System and method for sharing information based on proximity

• US 7,996,514 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2003
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Goldthwaite, Flora P., Baumert, David W., Cluts, Jonathan, Woodman, Aaron F., Heath, Pamela J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tang; Karen C
• Application Number:
  US10/743,312
• Publication Number:
  US 20050138576A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,786 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/226, 709/208, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1632 External expansion units, e.g. docking stations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/35 communicating wirelessly

Abstract

A method and system are provided for facilitating interaction between a device and a device environment. The system may include a detection module for automatically detecting proximity of a participant within the device environment. The system may additionally include a user-configurable authorization module for authorizing the device to adjust a device user interface in a pre-determined manner in response to the detection of the participant. The system may also provide for sharing resources among multiple participating devices, wherein each of the multiple participating devices has a device specific set of application resources. The system may additionally include a configurable resource regulation mechanism for making the device specific application resources from the second participating device available to the first participating device.

Claims

1. A computer system for facilitating interaction between a first participating device having a computer processor and storage and the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment, the system comprising:

a detection module on the first participating device having the computer processor, the storage and the first user interface for automatically detecting proximity of a second participating device having a second user interface within the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment and utilizing such proximity detection to generate a dynamically updated list of detected nearby devices within the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment, wherein proximity of the second participating device within the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment is close in physical space, and wherein the list of detected nearby devices includes a record of the first and second participating devices detected by the detection module to be close in physical space that are able to communicate with one another, and their respective physical locations within the proximity of one another; and

a user-configurable authorization module on the first participating device authorizing the first participating device interacting with the list of the detected nearby devices to adjust the user interface of a first of the listed devices on the list of detected nearby devices in a predetermined manner to display contents of the user interface of a second of the listed devices on the list of detected nearby devices in response to the detection of the proximity of the second participating device within the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment, wherein the user-configurable authorization module comprises an arbitration module for resolving disputes between devices having an identical authorization status.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the user configurable authorization module identifies one of the first participating device and the second participating device as a controlling device and the other as a controlled device.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the controlling device comprises shared resources for sharing with the controlled device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the detection module detects one of an active participant and a passive participant.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the detection module detects the passive participant and the device user interface adjusted is a detecting device user interface.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the detection module detects the active participant and the user-configurable authorization module authorizes adjustment of the device user interface of a detected active participant.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-configurable authorization module includes an authorization status to control the second participating device.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user-configurable authorization module includes an authorization status to be controlled by another device.

9. The system of claim 2, further comprising a command and control translation module for receiving instructions from a user regarding actions to be taken by the controlling device.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising a UI element manager for taking directions from the command and control translation module.

11. A method being performed by a processor and a memory for facilitating interaction between a device and a device immediate environment, the method comprising:

detecting, via a first computing process, a participant present within the device immediate environment;

maintaining, via a second computing process, a dynamically updated list of detected nearby devices within the device immediate environment for each device, wherein the list of detected nearby devices maintains a record of participants that are able to communicate with another device detected to be close in physical space and their physical locations within the proximity of the device; and

adjusting in response to the detection of the participant present within the device immediate environment and interaction with the list of detected nearby devices, via a third computing process, the user interface of a first device on the list of detected nearby devices to display contents of the user interface of a second device on the list of detected nearby devices based on user-configured rules set forth in the device authorization module in response to the detection of the participant present within the device immediate environment, wherein the device authorization module identifies the device as one of a controlling device and a controlled device and resolves disputes between devices having an identical authorization status,

and wherein each of the first, second, and third computing processes are performed by the device.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising sharing resources from the controlling device with the controlled device.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising detecting one of an active participant and a passive participant.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising detecting a passive participant and authorizing a detecting device to adjust the device user interface of the detecting device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the passive participant has an RFID tag and the detecting device launches an application in response to the detection of the RFID tag.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising detecting an active participant, and authorizing adjustment of the active participant user interface.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving instructions from a user regarding actions to be taken by the controlling device.

18. A system for sharing resources among multiple participating devices, wherein each of the multiple participating devices has a computer processor, storage and a device specific set of application resources, the system comprising:

a detection module on a first participating device having the computer processor and the storage for detecting proximity of the first participating device to a second participating device, wherein proximity of the first participating device to the second participating device is close in physical space;

a dynamically updated nearby device list of detected devices within the first participating device'"'"'s immediate environment maintaining a record of the first and second participating devices detected to be close in physical space that are able to communicate with one another and their physical locations within the proximity of the one another; and

a configurable resource regulation mechanism interacting with the nearby device list and determining, based on a defining policy of the configurable resource regulation mechanism that establishes which of the first and second participating devices will obtain the resources from the other, that a first of the listed devices will acquire the device specific application resources from a second of the listed devices in response to detecting the proximity of the first participating device to the second participating device, wherein the configurable resource regulation mechanism comprises a user-configurable authorization module for providing each participating device with an authorization status as one of a controlled device and a controlling device, the controlling device comprising shared resources for sharing with the controlled device, and an arbitration mechanism for resolving disputes between devices having an identical authorization status.

19. A method being performed by a processor and a memory for facilitating resource sharing between multiple devices, the method comprising:

allowing, via a first computing process, a user to configure regulation of shared resources between multiple participating devices, each participating device communicates directly with at least one other participating devices; and

maintaining, via a second computing process, a list of detected participating devices based on proximity within an immediate environment to a first participating device, wherein proximity within an immediate environment is detected to be close in physical space, and wherein the list of detected participating devices is dynamically updated and maintains a record of the participating devices that are able to communicate with another device detected to be close in physical space and their physical locations within the proximity of the first participating device; and

enabling, via a third computing process, regulation of device resources in response to the detected proximity of a first participating device to a second participating device based on interacting with the list of detected devices and on a defining policy of the configurable resource regulation mechanism that establishes which of the first and second participating devices will obtain the resources from the other, wherein regulation includes acquiring device specific application resources of a first of the listed devices by a second the second of the listed devices based on an authorization status identifying each device as one of a controlling device and a controlled device using an authorization module and resolving disputes between devices having an identical authorization status, and wherein each of the first, second and third computing processes is performed by one or more of the multiple devices.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising sharing resources from the controlling device with the controlled device.