequence of events using personalized content between the two persons and each sequence is monitored for each individual's contribution to the relationship as a metric derived from measurable factors. More particularly the present invention is to provide for a system of methods, processes, algorithms, devices and computer programs that lets two person involved in a relationship where the strength of their relationship is calculated, stored and analyzed.

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING PERSONALIZED CONTENT TO MEDIATE AND MEASURE PERSON TO PERSON RELATIONSHIPS

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method to measure the strength of a relationship between atleast two persons, based on a variety of transaction mode and wherein relationship comprise any type selected from a plurality of predefined relation between/among end users. The system mediates an interactive sequence of events using personalized content between the two persons and each sequence is monitored for each individual's contribution (X) to the relationship as a metric derived from preferably 12 measurable variable factors (Y). The personalized content can be one of the many that includes but is not limited to the following: a. A question and a list of answers none of it is a obviously right one; b. A list of statements with no obvious conclusion or assumption; c. A description of situations that is real or imagined normally encountered or not encountered in real life; d. A statement and list of opinion that a user may or may not have; e. It is the choices that users make that is used to subjectively measure the relationship;

Importantly, the invention is directed further to a system for carrying out such method of measuring the strength of a relationship between atleast two persons involving simple and readily available devices including mobile phones and processors/computers interfaced with required algorithm /computer program that enable providing a multimedia computerized system wherein the effect of the end users' experience is stored, managed and to personalize content, transport content to the users, capture responses from the users, perform calculations to estimate various metrics denoting the strength of the relationship, present the results to the users, store and analyze metrics over a period of time to derive normalization factors and store and manage user preferences and actions. The method and the system of the invention would thus provide a basis for monitoring and measuring the strength of relationship among the participants in a communication network, preferably between two such participants having a selective nature of relation there between with regard to the contents and purpose of such communication/interaction, through maintaining a relational data base in the system for its administration, analysis and control, thus favoring ensuring a simple, flexible and cost effective system to ensure execution of secured communication channel for data/information transaction with satisfactory trust and confidence of end users on a sustained basis.

BACKGROUND ART

It is experienced in the field of personalized communication on various platforms involving a wide range of technologies including the use of Internet network that made more people and organizations participate and interact with each other for various activities and purposes. Each such activity generates a particular kind of relation among the participating people and organizations through a series of sessions of interactions. The participation of people in a communication/interaction session may relate to one another through work, through participation in civic or voluntary organizations, religious affiliations, through education or simply through blood relationship or by being friends. Organizations, such as companies, non-profit organizations may also be related to one another through a conglomerate arrangement, by trade, by denomination, etc. These various relations among people and organizations can be explicitly defined in the form of a relational database, as well known in the art, and these explicit relations can be readily extracted. For example, one can extract the names of all people who work for the same company, or the names of all people who are related by blood, as long as these relations are explicitly defined in a database. On the other hand, implicit relations in a conventional database cannot be extracted.

It is also know in the art that traditional techniques for monitoring and measuring social relationships rely heavily on manual data collection, such as questionnaires, interviews, observations, and self-assessment surveys, which suffer from inaccuracies, unreliability, and subjectivity. While present day technological advancements and innovations have substituted the manual techniques with limited electronic acquiring, monitoring and storing capabilities, a continuing need existed in the art for improved data collection and interpretation/analysis techniques that automatically and objectively characterize the interactions between and among individuals and groups in effective and meaningful manner.

Considerable interest has been shown in the past in developing means for measuring Intelligence (IQ) and Emotional strength (EQ) for interpersonal transactions. Recently there had been some interest in measuring Relationship by testing for a metric called Relationship Quotient (RQ). Commonly relationship strength is measured by asking an individual a set of questions and estimating the metric from the answers provided. Such personalized approach to testing relation strength suffers from limitations especially when it comes to analyzing a range of alternative relationships. Some of such snapshot approaches to find a metric to determine strength of interpersonal transactions/communication comprise:

a. Static estimate - wherein the questions normally used are prepared well in advance for a general population and never personalized for an individual taking the test. This results in flawed percentile scores.

b. One sided approach- that takes two to form a relationship and it fundamentally flawed to judge a relationship by asking one individual to answer a set of questions. Such tests are lacking in measuring/ testing a particular relationship without involving both persons undergoing a common test.

c. One time measurement - A relationship is a dynamic process that oscillates between strength and weakness over a period of time. No relationship can be judged at a single point of time just by analyzing feedback from one person in the relationship because of the fundamental dynamic nature of inter personal relationships in a communication process with defined objective.

Other prior art technique used to measure the strength of relationship between two or more persons required to have a separate trusted data stored in each of the local processing environments of the persons. This would also have a unique public key to encrypt the communication between the two persons. The problem with this approach is that it is too difficult to manage and too cumbersome, because several disparate trusted data stores must be kept in synchronization with one another and also because a particular person may sometimes use a different computing device or may move with an existing computing device from its typical network service provider to elsewhere.

It is experienced in the art that one of the main drawbacks to interpersonal relational analysis is that it is difficult to carry out. One research technique is to use in-person interviews, which is usually very time-consuming. In one case, it may take over a year to generate the social network for a single pair of individuals via interviewing. Given the dynamic nature of a social network, this technique is far too slow to be effective and useful.

TJS 7325012 is a patent titled 'Relationship management system determining contact pathways in a contact relational database' is directed to managing contact information in a database. It however do not aims to achieve determining objective measurement of strength of a relationship between end users in communication network.

US 5918222 is a prior patent titled 'Information disclosing apparatus and multi-modal information input^output system' that deals with data storage mechanism but do not mention about any metrics for relationship among persons communicating in a network having a specific predefined relation.

US2007185907 is a US publication titled 'Method and apparatus for displaying information on personal relationship, and computer product' that deals with display of information but with no mediation, no measurement, no facilitation of communication in order to deriving metrics for a typical relationship type between end users.

US20050171955 is a US publication titled 'System and method of information filtering using measures of affinity of a relationship' that aims to providing method for identifying potential relationships. The present invention deals with existing relationships and its strength measurement.

JP2006099547 is a prior publication titled 'System for Analyzing Relationship between Friends' which involved use of physical presence and proximity for detection. The method does not use any questionnaires or communications involved between end users to provide means for measuring strength of a particular relationship type.

In view of the foregoing, there has thus been a persistent need in the related art for secure communication directed to interpersonal transaction of information/.data to develop a method and computerized system with program means for measuring relationship strengths between persons connected in through internet or other network or modes of multimedia communication. More specifically, there existed a need for a system that can measure relationship strengths using the contribution of each individual in the relationship, both real and perceived, and the type of the relationship normalized across all the relationships of the same type. Furthermore the relationship has to be measured and quantified over a period of time due to the varying nature of relationships and the strength analyzed in comparisons with the rest of relationships under measurement.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is thus the basic object of the present invention to provide a method for objective measurement of strength of any relationship for interpersonal communication over a secured multimedia communication network wherein the interaction/transaction of communication is considered between atleast two persons having a predefined/selected relationship type and preference option and a system comprising means to implement such method of mediating customized content, monitoring responses and measuring the strength of the relationship between the end users.

Another object of the present invention is directed to objectively measuring the strength of relationship for interpersonal communication over a secured network is directed to providing a multimedia computerized system wherein the effect/contribution, both real and perceived, of the end user experience is stored, managed and to personalize content, transport content to the users, capture responses from the users, perform calculations to estimate various metrics denoting the strength of the relationship, present the results to the users, store and analyze metrics over a period of time to derive normalization factors and store and manage user preferences and actions.

A still further object of present invention is directed to providing a system and a method for monitoring and measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein said participating persons in a communication session register their interest with the system to test the strength of their relationship by providing the basic information such as relationship type, gender and age group etc.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and a method for monitoring and measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein the persons interacting respond to generate requests in said system using a language and device of their choice such as a mobile phone, an internet browser supporting HTML, XML & XHTML document type, a gaming console or a software application on their computers.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and a method for monitoring and measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein said persons have the flexibility to choose from a list of options provided by the system in the form of content that is one of text, voice, graphics or video and send their choice back to the system.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and a method for monitoring and measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein said persons are able to interact with the system to request for the current scores or metrics related to the relationship. A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing said system and a method for measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein the participating persons request the system to set preferences or continue with the testing at their own convenience.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing said system and a method for measuring the strength of the relationship between two persons based on a pre-defined relation wherein said persons initiate a request to the system to start a testing for another relationship simultaneously or for the same pair of individuals using a different language and/or device.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons, wherein the relationship is one of many predefined types and said system adapted to mediate an interactive sequence of events using personalized contents between the two persons and each sequence is monitored for each individual's contribution (X) to the relationship as a metric derived from a number of variable measurable factors (Y).

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons, wherein the method to estimate the relative strength of the relationship using the contribution of each individual in the relationship, both real and perceived, and type of the relationship normalized across all the relationships of the same type.

A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons, wherein said method is adapted to estimate the contributions made by the persons Pl and P2 interacting their between, to the relationship by summing up the normalized individual (Y) metrics. A still further object of the present invention is directed to providing a system and method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons, wherein in said method, the relationship strength Q is estimated using the individual contributions made by the participating persons Pl and P2 and their perceptivity levels Zl and Z2.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus according to the basic aspect of the present invention there is provided a method to measure the strength of a relationship between at least two persons (Pl & P2) comprising: providing personalized content (POPS) between the two persons and interactive sequence of events using said personalized content between the two persons;

monitoring each sequence for each individual's contribution (X) to the relationship as a metric derived from measurable variable factors (Y) and the perceptivity level of each user (Z); and

estimating the strength of the relationship between the two as a single metric (Q) measured continually over a period of time-

According to yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to a method comprising estimating the contributions made by Pl and P2 to the relationship by summing up the normalized individual Y metrics as estimated.

X = ∑ YNRN

JV=I

Where YN i_s the Y metric and RN is the normalization factor for Y_N-

A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to a method comprising estimating the relationship strength Q using the individual contributions made by Pl and P2 and their perceptivity levels Zl and Z2. Q = Q_N X ¹A (X₁ Z₂ + X₂ Z₁) where

QN IS Q normalizing factor that provides a percentile ranking, X₁ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship, X₂ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship, Z₁ is the perceptivity index of person Pl and Z₂ is the perceptivity index of person P2.

A still further aspect of the present invention is directed to a method comprising the two persons involved in a relationship need to

1. registering the respective persons interest to test the strength of their relationship by providing the basic information such as relationship type, gender and age group;

2. responding to requests from the system involving a language and means including a mobile phone, an internet browser supporting HTML, XML & XHTML document type, a gaming console or a software application on their computers;

3. choosing from a list of options in the form of content that is one of text, voice, graphics or video and send their choice back to the system

4. interacting with the system to request for the current scores or metrics related to the relationship

5. requesting the system to set preferences or continue with the testing at their own convenience and

6. Initiating a request to start a testing for another relationship simultaneously or for the same pair of individuals.

A still further aspect of the present invention directed to said method wherein the measurable factors include:

Reciprocity (Yl), Empathy(Y2), Loyalty(Y3), Appreciation(Y4), Trustability (Y5), Interactivity(Y6), Openness(Y7), Normality(Y8), Supportivity (Y9), Harmony(YlO), Importance(Yll), Personality(Y12). According to yet another aspect of the present invention directed to said method comprising the steps of: a. personalizing the content for two persons Pl and P2 and mediate a sequence of interactions given the relationship type, gender, date, time, location, age group, service provider, language, type of device, etc,; b. choosing one person as P₁ as responder to an interaction request and another P2 as guesser of the response from P_{1 ;} c. initiating a request for one person P₁ (the responder) to respond by making a choice from a list of possible options and process the choice response; d. initiating a request to the other person P₂ (the guesser) in the relationship to guess the response from the other person P₁ and process the guess response; e. assigning difficulty level to every single interaction and deriving P₂'s perceptivity (Z₂) as a factor of the difficulty level; f. estimating the various Y factors (Y₁ to Y₁₂) corresponding to one interaction wherein an interaction is made of one choice response and one guess ; g. estimating the normalization factor for each Y factor using the past history and relationship type (R₁ to R₁₂) wherein the normalization factor is evaluated periodically; h. estimating individual contribution of Pl (Xl) and P2 (X2) to the relationship; i. estimating the relationship strength using the estimates that include Q_N5 X₁, X₂, Z₁ and Z_2; j. maintaining a time indexed history of the measure of Q and estimating a normalizing factor (QN) on a periodic basis; k. publishing the result of the interaction in terms of Q, Xi and X₂ to both P₁ and P₂ and inviting both Pi and P₂ to begin a new interaction;

1. storing and managing time indexed history of Pi, P₂, X₁, X₂ and Q and periodically deriving QN, and Y normalization factors R₁ to R_12; According to a further aspect of said method of the present invention comprising: choosing the guesser for subsequent interaction depending on the type of relationship between Pl and P2.

P₂next= gf (RT, P₁, P₂, Z₁, Z₂, X₁, X₂)

Where gf is the translation function that returns the designated guesser for next transaction

RT is the type of relationship between Pl and P2

P₂next is the guesser for the next transaction

P₁ the responder for the previous transaction

X₁ is the contribution of Pl to the final Q score

X₂ is the contribution of P2 to the final Q score

Z₁ is the perceptive index of Pl

Z₂ is the perceptive index of P2

A further aspect of said method of the present invention comprising: assigning a difficulty level for every transaction to denote the difficulty in making the right guess for the guesser and estimating the P2's perceptivity level (Z2) in the relationship and normalizing the perceptivity using the history of guessing by various persons responding to guess requests for the same transaction.

Z = ZN x Td where

Z is the perceptive level

T_d is the difficulty level of the transaction

ZN is the normalization factor; According to another important aspect of said method wherein the contributions made by Pl and P2 to the relationship are estimated by summing up the normalized individual Y metrics as estimated.

Where Y_N i_s the Y metric and

RN is the normalization factor for Y_N

Yet another aspect of the present invention is directed to a method wherein the relationship strength Q is estimated using the individual contributions made by Pl and P2 and their perceptivity levels Zl and Z2.

Q = Q_N X ¹A (X₁ Z₂ + X₂ Z₁) where

QN is Q normalizing factor that provides a percentile ranking

X₁ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship

X₂ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship

Z₁ is the perceptivity index of person Pl and

Z₂ is the perceptivity index of person P2

A still further aspect of said method of measuring strength of relationship among persons comprising storing every measure of Q for every transaction and then using as history to derive periodically a normalization factor for estimating future Q scores and accurately reflecting the spread of scores as seen in real world for a specific relationship type.

A further aspect of said method which is adapted to selectively implement as: a relationship game on mobile phones and through SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD game where the content is made of text and SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD and every transaction is a multiple choice request for the responder and guesser to make a choice; real world application relationship game using SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD and browsers supporting HTML, WML & XHTML document type ; real world application performance appraisals; polling, surveys, feedback, celebrity (Get to know), dynamic quiz;

to derive other metrics from the interactions is provided.

The present invention and its advantages and objectives are described in greater details with reference to the following non-limiting illustrative drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF FIGURES

Figure 1: is the schematic flow diagram illustrating the basic Interaction between the system according to the invention and the end users (Pl, P2) therein under consideration.

Figure 2: is the flow diagram for functional illustration of various components of the system according to the present invention.

Figure 3 : illustrates the Normalization Table for Y factors used to compute the relation ship strength.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE ACCOMPANYING FIGURES

The present invention is directed to a method of evaluating the strength of any type of interpersonal relationship using a system comprising means to mediate, monitor and measure a sequence of interactive events involving transaction of personalized contents. More preferably, the invention is directed to providing a multimedia computerized system wherein the effect of the end user experience is stored, managed and to personalize content, transport content to the users, capture responses from the users, perform calculations to estimate various metrics denoting the strength of the relationship, present the results to the users, store and analyze metrics over a period of time to derive normalization factors and store and manage user preferences and actions.

Reference is first invited to the accompanying Figure 1, that illustrates the schematic flow diagram illustrating the basic Interaction between the system and the end users (Pl, P2) therein under consideration, according to the present invention. The flow of sequence of events involves different subsystems for assessment and evaluation of the degree of association of the participants given selection of an option for personalized contents for a particular relation that exist between the end users.

It is clearly apparent from the accompanying Figure 1, that the present invention provides for a system comprising a number of devices to implement the method to mediate, monitor and measure a sequence of interactive events using processes, algorithms, computer programs that lets two persons involved in a relationship, wherein from the end users' perspective said system and the method involving the features and functionalities comprising:

1. Register their interest with the system by any two users say Pl and P2, to test the strength of their relationship by providing the basic information such as relationship type, gender and age group;

2. Respond to requests from the system using a language and device of their choice such as a mobile phone, an internet browser supporting HTML, XML & XHTML document type, a gaming console or a software application on their computers;

3. Choose from a list of options provided by the system in the form of content that is one of text, voice, graphics or video and send their choice back to the system;

4. Interact with the system to request for the current scores or metrics related to the relationship;

5. Request the system to set preferences or continue with the testing at their own convenience; and 6. Initiate a request to the system to start a testing for another relationship simultaneously or for the same pair of individuals using a different language and/or device;

It is a further important aspect according to the method of the invention using the system of personalized data/text communication wherein the method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons involves relationship and that the system mediates an interactive sequence of events using personalized content between the two persons/end users and each sequence is monitored for each individual's contribution to the relationship as a metric derived from 12 measurable variable factors identified as:

Reciprocity (Yl)₅ Empathy(Y2), Loyalty(Y3), Appreciation(Y4)₅ Trustability (Y5), Interactivity(Y6), Openness(Y7), Normality(Y8), Supportivity (Y9), Harmony(Y10), Importance(Yl 1), Personality(Y12).

It is thus one advantageous aspect of the invention to transform subjective personal attributes based on a personalized interaction for a personal relation type into the objective measurable parameter and thus facilitating establishing means for estimating the strength of the relationship between two persons for any relationship type and sequence of interactions of personalized contents as opted by the end users.

The Figure 1 suggests that Request for registration from Pl with any prospective participant (P2) is forwarded by the system to P2 and the acceptance of the request to participate together with Pl, is sent back to the system as Response from P2, which completes the registration of a personalized interaction session. In the next step the system initiate requests concerning choosing contents for transaction by the end users and to personalize it for both Pl and P2. This include requests to choose from selection by Pl from available/given contents and options and request concerning P2's Guess regarding Pi's choice given the same content and options. Also the corresponding response generated by the end users Pl and P2 in the form of Pi's choice of contents/options and the Pi's choice as guessed by P2, are sent back to the system. Thus, based on the above input responses from the participants of personalized interaction, the system is now able to analyze content, choice and guess of options and is in a position to estimate the metrics, including the 'Q' estimate, for determining the strength of the relationship between Pl and P2 for a sequence of personalized interactions. The relevant information as an out come of the interaction of a session is sent to Pl and P2, who in turn may initiate input Response to the system to continue the session or start a new session registering with fresh input parameters/options/relation.

Reference is now invited to the accompanying Figure 2, that schematically illustrates the functions of various components in the system according to the present invention. It may be noted that the following components in the system function in tandem to provide the features and functionality as achieved by the method of the invention using said system, to both the end users and content providers.

1. Q-Engine — to implement the core algorithms and logic

2. Q-Store — to manage history of Q metrics and normalization

3. Q-Content — store and manage content personalized for every user

4. Q-Transactions — manage every interaction and response

5. Q-Normalizer — store and manage metrics to normalize at periodic intevals

6. Q-Publisher — Used to publish and manage content for mediation

7. Q-Reporter — generates and publishes individualized reports

8. Q-Users — manages user information, resigration and personal interests & history

9. Q-Transport — adapats to different devices and transport medium used by user

10. Q-Services - helps to monetize the whole technology as a service delivered by the mobile operator and on the internet. It is also essential that to clearly understand the functional aspect of the system as of the invention and the method of its implementation require the definitions of the related terminologies as follows:

Content: Content is made up of a combination of one or more of text, voice, graphics, video, animation and icons. It is made of two parts a request and list of options. As for example of a text content may be "please choose a color that best describes your personality. 1. Blue 2. Red"

Transaction: A transaction is made of one more content sent to two entities in a relationship asking one to make a choice and asking another to guess the choice made by another. As for considering the preceding example of a content "please choose a color that best describes your personality. 1. Blue 2. Red" may be sent to person 'A' and the content "What color 'A' would choose to describe his own personality. 1. Blue 2. Red" may be sent to person 'B'. These two interactions along with the two responses from A and B is called a transaction. Transaction is also recursive in nature meaning it could be made up of one more transactions.

Y factors: In a relationship every individual makes a contribution to the relationship to make it better or worse. By analyzing every transaction an individuals contribution is measured in terms of 12 factors namely: Reciprocity (Yl) , Empathy(Y2)., Loyalty(Y3), Apρreciation(Y4), Trustability(Y5), Interactivity(Yό), Openness(Y7), Normality(Y8), Supportivity(Y9), Harmony(YlO), Importance(Yll), Personality(Y12). These 12 are called the Y factors.

X factor: This is a consolidated metric of all Y factors and denotes an individual's contribution.

Z factor: This denotes how well one person knows the other person in the relationship. This may vary from time to time and nature of content. Q score: This is the score that is assigned for a relationship and denotes the strength or lack thereof in a relationship. It also provides a percentile score that can be used to study a relationship in relation to other relationships of the same type.

Personalization: This is the process of customizing a content specific for a user based on the gendarme, age group, location, relationship type, language, device used, service provider, date time etc. As an example it does not make sense to ask someone married when they plan to get married. In short, personalization makes content relevant and more meaningful.

The method to estimate the relative strength of the relationship according to the present invention using the system of the invention wherein the contribution of each individual in the relationship, both real and perceived, and a particular type of relationship is normalized across all the relationships of the same type. Also for evaluating the strength of any type of interpersonal relationship using the system of the invention that mediates, monitors and measures a sequence of interactive events made of personalized content, comprising the steps of:

a. Personalize content for two persons Pl and P2 and mediate a sequence of interactions given the relationship type, gender, date, time, location, age group, service provider, language, type of device, etc.; b. Choose one person as P₁ as responder to an interaction request and another P2 as guesser of the response from P_1; c. Initiate a request for one person P₁ (the responder) to respond by making a choice from a list of possible options and process the choice response; d. Initiate a request to the other person P₂ (the guesser) in the relationship to guess the response from the other person P₁ and process the guess response; e. Assign difficulty level to every single interaction and deriving P₂' s perceptivity (Z₂) as a factor of the difficulty level; f. Estimate the various Y factors (Y₁ to Y₁₂) corresponding to one interaction wherein an interaction is made of one choice response and one guess g. Estimate the normalization factor for each Y factor using the past history and relationship type (Ri to R₁₂) wherein the normalization factor is evaluated periodically; h. Estimate individual contribution of Pl (Xl) and P2 (X2) to the relationship i. Estimate the relationship strength using the estimates that include QN, X₁, X₂,

Zi and Z₂ j. Maintain a time indexed history of the measure of Q and estimating a normalizing factor (Q_N) on a periodic basis k. Publish the result of the interaction in terms of Q, X₁ and X₂ to both P₁ and P₂ and inviting both P₁ and P₂ to begin a new interaction. 1. Store and manage time-indexed history of Pi, P₂, X₁, X₂ and Q and periodically derive QN, and Y normalization factors R₁ to R₁₂.

The method of the invention for measuring the strength of relationship based on personalized interactions of preferred contents wherein the end users are provided with means to personalize a multimedia content to initiate a new transaction based on the type of relationship, the gender, age group, date, time, location, the service provider used, preferred billing type, device, language and other specific preferences that may be set for both Pl andP2.

The participants in a session are further provided with the option to choose the guesser for subsequent interaction depending on the type of relationship between Pl and P2, wherein the guesser for the next transaction is decided by:

P₂next= gf (RT, P₁, P₂, Zi, Z₂, X₁, X₂); Where gf is the translation function that returns the designated guesser for next transaction;

RT is the type of relationship between Pl and P2;

P₂BeXt is the guesser for the next transaction;

P₁ the responder for the previous transaction;

X₁ is the contribution of Pl to the final Q score;

X₂ is the contribution of P2 to the final Q score;

Z₁ is the perceptive index of Pl;

Z₂Is the perceptive index of P2;

Also, in said method wherein a difficulty level is assigned for every transaction to denote the difficulty in making the right guess for the guesser and estimating the P2's perceptivity level (Z2) in the relationship and normalizing the perceptivity using the history of guessing by various persons responding to guess requests for the same transaction.

Z = ZN X Td where;

Z is the perceptive level;

T_d is the difficulty level of the transaction;

Z_N is the normalization factor;

More importantly, the invention provides for a method for determining a relationship metrics wherein the contributions made by Pl and P2 to the relationship are estimated by summing up the normalized individual Y metrics as given by:

X= X Y_NRN

Where YN is the Y metric and RN is the normalization factor for Y_N-

Also in said method of the present invention, the relationship strength Q is estimated using the individual contributions made by Pl and P2 and their perceptivity levels Zl and Z2, given by,

Q = QN ^{X 1}A (XI Z₂ + X₂ Z₁) where,

QN is Q normalizing factor that provides a percentile ranking

X₁ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship

X₂ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship

Z₁ is the perceptivity index of person Pl and

Z₂ is the perceptivity index of person P2

The method further provides for every measure of Q for every transaction that is stored and then used as history to derive periodically a normalization factor for estimating future Q scores and accurately reflecting the spread of scores as seen in real world for a specific relationship type.

Reference is invited to the accompanying Figure 3 in this respect, that provide for a normalization table for Y, for a wide range of relationship types, estimated constantly for use in the method of metrics as described above.

The system according to the present invention for implementing the method for monitoring and measuring the strength of relationship for personalized interaction on a secured network using a relationship game on mobile phones and/or through SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD game where the content is made of text and SMS, MMS, WAP and USSD and every transaction is adapted for a multiple choice request for the responder and guesser to make a choice. Also in said system, real world application relationship game using SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD and browsers supporting HTML, WML & XHTML document type is provided. The system according to the present invention is further adapted to provide real world application performance appraisals are provided. Additional features like polling, surveys, feedback, celebrity (Get to know), dynamic quiz is provided among different options to choose from.

The method of the invention further provides means for deriving other metrics from the interactions provided following the procedure as given above.

It is thus possible by way of the present invention to provide for a system and a method for implementation using said system to mediate, monitor and measure the strength of the relationship between personalized interaction for a selective relation category. The advantages and useful application include: (i) Personalize content for every individual in real time wherein every content and interaction used to derive various metrics personalized by the system for every individual based on their location, date, time, gender, language, culture, age group, the service provider they user, the device they use and the past history of their interactions with the system; (ii) Involve both parties/end users in a relationship connected through selective media in said system interacting with both the persons involved in the relationship as a sequence of interactions using the personalized content based on the relationship type between the two persons. More specifically, the invention defines in simple terms as a test taken together by two persons. The system mediates between the two persons to keep the process a fun and entertaining and to automate the process of measuring various metrics in real-time for every interaction; (iii) The system measures the relationship metrics with every transaction and continues to measure over a sequence of transactions over long periods of time to ensure that the measures are meaningful and normalized over a population of similar relationships to provide an accurate read of the strength of the relationship. The invention is thus having the potential to gainfully utilize the accurate metrics estimated for the strength of relationship between two persons involved in personalized interaction in a sequence of events such that the same can be commercially utilized for a number of activities based on personal preferences of the participants such as in advertising and campaign, internet based learning module, customers' feed back for design modification to attain improved customer satisfaction.

Claims

WE CLAIM:

1. A method to measure the strength of a relationship between two persons (Pl & P2) comprising: providing personalized content (POPS) between the two persons and mediating an interactive sequence of events using said personalized content (POPS) between the two persons;

monitoring each sequence for each individual's contribution (X) to the relationship as a metric derived from a set of measurable variable factors (Y) and the perceptivity level of each user (Z); and

estimating the strength of the relationship between the two as a single metric (Q) measured continually over a period of time.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising estimating the contributions made by Pl and P2 to the relationship by summing up the normalized individual Y metrics as estimated.

X= Y₁ Y_NR_N

Where Y_N ;_S the Y metric and R_N is the normalization factor for Y_N.

3. A method as claimed in claim2 wherein the measurable factors include: Reciprocity (Yl) , Empathy(Y2), Loyalty(Y3), Appreciation(Y4), Trustability (Y5), Interactivity(Y6), Openness(Y7), Normality(Y8), Supportivity (Y9), Harmony(Y10), Importance(Yll), Personality(Y12).

4. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising: assigning a difficulty level for every transaction to denote the difficulty in making the right guess for the guesser and estimating the P2's perceptivity level (Z2) in the relationship and normalizing the perceptivity using the history of guessing by various persons responding to guess requests for the same transaction.

Z = ZN X T_d where

Z is the perceptive level

Td is the difficulty level of the transaction

ZN is the normalization factor

5. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising estimating the relationship strength Q using the individual contributions made by Pl and P2 and their perceptivity levels Zl and

Z2.

Q = QN ^X VZ (XI Z₂ + X₂ Z₁) where

QN is Q normalizing factor that provides a percentile ranking,

X₁ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship,

X₂ is the contribution of the person Pl in the relationship,

Z₁ is the perceptivity index of person Pl and Z₂ is the perceptivity index of person P2.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising the two persons involved in a relationship need to:

1. registering the respective persons their interest to test the strength of their relationship by providing the basic information such as relationship type, gender and age group;

7. A method as claimed in claim 1 comprising the steps of:

a. personalizing the content for two persons Pl and P2 and mediate a sequence of interactions given the relationship type, gender, date, time, location, age group, service provider, language, type of device, ,moods, topic of interest etc,. b. choosing one person as P₁ as responder to an interaction request and another P2 as guesser of the response from P₁ c. initiating a request for one person P_{1 (}the responder) to respond by making a choice from a list of possible options and process the choice response d. initiating a request to the other person P₂ (the guesser) in the relationship to guess the response from the other person P₁ and process the guess response e. assigning difficulty level to every single interaction and deriving P₂'s perceptivity (Z₂) as a factor of the difficulty level f. estimating the various Y factors (Y₁ to Y₁₂) corresponding to one interaction wherein an interaction is made of one choice response and one guess g. estimating the normalization factor for each Y factor using the past history and relationship type (R₁ to R₁₂) wherein the normalization factor is evaluated periodically h. estimating individual contribution of Pl (Xl) and P2 (X2) to the relationship i. estimating the relationship strength using the estimates that include Q_N, X₁, X₂, Z₁ and Z₂ j. maintaining a time indexed history of the measure of Q and estimating a normalizing factor (Q_N) on a periodic basis k. publishing the result of the interaction in terms of Q, X₁ and X₂ to both P₁ and P₂ and inviting both P₁ and P₂ to begin a new interaction.

1. storing and managing time indexed history of P₁, P₂, X₁, X₂ and Q and periodically deriving QN, and Y normalization factors R₁ to R₁₂

8. A method of choosing one person as P₁ as responder to an interaction request and another P2 as guesser of the response from P₁ comprising: choosing the guesser for subsequent interaction depending on the type of relationship between Pl and P2.

P₂next= gf (RT, P₁, P₂, Z₁, Z₂, X₁, X₂)

RT is the type of relationship between Pl and P2

P₂next is the guesser for the next transaction

P₁ the responder for the previous transaction

X₁ is the contribution of Pl to the final Q score

X₂ is the contribution of P2 to the final Q score

Z₁ is the perceptive index of Pl

Z₂ is the perceptive index of P2

9. A method as claimed in claim 3 comprising storing every measure of Q for every transaction and then using as history to derive periodically a normalization factor QN for estimating future Q scores and accurately reflecting the spread of scores as seen in real world for a specific relationship type.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1 which is adapted to selectively implement as: a relationship game on mobile phones and through SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD game where the content is made of text and SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD and every transaction is a multiple choice request for the responder and guesser to make a choice;

real world application relationship game using SMS, MMS, WAP & USSD and browsers supporting HTML, WML & XHTML document type ;

real world application performance appraisals; polling, surveys, feedback, celebrity (Get to know), dynamic quiz;

to derive other metrics from the interactions is provided.