CONTEXT AWARE WIRELESS INFORMATION SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100222080A1
• Filed: 10/05/2007
• Published: 09/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/05/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Daniele Miorandi, David Tacconi, Francesco D.E. Pellegrini, Iacopo Carreras
• Original Assignee: Daniele Miorandi, David Tacconi, Francesco D.E. Pellegrini, Iacopo Carreras
• Inventors: De Pellegrini, Francesco, Tacconi, David, Carreras, Iacopo, Miorandi, Daniele
• Application Number:
  US12/681,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20100222080A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/456.300
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/10 Small scale networks; Flat hierarchical networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 92/18 between terminal devices

Abstract

The invention relates to a system and method for providing context-aware services in pervasive computing environments. Specifically it targets environments where a plurality of intermittently connected portable computing devices interact with each other and possibly a plurality of embedded computing devices, that can be fixed in a certain environment. Said portable computing devices communicate with each other via some forms of proximity wireless communications when getting within mutual communication range. Said embedded devices can communicate with said portable devices via a wireless communication interface when getting within mutual communication range. The method proposed is particularly suited for transparent dissemination (i.e., requiring no explicit user intervention) of contextual information, in the form of data which relates to the context the user is in. Some examples of specific forms of contextual information include, but are not limited to: location information, time information, user activity information, information on locally available resources.

Claims

1. A method for providing context information between at least two portable devices, each comprising at least a user profile and information related to the environment where said portable devices are located,

characterized in that:

said context information is obtained by correlating information related to said user profile of at least one of said portable devices and information related to the environment where said portable devices are located, said information related to the environment being present on at least one of said portable devices,

and in that;

one of devices in the active state contacts a device in passive state, giving a description information about said user profile or said information related to the environment

said device in passive state enquires its local repository to check the presence of data matching said description information

if said data matching said description information are present, then a detailed description of the information present on the passive device is sent to the active device and data are exchanged between the devices

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said information related to user profile or to the environment are expressed in the form of subject-predicate-object as in RDF or pars <

attribute,value>

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the portable devices communicate employing a short range communication system and the exchange of information is realized by employing layer 2 protocols.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the short range communication system is Bluetooth and the exchange of information is realized by employing layer 2 protocols.

5. The method of claims 3-4 wherein the exchange of information is realized by employing the RFCOMM or BNEP protocols.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the portable devices communicate via wifi and the exchange of information is realized by employing the OBEX protocol.

7. The method of claims 3-6 where the information exchanged relates to an update of the T9 dictionary, said update comprising additional words matching the interest of the user profile and the characteristics of the environment where said embedded devices are set

8. The method of claim 3-6 wherein the information exchange relates to advertisement matching the user profile

13. A computer readable medium having computer executable instructions therein, which, when executed by a computer performs the method of claims 1-6.

9. A system for providing context information between at least two portable devices each comprising at lest a user profile and information related to the environment where said portable devices are located, characterized in that said portable devices comprise:

computing means for obtaining context information by carrying out a correlation of information related to said user profile of at least one of said portable devices and information related to the environment where said portable devices are located, said information related to the environment being present on at least one of said portable devices,

computing means operative connected to wireless communication means and user input means so that the device in the active state contacts a device in passive state, giving a description information about said user profile or said information related to the environment

computing means for executing enquires on its local repository to check the presence of data matching said description information

computing means connected to said communication means for sending a detailed description of the information present on the passive device to the active device if said data matching said description information are present.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein said computing means and said communication means of said portable devices are configured to support BNEP or OBEX protocols

11. The system of claim 9 wherein said computing means of said portable devices are configured to update the T9 dictionary.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein said computing means of said portable devices are configured to exchange advertisements