Environmental-based location monitoring

• US 9,438,606 B1
• Filed: 12/21/2015
• Issued: 09/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2015
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bartley, Gerald K., Becker, Darryl J., Doyle, Matthew S., Maxson, Mark O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sholeman, Abu
• Application Number:
  US14/976,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20160285887A1
• Time in Patent Office: 260 Days
• Field of Search: 726/1, 726/23, 726/24, 726/25, 726/26
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5866 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, manually generated location and time information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/55 Detecting local intrusion or implementing counter-measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2111 Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/254 involving subtraction of images
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/62 of area, perimeter, diameter or volume
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/52 Surveillance or monitoring of activities, e.g. for recognising suspicious objects recognising microscopic objects G06V20/69
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/107 wherein the security policies are location-dependent, e.g. entities privileges depend on current location or allowing specific operations only from locally connected terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 for receiving images from a single remote source
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/08 Access security
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure are directed towards environmental based location monitoring. Environmental based location monitoring can include collecting, a first set of image data that corresponds to a first set of environmental characteristics existing within a bounded area encompassing a hardware element of the computer and determining an environmental difference based on a difference between a first location corresponding to a geographic position of the hardware element relative to the first set of environmental characteristics and a second location corresponding to an approved geographic position of the hardware element. Environmental based location monitoring can include determining that the environmental difference does not satisfy a threshold and executing a reaction sequence in the computer, in response to determining that the environmental difference does not satisfy the threshold.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of environmental based location monitoring, the method comprising:

collecting, by a sensor electronically connected to a computer and in response to powering-on the computer, a first set of image data that corresponds to a first set of environmental characteristics existing within a bounded area encompassing a hardware element of the computer, wherein the bounded area is external to the hardware element of the computer, within a range of the sensor collecting the first set of image data, and within an air-conditioned server room containing multiple server racks housing one or more computer servers;

determining, by a processor analyzing the first set of image data, a first location corresponding to a geographic position of the hardware element relative to the first set of environmental characteristics, and determining, by the processor analyzing a second set of image data stored in a database of the computer, the second set of image data corresponding to a second set of environmental characteristics, a second location corresponding to an approved geographic position of the hardware element relative to the second set of environmental characteristics;

comparing, by the processor, the first location to the second location, and determining, by the processor, by comparing the first location to the second location, an environmental difference using a location difference between the first location and the second location;

determining that the environmental difference does not satisfy a threshold;

determining, by the processor analyzing the first set of image data, a first volume corresponding to a volumetric dimension of the bounded area;

determining, by the processor analyzing the second set of image data, a second volume corresponding to a volumetric dimension of the second location;

comparing the first volume to the second volume, and determining, by comparing the first volume to the second volume, a volumetric difference;

determining, by the processor, that the volumetric difference does not satisfy a second threshold;

executing, by the processor, in response to determining that the environmental difference does not satisfy a threshold and further in response to determining that the volumetric difference does not satisfy a second threshold, a reaction sequence in the computer, wherein the reaction sequence includes shutting-down the computer and overwriting a set of data stored in the computer.