Method and Apparatus to Encourage Development of Long Term Recollections of Given Episodes

Abstract

These teachings are applicable for use with an individual who faces problems with respect to forming new long term memories. Generally speaking, pursuant to these various embodiments, one automatically captures (101) a record of experiential content to which the individual is exposed during a given episode and then automatically associates (102) that record of experiential content with metadata that characterizes the given episode. This record of experiential content is then automatically used (103) to re-expose the individual to at least portions of the given episode to thereby encourage development of a long term recollection of at least a portion of the given episode. These teachings will accommodate a variety of experiential content modalities including both audio content and visual content.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method for use with an individual who faces long term memory challenges, the method comprising:
 by a control circuit:
 accessing a record of experiential visual content to which the individual was previously exposed during a corresponding given episode; 
 automatically formulating metadata regarding the record of experiential visual content as a function, at least in part, of artificial intelligence; 
 re-exposing the individual, via an end user interface that operably couples to the control circuit, to a selected portion of the visual content; 
 receiving feedback from the individual regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the visual content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the visual content; 
 assessing accuracy of the feedback as a function of the metadata to metricize the accuracy of the feedback to provide metricized accuracy of the feedback. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 evaluating the individual's long term memory as a function, at least in part, of the metricized accuracy of the feedback.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein receiving feedback from the individual comprises receiving feedback from the individual, at least in part, via an artificial intelligence dialog. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising, by the control circuit:
 accessing a record of experiential audio content to which the individual was previously exposed during a corresponding given episode; 
 automatically formulating metadata regarding the record of experiential audio content as a function, at least in part, of artificial intelligence; 
 re-exposing the individual, via an end user interface that operably couples to the control circuit, to a selected portion of the audio content. 
 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4  wherein the feedback received from the individual regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the visual content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the visual content further includes feedback received from the individual regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the audio content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the audio content. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the selected portion of the visual content and the selected portion of the audio content are re-exposed to the individual, at least in part, in synchronicity with one another. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein automatically formulating metadata regarding the record of experiential visual content comprises, at least in part and for experiential visual content that is not linked to a calendar event for the individual, content mining of the experiential visual content. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the content mining comprises, at least in part, recognizing content semantics corresponding to the experiential visual content. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein the content semantics include at least one of persons in the experiential visual content and a type of event depicted in the experiential visual content. 
     
     
         10 . An apparatus for use with an individual who faces long term memory challenges, the apparatus comprising:
 an end user interface;   a control circuit operably coupled to the end user interface and configured to:   access a record of experiential visual content to which the individual was previously exposed during a corresponding given episode;   automatically formulate metadata regarding the record of experiential visual content as a function, at least in part, of artificial intelligence;   re-expose the individual, via the end user interface, to a selected portion of the visual content;   receive feedback from the individual, via the end user interface, regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the visual content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the visual content;   assess accuracy of the feedback as a function of the metadata to metricize the accuracy of the feedback to provide metricized accuracy of the feedback.   
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 10 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
 evaluate the individual's long term memory as a function, at least in part, of the metricized accuracy of the feedback.   
     
     
         12 . The apparatus of  claim 11  wherein the control circuit is configured to receive feedback from the individual by receiving feedback from the individual, at least in part, via an artificial intelligence dialog. 
     
     
         13 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein the control circuit is further configured to:
 access a record of experiential audio content to which the individual was previously exposed during a corresponding given episode; 
 automatically formulate metadata regarding the record of experiential audio content as a function, at least in part, of artificial intelligence; 
 re-expose the individual, via the end user interface, to a selected portion of the audio content. 
 
     
     
         14 . The apparatus of  claim 13  wherein the feedback received from the individual regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the visual content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the visual content further includes feedback received from the individual regarding at least one subject of the selected portion of the audio content while re-exposing the individual to the selected portion of the audio content. 
     
     
         15 . The apparatus of  claim 14  wherein the selected portion of the visual content and the selected portion of the audio content are re-exposed to the individual, at least in part, in synchronicity with one another. 
     
     
         16 . The apparatus of  claim 10  wherein the control circuit is configured to automatically formulate metadata regarding the record of experiential visual content by, at least in part and for experiential visual content that is not linked to a calendar event for the individual, content mining of the experiential visual content. 
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16  wherein the content mining comprises, at least in part, recognizing content semantics corresponding to the experiential visual content. 
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 17  wherein the content semantics include at least one of persons in the experiential visual content and a type of event depicted in the experiential visual content.