Establishing Directed Communication Based Upon Physical Interaction Between Two Devices

• US 20140220896A1
• Filed: 01/30/2014
• Published: 08/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scenera Mobile Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Original Assignee: Scenera Mobile Technologies LLC (Scenera Research LLC)
• Inventors: Fry, Jared S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,191,773 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/41.2
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5038 for local use, e.g. in LAN or USB networks, or in a controller area network [CAN]
• 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
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 48/16 Discovering, processing access restriction or access information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/26 Network addressing or numbering for mobility support

Abstract

Establishing communication with a device includes detecting, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device; at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction; and automatically wirelessly transferring content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions for establishing communication with a device, the program instructions, when executed by a processor, for:

detecting, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device;

at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

automatically wirelessly transferring content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device a network address includes generating the network address based on the information associated with the physical interaction.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2 wherein generating the network address is based on a tapping characteristic of the physical interaction.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3 wherein the tapping characteristic of the physical interaction is a signature of a tapping sequence.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the information associated with the detected physical interaction includes at least one of timing information and acceleration information.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising program instructions for determining a role for the first device.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein determining the role for the first device includes determining whether the first device is accelerated prior to the physical interaction.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising program instructions for using the network address in a virtual network layer that resides on top of an existing network infrastructure.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising program instructions for using the network address in an application layer.

10. A method for establishing communication with a device, the method comprising:

detecting, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device;

at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

automatically wirelessly transferring content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.

11. A network-enabled device comprising:

a motion detection module configured to detect a physical interaction between the network-enabled device and a second network-enabled device;

a processor configured to at least one of obtain at the first device and provide to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

a wireless communication transceiver configured to automatically wirelessly transfer content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.

12. The network-enabled device of claim 11 further comprising an address generator configured to generate the network address based on the characteristics of the physical interaction signal.

13. The network-enabled device of claim 12 wherein the address generator is configured to generate the network address representative of a signature based on time between taps.

14. The network-enabled device of claim 11 wherein the network enabled device is configured to determine a role for the network-enabled device, wherein the roles include a responder that sends a message directed to the generated network address and an initiator that provides for assigning the network address to the network-enabled device for receiving a message directed to the network address.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing program instructions for establishing communication with a device, the program instructions for:

detecting, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device;

at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

providing for at least one of receiving a message directed to the network address and providing a message directed to the network address.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein obtaining the network address includes determining the network address based on a tapping characteristic of the physical interaction.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the tapping characteristic of the physical interaction is a signature of a tapping sequence.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 wherein at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device a network address includes:

sending a request for assignment of the network address based on information derived from the detected physical interaction to a server; and

receiving the network address from the server.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising program instructions for registering the network address with a network node to allow the second device to communicate with the first device using the registered network address.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising program instructions for using the network address in a virtual network layer that resides on top of an existing network infrastructure.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising program instructions for using the network address in an application layer.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising program instructions for using the network address as a network alias.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 further comprising program instructions for automatically wirelessly transferring content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.

24. A method for establishing communication with a device, the method comprising:

detecting, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device;

at least one of obtaining at the first device and providing to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

providing for at least one of receiving a message directed to the network address and providing a message directed to the network address.

25. A network-enabled device comprising:

a communication transceiver for communicating over a network;

a motion detection module configured to detect, at a first device, a physical interaction between the first device and a second device;

a processor configured to;

at least one of obtain at the first device and provide to the second device, a network address usable for establishing communication between the first device and the second device, the network address identified based on information associated with the detected physical interaction, wherein obtaining the network address includes a wireless communication of the network address involving the first device; and

provide for at least one of, via the communication transceiver, receiving a message directed to the network address and providing a message directed to the network address.

26. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the communication transceiver is configured to:

send a request for assignment of the network address based on the information derived from the detected physical interaction to a server; and

receive the network address from the server.

27. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to register, via the communication transceiver, the network address with a network node to allow the second device to communicate with the first device using the registered network address.

28. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to use the network address in a virtual network layer that resides on top of an existing network infrastructure.

29. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the processor is configured use the network address in an application layer.

30. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to use the network address as a network alias.

31. The network-enabled device of claim 25 wherein the processor is configured to automatically wirelessly transfer content using the network address, wherein transferring content includes at least one of receiving content at the first device from the second device and providing content from the first device to the second device.