METHOD, APPARATUS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR INVOKING LOCAL COMMUNICATION APPLICATION SERVICES

• US 20120044059A1
• Filed: 04/24/2009
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Saros, Jakob, Mattias, Eld
• Granted Patent: US 8,890,661 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/10.5
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• 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: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/562 Brokering proxy services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• 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

It is presented a method for invoking an application service in response to a tag reading by a mobile terminal. The method comprises the steps of: receiving an input message, the input message comprising data being associated with a tag read by the mobile terminal using local communication, the input message further comprising a recipient identifier linked to the mobile terminal; determining, using a plurality of parameters associated with the tag reading, a plurality of matching application servers, wherein conditions of a tag reading subscription for each of the matching application servers matches the plurality of parameters; and sending an invocation message to each of the matching application servers to invoke a respective application service of each of the matching application servers, the invocation message comprising the recipient identifier enabling each of the application services to send content to the user equipment and the tag data.

Claims

1. A method for invoking application services in response to a tag reading by a mobile terminal, the method comprising the steps, performed in a service broker server, of:

receiving an input message, the input message comprising tag data being associated with a tag read by the mobile terminal using local communication, the input message further comprising a recipient identifier linked to the mobile terminal;

determining, using a plurality of parameters associated with the tag reading, a plurality of matching application servers, wherein conditions of a tag reading subscription for each of the matching application servers matches the plurality of parameters; and

sending an invocation message to each of the matching application servers to invoke a respective application service of each of the matching application servers, the invocation message comprising the recipient identifier enabling each of the application services to send content to the user equipment and the tag data.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters are associated with at least two of the following:

a physical location of the tag being read, a deployment status of the tag, a time of day of the tag reading, and a date of the tag reading.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of receiving an input message, the input message is received from a tag manager server which stores data associated with the detected tag.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the tag manager server is located remotely from the service broker server.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of receiving an input message, the input message is received from an application server.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of receiving an input message, the input message is received from the mobile terminal.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the tag data is only sent to application servers being authorised to receive the tag data.

8. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step, prior to the step of sending an invocation message, of obtaining supplemental recipient data associated with the recipient, and wherein the step of determining uses one or more parameters of the recipient data to determine a match.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the step of determining, each of the plurality of application services is linked to the recipient identifier.

10. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step, prior to the step of sending an invocation message, of obtaining an application programming interface of at least one of the application services, and the invocation message comprises the data related to the application programming interface.

11. A service broker server for invoking application services in response to a tag reading by a mobile terminal, the service broker server comprising:

a controller;

a memory configured to store tag reading subscriptions;

a message receiver configured to receive an input message from the mobile terminal, the input message comprising a tag data associated with a tag read by the mobile terminal using local communication, the input message further comprising a recipient identifier linked to the mobile terminal;

a determiner configured to determine, using a plurality of parameters associated with the tag reading, a plurality of matching application servers, wherein conditions of a tag reading subscription for each of the application servers matches the plurality of parameters, wherein the tag reading subscription is stored in the memory; and

a message transmitter for sending an invocation message to each of the matching application servers to invoke a respective application service of each of the matching application servers, the invocation message comprising the recipient identifier enabling each of the application services to send content to the user equipment and the tag data.

12. A system comprising:

a service broker server according to claim 11; and

a tag manager server comprising a database configured to provide tag data for a specific tag identifier comprising data entries, wherein each data entry comprises a tag identifier and tag data;

a receiver configured to receive a tag identity message comprising a tag identifier;

a data retriever configured to retrieve tag data associated with the tag identifier of the tag identity message from the database; and

a transmitter configured to send the retrieved tag data to a service broker server for determining an application service.

13. A computer program product comprising a computer program for invoking application services in response to a tag detection by a mobile terminal and comprising a computer readable means on which the computer program is stored, the computer program comprising computer program code which, when run on a service broker server, causes the broker server to:

receive an input message, the input message comprising tag data being associated with a tag detected by the mobile terminal using local communication, the input message and a recipient identifier linked to the mobile terminal;

determine, using a plurality of parameters associated with the tag reading, a plurality of matching application servers, where conditions of a tag reading subscription for each of the matching application servers matches the plurality of parameters; and

send an invocation message to each of the matching application servers to invoke a respective application service of each of the matching application servers, the invocation message comprising the recipient identifier enabling each of the application services to send content to the user equipment and the tag data.

14. (canceled)