SERVICE-IMPROVEMENTS BASED ON INPUT-OUTPUT ANALYSIS

• US 20160071184A1
• Filed: 04/30/2015
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• 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.
• Application Number:
  US14/701,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20160071184A1
• 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 control mechanism in a system monitors inputs and outputs exchanged among components in combinations that provide services in environments, where the components in a given combination include at least one of: environmental monitoring devices in the environments and one or more of the partner electronic devices in the environments and/or service providers. Note that the inputs and the outputs from a given component in the given combination include: sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services, and/or compensation within the given combination for the sensor data and the sub-services. Moreover, the control mechanism stores the monitored inputs and outputs, and analyzes the monitored inputs and outputs to determine: sensor-data patterns, suggested services, and/or suggested sensor-data sub-contracting during the services and the suggested services.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an interface mechanism configured to communicate with environmental monitoring devices of entities, partner electronic devices of partners of a second entity that is associated with the system, and service-provider electronic devices of service providers, wherein the environmental monitoring devices and the partner electronic devices are included in environments; and

wherein the service providers include one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service;

a control mechanism, coupled to the interface mechanism, configured to;

monitor inputs and outputs among components in combinations that provide services in the environments, wherein the components in a given combination include at least one of the environmental monitoring devices and one or more of;

the partner electronic devices and service providers, and wherein the inputs and the outputs from a given component in the given combination include;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services, and compensation within the given combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

store the monitored inputs and outputs; and

analyze the monitored inputs and outputs to determine one of;

sensor-data patterns, suggested services, and suggested sensor-data sub-contracting during the services and the suggested services.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis compares current monitored inputs and outputs and historical inputs and outputs from at least a subset of the combinations.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the combinations in the subset have one of:

a common type of service, and a common type of sensor data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism is configured to store information specifying the combinations and the services.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor data is acquired by one or more of:

the environmental monitoring devices, and the partner electronic devices.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein at least the one of the environmental monitoring devices and the one or more of the partner electronic devices and the service providers in the given combination are associated with different entities.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein, based on data privileges, at least some of the different entities have different access rights to the inputs and the outputs, and to the analysis.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism is configured to provide modification information specifying a modification to one of the combinations based on the analysis.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism is configured to provide a notification based on the analysis.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the analysis determines one of:

purchasing patterns, recommended product features, recommended retail inventory, recommended pricing of the services and the suggested services, and recommended durations of the services and the suggested services.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism is configured to:

receive requests for the services; and

provide configuration information specifying the combinations and functions of the components in the combinations.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein at least some of the combinations provide the services in at least a subset of the environments without action by occupants of at least the subset of the environments.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the requests for the services for at least some of the combinations is associated with one of:

a governmental organization, an insurance provider, and an owner of at least the subset of the environments.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the control mechanism comprises:

a processor coupled to the interface mechanism; 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 system.

15. A computer-program product for use in conjunction with a system, the computer-program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium and a computer-program mechanism embedded therein to analyze inputs and outputs, the computer-program mechanism including:

instructions for monitoring the inputs and the outputs among components in combinations that provide services in environments that include environmental monitoring devices and partner electronic devices, wherein the environmental monitoring devices are associated with entities and the partner electronic devices are associated with partners of a second entity that is associated with the system;

wherein the components in a given combination include at least one of the environmental monitoring devices and one or more of;

the partner electronic devices and service providers;

wherein the service providers include one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service; and

wherein the inputs and the outputs include;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services, and compensation within the combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

instructions for storing the monitored inputs and outputs; and

instructions for analyzing the monitored inputs and outputs to determine one of;

sensor-data patterns, suggested services, and suggested sensor-data sub-contracting during the services and the suggested services.

16. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein at least the one of the environmental monitoring devices and the one or more of the partner electronic devices and the service providers in the given combination are associated with different entities;

and

wherein, based on data privileges, at least some of the different entities have different access rights to the inputs and the outputs, and to the analysis.

17. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the computer-program mechanism includes instructions for providing modification information specifying a modification to one of the combinations based on the analysis.

18. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the analysis determines one of:

purchasing patterns, recommended product features, recommended retail inventory, recommended pricing of the services and the suggested services, and recommended durations of the services and the suggested services.

19. The computer-program product of claim 15, wherein the computer-program mechanism includes instructions for:

receiving requests for the services; and

providing configuration information specifying the combinations and functions of the components in the combinations.

20. A system-implemented method for analyzing inputs and outputs, wherein the method comprises:

monitoring the inputs and the outputs among components in combinations that provide services in environments that include environmental monitoring devices and partner electronic devices, wherein the environmental monitoring devices are associated with entities and the partner electronic devices are associated with partners of a second entity that is associated with the system;

wherein the components in a given combination include at least one of the environmental monitoring devices and one or more of;

the partner electronic devices and service providers;

wherein the service providers include one of;

a maintenance service, an installation service, a retail service, and an emergency-monitoring service; and

wherein the inputs and the outputs include;

sensor data representing one or more environmental conditions in one or more of the environments, sub-services in the services, and compensation within the combination for the sensor data and the sub-services;

storing the monitored inputs and outputs; and

using a control mechanism in the system, analyzing the monitored inputs and outputs to determine one of;

sensor-data patterns, suggested services, and suggested sensor-data sub-contracting during the services and the suggested services.