Method and system of optimizing context-data acquisition by a mobile device

• US 8,472,986 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2010
• Issued: 06/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buckyball Mobile, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Buckyball Mobile, Inc.
• Inventors: Karmarkar, Amit, Peters, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): Kincaid, Lester
• Assistant Examiner(s): HERRERA, DIEGO D
• Application Number:
  US12/838,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20110014933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• Field of Search: 455/466
• US Class Current: 455/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72436 for text messaging, e.g. short messaging services [SMS] or e-mails
• 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 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/10 Scheduling measurement reports ; Arrangements for measurement reports
• 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 4/14 Short messaging services, e.g. short message services [SMS] or unstructured supplementary service data [USSD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

Disclosed are a system, method, and article of manufacture for optimization of context-data acquisition by a mobile device. A term of a short message generated with a mobile device is identified. A list is populated with at least one sensor of the mobile device. The list is sorted according to a specified metric. A physical quantity of an environmental attribute of the mobile device is measured with a first listed sensor. The measurement is converted into a context data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

identifying a term of a short message generated with a mobile device;

determining a meaning of a component of the short message;

selecting at least one sensor of the mobile device that measures an environmental attribute of the mobile device that is relevant to the meaning of the component of the short message;

populating a list with the at least one sensor of the mobile device;

sorting the list according to a specified metric;

measuring a physical quantity of the environmental attribute of the mobile device with a first listed sensor; and

converting the measurement into a context data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

associating the context data with the term.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein associating the context data with the term further comprises:

annotating the short message with a procedural markup instruction to explicitly associate the context data with the short message with a graphical user interface.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein associating the context data with the term further comprises:

including the context data in a payload of a data packet used to transmit at least a portion of the short message.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein associating the context data with the term further comprises:

concatenating a plurality of short message datagrams, wherein the plurality of short message datagrams comprise the short message and the context data.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the specified metric comprises a signal magnitude measured by a sensor.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the sensor with the largest signal magnitude is sorted as the first listed sensor.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the specified metric comprises a power usage of the sensor and a remaining power value of a power source of the mobile device.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the sensor with the smallest power usage is sorted as the first listed sensor.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 further comprising:

formatting the short message and the context data into a context-enriched short message.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein context-enriched short message type is determined according to a messaging protocol usable by an available communications network.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10, wherein the context-enriched short message type is determined by a messaging protocol compatible with a recipient application.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the short message comprises a multimedia messaging service message.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein a machine is caused perform the method of claim 1 when a set of instructions in a form of a machine-readable medium is executed by the machine.

15. A method comprising:

obtaining a short message;

selecting a short message component;

determining a meaning of a component of the short message;

generating a sensor queue, wherein the sensor queue comprises at least one sensor of a mobile device that generated the short message, and wherein a physical quantity measured by the at least one sensor of the sensor queue is determined by the meaning of the short message component;

ordering the sensor queue according to a parameter;

measuring a physical quantity with a first-ordered sensor of the sensor queue; and

linking the short message component with a computer-readable data representing the physical quantity.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the parameter comprises a mobile device state.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the parameter comprises a relevancy of the physical quantity to the short message component.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the parameter comprises an availability of the physical quantity measured by each sensor.

19. A system comprising:

a text-messaging component operative to generate, send and receive a text message;

a text-message enriching component operative to associate at a sensor data with a text data;

a context-data component to determine a meaning of a part of the text message;

a sensor manager component operative to select a sensor component according to a selection metric and a meaning of the part of the text message, and

a sensor component operative to acquire the context data.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the sensor component comprises a near-field communications device of the mobile device.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the selection metric comprises a sensor state, a mobile device component state or an attribute of an environment of the mobile device.