Aggregation of multi-modal devices

• US 7,467,353 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Issued: 12/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kong, Yuan, Williams, David W., Kurlander, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CAO H
• Application Number:
  US11/261,107
• Publication Number:
  US 20070101274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,145 Days
• Field of Search: 715744-747, 715864-866, 715762-765, 715/853, 709227-228
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

A system that facilitates consolidating resources (e.g., devices, services) based at least in part upon an established context. More particularly, a context determination component can be employed to establish a context by processing sensor inputs or learning/inferring a user action/preference. Once the context is established via a context determination component, a consolidation component can be employed to aggregate and/or disaggregate disparate resources (e.g., devices, services) in accordance with the established context. These resources can work autonomously and/or in conjunction with a subset of the other resources to provide for a highly rich multi-modal user experience.

Claims

1. A system embodied on a computer-readable storage medium that facilitates pooling a plurality of resources, comprising:

a context determination component that employs data derived from a plurality of sensors and an artificial intelligence scheme to dynamically infer a context of a user; and

a consolidation component that determines availability of a set of disparate devices, selects a subset of the disparate devices, and aggregates data from the subset of disparate devices, selection and aggregation based at least in part upon the context of a user.

2. The system of claim 1, the consolidation component disaggregates selected data from the subset of disparate devices based at least in part on a change in the context of the user.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of sensors is at least one of an environmental sensor or a physiological sensor.

4. The system of claim 1, the consolidation component comprises:

a receiving component that accepts an input from the plurality of resources; and

an analyzer component that, based upon the context, determines and pools a subset of the plurality of resources.

5. The system of claim 4, the context includes at least one of a user state context, an environmental context, a location context or a temporal context.

6. The system of claim 4, the subset of the disparate devices includes at least one of a watch, an earphone, a power source, a cellular communication device, sunglasses, a global position system (GPS) engine, an image capture device or a wired attire.

7. The system of claim 4, the subset of the plurality of resources automates an action the user desires to be performed.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising an artificial intelligence (Al) component that infers the action that the user desires to be automatically performed.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising a rules-based logic component that defines the action that the user desires to be automatically performed.

10. The system of claim 6, the action is an authentication action.

11. The system of claim 6, the action is an automatic download of digital music content.

12. A computer-implemented method for providing an optimized level of functionality, comprising:

inferring a context of a user;

determining availability of a set of disparate devices;

selecting a first subset of the available disparate devices to be aggregated given the inferred context;

aggregating data from the first subset of devices based at least in part upond the context;

detecting addition of a new device to the set of disparate devices; and

analyzing the new device with respect to the context to determine whether the new device is to be aggregated with the first subset of devices.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, further comprising disaggregating a second subset of the plurality of devices based at least in part upon a change in the context associated with the user.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the context is at least one of a user state context, an environmental context, a location contexts or a temporal context.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, the plurality of devices includes at least one of a watch, a listening device, a power source, a cellular telephone, a GPS engine, an accelerometer, a personal data assistant or an image capture device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising automating an action the user desires to be performed using the first subset of devices.

17. A computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions that facilitates aggregating a plurality of resources, comprising:

means for dynamically inferring a user context using data derived from a plurality of sensors;

means for determining availability of a set of disparate devices having associated resources;

means for selecting a first subset of the available disparate devices appropriate to the inferred context;

means for automatically aggregating data from the first subset of devices based at least in part upon the user context; and

means for disaggregating a second subset of the available devices based at least in part upon a change in the user context.

18. The computer executable system of claim 17, the means for dynamically inferring a user context includes at least one of an environmental sensor or a physiological sensor.

19. The computer executable system of claim 18, the set of devices located at a plurality of disparate locations.

20. The computer executable system of claim 19, further aomprising means for automating an action a user desires to be performed using the first subset of devices.