Movement of an agent that utilizes a compiled set of canonical rules

• US 7,949,626 B1
• Filed: 12/22/2006
• Issued: 05/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/22/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Callahan Cellular LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Curen Software Enterprises LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Hauser, Robert R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US11/645,303
• Time in Patent Office: 1,614 Days
• Field of Search: 719/317, 706/59
• US Class Current: 706/59
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/025 Extracting rules from data

Abstract

A method for moving an agent with a compiled rule set from a first execution environment to a second execution environment, comprising initiating the agent move, sending the agent from the first execution environment to the second execution environment and receiving the agent at the second execution environment.

Claims

1. A device implemented method comprising:

initiating movement of an agent from a first execution environment to a second execution environment;

receiving an as-needed rule set from a rule repository, wherein the as-needed rule set is a subset of context-specific rules filtered from a total potential rule set by the rule repository based at least on hardware characteristics associated with the second execution environment;

encoding the agent and the as-needed rule set into a transferable form, wherein the as-needed rule set is associated with the agent; and

sending the encoded agent and the encoded as-needed rule set from the first execution environment to the second execution environment, wherein the agent is configured to be executed at the second execution environment using the as-needed rule set.

2. The device implemented method of claim 1 wherein the subset of context-specific rules filtered from the total potential rule set by the rule repository based at least on goals of the agent.

3. The device implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the movement of the agent comprises initiating the movement of the agent in response to receiving a move request from an application.

4. The device implemented method of claim 3 wherein receiving the move request from the application comprises receiving the move request via a third execution environment in which the application resides.

5. The device implemented method of claim 1, wherein initiating the movement of the agent comprises initiating the movement of the agent in response to receiving a move request from another agent.

6. The device implemented method of claim 1, wherein sending the encoded agent and the encoded as-needed rule set comprises sending the encoded agent and the encoded as-needed rule set from a first device that embodies the first execution environment to a second device that embodies the second execution environment.

7. The device implemented method of claim 6, wherein the first device is configured as a server device and the second device is configured as a mobile client device.

8. The device implemented method of claim 1, wherein sending the encoded agent and the encoded as-needed rule set comprises sending the encoded agent and the encoded as-needed rule set over a communications network.

9. The device implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

fetching the as-needed rule set in the first execution environment from the rule repository, the rule repository residing in a third execution environment; and

supplying the as-needed rule set to the agent.

10. A computer readable medium comprising instructions that, responsive to being executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including:

receiving a request to move an agent from a first execution environment to a second execution environment, the request to move the agent including an as-needed rule set, wherein the as-needed rule set is a subset of context-specific rules filtered from a total potential rule set based at least on hardware characteristics associated with the second execution environment;

sending the agent along with the as-needed rule set from the first execution environment to the second execution environment to initiate execution of the agent in the second execution environment to cause operations by the agent including at least;

creating a new rule engine in the second execution environment to compile and execute the as-needed rule set; and

requesting a new working memory from the rule engine in the second execution environment; and

destructing the agent in the first execution environment.

11. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the subset of context-specific rules are filtered from the total potential rule set based at least on goals of the agent.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 10 further comprising instructions that, responsive to being executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including receiving a notification from the second execution environment that indicates a completion of the move, wherein destructing the agent in the first execution environment comprises destructing the agent in the first environment responsive to receiving the notification.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the request to move the agent from the first execution environment to the second execution environment is received from an application that resides in a third execution environment.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, responsive to being executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including:

discarding a rule engine, a working memory, and a rule set in the first execution environment responsive to receiving the request to move the agent from the first execution environment to the second execution environment.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 10, further comprising instructions that, responsive to being executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations including:

encoding the agent and the as-needed rule set into a transferable form for the sending.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first execution environment is embodied on a first device and the second execution environment is embodied on a second device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first execution environment is embodied on a server device and the second execution environment is embodied on a client computing device.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the first execution environment and the second execution environment are embodied on a single computing device.

19. A system comprising:

a tangible computer-readable memory that is configured to include a working memory of an agent in a first execution environment, the agent configured to carry an as-needed rule set, wherein the as-needed rule set is a subset of context-specific rules filtered from a total potential rule set based at least on hardware characteristics associated with a second execution environment; and

a computing device that is configured to be communicably coupled to the computer-readable memory, wherein the agent is configured to be executable by the computing device to, in response to a request to move the agent from the first execution environment to the second execution environment, perform operations including at least;

fetching the as-needed rule set from a rule repository in a third execution environment, the request to move the agent including a reference to the rule repository containing the as-needed rule set;

encoding the agent and the fetched as-needed rule set into transferable form, wherein the fetched as-needed rule set is associated with the agent;

sending the encoded agent and the encoded fetched as-needed rule set in the transferable form to the second execution environment, wherein the agent is configured to be executed at the second execution environment using the fetched as-needed rule set; and

destructing the agent in the first execution environment including discarding a rule engine, the working memory, and a compiled rule set of the agent.

20. A system comprising:

a tangible computer-readable memory configured to include a working memory of an agent in a target execution environment, the agent configured to utilize an as-needed rule set that is fetched from a different execution environment, wherein the as-needed rule set is a subset of context-specific rules filtered from a total potential rule set based at least on hardware characteristics associated with the target execution environment; and

a computing device configured to be communicably coupled to the computer-readable memory, wherein the computing device is configured to be executable by the computing device to perform operations including at least;

receiving an encoded version of the agent and the as-needed rule set from a previous execution environment of the agent, the previous execution environment configured to generate the encoded version of the agent and the as-needed rule set and transfer the encoded version of the agent and the as-needed rule set to the target execution environment;

decoding the encoded version of the agent and the as-needed rule set;

searching to locate a rule engine configured to implement the as-needed rule set;

creating a rule engine if no rule engine is located;

supplying the rule engine with the as-needed rule set;

causing the rule engine to compile the as-needed rule set;

requesting creation of the working memory of the agent in the memory from the rule engine; and

executing the compiled as-needed rule set fetched from the different execution environment.