CONSTRAINED ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING BASED ON DATA PRIVILEGES

• US 20160070920A1
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leeo, Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Leeo, Incorporated
• Inventors: Joshi, Nina S., Gettings, Adam M., Chan, Eddy Y., Stevens, Andrew G., Ivers, Lucas D., Hovland, Bjorn H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,865,016 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1393 characterised by the use of electric means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3452 Performance evaluation by statistical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/52 during program execution, e.g. stack integrity ; Preventing unwanted data erasure; Buffer overflow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0252 based on events or environment, e.g. weather or festivals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/163 Real estate management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0806 for initial configuration or provisioning, e.g. plug-and-play
• 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 67/12 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 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 : Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 : Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

A sensor mechanism in an environmental monitoring device provides sensor data that represents an environmental condition in an external environment that includes the environmental monitoring device. Then, a control mechanism in the environmental monitoring device generates subsets of the sensor data based on data privileges of different entities, where the data privileges of at least some of the entities are different from each other, and at least some of the corresponding subsets of the sensor data are different. For example, the data privileges may specify: different spatial extents in the external environment monitored by the sensor mechanism; and/or different types of information associated with the external environment. Next, an interface circuit in the environmental monitoring device provides the subsets of the sensor data to electronic devices associated with the entities.

Claims

1. An environmental monitoring device, comprising:

a sensor mechanism configured to provide sensor data for an external environment that includes the environmental monitoring device, wherein the sensor data represents an environmental condition in the external environment;

an interface circuit configured to communicate with electronic devices of entities; and

a control mechanism, coupled to the sensor mechanism and the interface circuit, configured to;

receive the sensor data;

generate subsets of the sensor data based on data privileges of the entities, wherein the data privileges of at least some of the entities are different and at least some of the corresponding subsets of the sensor data are different; and

providing, via the interface circuit, the subsets of the sensor data to the electronic devices.

2. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism is configured to:

provide, via the interface circuit, data-availability information specifying available sensor data for the external environment; and

receive, via the interface circuit, requests from the electronic devices in response to the data-availability information, wherein the data privileges correspond to the requests.

3. The environmental monitoring device of claim 2, wherein the control mechanism is configured to determine the data privileges based on the requests.

4. The environmental monitoring device of claim 2, wherein the data privileges are specified in the requests.

5. The environmental monitoring device of claim 2, wherein the data-availability information is provided to the electronic devices.

6. The environmental monitoring device of claim 2, wherein the data-availability information is provided to a system that implements a sensor-data marketplace.

7. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the data privileges vary as a function of one or more:

time; and

the environmental condition.

8. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the data privileges specify different spatial extents in the external environment monitored by the sensor mechanism.

9. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the data privileges specify different types of information associated with the external environment.

10. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the entities include two or more of:

a tenant in the external environment;

a property manager of the external environment;

an owner of the external environment; and

maintenance personnel who maintain the external environment.

11. The environmental monitoring device of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism includes:

a processor; and

memory, coupled to the processor, which stores a program module configured to be executed by the processor, the program module including instructions for at least some of the operations performed by the control mechanism.

12. A computer-program product for use in conjunction with an environmental monitoring device, the computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and a computer-program mechanism embedded therein to provide subsets of sensor data, the computer-program mechanism including:

instructions for receiving the sensor data from a sensor mechanism in the environmental monitoring device that represents an environmental condition in the external environment;

instructions for generating the subsets of the sensor data based on data privileges of entities, wherein the data privileges of at least some of the entities are different and at least some of the corresponding subsets of the sensor data are different; and

instructions for providing, via an interface circuit in the environmental monitoring device, the subsets of the sensor data to electronic devices of the entities.

13. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the computer-program mechanism further comprises:

instructions for providing, via the interface circuit, data-availability information specifying available sensor data for the external environment; and

instructions for receiving, via the interface circuit, requests from the electronic devices in response to the data-availability information, wherein the data privileges correspond to the requests.

14. The computer-program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-program mechanism further comprises instructions for determining the data privileges based on the requests.

15. The computer-program product of claim 13, wherein the data-availability information is provided to one of:

the electronic devices; and

a system that implements a sensor-data marketplace.

16. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the data privileges vary as a function of one or more:

time; and

the environmental condition.

17. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the data privileges specify different spatial extents in the external environment monitored by the sensor mechanism.

18. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the data privileges specify different types of information associated with the external environment.

19. The computer-program product of claim 12, wherein the entities include two or more of:

a tenant in the external environment;

a property manager of the external environment;

an owner of the external environment; and

maintenance personnel who maintain the external environment.

20. An environmental-monitoring-device-implemented method for providing subsets of sensor data, wherein the method comprises:

receiving the sensor data from a sensor mechanism in the environmental monitoring device that represents an environmental condition in the external environment;

generating the subsets of the sensor data based on data privileges of entities, wherein the data privileges of at least some of the entities are different and at least some of the corresponding subsets of the sensor data are different; and

providing, via an interface circuit in the environmental monitoring device, the subsets of the sensor data to electronic devices of the entities.