MOBILE DEVICE LOSS PREVENTION

• US 20150179046A1
• Filed: 09/15/2014
• Published: 06/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stevens, Mark B., Wilson, John D.
• Granted Patent: US 9,881,481 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/24 Reminder alarms, e.g. anti-loss alarms
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method for a mobile device to prevent loss including monitoring environmental parameters by a mobile device; storing the environmental parameters in the mobile device to form a history of the environmental parameters; applying statistical analysis to a current set of environmental parameters as compared to the history of the environmental parameters to determine a probability that the mobile device is lost; and responsive to determining the probability that the mobile device is lost exceeds a threshold, performing an action to prevent loss of the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method for a mobile device to prevent loss comprising:

monitoring environmental parameters by a mobile device;

storing the environmental parameters in the mobile device to form a history of the environmental parameters;

applying statistical analysis to a current set of environmental parameters as compared to the history of the environmental parameters to determine a probability that the mobile device is lost; and

responsive to determining the probability that the mobile device is lost exceeds a threshold, performing an action to prevent loss of the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the history contains respective histories of a plurality of environmental parameters.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the history of environmental parameters is selected from a group consisting of location parameters, ambient parameters, operational functionality parameters, derivative parameters, and correlations between environmental parameters.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the environmental parameters are selected from a group consisting of an indication of location relative to another device, geographic location, temperature, device motion, device orientation, image capture analysis, audio capture analysis, battery depletion of the device, and analysis of the operational functionality of the device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of an audible alert, flashing a light, texting information to another device, emailing information to another device, and phoning information to another device.

6. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating statistical derivatives of the history of environmental parameters;

wherein applying statistical analysis to a current set of environmental parameters as compared to the history of the environmental parameters includes applying statistical analysis to statistical derivatives of the history of the environmental parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the mobile device is selected from a group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook and a laptop.

8. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

generating statistical derivatives of the history of environmental parameters;

wherein applying statistical analysis to a current set of environmental parameters as compared to the history of the environmental parameters includes applying statistical analysis to statistical derivatives of the history of the environmental parameters;

wherein the action is selected from a group consisting of an audible alert, flashing a light, texting information to another device, emailing information to another device, and phoning information to another device; and

wherein the mobile device is selected from a group consisting of a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smartphone, a tablet, a netbook and a laptop.

9-20. -20. (canceled)