Accumulation of real-time crowd sourced data for inferring metadata about entities

Abstract

Various technologies pertaining to crowd sourcing data about an entity, such as a business, are described. Additionally, technologies pertaining to inferring metadata about the entity based upon crowd sourced data are described. A sensor in a mobile computing device is activated responsive to a user of the mobile computing device checking in at an entity. Metadata, such as occupancy at the entity, noise at the entity, and the like is inferred using the data captured by the sensor. A search result for the entity includes the metadata.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method executed on a mobile computing device, the method comprising:
 receiving an indication that a user of the mobile computing device desires to publish, by way of a social networking application, that the user is at a particular entity;   responsive to receiving the indication, activating at least one sensor in the mobile computing device;   subsequent to the activating of the at least one sensor in the mobile computing device, transmitting data to another computing device by way of a wireless network, wherein the data is based upon data captured by the at least one sensor;   detecting that a predefined event has occurred subsequent to the at least one sensor in the mobile computing device being activated; and   deactivating the at least one sensor responsive to the detecting the predefined event.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises a microphone. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of a camera, a temperature sensor, a luminance sensor, a gyroscope, a barometer, a global positioning system sensor, or a humidity sensor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data comprises a plurality of feature vectors for respective segments of the data captured by the at least one sensor. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the data comprises raw sensor data captured by the at least one sensor. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the activating of the at least one sensor, the transmitting of the data to the another computing device by way of the wireless network, the detecting that the predefined event has occurred, and the deactivating the at least one sensor are undertaken by an operating system of the mobile computing device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 segmenting the data captured by the at least one sensor into a plurality of time segments;   for each time segment, generating a respective feature vector, the respective feature vector being indicative of a state of the entity; and   transmitting a plurality of feature vectors that correspond to the plurality of time segments to the another computing device.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the particular entity is one of a plurality of entities that are predefined in the social networking application. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the particular entity is a business. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the business is an eatery. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving location information from a location sensor of the mobile computing device;   comparing the location information from the location sensor of the mobile computing device with a known location of the particular entity; and   activating the at least one sensor in the mobile computing device only if the location from the location sensor of the mobile computing device is within a predefined threshold distance from the known location of the particular entity.   
     
     
         12 . A mobile computing device comprising:
 a sensor; and   a memory, the memory comprising an operating system for the mobile computing device, the operating system being configured to perform acts comprising:
 receiving input from a user that the user is at a business identified by the user; 
 responsive to receiving the input from the user, causing the sensor to transition from an inactive state to an active state; 
 detecting a predefined event; 
 responsive to detecting the predefined event, causing the sensor to transition from the active state to the inactive state; and 
 transmitting data that is indicative of a state of a parameter of the business to another computing device by way of a wireless network connection, wherein the data that is indicative of the state of the parameter of the business is based upon data captured by the sensor when the sensor was in the active state. 
   
     
     
         13 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the parameter is one of occupancy of the business when the sensor was active, noise level of the business when the sensor was active, whether the user was outdoors at the business when the sensor was active, or type of music being played at the business when the sensor was active. 
     
     
         14 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12  being a mobile telephone. 
     
     
         15 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the sensor is a microphone. 
     
     
         16 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the memory comprises a social networking application, and wherein the input from the user is received by way of the social networking application. 
     
     
         17 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the data that is indicative of the state of the parameter of the business comprises a plurality of feature vectors for respective segments of the data captured by the sensor when the sensor was in the active state. 
     
     
         18 . The mobile computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the predefined event is a passage of a threshold amount of time from when the sensor was transitioned from the inactive state to the active state. 
     
     
         19 . The mobile computing device of  claim 18 , wherein the threshold amount of time is less than fifteen seconds. 
     
     
         20 . A mobile computing device comprising a computer-readable medium and a processor, the computer-readable comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts comprising:
 executing a social networking application on the mobile computing device;   receiving an indication from a user that the user is checking into a business that is predefined in the social networking application;   immediately responsive to receiving the indication, activating a microphone in the mobile computing device;   detecting a predefined event subsequent to the activating of the microphone in the mobile computing device;   responsive to detecting the predefined event, deactivating the microphone; and   transmitting data to another computing device by way of a wireless network, wherein the data is based upon sensor data output by the microphone when active.