Ubiquitous companion agent

• US 8,443,288 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2003
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mercs, James S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chow, Doon
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pham, Linh K
• Application Number:
  US10/401,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20040100492A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,700 Days
• Field of Search: 715733-737, 715741-743
• US Class Current: 715/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for controlling and interacting with devices across a network using a ubiquitous companion. In one implementation, a ubiquitous companion includes: an agent interface for communicating with an agent residing on a host device accessible to the companion, and accessing host device data indicating one or more capabilities of the host device; a command interface for building one or more agent commands according to the host device data and a request selection received from a user through the host device; an output interface for providing feedback to the user through the host device in a format that is adapted according to the host device data; and a controller for controlling interaction among the agent interface, the command interface, and the output interface.

Claims

1. A ubiquitous companion configured to connect to a host device, the ubiquitous companion comprising:

an agent interface configured to provide communication between the ubiquitous companion and an agent residing on the host device accessible to the ubiquitous companion, said agent interface configured to access host device data indicating one or more capabilities of the host device;

a command interface configured to build one or more agent commands according to service functionality in the host device data and a request selection received from a user through the host device, said command interface building the one or more commands to control one or more remote devices remote to the host device,

wherein said command interface builds different user interface for the host device than that of the one or more remote devices because functionalities of the host device are different from those of the one or more remote devices;

an output interface for providing feedback to the user through the host device in a format that is adapted according to the host device data such that functions of the one or more remote devices are controllable from the host device using the format set up by the output interface;

a controller for controlling interactions among the agent interface, the command interface, and the output interface,

wherein the interactions among the interfaces in the ubiquitous companion are configured to provide format adaptability between the host device and the one or more remote devices with different interface functionalities; and

wherein the ubiquitous companion is a portable unit that is portable from one device to another device.

2. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

storage for storing remote device data indicating one or more capabilities of each of the one or more remote devices, and for storing the host device data,

wherein the remote device data includes input and output functionalities of the one or more remote devices, and

wherein the host device data includes input, output, and service functionalities of the host device.

3. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the feedback provided by the output interface to the user through the host device in a format that is adapted according to the host device data includes

a visual display of the functions of the one or more remote devices.

4. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the agent interface sends one or more agent commands to a remote agent residing on a remote device connected to the host device through a network.

5. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the agent interface sends one or more agent commands to a first remote agent residing on a first remote device connected to the host device through a network, and sends one or more agent commands to a second remote agent residing on a second remote device connected to the host device through the network.

6. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the ubiquitous companion coupled to the corresponding host device is configured to cooperate with a second ubiquitous companion coupled to a remote device so that the ubiquitous companions act together as an intermediary between the host device and the remote device.

7. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

a security component for conditionally limiting the operation of the companion.

8. The ubiquitous companion of claim 7, wherein the security component authenticates the user, and when authentication fails, the command interface does not build agent commands.

9. The ubiquitous companion of claim 7, wherein the security component provides content control.

10. The ubiquitous companion of claim 9, wherein the security component provides content control using a digital rights management system.

11. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

a computer readable medium encoded with a computer program, the computer program comprising executable instructions to execute the agent interface, the output interface, the command interface, and the controller.

12. The ubiquitous companion of claim 6, wherein the ubiquitous companions act together as an intermediary between the host device and the remote device to set up a network game between the users.

13. The ubiquitous companion of claim 6, wherein the ubiquitous companions include priority levels to resolve conflicts between differing instructions for a same device.