CROWDSOURCING-BASED DETECTION, IDENTIFICATION, AND TRACKING OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES

• US 20160080486A1
• Filed: 09/17/2014
• Published: 03/17/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CA, Inc. (d/b/a CA Technologies) (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ram, Jaimini, Tewari, Rajeev, Rao, Bharath Nagaraj
• Granted Patent: US 10,020,951 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

In a method of detecting electronic devices, information about a first user equipment device is received at a server. The information is received from at least one second user equipment device within range of a wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device. A presence of the first user equipment device is detected at the server based on the information received from the at least one second user equipment device. The receiving and the detecting may be operations performed by at least one processor of the server. Related apparatus and computer program products are also discussed.

Claims

1. A method of detecting electronic devices, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, information about a first user equipment device that is transmitted from a second user equipment device within range of a wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device, wherein the information is authorizable by the first user equipment device; and

detecting, at the server, a presence of the first user equipment device based on the information received from the second user equipment device,

wherein the receiving and the detecting comprise operations performed by a processor of the server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the information about the first user equipment device is received from the second user equipment device independent of authorization by the first user equipment device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

identifying, at the server, the first user equipment device based on the information received from the second user equipment device,

wherein the information comprises device identification information that is inaccessible to an application installed on the first user equipment device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the device identification information comprises address information for the wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device, and wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a decentralized communication interface via which the address information is transmitted.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the first user equipment device comprises:

receiving, at the server, an application identifier for the application installed on the first user equipment device; and

correlating, at the server, the application identifier with the address information received from the second user equipment device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying the first user equipment device comprises:

receiving, at the server, additional information about the first user equipment device via a centralized network infrastructure; and

correlating, at the server, the additional information with the address information received from the second user equipment device.

7. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining, at the server, a proximity of the first user equipment device to the second user equipment device based on the information received therefrom,

wherein the information indicates a received signal strength of the wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device at the second user equipment device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

detecting, at the server, a presence of a trusted electronic device within the proximity; and

determining, at the server, a trust for the first user equipment device based on the presence of the trusted electronic device within the proximity.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

authenticating, at the server, the first user equipment device based on the presence of the trusted electronic device within the proximity and independent of authentication information received from the first user equipment device.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

controlling, at the server, access to a resource by the first user equipment device access based on the presence of the trusted electronic device within the proximity.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

assigning, at the server, a level of risk to a transaction with the first user equipment device based on the presence of the trusted electronic device within the proximity.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the second user equipment device comprises one of a plurality of user equipment devices from which respective information about the first user equipment device is received, and further comprising:

determining, at the server, a relative location of the first user equipment device to the second user equipment devices based on the respective information received from the plurality of user equipment devices.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

detecting, at the server, the presence of first user equipment device in an unauthorized area based on the relative location.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating, at the server, a logical boundary defined by the relative location of the first user equipment device to the second user equipment device.

15. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining movement of the first user equipment device relative to the second user equipment device based on changes in the proximity.

16. An apparatus comprising:

processor circuitry; and

memory circuitry coupled to the processor circuitry and comprising computer readable program code stored therein that, when executed by the processor circuitry, causes the processor circuitry to perform operations comprising;

receiving information about a first user equipment device that is transmitted from a second user equipment device within range of a wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device wherein the information is authorizable by the first user equipment device; and

detecting a presence of the first user equipment device based on the information received from the second user equipment device.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the information about the first user equipment device is received from the second user equipment device independent of authorization by the first user equipment device.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, when executed by the processor circuitry, the computer readable program code causes the processor circuitry to perform further operations comprising:

identifying the first user equipment device based on the information received from the second user equipment device,

wherein the information comprises device identification information that is inaccessible to an application installed on the first user equipment device.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein, when executed by the processor circuitry, the computer readable program code causes the processor circuitry to perform further operations comprising:

determining a proximity of the first user equipment device to the second user equipment device based on the information received therefrom,

wherein the information indicates a received signal strength of the wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device at the second user equipment device.

20. A computer program comprising:

a computer readable storage medium comprising computer readable program code embodied in the medium that when executed by processor circuitry of a computer system causes the computer system to perform operations comprising;

receiving, at the computer system, information about a first user equipment device that is transmitted from a second user equipment device within range of a wireless communication interface of the first user equipment device wherein the information is authorizable by the first user equipment device; and

detecting, at the computer system, a presence of the first user equipment device based on the information received from the second user equipment device.