Resuming a context on a group of electronic devices

• US 10,547,465 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2017
• Issued: 01/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bradley, Lisa M., Harpur, Liam, Quirk, Aaron J., Sun, Lin
• Primary Examiner(s): Chou, Alan S
• Application Number:
  US15/838,657
• Publication Number:
  US 20180262357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 777 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

Approaches presented herein enable resuming a context for a group of electronic devices based on a prior activity of the group members. Specifically, a current context of a user electronic device is collected at a conclusion of a first collaboration session. One or more participant electronic devices associated with the user electronic device are identified, either by being in a same location or virtually connected. A current context of each of the identified participant electronic devices is collected. The context of the user electronic device and each of the participant electronic devices are stored in a context database. The current context of the user electronic device and each of the participant electronic devices are resumed at a beginning of a second collaboration session when the user electronic device is resumed (e.g., powered on or brought out of “sleep” mode).

Claims

1. A computer program product for resuming a group context, and program instructions stored on the computer readable storage device, to:

collect, at a conclusion of a first collaboration session, a current context of a user electronic device;

identify a participant electronic device that is associated with the user electronic device;

collect a current context of the participant electronic device;

store, as metadata, the current context of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device;

identify, at a beginning of a second collaboration session, the participant electronic device when the user electronic device is resumed; and

resume, based on the metadata, the current context of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device, wherein the step to resume includes closing any applications on the user electronic device that are not associated with the current context of the user electronic device and closing any applications on the participant electronic device that are not associated with the current context of the participant electronic device.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the participant electronic device is associated with the user electronic device based on a connection option, wherein the connection option is selected from the group consisting of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in a same location or the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, further comprising program instructions to store the metadata in a context database.

4. The computer program product of claim 2, further comprising program instructions to determine the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in the same location using a short-range communication scheme when the connection option is the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in the same location.

5. The computer program product of claim 2, further comprising program instructions to determine the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected based on a calendar entry and a conference phone number when the connection option is the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a context includes application information needed to restore one or more active applications to a previous state.

7. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein a user electronic device is resumed when the user electronic device is at least one of powered on or brought out of a sleep mode.

8. A computer system for resuming a group context, the computer system comprising:

a memory medium comprising program instructions;

a bus coupled to the memory medium; and

a processor for executing the program instructions, the instructions causing the system to;

collect, at a conclusion of a first collaboration session, a current context of a user electronic device;

identify a participant electronic device that is associated with the user electronic device;

collect a current context of the participant electronic device;

store, as metadata, the current context of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device;

identify, at a beginning of a second collaboration session, the participant electronic device when the user electronic device is resumed; and

resume, based on the metadata, the current context of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device, wherein the step to resume includes closing any applications on the user electronic device that are not associated with the current context of the user electronic device and closing any applications on the participant electronic device that are not associated with the current context of the participant electronic device.

9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the participant electronic device is associated with the user electronic device based on a connection option, wherein the connection option is selected from the group consisting of the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in a same location or the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected.

10. The computer system of claim 8, further comprising program instructions to store the metadata in a context database.

11. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising program instructions to determine the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in the same location using a short-range communication scheme when the connection option is the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are in the same location.

12. The computer system of claim 9, further comprising program instructions to determine the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected based on a calendar entry and a conference phone number when the connection option is the user electronic device and the participant electronic device are virtually connected.

13. The computer system of claim 8, wherein a context includes application information needed to restore one or more active applications to a previous state.

14. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein a user electronic device is resumed when the user electronic device is at least one of powered on or brought out of a sleep mode.