CONTEXT PLATFORM

• US 20130290247A1
• Filed: 06/25/2013
• Published: 10/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Parks, Gregory
• Application Number:
  US13/927,062
• Publication Number:
  US 20130290247A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking

Abstract

A network accessible context store holds a plurality of different context items. Each context item includes one or more context-describing values. An arbitration engine resolves conflicting requests to assign different context-describing values to a context item held in the network-accessible context store.

Claims

1. A computing machine, comprising:

a network-accessible context store holding a plurality of different context items, each context item including one or more context-describing values;

an input for receiving a context-describing value from a context provider via a communication network, the context-describing value assignable to a context item of the network-accessible context store, the context item configured to receive context-describing values from different context providers;

an arbitration engine configured to resolve conflicting requests to assign a context-describing value to a context item held in the network-accessible context store; and

an output for sending a context-describing value from a context item of the network-accessible context store to a context consumer via the communication network.

2. The computing machine of claim 1, where a context item of the plurality of context items includes permissions defining computing systems, users, or processes that have permission to access the context item, and where getting or setting context-describing values for the context item is forbidden to any computing system, user, or process not having permission to access the context item.

3. The computing machine of claim 1, where a context item of the plurality of context items includes a listing of context consumers subscribing to the context item.

4. The computing machine of claim 3, where the context item includes, for each context consumer subscribing to the context item, subscription parameters indicating which alterations to context-describing values are to trigger a callback method.

5. The computing machine of claim 4, where the context item includes, for each subscription parameter, identification of the callback method to be triggered.

6. The computing machine of claim 1, where a context item of the plurality of context items includes a specification of how the context item is related to another context item.

7. The computing machine of claim 1, where a context item includes a friendly name providing a human-readable identification of the context item.

8. The computing machine of claim 1, where a context item includes an indication of a physical location of a sensor of the context provider that last updated a context-describing value of the context item.

9. The computing machine of claim 1, where the context item includes an archival log of previous context-describing values.

10. The computing machine of claim 1, where the network-accessible context store is configured to hold only state information, and where domain interpreters are configured to apply logic for altering context items in the network-accessible context store.

11. The computing machine of claim 1, where the context-describing value is a quantified value of a physical world phenomenon measured by a sensor of the context provider.

12. The computing machine of claim 1, where the context-describing value is derived from a logical operation performed by a logic module of the context provider.

13. The computing machine of claim 1, where the context-describing value is useable by an effector device of the context consumer to alter a quantifiable phenomenon of a physical world.

14. The computing machine of claim 1, where the network-accessible context store is configured to suspend execution between context-describing value inputs and outputs.

15. The computing machine of claim 14, where the network-accessible context store is configured to not consume any processing cycles when suspended.

16. The computing machine of claim 1, where at least one of the plurality of context items is defined differently than any other context item held by the network-accessible context store.

17. A computing machine, comprising:

a network-accessible context store holding a plurality of different context items, each context item including one or more context-describing values, and at least one of the plurality of context items defined differently than any other context item held by the network-accessible context store;

an input for receiving a context-describing value from a context provider via a communication network, the context-describing value assignable to a context item of the network-accessible context store, the context item configured to receive context-describing values from different context providers; and

an output for sending a context-describing value from a context item of the network-accessible context store to a context consumer via the communication network.

18. A computer-executable method of managing context for a plurality of different domain interpreters, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a first context-describing value from a context provider via a communication network;

receiving, at the computing device, a second context-describing value from a context provider via the communication network, the second context-describing value conflicting with the first context-describing value;

arbitrating, at the computing device, conflicting requests to assign the first context-describing value and the second context-describing value to a context item held in a network-accessible context store;

assigning, at the computing device, an arbitration-winning context-describing value selected from the first context-describing value and the second context-describing value to the context item; and

responsive to receiving a request from a context consumer, outputting, from the computing device, the arbitration-winning context-describing value of the context item to the context consumer via the communication network.

19. The method of claim 18, where arbitrating conflicting requests includes arbitrating based on prioritization of context provider from which context-describing value is received.

20. The method of claim 18, where arbitrating conflicting requests includes selecting a last received context-describing value.