Automatic Annunciator Allocation

• US 20120122428A1
• Filed: 11/15/2010
• Published: 05/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vibrant Licensing LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Empire Technology Development LLC (Allied Inventors Management, LLC)
• Inventors: Stephens, James H. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 8,683,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/412.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/20 Services signaling; Auxiliary data signalling, i.e. transmitting data via a non-traffic channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

Technologies described herein generally relate to allocating annunciators to provide annunciations in response to annunciation requests in a computing device. The computing device may include a platform application, which may be configured to receive annunciation requests from applications for providing annunciations. The platform application may discover annunciators capable of providing the at least one annunciation. The platform application may schedule the annunciation request with one of the discovered annunciators and upon scheduling the annunciation request with one of the discovered annunciator, may cause the scheduled annunciator to provide the annunciation in response to the annunciation request. The technologies presented herein can allocate annunciators according to the demands of a user by determining a prioritization level of an annunciation request and an attention limit of the computing device such that the computing device can manage multiple annunciation requests without inundating a user with extraneous annunciations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for allocating annunciators, comprising:

receiving, from an application through a computing device having a processor and a memory, an annunciation request to provide an annunciation;

discovering, through the computing device, annunciators capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request;

scheduling, through the computing device, the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation; and

providing, through the computing device, the annunciation via the annunciator in response to the annunciation request and according to the scheduling.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein discovering annunciators capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request comprises discovering annunciators associated with the computing device and annunciators associated with remote devices in communication with the computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein discovering annunciators capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request, comprises:

identifying a candidate annunciator associated with the computing device;

upon identifying a candidate annunciator associated with the computing device, determining if the candidate annunciator is available for providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request;

upon determining that the candidate annunciator is available for providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request, adding the candidate annunciator as an available annunciator in a list of available annunciators;

monitoring an availability of the available annunciators in the list of available annunciators; and

updating the list of available annunciators to reflect changes to the availability of the available annunciators in the list of available annunciators.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving an annunciation request to provide an annunciation comprises receiving the annunciation request from an application operating on the computing device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving an annunciation request to provide an annunciation comprises receiving the annunciation request from an application operating on a remote device coupled to the computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving an annunciation request to provide an annunciation comprises receiving at least one of an application identifier indicating the application that issued the annunciation request, a type of annunciator desired to provide the annunciation, or a prioritization level of the annunciation request.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising

determining a power mode at which the computing device is operating;

and

wherein scheduling the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation comprises;

upon determining a power mode at which the computing device is operating, selecting, from the discovered annunciators, the annunciator that is configured to provide the annunciation in response to the annunciation request at the power mode at which the computing device is operating; and

scheduling the annunciation request with the selected annunciator to provide the annunciation.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving an annunciation request from an application associated with the computing device comprises:

receiving, from the application that issued the annunciation request, a type of annunciator configured to provide a particular type of annunciation; and

wherein scheduling the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation comprises;

selecting, from the discovered annunciators, the annunciator that is configured to provide the particular type of annunciation in response to annunciation request; and

scheduling the annunciation request with the selected annunciator to provide the annunciation.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein scheduling the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation comprises:

identifying pending annunciation requests to which an annunciation has yet to be provided;

upon identifying the pending annunciation requests, determining a prioritization level associated with each of the pending annunciation requests; and

upon determining a prioritization level associated with each of the pending annunciation requests, prioritizing the pending annunciation requests according to the prioritization level of each of the pending annunciation requests such that annunciations for the pending annunciation requests where the prioritization level is higher is provided prior to the annunciations for the pending annunciation requests where the prioritization level is lower.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein determining a prioritization level associated with each of the pending annunciation requests comprises:

identifying the application that issued the pending annunciation request;

determining a priority level of the application; and

assigning the prioritization level to the pending annunciation request, the prioritization level corresponding to the priority level of the application.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining if the computing device is operating in a declutter mode;

upon determining that the computing device is operating in a declutter mode, determining a prioritization level of the annunciation request;

determining if the prioritization level of the annunciation request is higher than a threshold prioritization level;

upon determining that the prioritization level of the annunciation request is higher than the threshold prioritization level, providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request; and

upon determining that the prioritization level of the annunciation request is not higher than the threshold prioritization level, delaying providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request until the computing device is no longer operating in the declutter mode.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein providing the annunciation via the annunciator in response to the annunciation request comprises:

determining if the computing device is operating in an available mode in which the computing device is configured to provide the annunciation in response to the annunciation request;

upon determining that the computing device is operating in the available mode, instantly providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request;

upon determining that the computing device is not operating in the available mode, determining if the computing device is operating in a reduced availability mode in which the computing device is configured to provide an annunciation in response to selective annunciation requests;

upon determining that the computing device is operating in the reduced availability mode, determining a prioritization level of the annunciation request;

determining if the prioritization level of the annunciation request is higher than a threshold prioritization level;

upon determining that the prioritization level of the annunciation request is higher than the threshold prioritization level, instantly providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request; and

upon determining that the prioritization level of the annunciation request is not higher than the threshold prioritization level, providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request when the computing device transitions from operating in the reduced availability mode to the available mode.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the annunciation request comprises an associated time value of content function indicating a value of annunciating the content over a period of time and an associated annunciator cost function indicating a cost for executing the annunciation request;

and

wherein scheduling the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation comprises scheduling the annunciation request with the annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation according to the associated time value of content function and the associated annunciator cost function.

14. A computing device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

a plurality of annunciators configured to provide annunciations; and

a platform application configured to execute in the processor from the memory, and when executed by the processor, causes the processor to

receive an annunciation request from an application operating on the computing device,

discover an annunciator from the plurality of annunciators configured to provide an annunciation in response to the annunciation request,

schedule the annunciation request with the annunciator from the plurality of annunciators to provide the annunciation, and

provide, via the annunciator, the annunciation in response to the annunciation request and according to the schedule.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the annunciator is configured to provide at least one of a visual annunciation, an audio annunciation, or a vibratory annunciation.

16. The computing device of claim 14 wherein the annunciator comprises at least one of a light emitting component, a graphical icon, an audio emitting component, or a vibration generating component.

17. The computing device of claim 14, wherein when an annunciator from the plurality of annunciators configured to provide an annunciation in response to the annunciation request is discovered, the platform application, when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to discover annunciators associated with the computing device and annunciators associated with remote devices in communication with the computing device.

18. The computing device of claim 14, further comprising a user input component configured to allow a user to provide a user response when the processor provides the annunciation.

19. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the annunciation request comprises at least one of an application identifier indicating the application that issued the annunciation request, a type of annunciator desired to provide the annunciation, or a prioritization level of the annunciation request.

20. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the plurality of annunciators configured to provide annunciations comprises:

a first annunciator that is configured to provide the annunciation when the annunciation request is issued by more than one application; and

a second annunciator that is configured to provide the annunciation when the annunciation request is issued by only one application.

21. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the platform application when executed by the processor, further causes the processor to operate the computing device in a declutter mode such that a first annunciation is provided in response to a first annunciation request having a first prioritization level and a second annunciation is not provided in response to a second annunciation request having a second prioritization level.

22. A computer readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

receive, from an application through a computing device having a processor and a memory, an annunciation request to provide an annunciation;

discover, through the computing device, annunciators capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request;

schedule, through the computing device, the annunciation request with an annunciator from the discovered annunciators to provide the annunciation; and

provide, through the computing device, the annunciation via the annunciator in response to the annunciation request and according to the schedule.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22 having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to:

determine if a remote device is capable of communicating with the computer;

when the remote device is determined as being capable of communicating with the computer, establish communications between the computer and the remote device;

discover, on the remote device, annunciators capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request; and

when the remote device is determined as being capable of providing the annunciation in response to the annunciation request, schedule the annunciation request with an annunciator on the remote device to provide the annunciation.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, wherein to receive the annunciation request to provide the annunciation, the computer readable storage medium, when executed by the computer, further causes the computer to receive a request to utilize a particular type of annunciator for providing the annunciation;

and

wherein the computer readable storage medium having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the computer, causes the computer to;

when a request to utilize a particular type of annunciator for providing the annunciation is received, discover an annunciator of the particular type of annunciator capable of providing an annunciation;

when an annunciator of the particular type of annunciator is discovered, schedule the annunciation request with the annunciator of the particular type; and

provide, via the annunciator of the particular type, the annunciation in response to the annunciation request.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22 having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to:

when an annunciation is provided, receive a user response; and

when the user response is received, cease to provide the annunciator.