DEVICE SENSOR AND ACTUATION FOR WEB PAGES

• US 20130007192A1
• Filed: 06/28/2011
• Published: 01/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Villar, Nicolas, Scott, James, Hodges, Stephen Edward, Schmidt, Albrecht
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,848 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks

Abstract

An embedded device sensor and actuation web page access system and method for providing a web application (such as a web page) access to sensor data about an embedded device and access to actuation mechanisms (such as vibration) associated with the device. The system and method can use the sensor data to obtain context information about the embedded device and understand what a user of the device is doing at any given moment. The sensor data can be used by the web application to influence how content is served up to the user. In some embodiments, the sensor data is provided to the web server using the headers in HTTP requests. Moreover, actuation commands for actuation mechanisms on the embedded device are provided using the headers of HTTP responses. Embodiments of the system and method provide a website access to sensor data and actuation commands without changing website operation.

Claims

1. A method for providing sensor data to a web server, comprising:

collecting the sensor data about a current context of an embedded device using at least one sensor in communication with the web server;

sending the sensor data to the web server;

determining content to serve up based on the sensor data to obtain customized content that is customized for the current context of the embedded device; and

sending the customized content from the web server to the embedded device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising inserting the sensor data into a header of an HTTP request from the embedded device to the web server.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a URL string containing a URL of a website hosted on the web server;

encoding sensor data in the URL string to obtain an encoded URL string; and

sending the encoded URL string from the embedded device to the web server to provide the web server with the sensor data.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the customized content that will be displayed to a user on the embedded device based on the sensor data; and

displaying the customized content to the user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a web application running on the web server with access to raw sensor data that has not been processed.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

preprocessing the sensor data within the embedded device to obtain processed sensor data; and

providing a web application running on the web server with access to processed sensor data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing to the web server additional sensor data about a current context of additional embedded devices being used by multiple users; and

using a web application running on the web server to provide coordinated content to the multiple users through the additional embedded devices based on the additional sensor data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing to the web server additional sensor data about current context of multiple embedded devices being used by a same user that is using the embedded device; and

serving the customized content from the web server to the multiple embedded devices and the embedded device based on the current context of the multiple embedded devices being used by the same user.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

detecting which of the multiple embedded devices currently have the user'"'"'s attention based on the additional sensor data; and

sending an actuation command from the web server to any of the multiple embedded devices that currently do not have the user'"'"'s attention to place them in a standby mode.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

using the web application to provide coordinated content to the same user through the multiple embedded devices based on the additional sensor data; and

sending the coordinated content from the web server to the multiple embedded devices and the embedded device in order to coordinate an output between the multiple embedded devices and the embedded device.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending actuation commands from the web server to the embedded device to facilitate access to actuation mechanisms contained on the embedded device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

collecting the sensor data from at least one sensor located on the embedded device;

placing the sensor data into a header of an HTTP request for a web page by a user of the embedded device;

sending the HTTP request containing the sensor data over the Web to the web server to provide the sensor data to the web server;

determining the customized content to be displayed on the requested web page based on the sensor data to obtain a custom web page that is customized for the embedded device based on the sensor data;

generating actuation commands to augment the customized content on the custom web page;

placing the actuation commands in a header of an HTTP response; and

sending the HTTP response containing the actuation commands along with the custom web page from the web server to the embedded device.

13. A method for providing actuation commands to an embedded device, comprising:

using a web application running on a web server to generate actuation commands based on sensor data about the embedded device; and

sending the actuation commands from the web server to the embedded device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising activating at least one actuation mechanism on the embedded device based on the actuation commands in order to provide feedback to a user of the embedded device.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising using the actuation commands to power off the embedded device, power on the embedded device, place the embedded device in a standby mode, or cause the embedded device to vibrate.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising inserting the actuation commands into a header of an HTTP response from the web server to the embedded device.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

placing metadata containing the actuation commands in a web page in response to a request by the embedded device for the web page; and

sending the web page from the web server to the embedded device.

18. A method for making sensor data about an embedded device available to a web server, comprising:

collecting the sensor data about a current context of an embedded device using at least one sensor in communication with the web server;

sending the sensor data to the web server; and

storing the sensor data on the web server to obtain a history of sensor data that is stored on the web server.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising returning content from the web server to the embedded device based on the history of sensor data stored on the web server.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

receiving a request from the embedded device to the web server; and

returning content from the web server to the embedded device based on sensor data contained in the request and a subset of the history of sensor data stored on the web server.