Methods, systems and computer program products for providing application services to a user

• US 7,735,091 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2004
• Issued: 06/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Van H
• Application Number:
  US10/924,072
• Publication Number:
  US 20060041891A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,115 Days
• Field of Search: 719/310, 719/311, 719/315, 719/318, 718/100, 718/101, 718/102, 709/224, 709/236, 709/246, 705/8, 705/9, 705/26, 705/37, 717/126, 713/152, 713/164, 713/166, 726/1, 726/2, 726/14
• US Class Current: 719/315
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F

Abstract

Computing device executed application services are provided to a user using a plurality of application service providing modules, each of which provides a subset of the application services to the user. A request received form the user is translated to one or more needs to be satisfied. One or more of the application service providing modules required for satisfying the need(s) is identified. Execution of actions by the identified application service providing module(s) to satisfy the need(s) is scheduled.

Claims

1. A method for providing computing device executed application services to a user using a plurality of application service providing modules, each of which provides a subset of the application services to the user, the method comprising:

communicatively coupling a first computing device to a network comprising at least one other communicatively-coupled computing device;

receiving at the first computing device a request from a user;

automatically translating the request from the user to at least one need to be satisfied;

automatically identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules executing on the at least one other computing device and required for satisfying the at least one need; and

automatically scheduling execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules executing on the at least one other computing device to satisfy the at least one need;

wherein identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules comprises identifying at least two of the plurality of application service providing modules; and

wherein the plurality of application service providing modules are each associated with a dynamic context, the dynamic context for an application service providing module being dependent on a condition of another of the application service providing modules that is not determinable based only on communications resulting from execution of the actions and wherein scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need comprises scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need based on a current condition of the dynamic context associated with the identified application service providing modules; and

wherein the dynamic context includes a high level context and a low level context and wherein the high level context comprises a global context applicable to all of the plurality of application service providing modules and the low level context is applicable to an individual application service providing module.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of user based preference/policies are provided and wherein the method further comprises identifying one of the plurality of user based preference/policies associated with the requesting user and wherein translating the request from the user to at least one need to be satisfied comprises translating the request from the user to at least one need to be satisfied based on the identified user based preference/policy.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of user based preference/policies are provided and wherein the method further comprises identifying one of the plurality of user based preference/policies associated with the requesting user and wherein scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need comprises scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need based on the identified user based preference/policy.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the respective subsets of the application services are grouped based on an anthropomorphic model of non-computing device based providers of corresponding services.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a plurality of personality profiles are provided and wherein at least one of the application service providing modules is configured to incorporate a selected one of the plurality of personality profiles to provide an interface to the user having characteristics defined by the selected one of the personality profiles and wherein the method further comprises selecting one of the personality profiles responsive to a request from the user.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein ones of the plurality of application service providing modules are associated with one or more groups and wherein the dynamic context further includes an intermediate level context and wherein the dynamic context for a particular application service providing module includes at least one intermediate level context wherein each intermediate level context is based on a group with which the particular application service providing module is associated.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the dynamic context for at least one of the context levels includes an operational context associated with conditions related to performance of the application service providing modules and a security context associated with security threats to providing the computing device executed application services to the user and/or to providing maintenance and support functions.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising communicating dynamic context information between ones of the plurality of application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules to advise the application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules of low level context of other of the modules.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein an application service providing module maintains its dynamic context as a master context record including a plurality of context units and wherein communicating dynamic context information comprises communicating selected ones of the context units.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the master context has a predefined ordering of context units and wherein a master context for a particular application service provider module includes only a subset of all possible context units maintained in an ordered sequence corresponding to an archetypal master context including all possible context units.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the possible context units include security alert level, latency, error conditions, execution hold conditions, trust level and/or security attack in progress indications and wherein at least one of the possible context units comprises a plurality of context units associated with different context levels.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein a security module is communicatively coupled to the plurality of application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving at the security module security context information from ones of the plurality of application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules;

defining a security level global context based on the received security context information; and

communicating the security level global context to the plurality of application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising periodically communicating dynamic context information to the security module and verifying at the security module that the communicated dynamic context information from the application service providing modules, infrastructure modules and/or interface modules is up to date.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

defining an interlocked state machine model for the plurality of application service providing modules for the at least one need to be satisfied;

monitoring execution of the actions by the application service providing modules based on the interlocked state machine model; and

detecting a security event based on the monitored execution of the actions.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising dynamically restricting communications in-progress between ones of the application service providing modules based on the detected security event.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the interlocked state machine model is based on the dynamic context and wherein the application service providing modules are visible to the user and wherein an interface module that is not visible to the user communicatively couples the application service providing modules and wherein dynamically restricting communications in-progress comprises dynamically restricting the communications at the interface module based on the interlocked state machine model.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein scheduling execution of the actions includes generating a needs list using a composer module, not visible to the user, and identifying the actions based on the generated needs list and communicating ones of the identified actions to associated ones of the application service providing modules for execution using a conductor module, not visible to the user.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the identified actions comprise baseline actions with modification options designated by the conductor module that modify the actions to be executed by the application service providing modules.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising, the following carried out by receiving ones of the application service providing modules:

expanding received ones of the communicated identified actions into transactions executable by the receiving application service providing module; and

executing the transactions.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving at an automation module information regarding user requests and needs;

predicting future needs for the user based on processing rules for the user;

receiving a potential needs trigger notification from one of the application service providing modules;

comparing the received potential needs trigger to the predicted future needs; and

scheduling execution of the predicted future needs when they correspond to the received potential trigger.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein scheduling execution of the predicted future needs includes obtaining a request from the user authorizing execution of the predicted future needs.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein predicting future needs for the user based on processing rules for the user further comprises formatting the predicted future needs based on a selected one of a plurality of available needs handling models.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

communicating an integrated security model for the provision of application services to the plurality of application service providing modules to define an integrated security model; and

controlling operations of the plurality of application service providing modules based on the integrated security model.

24. A system including at least one processor for providing computing device executed application services to a user using a plurality of application service providing modules, each of which provides a subset of the application services to the user, the at least one processor configured to:

communicatively couple a first computing device including the at least one processor to a network comprising at least one other communicatively-coupled computing device;

receive at the first computing device a request from a user;

automatically translate the request from the user to at least one need to be satisfied;

automatically identify at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules executing on the at least one other computing device and required for satisfying the at least one need; and

automatically schedule execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules executing on the at least one other computing device to satisfy the at least one need;

wherein identifying at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules comprises identifying at least two of the plurality of application service providing modules; and

wherein the plurality of application service providing modules are each associated with a dynamic context, the dynamic context for an application service providing module being dependent on a condition of another of the application service providing modules that is not determinable based only on communications resulting from execution of the actions and wherein scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need comprises scheduling execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need based on a current condition of the dynamic context associated with the identified application service providing modules; and

wherein the dynamic context includes a high level context and a low level context and wherein the high level context comprises a global context applicable to all of the plurality of application service providing modules and the low level context is applicable to an individual application service providing module.

25. The system of claim 24 further comprising a security module communicatively coupled to the plurality of application service providing modules configured to receive security context information from ones of the plurality of application service providing modules, define a security level global context based on the received security context information and communicate the security level global context to the plurality of application service providing modules.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the application service providing modules are visible to the users and wherein the system further comprises an interface module that is not visible to the user that communicatively couples the application service providing modules and dynamically restricts communications in-progress responsive to the security module.

27. The system of claim 25 further comprising an automation module configured to receive information regarding user requests and needs and predict future needs for the user based on processing rules for the user.

28. A computer program product that is configured to provide computing device executed application services to a user using a plurality of application service providing modules, each of which provides a subset of the application services to the user, the computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied in the medium, the computer-readable program code comprising:

computer-readable program code that is configured to receive a request from a user;

computer-readable program code that is configured to automatically translate the request from the user to at least one need to be satisfied;

computer-readable program code that is configured to automatically identify at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules required for satisfying the at least one need; and

computer-readable program code that is configured to automatically schedule execution of actions by the identified at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need;

wherein the computer-readable program code that is configured to identify at least one of the plurality of application service providing modules is further configured to identify at least two of the plurality of application service providing modules; and

wherein the plurality of application service providing modules are each associated with a dynamic context, the dynamic context for an application service providing module being dependent on a condition of another of the application service providing modules that is not determinable based only on communications resulting from execution of the actions and wherein the computer-readable program code that is configured to schedule execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need is further configured to schedule execution of actions by the identified application service providing modules to satisfy the at least one need based on a current condition of the dynamic context associated with the identified application service providing modules; and

wherein the dynamic context includes a high level context and a low level context and wherein the high level context comprises a global context applicable to all of the plurality of application service providing modules and the low level context is applicable to an individual application service providing module.