TRIGGERING OF A SOFTWARE APPLICATION BY THE USE OF A CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION

• US 20150100597A1
• Filed: 02/20/2013
• Published: 04/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent SA (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Pastor, Alain
• Granted Patent: US 10,318,522 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• 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: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/021 Services related to particular areas, e.g. point of interest [POI] services, venue services or geofences
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A method for triggering a software application accessible from a mobile terminal connected to a communication network and using at least one physical object, comprising:

• • a step of selecting an application from among an available set of applications,
  • a step of delimiting at least one geographic area on a cartographic representation (i.e. a map), by the user of the mobile terminal,
  • a step of automatically determining a set of active physical objects located in the at least one geographic area and having an interface with the communication network,
  • a step of interfacing said application with the subset of physical objects among said set of physical objects.

Claims

1. ) A method for triggering a software application accessible from a mobile terminal connected to a communication network and using at least one physical object, comprising:

selecting an application from among an available set of applications,

delimiting on a screen of the mobile terminal at least one geographic area on a cartographic representation, by the user of said mobile terminal,

the method further comprising;

accessing a description of the selected application, the description comprising requirements of said application,

automatically determining a set of active physical objects located in said at least one geographic area and having an interface with said communication network, the automatic determination comprising a comparison of the geographic positions of the active physical objects referenced in a database with the characteristics of the at least one geographic area,

searching for a subset of active physical objects from among said set of active physical objects, the physical object of the subset meeting at least one requirement indicated in the description of said application,

interfacing said application with the subset of physical objects.

2. ) A method according to claim 1, wherein said subset is dynamically determined based on said set of active physical objects and on the geographic location of said mobile terminal.

3. ) A method according to claim 1, in which said at least one area is formed of two separate geographic areas and said application deploys a single application session in both geographic areas.

4. ) A method according to claim 1, in which said at least one geographic area comprises a path.

5. ) A method according to claim 1, in which said automatic determination of a set of physical objects is dynamically performed at the same time as said delimiting of at least one geographic area.

6. ) A method according to claim 1, in which the description of the application is stored in a second database.

7. ) A method according to claim 1, in which the terminal informs the user if the subset of physical objects does not meet all the requirements present in the application'"'"'s description.

8. ) A method according to claim 7, wherein the terminal proposes expanding the geographic area in response to detecting that the subset of physical objects does not need all the requirements present in the application'"'"'s description.

9. ) A method according to claim 7, wherein the terminal proposes choosing another geographic area in response to detecting that the subset of physical objects does not need all the requirements present in the application'"'"'s description.

10. ) A method according to claim 7, wherein the terminal indicates a missing type of physical object in response to detecting that the subset of physical objects does not need all the requirements present in the application'"'"'s description.

11. ) A method according to claim 7, wherein the terminal proposes an operation of the application in safe mode in response to detecting that the subset of physical objects does not need all the requirements present in the application'"'"'s description.

13. ) A computer program having code means provided for implementing the method according to claim 1 when deployed on a communication terminal.

12. ) A communication terminal having a human-machine interface comprising a screen that makes it possible to display a cartographic representation, first control means for selecting an application from among a set of available applications, and second control means for delimiting on the screen of the terminal at least one geographic area on said cartographic representation, said terminal further comprising means for obtaining a description of the selected application, the description comprising the requirements of said application, processing means for automatically determining a set of active physical objects located in said at least one geographic area and having an interface with a communication network, the automatic determining comprising a comparison of the geographic positions of the active physical objects present in a database with characteristics of the at least one geographic area, means of selection for searching for a subset of active physical objects among said set of active physical objects, the physical objects of the subset meeting at least one requirement indicated in the description of said application, and for interfacing said application with the subset of physical objects.