Location based policy system and method for changing computing environments

• US 8,161,299 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 04/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Karkaria, Burges M., Zimmer, Vincent J., Baca, Jim S.
• Primary Examiner(s): REHMAN, MOHAMMED H
• Application Number:
  US11/961,854
• Publication Number:
  US 20090164772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 713/300
• US Class Current: 713/300
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/121 Restricting unauthorised execution of programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/445 Program loading or initiating bootstrapping G06F9/4401; security arrangements for program loading or initiating G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2535 adapted for voice communication over an Internet Protocol [IP] network Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network equipment and services H04M7/006; implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP] H04L69/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72454 according to context-related or environment-related conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72457 according to geographic location
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/10 including a GPS signal receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

A system and method for changing compute environments for a mobile platform device. The mobile platform includes a sensory and location determination engine coupled to a policy engine. The sensory and location determination engine determines a current location of the mobile platform device and the policy engine determines what applications to launch, what applications not to launch, and what core usage to invoke for the determined location of the mobile platform device.

Claims

1. A system for changing computing environments comprising:

a sensory and location determination engine to determine a current location of a computing device; and

a policy engine coupled to the sensory and location determination engine, the policy engine to determine what applications to launch, what applications not to launch, and what core usage to invoke for the determined location of the computing device,

wherein the policy engine further (i) to determine which applications to move to an active virtual partition and which applications to move to a low power virtual partition based on the determined location of the computing device, (ii) to allocate a first number of processor cores of a plurality of processor cores of the system to the active virtual partition based on the determined location, and (iii) to allocate a second number of processor cores of the plurality of processor cores to the low power virtual partition based on the determined location.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensory and location determination engine to operate in shutdown mode to enable location determination at all times.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensory and location determination engine to aggregate sensor data from the computing device and use the sensor data to determine the location of the computing device.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the sensor data from the computing device comprises one or more of video data, audio data, radio data, and Global Positioning System (GPS) data, wherein one or more sensor data inputs are used to determine the location of the computing device.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the video data comprises video data taken by a web cam of the computing device of a current location of the computing device, wherein the video data received is compared to an image database to determine the location of the computing device.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the radio data comprises radio signal data from one or more of a WiFi radio, a Bluetooth radio, a WiMAX radio, or any other radio that enables the computing device to communicate with a network, wherein the radio signal data is compared to a radio database to determine the location of the received radio signal data.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the audio data to determine high or low background noise to aid in the determination of the location of the computing device.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the GPS data to provide GPS coordinates to provide the location of the computing device, wherein when the GPS coordinates received are rapidly changing, the location is determined to be in a moving vehicle.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the policy engine to use dynamic virtualization to partition applications to be used in the current location from applications to be used in other locations.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein applications to be used at the current location of the computing device are placed in the active virtual partition and applications to be used in the other locations are placed in at least one of the low power partition or one or more other virtual partitions.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one of the low power partition or the one or more other virtual partitions comprise at least one hibernate virtual partition for applications that need to retain an existing state of last use.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one of the low power partition or the one or more other virtual partitions comprise at least one closed virtual partition for applications that do not need to retain an existing state of last use.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one of the low power partition or the one or more other virtual partitions comprise at least one standby virtual partition for applications that need to be put on standby.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one of the low power partition or the one or more other virtual partitions comprise a virtual partition for each location in which the computing device is to be used.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the first number of cores to be invoked by the policy engine is based on one or more of the location of the computing device, the number of virtual partitions used, the type of virtual partitions used, and the length of time the computing device will be used in the current location.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is a mobile platform device.

17. A method for changing a computing environment comprising:

determining whether a change in location of a computing device has been detected, wherein if a change in location of a computing device has been detected,

determining whether virtual partitions need to be created, wherein if the virtual partitions need to be created, creating at least one of an active virtual partition and a low power state virtual partition to be used in the current location;

determining whether a current location needs a power adjustment, wherein if the current location needs the power adjustment, (i) allocating a first number of processor cores of a plurality of processor cores to the active virtual partition based on the location of the computing device and (ii) allocating a second number of processor cores of the plurality of srocessor cores to the low power virtual partition based on the location of the computing device;

determining what applications need to be placed in each of the active virtual partition and the low power state virtual partition based on the location of the computing device;

moving the applications to their designated virtual partition based on the determination of what applications need to be placed in each of the active and low power state virtual partitions; and

processing each of the active and low power state virtual partitions accordingly.

18. The method of claim 17, determining whether a change in location of a computing device has been detected comprises processing one or more sensor inputs of the computing device to determine the location of the computing device, wherein the one or more sensor inputs include a video input from a web cam that is compared to an image database, an audio input that is processed to determine whether it represents high or low background noise, a radio input from one of a WiFi radio, a Bluetooth radio, or a WiMAX radio that is compared to a database of radio signals to determine the location where the radio signal is used, and a Global Positioning System (GPS) input in which the GPS coordinates are used to determine location.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one virtual partition comprises the active virtual partition for executing applications to be used in the current location.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein at least one virtual partition comprises a hibernate virtual partition for hibernating applications that are not to be used in the current location, but need to retain an existing state of last use for operation in other locations.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein processing each of the active and low power state virtual partitions accordingly comprises launching the applications to be used in the active virtual partition for the current location and hibernating or closing the applications that are used in the low power state virtual partition.

22. An article comprising:

a storage medium having a plurality of machine accessible instructions, wherein when the instructions are executed by a processor, the instructions provide for determining whether a change in location of a computing device has been detected, wherein if a change in location of a computing device has been detected,

determining whether virtual partitions need to be created, wherein if the virtual partitions need to be created, creating at least one of an active virtual partition and a low power state virtual partition to be used in the current location;

determining whether a current location needs a power adjustment, wherein if the current location needs the power adjustment, (i) allocating a first number of processor cores of a plurality of processor cores to the active virtual partition based on the location of the computing device and (ii) allocating a second number of processor cores of the plurality of processor cores to the low power virtual partition based on the location of the computing device;

determining what applications need to be placed in each of the active virtual partition and the low power state virtual partition based on the location of the computing device;

moving the applications to their designated virtual partition based on the determining what applications need to be placed in each of the active and low power state virtual partitions; and

processing each of the active and low power state virtual partitions accordingly.

23. The article of claim 22, wherein instructions for determining whether a change in location of a computing device has been detected comprises instructions for processing one or more sensor inputs of the computing device to determine the location of the computing device, wherein the one or more sensor inputs include a video input from a web cam that is compared to an image database, an audio input that is processed to determine whether it represents high or low background noise, a radio input from one of a WiFi radio, a Bluetooth radio, or a WiMAX radio that is compared to a database of radio signals to determine the location where the radio signal is used, and a Global Positioning System (GPS) input in which the GPS coordinates are used to determine location.

24. The article of claim 22, wherein instructions for processing each of the active and low power state virtual partitions accordingly comprises instructions for launching the applications to be used in the active virtual partition for the current location and hibernating or closing the applications that are used in the low power state virtual partition.

25. The article of claim 22, wherein at least one virtual partition comprises the active virtual partition for executing applications to be used in the current location and at least one virtual partition comprises a hibernate virtual partition for hibernating applications that are not to be used in the current location, but need to retain an existing state of last use for operation in other locations.