MOBILE TERMINAL,CONTEXT MANAGEMENT SERVER, APPLICATION REGISTRATION SERVER, AND APPLICATION EXECUTION METHOD

• US 20090070030A1
• Filed: 05/16/2006
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NTT Docomo Incorporated (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation)
• Inventors: Isoda, Yoshinori, Kurakake, Shoji
• Granted Patent: US 8,331,957 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 701/207
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24575 using context
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A mobile terminal that executes an application using context information in a plurality of environments in which determined context information is different. A storage stores an environment ID indicating environment in which a user is located and corresponding context information indicating user'"'"'s context in association with an application ID; a receiver receives one environment ID and one condition determination result information from a context management server assigned in each environment, for delivering one environment ID indicating the environment and one condition determination result information indicating the user'"'"'s context in the environment; a determining mechanism determines the application ID stored in the storage based on one environment ID and one condition determination result information received by the receiver means; and an execution mechanism executes the application corresponding to the application ID determined by the determining mechanism.

Claims

1. A mobile terminal comprising:

a storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment in which a user is located and corresponding context information indicating user'"'"'s context in association with application specifying information for specifying an application to be executed;

a receiving means for receiving one environment specifying information and one result information from a context management server assigned in each environment, for delivering the one environment specifying information indicating the environment and the one result information indicating the user'"'"'s context in the environment;

a determining means for determining the application specifying information stored in the storage means based on the one environment specifying information and the one result information received by the receiving means; and

an execution means for executing an application corresponding to the application specifying information determined by the determining means.

2. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, where the storage means further stores in advance request context information which is a requirement for executing an application and indicates user'"'"'s context, in association with the application specifying information;

and

where further includes;

an obtaining means for obtaining determination context descriptive information from the context management server delivering determination context descriptive information describing a set of context element for determining the user'"'"'s context, when one environment specifying information received by the receiving means is not stored in the storage means in association with each of the application specifying information; and

a generating means for generating corresponding context information based on the request context information stored in the storage means and the determination context descriptive information obtained by the obtaining means, and storing the generated corresponding context information and the environment specifying information in the storage means, in association with the application specifying information corresponding to the request context information.

3. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, wherein

the generating means includes:

a presentation means for selectably presenting a user with any context elements based on the determination context descriptive information;

an input means for accepting any context elements among the context elements presented by the presentation means with the user'"'"'s input operation, and accepting the accepted context elements as the corresponding context information; and

a registration means for storing in the storage means, the corresponding context information accepted by the input means and the environment specifying information received by the receiving means, in association with the application specifying information corresponding the request context information.

4. The mobile terminal according to claim 2, wherein

the request context information contains a location attribute indicating a location where a user is located and a condition attribute indicating the user'"'"'s context defined according to the location attribute;

the determination context descriptive information describes context elements composed of the location attribute indicating a location where the user is located and the condition attribute indicating the user'"'"'s context defined according to the location attribute in a tree structure; and

the generating means extracts the context elements corresponding to the request context information within a search range of the condition attribute defined based on the location attribute contained in the request context information to generate the corresponding context information based on the extracted context elements.

5. The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein

the corresponding context information contains information indicating a change in the user'"'"'s context;

the one result information contains information indicating a change in the user'"'"'s context; and

the determining means determines application specifying information based on the corresponding context information and the one result information.

6. A context management server comprising:

an environment specifying information storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment;

a sensor information obtaining means for obtaining sensor information output from a sensor;

a generating means for generating result information based on the sensor information obtained by the sensor information obtaining means, and

a transmitting means for transmitting the result information generated by the generating means and the environment specifying information to the mobile terminal according to claim 1.

7. The context management server comprising:

a context descriptive storage means for storing determination context descriptive information describing a set of context elements for determining user'"'"'s context;

a receiving means for receiving a delivery request of the determination context descriptive information from the mobile terminal according to claim 2; and

a response means for returning the determination context descriptive information stored in the context descriptive storage means, when receiving the delivery request from the receiving means.

8. An application registration server comprising:

a storage means for storing application specifying information for specifying an application, execution information for executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information and request context information indicating requirements of the execution of the application by associating them with one another; and

a response means for reading, when receiving application specifying information from the mobile terminal according to claim 1, the execution information and the request context information corresponding to the received application specifying information from the storage means and returning them.

11. A context management server comprising:

an environment specifying information storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment;

a sensor information obtaining means for obtaining sensor information output from a sensor;

a generating means for generating result information based on the sensor information obtained by the sensor information obtaining means, and

a transmitting means for transmitting the result information generated by the generating means and the environment specifying information to the mobile terminal according to claim 2.

12. A context management server comprising:

an environment specifying information storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment;

a sensor information obtaining means for obtaining sensor information output from a sensor;

a generating means for generating result information based on the sensor information obtained by the sensor information obtaining means, and

a transmitting means for transmitting the result information generated by the generating means and the environment specifying information to the mobile terminal according to claim 3.

13. A context management server comprising:

an environment specifying information storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment;

a sensor information obtaining means for obtaining sensor information output from a sensor;

a generating means for generating result information based on the sensor information obtained by the sensor information obtaining means, and

a transmitting means for transmitting the result information generated by the generating means and the environment specifying information to the mobile terminal according to claim 4.

14. A context management server comprising:

an environment specifying information storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment;

a sensor information obtaining means for obtaining sensor information output from a sensor;

a generating means for generating result information based on the sensor information obtained by the sensor information obtaining means, and

a transmitting means for transmitting the result information generated by the generating means and the environment specifying information to the mobile terminal according to claim 5.

15. The context management server comprising:

a context descriptive storage means for storing determination context descriptive information describing a set of context elements for determining user'"'"'s context;

a receiving means for receiving a delivery request of the determination context descriptive information from the mobile terminal according to claim 3; and

a response means for returning the determination context descriptive information stored in the context descriptive storage means, when receiving the delivery request from the receiving means.

16. The context management server comprising:

a context descriptive storage means for storing determination context descriptive information describing a set of context elements for determining user'"'"'s context;

a receiving means for receiving a delivery request of the determination context descriptive information from the mobile terminal according to claim 4; and

a response means for returning the determination context descriptive information stored in the context descriptive storage means, when receiving the delivery request from the receiving means.

17. An application registration server comprising:

a storage means for storing application specifying information for specifying an application, execution information for executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information and request context information indicating requirements of the execution of the application by associating them with one another; and

a response means for reading, when receiving application specifying information from the mobile terminal according to claim 2, the execution information and the request context information corresponding to the received application specifying information from the storage means and returning them.

18. An application registration server comprising:

a storage means for storing application specifying information for specifying an application, execution information for executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information and request context information indicating requirements of the execution of the application by associating them with one another; and

a response means for reading, when receiving application specifying information from the mobile terminal according to claim 3, the execution information and the request context information corresponding to the received application specifying information from the storage means and returning them.

19. An application registration server comprising:

a storage means for storing application specifying information for specifying an application, execution information for executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information and request context information indicating requirements of the execution of the application by associating them with one another; and

a response means for reading, when receiving application specifying information from the mobile terminal according to claim 4, the execution information and the request context information corresponding to the received application specifying information from the storage means and returning them.

20. An application registration server comprising:

a storage means for storing application specifying information for specifying an application, execution information for executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information and request context information indicating requirements of the execution of the application by associating them with one another; and

a response means for reading, when receiving application specifying information from the mobile terminal according to claim 5, the execution information and the request context information corresponding to the received application specifying information from the storage means and returning them.

9. A method of executing an application comprising:

a receiving step of receiving one environment specifying information and one result information from a context management server assigned in each environment, for delivering the one environment specifying information indicating the environment and the one result information indicating user'"'"'s context in the environment;

a determination step for determining application specifying information stored in a storage means for storing environment specifying information indicating environment in which a user is located, and corresponding context information indicating the user'"'"'s context, in association with the application specifying information for specifying an application to be executed, based on one environment specifying information and one result information received in the receiving step; and

an execution step of executing the application corresponding to the application specifying information determined in the determination step.

10. The method of executing an application according to claim 9, wherein the storage means further stores request context information which is a requirement for executing an application in association with application specifying information and indicates user'"'"'s context, and

where further includes:

an obtaining step of obtaining determination context descriptive information from the context management server delivering determination context descriptive information describing a set of context elements for determining user'"'"'s context, when one environment specifying information received in the receiving step is not stored in the storage means in association with each application specifying information; and

a generating step of generating corresponding context information based on the request context information stored in the storage means and the determination context descriptive information obtained by the obtaining means, and storing the generated corresponding context information and the environment specifying information in the storage means, in association with the application specifying information corresponding to the request context information.