Maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device

• US 8,494,707 B1
• Filed: 02/29/2012
• Issued: 07/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bennah, Albert D., Pagan, William G., Rodriguez, Adrian X., Woods, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheung, Mary
• Assistant Examiner(s): BRUSHABER, FREDERICK M
• Application Number:
  US13/407,866
• Time in Patent Office: 510 Days
• Field of Search: 701/29.4
• US Class Current: 701/29.4
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0739 in a data processing system embedded in automotive or aircraft systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0748 in a remote unit communicating with a single-box computer node experiencing an error/fault remote testing G06F11/2294
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0766 Error or fault reporting or storing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/00 Digital computing or data processing equipment or methods, specially adapted for specific functions information retrieval, database structures or file system structures therefor G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/008 communicating information to a remotely located station transmission systems for measured values G08C
• CPC Class Codes: G07C 5/0808 Diagnosing performance data testing of vehicles G01M17/00; testing of electrical installation on vehicles G01R31/005

Abstract

Maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device, including: detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, a fault condition, wherein the fault condition indicates that the self-diagnosing device needs to be serviced; detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, that the fault condition has been resolved; determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved; and entering, by the self-diagnosing device, the fault condition and the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device when the fault condition was resolved into the dynamic service registry.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device, the method comprising:

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, a fault condition, wherein the fault condition indicates that the self-diagnosing device needs to be serviced;

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, that the fault condition has been resolved;

determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved; and

entering, by the self-diagnosing device, the fault condition and the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device when the fault condition was resolved into the dynamic service registry.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying in dependence upon entries in the dynamic service registry, by the self-diagnosing device, a candidate service provider to service the fault condition; and

sending, by the self-diagnosing device, information describing the fault condition to the candidate service provider.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising sending, by the self-diagnosing device, the dynamic service registry to a central repository.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the self-diagnosing device is included in an automobile.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved further comprises determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the global positioning system (‘

GPS’

) coordinates of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

gathering, by the self-diagnosing device, contact information for a service provider that resolved the fault condition; and

storing, by the self-diagnosing device, the contact information for the service provider that resolved the fault condition in the dynamic service registry.

7. An apparatus for maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device, the apparatus comprising a computer processor, a computer memory operatively coupled to the computer processor, the computer memory having disposed within it computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, a fault condition, wherein the fault condition indicates that the self-diagnosing device needs to be serviced;

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, that the fault condition has been resolved;

determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved; and

entering, by the self-diagnosing device, the fault condition and the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device when the fault condition was resolved into the dynamic service registry.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

identifying in dependence upon entries in the dynamic service registry, by the self-diagnosing device, a candidate service provider to service the fault condition; and

sending, by the self-diagnosing device, information describing the fault condition to the candidate service provider.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the step of sending, by the self-diagnosing device, the dynamic service registry to a central repository.

10. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the self-diagnosing device is included in an automobile.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein determining the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved further comprises determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the global positioning system (‘

GPS’

) coordinates of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved.

12. The apparatus of claim 7 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:

gathering, by the self-diagnosing device, contact information for a service provider that resolved the fault condition; and

storing, by the self-diagnosing device, the contact information for the service provider that resolved the fault condition in the dynamic service registry.

13. A computer program product for maintaining a dynamic service registry for a self-diagnosing device, the computer program product disposed upon a computer readable medium, wherein the computer readable medium is not a signal, the computer program product comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause a computer to carry out the steps of:

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, a fault condition, wherein the fault condition indicates that the self-diagnosing device needs to be serviced;

detecting, by the self-diagnosing device, that the fault condition has been resolved;

determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved; and

entering, by the self-diagnosing device, the fault condition and the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device when the fault condition was resolved into the dynamic service registry.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

identifying in dependence upon entries in the dynamic service registry, by the self-diagnosing device, a candidate service provider to service the fault condition; and

sending, by the self-diagnosing device, information describing the fault condition to the candidate service provider.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the computer to carry out the step of sending, by the self-diagnosing device, the dynamic service registry to a central repository.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the self-diagnosing device is included in an automobile.

17. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein determining the geographic location of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved further comprises determining, by the self-diagnosing device, the global positioning system (‘

GPS’

) coordinates of the self-diagnosing device upon detecting that the fault condition was resolved.

18. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed, cause the computer to carry out the steps of:

gathering, by the self-diagnosing device, contact information for a service provider that resolved the fault condition; and

storing, by the self-diagnosing device, the contact information for the service provider that resolved the fault condition in the dynamic service registry.