Hierarchical contexts to drive live sensor applications

• US 8,954,364 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2011
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Mohindra, Ajay, Sailer, Anca, Lillethun, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bejcek, II, Robert H
• Application Number:
  US13/236,475
• Publication Number:
  US 20130074096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,240 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 718/108
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/461 Saving or restoring of program or task context
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

A method for operating a sensor based application includes receiving a context hierarchy for the sensor based application, the context hierarchy comprising a plurality of contexts, wherein each of the contexts is assigned a level of interest and a priority, reading the context hierarchy and discovering at least one sensor associated with each of the plurality of contexts, and reading at least one value of each of the sensors, and applying the values.

Claims

1. A method of driving a sensor based application, comprising:

generating a context hierarchy for the sensor based application,

wherein the context hierarchy comprises a plurality of contexts, each context being either a static context having no associated sensors from a sensor network or a dynamic context having at least one associated sensor from the sensor network, wherein the plurality of contexts includes at least one static context and at least one dynamic context;

discovering a set of sensors from the sensor network using the context hierarchy, wherein each sensor included in the discovered set of sensors is associated with a dynamic context from among the plurality of contexts,

wherein the discovered set of sensors includes only sensors from the sensor network that are needed to meet a goal of the sensor based application;

reading data values from the discovered set of sensors;

applying the data values read from the discovered set of sensors in the sensor based application;

setting a priority for the at least one dynamic context of the plurality of contexts,

wherein the priority of the at least one dynamic context is set by a superior context within the context hierarchy, and the priority does not exceed a priority of the superior context; and

adjusting the priority of the at least one dynamic context based on an amount of use of the at least one associated sensor corresponding to the at least one dynamic context.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting a level of interest for each of the plurality of contexts,

wherein the level of interest of at least one of the plurality of contexts is set by the superior context within the context hierarchy, and the level of interest does not exceed a level of interest of the superior context.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the level of interest of another one of the plurality of contexts is set directly by a user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of another one of the plurality of contexts is set directly by a user.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reading data values of sensors from the sensor network associated with a parent context, wherein the parent context is a dynamic context; and

modifying a child context of the parent context, automatically by the parent context, based on the data values of the sensors from the sensor network associated with the parent context.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein modifying the child context comprises adding the child context to the context hierarchy.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein modifying the child context comprises removing the child context from the context hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting the priority of the at least one dynamic context comprises decaying the priority over time in response to the amount of use of the at least one associated sensor corresponding to the at least one dynamic context decreasing.

9. A computer program product for driving a sensor based application, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

generating a context hierarchy for the sensor based application,

wherein the context hierarchy comprises a plurality of contexts, each context being either a static context having no associated sensors from a sensor network or a dynamic context having at least one associated sensor from the sensor network, wherein the plurality of contexts includes at least one static context and at least one dynamic context;

discovering a set of sensors from the sensor network using the context hierarchy, wherein each sensor included in the discovered set of sensors is associated with a dynamic context from among the plurality of contexts,

wherein the discovered set of sensors includes only sensors from the sensor network that are needed to meet a goal of the sensor based application;

reading data values from the discovered set of sensors;

applying the data values read from the discovered set of sensors in the sensor based application;

setting a priority for the at least one dynamic context of the plurality of contexts,

wherein the priority of the at least one dynamic context is set by a superior context within the context hierarchy, and the priority does not exceed a priority of the superior context; and

adjusting the priority of the at least one dynamic context based on an amount of use of the at least one associated sensor corresponding to the at least one dynamic context.

10. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

setting a level of interest for each of the plurality of contexts,

wherein the level of interest of at least one of the plurality of contexts is set by the superior context within the context hierarchy, and the level of interest does not exceed a level of interest of the superior context.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the level of interest of another one of the plurality of contexts is set directly by a user.

12. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the priority of another one of the plurality of contexts is set directly by a user.

13. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

reacting data values of sensors from the sensor network associated with a parent context, wherein the parent context is a dynamic context; and

modifying a child context of the parent context, automatically by the parent context, based on the data values of the sensors from the sensor network associated with the parent context.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein modifying the child context comprises adding the child context to the context hierarchy.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein modifying the child context comprises removing the child context from the context hierarchy.

16. The computer program product of claim 9, wherein adjusting the priority of the at least one dynamic context comprises decaying the priority over time in response to the amount of use of the at least one associated sensor corresponding to the at least one dynamic context decreasing.