METHOD FOR DETERMINING IDENTIFICATION OF AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE
First Claim
1. A method of identifying an electronic device, comprising:
- obtaining, using an attribute collection application residing at the electronic device, a plurality of data points of the electronic device;
transmitting the data points to a server having access to records of a plurality of electronic devices;
determining, by the server, for a first data point in the plurality of data points, whether one or other than one records have the first data point;
when only one record has the first data point, the server deeming the one record to be the unique record;
when other than one records have the first data point, the server determining whether there is only one record having a second data point in the plurality of data points, and, when there is, the server deeming the record having the second data point to be the unique record;
when there is no unique record, the server creating a unique record corresponding to the electronic device; and
writing an identifier from the unique record to the electronic device.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A utility to determine identity of an electronic device electronically, by running a device attribute collection application that collects key data points of the electronic devices and a device identification application that uses these key data points to link the electronic device to a specific owner or entity. Data points of the device may change over time for reasons such as reconfiguration, repair or normal daily use. The device identification application intelligently and consistently tracks changes in key data points associated with the device, even if the data points change over its lifecycle. The device may be identified remotely with the device identification application (e.g., in the event of theft or loss of the device) based on the collected data points. The device identification application may be deployed in conjunction with services that may include asset tracking, asset recovery, data delete, software deployment, etc.
22 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of identifying an electronic device, comprising:
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obtaining, using an attribute collection application residing at the electronic device, a plurality of data points of the electronic device; transmitting the data points to a server having access to records of a plurality of electronic devices; determining, by the server, for a first data point in the plurality of data points, whether one or other than one records have the first data point; when only one record has the first data point, the server deeming the one record to be the unique record; when other than one records have the first data point, the server determining whether there is only one record having a second data point in the plurality of data points, and, when there is, the server deeming the record having the second data point to be the unique record; when there is no unique record, the server creating a unique record corresponding to the electronic device; and writing an identifier from the unique record to the electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system for identifying an electronic device connected to a network, comprising:
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an electronic device comprising hardware and/or software, wherein the hardware includes a data storage device, motherboard, BIOS, memory and network interface; and an attribute collection application residing in the electronic device and interacting with the hardware and/or software, wherein the attribute collection application; collects a plurality of data points including data points relating to the hardware and/or software; and transmits the data points to a server; and the server, connected to the network and configured to; receive the plurality of data points from the attribute collection application; determine, for a first data point in the plurality of data points, that either one or other than one records have the first data point; when only one record has the first data point, deem the one record to be the unique record; when other than one records have the first data point, determine whether there is only one record having a second data point in the plurality of data points, and, when there is, deem the record having the second data point to be the unique record; when there is no unique record, create a unique record corresponding to the electronic device; and transmit an identifier from the unique record to the electronic device, wherein the electronic device receives the identifier from the server and writes the identifier to the electronic device. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification