Interoperability mechanisms for internet of things integration platform

• US 9,600,571 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2013
• Issued: 03/21/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Neura Inc (Otonomo Technologies Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Neura Inc (Otonomo Technologies Ltd.)
• Inventors: Shaashua, Triinu Magi, Shaashua, Ori
• Primary Examiner(s): Vostal, O. C.
• Application Number:
  US13/957,255
• Publication Number:
  US 20150019710A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,328 Days
• Field of Search: 709/224
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 7/01 Probabilistic graphical models, e.g. probabilistic networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]

Abstract

A method of maintaining interoperability amongst Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected via an IoT integration platform is disclosed. The method includes: receiving a selection of a semantic label associated with an IoT device; determining a recommendation of an interoperable rule based on the semantic label, the interoperable rule having a condition trigger and an action policy for execution at satisfaction of the condition trigger; presenting the recommendation on a rule management interface; and receiving a confirmation from a user through the rule management interface to activate the interoperable rule.

Claims

1. A method of maintaining interoperability amongst Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected via an IoT integration platform, comprising:

receiving a user selection of a semantic label associated with an IoT device on a rule management interface, wherein the rule management interface is generated for a user account associated with multiple IoT devices, each IoT device capable of communicating with a server or a mobile application via a network connection and wherein the semantic label provides context of the IoT device relative to the user account;

generating, based on the semantic label of the IoT device, an interoperable rule that includes a condition trigger to be detected by at least a first IoT device and an action policy to be executed by at least a second IoT device at satisfaction of the condition trigger, wherein the IoT device associated with the semantic label is the first IoT device for detecting the condition trigger, the second IoT device for executing the action policy, or both;

presenting the interoperable rule, including a natural language description of the interoperable rule, to request a user via the rule management interface to confirm activation of the interoperable rule;

receiving a user interaction on the rule management interface, wherein the user interaction indicates the activation of the interoperable rule;

in response to the activation of the interoperable rule, monitoring data from at least a sensor of the first IoT device to determine an indication that the condition trigger is satisfied; and

executing the action policy on the second IoT device in response to receiving the indication that the condition trigger is satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising monitoring to detect the condition trigger among the IoT devices, including the first IoT device, connected to the IoT integration platform.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising when the condition trigger is detected, executing the action policy by controlling one or more of the IoT devices, including the second IoT device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the condition trigger includes determining a contextual event based on data received from the IoT devices.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the contextual event includes determining a geo-locational proximity of an authenticating IoT device from the IoT device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the action policy includes commanding the IoT device to unlock a security mechanism.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the contextual event further includes determining whether a first user account registered to the authenticating IoT device is associated with a second user account registered to the IoT device on a social network.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein determining the contextual event includes determining a movement of the IoT device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the recommendation of the interoperable rule is based on a history of user behavior of operating the IoT devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the recommendation of the interoperable rule is based on a user profile of the user.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the recommendation of the interoperable rule is received from a first user account to a second user account operating the rule management interface.

12. A method of maintaining interoperability amongst Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected via an IoT integration platform, comprising:

identifying an IoT device configured to communicate, via a network connection, with a server or a mobile application that communicates with the IoT integration platform, wherein a user account in the IoT integration platform is associated with the IoT device and one or more other IoT devices;

determining an interoperable rule having a condition trigger and an action policy, the condition trigger associated with a first set of one or more IoT devices configured to monitor sensor data to detect when the condition trigger is satisfied, the action policy associated with a second set of one or more IoT devices configured to execute the action policy, wherein the IoT device is part of the first set of IoT devices, the second set of IoT devices, or both;

activating the interoperable rule in response to receiving a user confirmation of the interoperable rule via a rule management interface;

monitoring data from one or more sensors of the first set of the IoT devices to detect an indication that the condition trigger is satisfied; and

after receiving the indication that the condition trigger is satisfied, executing the action policy by controlling one or more of the IoT devices to execute the action policy.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the IoT device includes assigning a unique identifier to the IoT device based on a device communication element.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the IoT device includes assigning a unique identifier to the IoT device based on a device behavior of the IoT device as observed by another IoT device connected to the IoT integration platform.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying the IoT device includes assigning a unique identifier to the IoT device based on a communication protocol data and a device data element.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring to detect the condition trigger includes monitoring the IoT device via data observed through another IoT device.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring to detect the condition trigger includes monitoring via polling for a status from the IoT device.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein monitoring to detect the condition trigger includes determining whether a context event is satisfied by analyzing data received from the IoT devices.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein determining the interoperable rule includes receiving the condition trigger and the action policy from the user via a rule management interface.

20. A machine-implemented integration platform system for maintaining interoperability amongst Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected thereto, the integration platform system comprising:

a rule management interface configured to receive a user selection of a semantic label associated with an IoT device, wherein the rule management interface is generated for a user account associated with multiple IoT devices, each IoT device capable of communicating with a server or a mobile application via a network connection and wherein the semantic label provides context of the IoT device relative to the user account;

a rule generation module, coupled to the rule management interface, configured to determine an interoperable rule based on the semantic label, the interoperable rule having a condition trigger to be detected by at least a first IoT device and an action policy to be executed by at least a second IoT device at satisfaction of the condition trigger, wherein the IoT device associated with the semantic label is the first IoT device for detecting the condition trigger, the second IoT device for executing the action policy, or both;

wherein the rule management interface is further configured to present the interoperable rule to a user and to receive a confirmation from the user through the rule management interface to activate the interoperable rule;

an event track module configured to detect the condition trigger among the IoT devices connected to the IoT integration platform by monitoring data from one or more sensors of the IoT devices; and

a rule execution module, coupled to the event track module to receive an indication that the condition trigger is detected, configured to execute the action policy by controlling one or more of the IoT devices when the condition trigger is detected by the event track module.

21. The machine-implemented integration platform system of claim 20, further comprising:

a device identification module configured to identify an IoT device associated with the user account and establish communication between the IoT device and with a server of the integration platform system or a mobile application associated with the integration platform system.