Privacy zone

• US 10,083,319 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2014
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Wilmes, Edward Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Peter C
• Application Number:
  US15/111,538
• Publication Number:
  US 20160364579A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,674 Days
• Field of Search: 726 16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/52 including functional features of a camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/02 Protecting privacy or anonymity, e.g. protecting personally identifiable information [PII]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/64 using geofenced areas
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/022 with dynamic range variability
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/026 using orientation information, e.g. compass

Abstract

A method is provided in accordance with an aspect of the present disclosure. The method includes receiving and processing information from a first electronic device. The information includes at least location data, privacy zone data, and privacy distance data of the first electronic device. The method further includes calculating a current distance between the first electronic device and at least one sensor of a second electronic device, comparing the current distance with a predetermined privacy distance retrieved from the privacy distance data for the first electronic device, and determining an orientation of the at least one sensor of the second electronic device when the current distance is less than or equal to the privacy distance. The orientation is determined in relation to a privacy zone of the first electronic device. The method also includes disabling the at least one sensor of the second electronic device when the at least one sensor is oriented to point within the privacy zone of the first electronic device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving and processing information from a first electronic device, wherein the information includes at least location data, privacy zone data, and privacy distance data of the first electronic device;

calculating a current distance between the first electronic device and a recording sensor of a second electronic device;

comparing the current distance with a privacy distance retrieved from the privacy distance data for the first electronic device;

determining an orientation of the recording sensor of the second electronic device when the current distance is less than or equal to the privacy distance, wherein the orientation is determined in relation to a privacy zone of the first electronic device, wherein the privacy zone defines an area around the first electronic device and the area has a radius included in the privacy zone data, wherein the privacy distance is greater than the radius; and

disabling the recording sensor of the second electronic device when the recording sensor is oriented to point within the privacy zone of the first electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, at the second electronic device, privacy boundary vectors to define the area of the privacy zone around the first electronic device based on the location data of the first electronic device, a location of the second electronic device, and the radius of the privacy zone.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the privacy distance includes a distance between a first end of the radius of the privacy zone and the recording sensor of the second electronic device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining an orientation of the recording sensor of the second electronic device includes calculating an orientation vector for the recording sensor of the second electronic device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein calculating the orientation vector includes determining a fixed magnitude of the orientation vector in relation to the privacy boundary vectors that define the area of the privacy zone.

6. A system comprising:

a device having at least one processor with a control unit to;

process information from a plurality of electronic devices, wherein the information includes at least location data, privacy zone data, and privacy distance data for each of the plurality of electronic devices;

compare a current distance between the device and a privacy distance for each of the plurality of electronic devices;

determine an orientation of a recording sensor of the device in relation to a privacy zone of each of the plurality of electronic devices when the current distance is less than or equal to the privacy distance for that electronic device, wherein the privacy zone defines an area around each of the plurality of electronic devices, the area having a radius included in the privacy zone data, wherein the privacy distance is greater than the radius; and

send a communication informing of an operation to be performed with the recording sensor to each of the plurality of electronic devices when the recording sensor points at the privacy zone of that electronic device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the control unit is further to:

receive a first response from at least one of the plurality of electronic devices objecting to the operation to be performed with the recording sensor; and

disable the recording sensor of the device based on the first response from the at least one electronic device.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the control unit is further to:

receive a second response from at least one of the plurality of electronic devices accepting the operation to be performed with the recording sensor; and

perform the operation with the recording sensor when there are no first responses from other electronic devices which received the communication.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the privacy distance includes a distance between a first end of the radius for each of the plurality of electronic devices and the recording sensor of the device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the control unit is further to:

calculate privacy boundary vectors to define the area of the privacy zone around each of the plurality of electronic devices based on the location of each of the plurality of electronic devices, the radius of the privacy zone of each of the plurality of electronic devices, and a location of the device; and

determine a fixed magnitude of an orientation vector for the recording sensor in relation to the privacy boundary vectors that define the area of the privacy zone for each of the plurality of electronic devices.

11. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions executable by at least one processing device, the machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to:

process data related to a plurality of electronic devices, wherein the data includes at least location data, privacy zone data, and privacy distance data for each of the plurality of electronic devices;

compare a current distance between a recording sensor of a first electronic device and the plurality of electronic devices with a privacy distance for each of the plurality of electronic devices that is retrieved from the privacy distance data;

calculate a privacy zone for each of the plurality of electronic devices based on the location data, the privacy zone data for each of the plurality of electronic devices, and the location data of the first electronic device, wherein the privacy zone defines an area around each of the plurality of electronic devices, the area having a radius included in the privacy zone data, wherein the privacy distance is greater than the radius;

determine whether an orientation vector for the recording sensor of the first electronic device points at the privacy zone of at least one of the plurality of electronic devices, when the current distance is less than or equal to the privacy distance; and

disable the recording sensor of the first electronic device when the orientation vector points at the privacy zone of any of the plurality of electronic devices.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the privacy distance includes a distance between a first end of the radius for each of the plurality of electronic devices and the recording sensor of the device.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising instructions to enable the recording sensor of the first electronic device when the orientation vector points at the privacy zone, but the current distance is greater than the privacy distance.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 13, further comprising instructions to:

calculate privacy boundary vectors to define the area of the privacy zone around each of the plurality of electronic devices based on the location of each of the plurality of electronic devices, the radius of the privacy zone of each of the plurality of electronic devices, and a location of the device; and

determine a fixed magnitude of an orientation vector for the recording sensor of the first electronic device in relation to the privacy boundary vectors that define the area of the privacy zone for each of the plurality of electronic devices.