COMPUTING DEVICE LOCATION

• US 20090113079A1
• Filed: 10/24/2007
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/24/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Jaeger, Brian J., Sremaniak, Shawn K., Eren, Selcuk S., Law, Douglas A., Roberts, Paul A.
• Granted Patent: US 8,880,740 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/9
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/0289 of multiple transceivers, e.g. in ad hoc networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention address deficiencies of the art in respect to computing device location and provide a novel and non-obvious method, system and computer program product for visually locating a computing device. In one embodiment of the invention, a computing device location method can include establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, wirelessly broadcasting the filter criteria in a discovery request to in range peripheral locators coupled to computing devices, aggregating a list of discovered peripheral locators meeting the filter criteria, selecting at least one of the peripheral locators in the list, and interrogating the selected peripheral locators to retrieve data provided by corresponding ones of the computing devices. Additionally, a display element in each of the discovered peripheral locators can be illuminated upon discovering the peripheral locators. Likewise, a display element can be illuminated in the selected peripheral locators upon selecting the peripheral locators.

Claims

1. A computing device location method comprising:

establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic;

wirelessly broadcasting the filter criteria in a discovery request to in range peripheral locators coupled to computing devices;

aggregating a list of discovered peripheral locators meeting the filter criteria;

selecting at least one of the peripheral locators in the list; and

,

interrogating selected ones of the peripheral locators to retrieve data provided by corresponding ones of the computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common status.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common device type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by at least one of a common device owner, product code, company code and machine type/model.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising illuminating a display element in each of the discovered peripheral locators.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising illuminating a display element in the selected ones of the peripheral locators.

7. A computing device location data processing system comprising:

a plurality of peripheral locators each configured for communicative coupling to a corresponding computing device; and

,

a peripheral locator reader configured for wireless communication with the peripheral locators, the peripheral locator reader comprising program code enabled to establish filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, to wirelessly broadcast the filter criteria in a discovery request to in range ones of the peripheral locators, to aggregate a list of discovered peripheral locators meeting the filter criteria, to select at least one of the peripheral locators in the list, and to interrogate selected ones of the peripheral locators to retrieve data provided by corresponding ones of the computing devices.

8. The system of claim 7, where each of the peripheral locators comprises:

a wireless communications system;

a microcontroller;

memory; and

,

a host interface configured to permit a corresponding coupled one of the computing devices to write data to the memory.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising a display element activatable to indicate discovery by the peripheral locator reader.

10. The system of claim 8, further comprising a display element activatable to indicate selection by the peripheral locator reader.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless communications system comprises one of a radio frequency identification (RFID) system, a bluetooth communications system, and an infrared communications system.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the host interface comprises a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the host interface comprises a data bus.

14. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium embodying computer usable program code for computing device location, the computer program product comprising:

computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic;

computer usable program code for wirelessly broadcasting the filter criteria in a discovery request to in range peripheral locators coupled to computing devices;

computer usable program code for aggregating a list of discovered peripheral locators meeting the filter criteria;

computer usable program code for selecting at least one of the peripheral locators in the list; and

,

computer usable program code for interrogating selected ones of the peripheral locators to retrieve data provided by corresponding ones of the computing devices.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common status.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by one of a common device type, product code, company code and machine type/model.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common characteristic, comprises computer usable program code for establishing filter criteria grouping different computing devices by common device owner.

18. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising computer usable program code for illuminating a display element in each of the discovered peripheral locators.

19. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising computer usable program code for illuminating a display element in the selected ones of the peripheral locators.