METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MONITORING ACTIVITY OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20140244827A1
• Filed: 02/25/2013
• Published: 08/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Network Entertainment International LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: MCCOY, Charles, XIONG, True, WONG, Ling Jun
• Granted Patent: US 9,559,860 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2827 Reporting to a device within the home network; wherein the reception of the information reported automatically triggers the execution of a home appliance functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/08 Monitoring or testing based on specific metrics, e.g. QoS, energy consumption or environmental parameters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

An apparatus and method for monitoring activity of a device. The method includes associating one or more monitoring devices with an electronic device. Rules that have been established to define acceptable content that can be accessed by the electronic device are accessed. Requested content, which is requested by the electronic device, is identified. The requested content is compared to the established rules. An alert condition is generated when the requested content violates the established rules. An alert signal is provided to the one or more monitoring devices based on the alert condition

Claims

1. A method for monitoring activity of an electronic device comprising:

associating one or more monitoring devices with one or more electronic devices;

generating a record for each of the one or more electronic devices based on an operational state of the particular electronic device; and

transmitting the record from each electronic device to one or more of the monitoring devices.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the operational state comprises one or more device settings.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

accessing established rules for acceptable content that can be accessed by the electronic device;

identifying requested content that is requested by the electronic device;

comparing requested content to the established rules;

generating an alert condition when the requested content violates the established rules; and

providing an alert signal to the one or more monitoring devices based on the alert condition.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the alert condition further comprises:

identifying intercept content; and

providing the intercept content to the electronic device.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

providing a representation of requested content on the monitoring devices.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 wherein the representation includes a picture-in-picture.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying additional electronic devices associated with a user account; and

providing an indication of additional functionality based on the identified additional electronic devices.

8. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

generating an accumulation of requested content.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

providing the accumulation of requested content to other electronic devices.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising:

generating advertisement content based on the accumulation of requested content; and

transmitting the advertisement to selected electronic devices.

11. The method as claimed in claim 3, further comprising:

monitoring requested content utilizing protocol data.

12. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

establishing setting control data for a particular electronic device; and

modifying one or more settings of another electronic device based on the setting control data.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the modifying step further comprises modifying the one or more settings of the other electronic device proportionally based on the setting control data.

14. A method for monitoring activity of a device comprising:

associating one or more monitoring devices with an electronic device;

accessing established rules for acceptable content that can be accessed by the electronic device;

identifying requested content that is requested by the electronic device;

comparing requested content to the established rules;

generating an alert condition when the requested content violates the established rules; and

providing an alert signal to the one or more monitoring devices based on the alert condition.

15. A method for monitoring activity of a module of an electronic device comprising:

associating an electronic device with one or more activity modules;

establishing activity parameters for activities of the activity module;

identifying actuation of one or more of the activity parameters of the activity module;

generating an accumulation of identified actuations; and

providing the accumulation of identified actuations utilizing a pre-selected protocol.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

displaying various permutations of the accumulation of identified actuations.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

publishing accumulation of identified actuations for each activity module of an electronic device.

18. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

logging the accumulation of identified actuations,

wherein the logging is based on code module, event or priority.

19. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

sending a notification of the accumulation to one or more of the electronic devices.

20. The method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

modifying the logging step utilizing settings.

21. The method as claimed in claim 18, wherein the logging further comprises:

logging an event for a period of time, based on the code module, event or priority.

22. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

integrating the activity module with an automation system.

23. The method as claimed in claim 22, wherein an electronic device, being operatively coupled to one or more activity modules, publishes a feed through a network connection with an event message, and

monitoring the event message to control additional modules or electronic devices.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the feed includes an RSS feed.

25. A method for monitoring a remote server comprising:

registering one or more remote servers as listening devices for one or more associated electronic devices;

monitoring activity of the one or more associated electronic devices;

generating one or more activity notices based on the activity of the one or more associated electronic devices, as the activity occurs, at the associated electronic devices; and

accumulating activity notices, at the one or more server locations, for a plurality of associated electronic devices.

26. The method as claimed in claim 25, wherein the monitoring activity step further comprises:

monitoring a channel that one of the associated electronic devices is tuned at a particular time.

27. The method as claimed in claim 25, further comprising:

utilizing one or more of the associated electronic devices to perform diagnostic tasks.