Task computing

• US 7,761,885 B2
• Filed: 04/27/2005
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Masuouka, Ryusuke, Song, Zhexuan, Labrou, Yannis, Huynh, Duy
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Lechi
• Application Number:
  US11/115,403
• Publication Number:
  US 20050246726A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,910 Days
• Field of Search: 719/328, 719/330, 715/700
• US Class Current: 719/330
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/462 Lookup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/465 Distributed object oriented systems remote method invocation [RMI] G06F9/548

Abstract

Task Computing computer system by segmenting the system into a plurality of implementation tiers of a presentation layer, a remote procedure call programming interface (API), a middleware layer to which the presentation layer interfaces via the remote procedure call API to real-time, dynamically generate a computer implemented task interface at the presentation layer to a semantically described source of function as a service on a computer system, and a service layer and a function source realization layer providing the semantically described source of function as the service on the computer system to which the middleware layer interfaces. Real-time and dynamically composing an executable task that comprises one or more services using the generated task interface at the presentation layer to one or more services on the computer based upon the semantically described application-, device- and service-rich computer.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

semantically describing a plurality of computer system sources of functions as services on a computer system;

segmenting a computer system including one or more computer systems in network communication into a plurality of computing system implementation tiers comprising;

a presentation client processing layer using a computer,

a remote procedure call (RPC) application programming interface (API),

a middleware server processing layer using a computer to which the presentation layer interfaces via the RPC API to real-time, dynamically generate a computer implemented task interface at the presentation layer to a semantically described computer system source of function as a service on a computer system, and

a service layer and a function source realization layer, using a computer, providing the semantically described computer system source of function as the service on the computer system to which the middleware server processing layer interfaces;

registering by a first computer system of the plurality of computer systems an RPC API of the first computer system via the network in a second computer system of the plurality of computer systems;

discovering by the second computer system a service on the second computer system;

informing, by the second computer system via the registered RPC API, the first computer system of the discovered services in the second computer system; and

using the first computer real-time, dynamically composing an executable task that comprises a plurality of services, according to a generated task interface at the presentation layer to the plurality of services discovered at the first and/or the second computer,

wherein the semantically describing the plurality of computer system sources of functions as services, comprises;

describing functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology, and

assigning a name to the service as an element of a natural language sentence to support composability of the services mapping into composability of natural language elements as a natural language sentence, and

wherein a generation of the computer implemented task interface comprises identifying compatible discovered services according to a functional characteristic of a service based upon the describing of the functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology to support user composing the executable task of the compatible services based upon a name assigned to the service.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service layer comprises a service function from a function source realization layer and a semantic service description correspondingly semantically describing the service function of the function source realization layer, as the service on the computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote procedure call API is a remote Web services API.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising filtering discovery of the services in the second computer system according to specifying a filter in the registered remote Web services API.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the filter is a query according to Resource Description Framework Data Query Language (RDQL).

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the middleware server processing layer comprises programmed units of a service discovery unit, a service composition unit, a service execution unit, a service management unit, or any combinations thereof accessible via the remote procedure call API to support the real-time, dynamically generation of the computer implemented task interface at the presentation layer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the registering, discovering and informing further comprises:

installing a first programmed unit of the middleware server processing layer in the second computer system as a remote middleware server processing layer;

publishing a first RPC API of the first programmed unit in the second computer system;

invoking by a second programmed unit in the first computer system, via the published first RPC API, the first programmed unit in the second computer system to manage a service in the second computer system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein managing the service in the second computer system comprises discovering, executing, manipulating, or any combinations thereof of the service in the second computer system via the semantic description of the computer system source of function for the service.

9. the method of claim 7, wherein the invoking the first programmed unit in the second computer system to manage a service in the second computer system, comprises:

discovering the service via the semantic description of the computer system source of function for the service according to one or more discovery mechanisms of file system, multi-cast, community directory, open semantic service directory, or any combinations thereof.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the invoking the first programmed unit in the second computer system to manage a service in the second computer system, comprises:

setting a discovery range from ranges of empty, private, group by subnet, group by interest, or any combinations thereof, in the semantic description of the computer system source of function for the service; and

discovering the service via the semantic description of the computer system source of function for the service according the discovery range set in the semantic description of the computer system source of function for the service.

11. The method of claim 7,

wherein the remote procedure call API is a remote Web services API.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the managing of the service on the second computer system comprises creating, publishing, discovering, executing, or any combinations thereof of the service on the second computer system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system source of function is described semantically according to Web Ontology Language (OWL) based Web service ontology (OWL-S) language.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic description of a computer system source of function comprises a spoken language attribute controlling a computer user interface according to the spoken language.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the computer user interface is a computer displayed graphical user interface and the spoke language attribute controls displayed description of a service name and a service description according to the spoken language.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic description of a computer system source of function comprises descriptions for a relaxed data type of input, a location of a computer system source of function as a service, a management function or any combinations thereof.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic description of a computer system source of function as the service on the computer system comprises identifying two or more types of input data for the service, a first input data type identifying an exact domain of input data and a second input data type identifying a relaxed input data type of a domain larger than the domain of the first input data type.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the semantic description of a computer system source of function as the service comprises a description for a management function for the service, a link to a description for a management function for the service or both.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the management function comprises one or more service processes of deleting a service, returning a handled semantic object of a service, presenting a user interface to the service, status information of the service, a location of the service, or any combinations thereof.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer implemented interface to the semantically described computer system source of function is a computer displayed graphical user interface, a voice command user interface, a radio device user interface, or any combination thereof.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer implemented interface to the semantically described computer system source of function is a voice command user interface, and the method further comprises:

defining a service name according to a natural language in the semantic description of the computer source of function,

generating a speech recognition state grammar diagram according to the defined natural language service names,

recognizing by a speech recognizer a spoken natural language sentence as a composition of a task that comprises one or more of spoken defined service names,

matching the recognized spoken defined service names to a sequence of services according to the speech recognition state grammar diagram, and

executing the task by executing the matched services.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the computer displayed graphical user interface is a spatial presentation of a service.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the spatial presentation of a service comprises:

displaying an area map; and

spatially displaying over the area map discovered services.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein access to a service is controlled according to service access control elements of facts provided by a client, the service private policy, a shared policy, ontologies, or any combinations thereof.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein the presentation client processing layer comprises providing internal services of instance creator, instance copier, instance interceptor, instance saver, property chooser or any combinations thereof.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a semantic instance serializing service, an information providing service, a sensor service, a snapshot service, an Web Ontology Language (OWL) formatter service, and a text formatter service as the plurality of computer system sources of functions semantically described.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the semantic instance serializing service comprises consuming any type of semantic instance, serializing the semantic instance into information and providing the information to a user.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the information providing service comprises outputting a semantic object from a computer system source of function, wherein the computer system source of function is an information providing source of function.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the information providing source of function provides time, date, weather related, road traffic, or any combinations thereof.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the snapshot service comprises:

capturing a still image from an imaging device; and

outputting a semantic object for the still image.

31. The method of claim 26, wherein the OWL formatter service comprises:

accepting a semantic object as input;

formatting the semantic object into a human understandable way, and

outputting the formatted semantic object.

32. The method of claim 26, wherein the text formatter service comprises:

accepting a semantic object;

formatting the semantic object into one of pre-determined text formats; and

outputting the formatted semantic object.

33. The method of claim 1,

wherein the computer system comprises a plurality of computer systems in network communication, and

wherein the computer system sources of functions as the services comprise device, application, electronic service, content, or any combinations thereof sources of functions on any of the plurality of computer systems.

34. The method of claim 33 or 1, wherein the computer system sources of functions as the services are available through remote procedure calls of WSDL (Web Service Description Language), a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play), CORBA, RMI, RPC, DCE, DCOM, or any combinations thereof.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the middleware server processing layer comprise a service management process, and the presentation client processing layer comprises one or more semantically described service control mechanism clients to create, publish, or manipulate, or any combinations thereof, a semantic object or a semantic service description, or any combinations thereof for a computer system source of function as a service.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the semantically described service control mechanism clients comprise a client process to semanticize, create a semantic service description, and publish the semantic service description as a service, a real-world object semanticizer client, a database semanticizer client, and a media publisher.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the media publisher comprises:

receiving a selected data object;

generating a corresponding semantic instance for the selected data object, and

creating and publishing a semantic service description for the generated semantic instance to provide a service.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the database semanticizer semanticizes a database by:

mapping a schema of the database to an ontology; and

generating a semantic object of data in the database upon the mapping.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the generating of the semantic object comprises generating the semantic object from all or a part of the data in the database and outputting one or more semantic objects in a single or multiple files.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the mapping further comprises:

displaying a graphical user interface comprising;

a first window displaying selectable graphical displays of the database schema; and

a second window displaying a selectable graphical display of an ontology; and

mapping by a user the database schema to the ontology, based upon the displayed graphical user interface.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the mapping further comprises:

suggesting by a programmed processor a possible mapping according to syntactical clues in the database schema and the ontology.

42. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

displaying a graphical user interface comprising selectable graphical displays of a semantic object; and

returning a value of a selected semantic object.

43. The method of claim 35, wherein the semantically described service control mechanism clients comprise a client process to semanticize by:

recognizing an object;

generating a semantic instance based upon the recognized object; and

publishing the semantic instance.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein the object is a physical object, voice, video, or any combinations thereof.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the recognizing of the object is according to reading a computer readable code, detecting a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, and detecting object information by multimedia recognition processing engines.

46. A method comprising:

semantically describing a plurality of computer system sources of functions as services on a computer system;

segmenting a computer system into a plurality of programmable computing system implementation tiers comprising;

a presentation client processing layer using a computer,

a remote procedure call application programming interface (API),

a middleware server processing layer using a computer to which the presentation layer interfaces via the remote procedure call API to real-time, dynamically generate a computer implemented task interface at the presentation layer to a semantically described computer system source of function as a service on a computer system, and

a service layer and a function source realization layer, using a computer, providing the semantically described computer system source of function as the service on the computer system to which the middleware server processing layer interfaces; and

using the first computer real-time, dynamically composing an executable task that comprises one or more services, according to the generated task interface at the presentation layer to one or more services on the computer system,

wherein the semantically describing the plurality of computer system sources of functions as services, comprises;

describing functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology, and

assigning a name to the service as an element of a natural language sentence to support composability of the services mapping into composability of natural language elements as a natural language sentence, and

wherein generation of the computer implemented task interface comprises;

discovering available services, and

identifying compatible services according to a functional characteristic of a service based upon the describing of the functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology to support user composing the executable task of the compatible services based upon the names assigned to the service, and

wherein the computer implemented task interface is a computer displayed screen graphical user interface, and the graphical user interface comprises;

displaying in a first graphical user interface window selectable graphical displays of discovered services according to a tree structure;

presenting a second graphical user interface window supporting real-time, dynamic composition of the one or more services into a task according to a process, comprising;

selecting by a user a discovered service in the first graphical user interface window;

automatically displaying a selectable graphical display of other compatible services in connection with the selected discovered service;

selecting by a user a compatible service; and

real-time, dynamically displaying in the second graphical user interface window a directed service graph according to the user selecting of the discovered service and the compatible services as the task; and

displaying a selectable graphical display of task execution to execute the task.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the displayed discovered services are organized in the first graphical user interface window according to functional characteristics of the discovered services.

48. A computer system, comprising:

one or more server computers that execute a server processing system abstracting computer system sources of functions by semantically describing the computer system sources of functions as one or more services; and

a client computer that executes a client processing system interfacing with the server computers via a remote procedure call and supporting via a computer implemented task interface real-time, dynamic composition of an executable task comprising a plurality of services discovered in the client computer and/or in the server computer, based upon the semantically-described computer system sources of function,

wherein a server computer includes a middleware server processing layer including a first programmed unit of the middleware server processing layer published via a first remote procedure call (RPC) API as a remote middleware server processing layer, and

the client computer includes a second programmed unit managing the one or more services in the server computer by invoking, via the published first RPC API, the first programmed unit in the computer server, the managing of the one or more services including discovering of the one or more services in the computer server, based upon the semantically-described computer system sources of function,

wherein the semantically describing the computer system sources of functions as services, comprises;

describing functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology, and

assigning a name to the service as an element of a natural language sentence to support composability of the services mapping into composability of natural language elements as a natural language sentence, and

wherein a generation of the computer implemented task interface comprises identifying compatible discovered services according to a functional characteristic of a service based upon the describing of the functional characteristics of a computer system source of function using an ontology to support user composing the executable task of the compatible services based upon a name assigned to the service.

49. A portable computer readable storage medium storing at least one program controlling a computer communicably connectable to other computers to perform operations comprising:

as services semantically describing a plurality of computer system sources of functions in the computer and/or the other computers;

discovering the plurality of semantically described computer system sources of functions as the services by;

registering a remote procedure call (RPC) application programming interface (API) of the computer in other computer,

discovering, via the registered RPC API, a service in the other computer, and

presenting a plurality of services discovered in the computer and/or in the other computer in a first graphical user interface window;

presenting a second graphical user interface window supporting real-time, dynamic composition of the plurality of services discovered at the computer and/or the other computer into a task according to a process, comprising;

selecting by a user a discovered service in the first graphical user interface window;

automatically displaying a selectable graphical display of other valid services in connection with the selected discovered service;

identifying, as valid services, compatible services from the plurality of discovered services according to a functional characteristic of a service described in a semantic description of a computer system source of function;

selecting by a user a valid service; and

real-time, dynamically displaying in the second graphical user interface window a directed service graph as the task according to the user selecting of the discovered service and the valid service; and

displaying a selectable graphical display of task execution to execute the task.

50. A terminal device communicably connectable to other terminal devices, comprising:

a computer processor controlling a terminal device by;

discovering, via a registered remote procedure call mechanism to the other terminal devices, a plurality of semantically described computer system sources of functions as services;

generating a computer implemented user interface supporting real-time, dynamic composition of a plurality of services discovered at the terminal device and/or at the other terminals devices into a task by;

presenting the discovered services in a first graphical user interface window,

presenting a second graphical user interface window supporting the real-time, dynamic composition of the plurality services into the task by;

providing a user selected discovered service from the first graphical user interface window,

automatically displaying a selectable graphical display of other compatible services, as valid services in connection with the selected discovered service, from the plurality of discovered services according to a functional characteristic of a service described in a semantic description of a computer system source of function,

real-time, dynamically displaying in the second graphical user interface window a directed service graph as a composition of the task according to the user selection of the discovered service and the valid services, and

displaying a selectable graphical display for a task execution command to execute the task; and

controlling processing of the task including the plurality of services according to semantic descriptions of computer system sources of functions as the services, in response to a selection of the task execution command.

51. The terminal device of claim 50, wherein the computer implemented user interface is a computer displayed graphical user interface, a voice command user interface, a radio device user interface, or any combination thereof.

52. The terminal device of claim 50, wherein a semantic description of a computer system source of function as a service is a Web Ontology Language (OWL-S) based file and the computer processor reads the OWL-S file and executes the service according to the reading of the OWL-S file.

53. A server processing apparatus in communication with a plurality of client processing apparatuses, the server processing apparatus comprising:

a computer processor that executes a server process controlling, in response to one or more remote procedure calls, the server processing apparatus according to a process, comprising;

discovering on the server processing apparatus and/or discovering, via registered remote procedure call (RPC) application programming interfaces (APIs) on the plurality of client processing apparatuses, a plurality of semantically described computer system sources of functions as services;

controlling via a remote procedure call generation of a client computer implemented user interface supporting real-time, dynamic composition of a task that includes a plurality of services discovered on the server processing apparatus and/or the client processing apparatuses by;

presenting the discovered services in a first graphical user interface window,

presenting a second graphical user interface window supporting the real-time, dynamic composition of the plurality of services into the task by;

providing a user selected discovered service from the first graphical user interface window,

automatically displaying a selectable graphical display of other compatible services, as valid services in connection with the selected discovered service, from the plurality of discovered services according to a functional characteristic of a service described in a semantic description of a computer system source of function,

real-time, dynamically displaying in the second graphical user interface window a directed service graph as the task according to the user selection of the discovered service and a valid service, and

displaying a selectable graphical display for a task execution command to execute the task.

54. The server processing apparatus of claim 53, wherein the controlling of generation of the client computer implemented user interface further comprises:

receiving the task execution command; and

executing the one or more services at the client to execute the task, in response to the task execution command.