METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ADAPTING COMPRESSION TECHNIQUES OVER DATA BASED ON EXTERNAL CONTEXT

• US 20090089446A1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mohomed, Iqbal, Jerome, William Francis, Misra, Archan, Ebling, Maria Rene
• Granted Patent: US 8,904,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/002 Monitoring the patient using a local or closed circuit, e.g. in a room or building A61B5/0017 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/0022 Monitoring a patient using a global network, e.g. telephone networks, internet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC

Abstract

Techniques for selecting a new compression technique or altering the currently instantiated compression technique employed over a data stream in data collection system are provided. At least one change to at least one external contextual condition is detected. One or more modifications to a defined compression technique is generated, either independently or in conjunction with one or more modifications to the event processing operators that operate on the data stream and whose output provides the values that are compressed by the defined compression technique, in response to the at least one change to the at least one external contextual condition. The defined compression technique of the at least one client device is altered in accordance with the one or more modifications to form a modified compression technique through which the unmodified or processed data stream will be compressed before being sent to the server.

Claims

1. A method for changing or modifying the compression technique employed by a client device transmitting a data stream to a server of a data collection system, the method comprising the steps of:

detecting at least one change to at least one external contextual condition;

selecting a different compression technique or modifying the parameters of the currently instantiated compression technique in response to the at least one change to the at least one external contextual condition; and

altering the currently instantiated compression technique of at least one client device in accordance with the one or more modifications to form a modified compression technique through which the data stream will be compressed before being sent to a server of the data collection system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of detecting at least one change and generating one or more modifications are performed at the server of the data collection system,

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of transmitting the one or more modifications from the server to the at least one client device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

compressing the data stream in accordance with the defined compression technique at the at least one client device; and

transmitting the compressed data stream from the at least one client device to the server.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

selecting the different compression technique in conjunction with modifying a set of sensor event processing operations currently instantiated on the client device; and

jointly altering the currently instantiated event processing operators and the compression technique applied on one or more sensor streams of at least one client device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

compressing the data stream in accordance with the modified compression technique at the at least one client device; and

transmitting the compressed data stream from the at least one client device to the server.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, in the step of transmitting the compressed data stream, the compressed data stream transmitted to the server comprises compressed versions of one or more data samples or compressed versions of one or more processed events generated by the application of event processing operators applied to one or more data samples.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein, in the step of transmitting the compressed data stream, the compressed data stream transmitted to the server comprises compressed versions of statistical parameters or higher-level features generated from one or more data samples.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting at least one change to at least one external contextual condition comprises the step of determining the at least one external contextual condition from at least a portion of data received from the client device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of detecting at least one change to at least one external contextual condition comprises the step of determining the at least one external contextual condition from at least one of an attribute of the at least one client device and at least one user of the at least one client device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of generating one or more modifications, the one or more modifications comprise a command to at least one of modify, activate and deactivate one or more compression techniques stored a-priori at the at least one client device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of generating one or more modifications, the modifications comprise context data that invokes a stored compression technique stored a-priori at the at least one client device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein, in the step of generating one or more modifications, the modifications comprise at least one of code and logic of a compression technique to be invoked at the at least one client device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the compression technique to be invoked comprises a lossless compression algorithm or a lossy compression algorithm.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of altering the compression technique further comprises the step of modifying one or more parameters of at least one currently instantiated compression technique on the at least one client device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of altering the compression technique further comprises the step of operating at least one currently instantiated compression technique on a different set of data streams.

17. A method for making a computer implemented process to modify a compression technique employed over a data stream in data collection system comprising the steps of:

instantiating first computer instructions onto a computer readable medium, the first computer instructions configured to detect at least one change to at least one external contextual condition;

instantiating second computer instructions onto a computer readable medium, the second computer instructions configured to generate one or more modifications to a defined compression technique in response to the at least one change to the at least one external contextual condition; and

instantiating third computer instructions onto a computer readable medium, the third computer instructions configured to alter the defined compression technique of at least one client device in accordance with the one or more modifications to form a modified compression technique through which the data stream will be compressed before being sent to a server of the data collection system.

18. Apparatus for modifying a compression technique employed over a data stream in data collection system, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

(i) detect at least one change to at least one external contextual condition of the data collection system, (ii) generate one or more modifications to a defined compression technique in response to the at least one change to the at least one external contextual condition, and (iii) transmit the one or more modifications to at least one client device of the data collection system.

19. Apparatus for modifying a compression technique employed over a data stream in data collection system, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory and operative to;

(i) receive one or more modifications from a server of the data collection system; and

(ii) alter a defined compression technique in accordance with the one or more modifications to form a modified compression technique through which the data stream will be compressed before being sent to the server.