Controlling behavior of mobile devices using consensus

• US 9,369,861 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2012
• Issued: 06/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Baker, Mary G, Gelb, Daniel George, Robinson, Ian N
• Primary Examiner(s): Mushambo, Martin
• Application Number:
  US14/389,506
• Publication Number:
  US 20150079962A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,506 Days
• Field of Search: 455/567
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• 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 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• 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 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 64/00 Locating users or terminals or network equipment for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data

Abstract

A method of determining context-appropriate behavior for mobile devices.

Claims

1. A method of controlling behavior of a mobile device comprising:

communicating with at least one-other mobile device in a set number of other mobile devices;

determining at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device, further including determining a consensus about appropriate behavior with at least the set number of other mobile devices within a specified range determined by the strength of signals of the set number of other mobile devices and rejecting any at least one other mobile device that falls below a specified signal strength; and

determining a behavior profile of the mobile device based upon the determined at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein communicating with at least one other mobile device is limited to only the current behavior profile or recent change in behavior profile and does not include any personally identifiable data.

3. The method of claim 1 further including the step of changing the current behavior profile of the mobile device to match the determined behavior profile of the mobile device.

4. The method of claim 1 further including determining the location of the mobile device and accessing behavior instructions for the determined location and using the behavior instructions to confirm the determined behavior profile of the mobile device is correct.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein in determining a behavior profile of the mobile device based upon the determined at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device, the set number of other mobile devices to be considered in determining the behavior profile of the mobile device, are limited to a specified proximity.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a location of the mobile device;

wherein determining the behavior profile of the mobile device is further based upon the determined location of the mobile device.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of the mobile device includes determining the proximity of wireless signals of other electronic devices.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of the mobile device includes determining the proximity of other electronic devices through sound or visual inputs.

9. The method of claim 7 further including setting a desired profile by the user of the mobile device and instructing the mobile device to determine wireless devices proximate to the mobile device.

10. The method of claim 9 further including initiation of an automatic behavior profile change or a prompt for a behavior profile change when at least a specified percentage of the determined wireless devices are proximate to the mobile device.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location includes determining the geographic location.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein determining the location of the mobile device includes determining the location of the mobile device proximate to a beacon and wherein the beacon provides a desired behavior profile to mobile devices.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the provided desired behavior profile is used in determining the behavior profile of the mobile device.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using a sensor on the mobile device to identify a specified environmental condition;

wherein determining the behavior profile of the mobile device is further based on the identified specified environmental condition.

15. The method of claim 14 the sensor is a microphone and the specified condition is a sound profile.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein determining a behavior profile of the mobile device includes a weighted combination of consensus regarding current behavior of the set number of other mobile devices and a consensus of recent changes in behavior of the set number of other mobile devices.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium for controlling behavior of a mobile device, the medium comprising instructions that when read by a processor cause the processor to:

communicate with at least one other mobile device in a set number of other mobile devices;

determine at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device, further including determining a consensus about appropriate behavior with at least the set number of other mobile devices within a specified range determined by the strength of signals of the set number of other mobile devices and rejecting any at least one other mobile device that falls below a specified signal strength; and

determine a behavior profile of the mobile device based upon the determined at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein to communicate with at least one other mobile device is limited to only the current behavior profile or recent change in behavior profile and does not include any personally identifiable data.

19. A non-transitory computer readable medium for controlling behavior of a mobile device, the medium comprising instructions that when read by a processor cause the processor to:

communicate with at least one other mobile device in a set number of other mobile devices;

determine at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device including determining a consensus about appropriate behavior with at least the set number of other mobile devices; and

determine a behavior profile of the mobile device based upon the determined at least one of a current behavior profile or a recent change in behavior profile of the at least one other mobile device, wherein to determine a behavior profile of the mobile device includes a weighted combination of consensus regarding current behavior of the set number of other mobile devices and a consensus of recent changes in behavior of the set number of other mobile devices.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19 wherein a greater weight is given to manually initiated change in the behavior profile to the mobile device as compared to a current context-appropriate behavior of the set number of other mobile devices.