Methods to discover, configure, and leverage relationships in internet of things (IoT) networks

• US 9,900,171 B2
• Filed: 02/21/2014
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/25/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Inventors: Guedalia, Isaac David, Guedalia, Jacob, Chandhok, Ravinder Paul, Glickfield, Sarah
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kassa, Elizabeth
• Application Number:
  US14/187,102
• Publication Number:
  US 20140244834A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 20/00 Machine learning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/043 Distributed expert systems; Blackboards
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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 4/027 using movement velocity, acceleration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/70 Services for machine-to-machine communication [M2M] or machine type communication [MTC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 84/18 Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks

Abstract

The disclosure generally relates to various methods to discover, configure, and leverage relationships in Internet of Things (IoT) networks. More particularly, the methods disclosed herein may support automated processes to create configurable sub-divisions and access controls in an IoT network based on usage associated with objects that are registered in the IoT network and interactions among the registered objects. Furthermore, in one embodiment, relationships between IoT devices that belong to different users may be implicitly discovered and/or ranked based on meetings (e.g., interactions) between the IoT devices, and relationships between the different users may likewise be implicitly discovered and/or ranked. Moreover, locations and interactions associated with IoT devices may be tracked over time to further discover user-specific and potentially asymmetric relationships among the IoT devices and/or the users associated therewith (e.g., where one user considers another user a close friend and the other user considers the first user an acquaintance).

Claims

1. A method for discovering, configuring, and leveraging relationships in Internet of Things (IoT) networks, comprising:

registering, by a processor, one or more objects into an IoT network;

tracking, by the processor, interactions among multiple IoT devices and locations where the tracked interactions occurred, wherein the multiple IoT devices include at least a first IoT device that belongs to an owner user associated with the IoT network and a second IoT device that belongs to at least one visitor user to the IoT network, and wherein the tracked interactions include at least one interaction between the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user and the one or more registered objects in the IoT network;

forming, by the processor, the one or more registered objects into one or more IoT groups according to usage associated with the one or more registered objects and one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects;

discovering, by the processor, an asymmetric relationship between the owner user associated with the IoT network and the at least one visitor user to the IoT network based on the tracked interactions and the locations associated therewith, including one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user, wherein the asymmetric relationship is discovered based on data associated with the tracked interactions that occurred during a predefined time period;

assigning, by the processor, an identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user based on one or more of a time when the one or more interactions occurred or a location where the one or more interactions occurred;

assigning, by the processor, a rank to a relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device based on one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions and one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device;

updating, by the processor, the rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device in response to one or more subsequent interactions between the first IoT device and the second IoT device, wherein the rank assigned to the relationship is updated based on the one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions, the one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device, and one or more attributes associated with the one or more subsequent interactions; and

controlling, by the processor, access that the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user has to each of the one or more IoT groups in the IoT network according to one or more permissions associated with the identifier assigned to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user, wherein controlling the access comprises determining, by the processor, whether to grant the second IoT device access to the first IoT device based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

2. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more user commands that control access to the one or more IoT groups.

3. The method recited in claim 2, further comprising:

dividing the one or more IoT groups into one or more subsets according to the usage associated with the one or more registered objects and the one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects.

4. The method recited in claim 3, further comprising:

receiving one or more user commands that control access to the one or more subsets.

5. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more registered objects include at least one non-communicating physical object and at least one communicating IoT device that stores information relating to the usage and the interactions associated therewith in a local database.

6. The method recited in claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, from the at least one communicating IoT device, the information relating to the usage and the interactions associated therewith; and

deriving information relating to the usage and the interactions associated with the at least one non-communicating physical object based on the information received from the at least one communicating IoT device in response to the interactions associated with the at least one communicating IoT device including at least one interaction between the at least one communicating IoT device and the at least one non-communicating physical object.

7. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more user commands to customize the one or more IoT groups.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether to grant the second IoT device access to another IoT device that belongs to the owner user based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

9. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising:

storing information related to the one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user in a first interaction table associated with the first IoT device, wherein the information stored in the first interaction table comprises one or more of the time when the one or more interactions occurred or the location where the one or more interactions occurred; and

assigning the identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user associated with the second IoT device based, at least in part, on the information stored in the first interaction table.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more interactions include at least one interaction that occurred while the first IoT device and the second IoT device are located in proximity to each other.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first IoT device detects the at least one interaction in response to detecting the second IoT device in proximity thereto.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein a server detects the at least one interaction based on location information related to the at least one interaction that the server receives from the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

adding the identifier assigned to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user to an entry associated with the at least one visitor user in the first interaction table.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the asymmetric relationship reflects multiple interactions between one or more IoT devices associated with the owner user and one or more IoT devices associated with the at least one visitor user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple interactions comprise one or more of interactions that occur within a threshold time period, interactions that occur at substantially the same time, interactions that occur at substantially the same location, interactions that have a threshold duration, interactions that have a threshold frequency, or interactions that have substantially the same type.

16. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the asymmetric relationship indicates that the owner user and the at least one visitor user assign different identifiers to the relationship between the at least one visitor user and the owner user.

17. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the tracked locations indicate whether the tracked interactions occurred at a personal space associated with the owner user or a personal space that the at least one visitor user owns.

18. The method recited in claim 17, wherein the tracked locations further indicate that the owner user associated with the IoT network appears in the personal space that the at least one visitor user owns at a first frequency and that the at least one visitor user appears in the personal space associated with the owner user owns at a second frequency that differs from the first frequency.

19. The method recited in claim 1, wherein discovering the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user further comprises:

processing data associated with one or more previously determined relationships between the owner user and the at least one visitor user in combination with the tracked interactions that occurred during the predefined time period.

20. The method recited in claim 1, wherein discovering the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user comprises:

clustering data associated with the tracked interactions and the locations where the tracked interactions occurred into one or more dominant groups;

deriving a first cluster representation specific to the owner user and a second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user from the one or more dominant groups; and

determining the asymmetric relationship based on similarities or dissimilarities between the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user.

21. The method recited in claim 20, wherein discovering the at least one asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user further comprises:

displaying data associated with the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user according to the locations where the tracked interactions occurred.

22. The method recited in claim 1, wherein a server tracks the interactions among the multiple IoT devices and the locations where the tracked interactions occurred to discover the at least one asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user.

23. An apparatus, comprising:

at least one memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory, the at least one memory and the at least one processor configured to;

register one or more objects into an Internet of Things (IoT) network;

track interactions among multiple IoT devices and locations where the tracked interactions occurred, wherein the multiple IoT devices include at least a first IoT device that belongs to an owner user associated with the IoT network and a second IoT device that belongs to at least one visitor user to the IoT network, and wherein the tracked interactions include at least one interaction between the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user and the one or more registered objects in the IoT network;

form the one or more registered objects into one or more IoT groups according to usage associated with the one or more registered objects and one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects;

discover an asymmetric relationship between the owner user associated with the IoT network and the at least one visitor user to the IoT network based on the tracked interactions and the locations associated therewith, including one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user, wherein the asymmetric relationship is discovered based on data associated with the tracked interactions that occurred during a predefined time period;

assign an identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user based on one or more of a time when the one or more interactions occurred or a location where the one or more interactions occurred;

assign a rank to a relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device based on one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions and one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device;

update the rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device in response to one or more subsequent interactions between the first IoT device and the second IoT device, wherein the rank assigned to the relationship is updated based on the one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions, the one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device, and one or more attributes associated with the one or more subsequent interactions; and

control access that the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user has to each of the one or more IoT groups in the IoT network according to one or more permissions associated with the identifier assigned to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user, wherein the controlled access is used to determine whether to grant the second IoT device access to the first IoT device based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

24. The apparatus recited in claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to:

divide the one or more IoT groups into one or more subsets according to the usage associated with the one or more registered objects and the one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects.

25. The apparatus recited in claim 24, further comprising a transceiver configured to:

receive one or more user commands that control access to the one or more IoT groups and the one or more subsets associated therewith; and

receive one or more user commands to customize the one or more IoT groups and the one or more subsets associated therewith.

26. The apparatus recited in claim 23, further comprising:

a transceiver configured to receive, from at least a first one of the registered objects that has communication capabilities, information relating to the usage and interactions associated therewith, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to derive information relating to the usage and interactions associated with at least a second one of the registered objects that does not have communication capabilities based on the information received from the first registered object in response to the interactions associated with the first registered object including at least one interaction between the first registered object and the second registered object.

27. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to determine whether to grant the second IoT device access to a third IoT device that belongs to the owner user based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

28. The apparatus recited in claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to:

assign the identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user based, at least in part, on information related to the one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user, wherein the information related to the one or more interactions comprises one or more of the time when the one or more interactions occurred or the location where the one or more interactions occurred.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the asymmetric relationship reflects multiple interactions between one or more IoT devices associated with the owner user and one or more IoT devices associated with the at least one visitor user.

30. The apparatus recited in claim 23, wherein the asymmetric relationship indicates that the owner user and the at least one visitor user assign different identifiers to the relationship between the at least one visitor user and the owner user.

31. The apparatus recited in claim 30, wherein the tracked locations indicate that the owner user associated with the IoT network appears in a personal space that the at least one visitor user owns at a first frequency and that the at least one visitor user appears in a personal space associated with the owner user at a second frequency that differs from the first frequency.

32. The apparatus recited in claim 23, wherein the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user is further discovered based on one or more previously determined relationships between the owner user and the at least one visitor user in combination with the tracked interactions that occurred during the predefined time period.

33. The apparatus recited in claim 23, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to:

cluster data associated with the tracked interactions and the locations where the tracked interactions occurred into one or more dominant groups;

derive a first cluster representation specific to the owner user and a second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user from the one or more dominant groups; and

determine the asymmetric relationship based on similarities or dissimilarities between the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user.

34. The apparatus recited in claim 33, wherein the at least one memory and the at least one processor are further configured to:

display data associated with the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user according to the locations where the tracked interactions occurred.

35. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions recorded thereon, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on one or more processors causes the one or more processors to:

register one or more objects into an Internet of Things (IoT) network;

track interactions among multiple IoT devices and locations where the tracked interactions occurred, wherein the multiple IoT devices include at least a first IoT device that belongs to an owner user associated with the IoT network and a second IoT device that belongs to at least one visitor user to the IoT network, and wherein the tracked interactions include at least one interaction between the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user and the one or more registered objects in the IoT network;

form the one or more registered objects into one or more IoT groups according to usage associated with the one or more registered objects and one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects;

discover an asymmetric relationship between the owner user associated with the IoT network and the at least one visitor user to the IoT network based on the tracked interactions and the locations associated therewith, including one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user, wherein the asymmetric relationship is discovered based on data associated with the tracked interactions that occurred during a predefined time period;

assign an identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user based on one or more of a time when the one or more interactions occurred or a location where the one or more interactions occurred;

assign a rank to a relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device based on one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions and one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device;

update the rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device in response to one or more subsequent interactions between the first IoT device and the second IoT device, wherein the rank assigned to the relationship is updated based on the one or more attributes associated with the one or more interactions, the one or more attributes associated with the second IoT device, and one or more attributes associated with the one or more subsequent interactions; and

control access that the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user has to each of the one or more IoT groups in the IoT network according to one or more permissions associated with the identifier assigned to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user, wherein the controlled access is used to determine whether to grant the second IoT device access to the first IoT device based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

36. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

divide the one or more IoT groups into one or more subsets according to the usage associated with the one or more registered objects and the one or more interactions among the tracked interactions that involve the one or more registered objects.

37. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 36, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

receive one or more user commands that control access to the one or more IoT groups and the one or more subsets associated therewith; and

receive one or more user commands to customize the one or more IoT groups and the one or more subsets associated therewith.

38. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

receive, from at least a first one of the registered objects that has communication capabilities, information relating to the usage and interactions associated therewith; and

derive information relating to the usage and interactions associated with at least a second one of the registered objects that does not have communication capabilities based on the information received from the first registered object in response to the interactions associated with the first registered object including at least one interaction between the first registered object and the second registered object.

39. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 35, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to determine whether to grant the second IoT device access to a third IoT device that belongs to the owner user based on the updated rank assigned to the relationship between the first IoT device and the second IoT device.

40. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

assign the identifier to the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user based, at least in part, on information related to the one or more interactions between the first IoT device that belongs to the owner user and the second IoT device that belongs to the at least one visitor user, wherein the information related to the one or more interactions comprises one or more of the time when the one or more interactions occurred or the location where the one or more interactions occurred.

41. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 40, wherein the asymmetric relationship reflects multiple interactions between one or more IoT devices associated with the owner user and one or more IoT devices associated with the at least one visitor user.

42. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein the asymmetric relationship indicates that the owner user and the at least one visitor user assign different identifiers to the relationship between the at least one visitor user and the owner user.

43. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 42, wherein the tracked locations indicate that the owner user associated with the IoT network appears in a personal space that the at least one visitor user owns at a first frequency and that the at least one visitor user appears in a personal space associated with the owner user at a second frequency that differs from the first frequency.

44. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein the asymmetric relationship between the owner user and the at least one visitor user is further discovered based on one or more previously determined relationships between the owner user and the at least one visitor user in combination with the tracked interactions that occurred during the predefined time period.

45. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 35, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

cluster data associated with the tracked interactions and the locations where the tracked interactions occurred into one or more dominant groups;

derive a first cluster representation specific to the owner user and a second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user from the one or more dominant groups; and

determine the asymmetric relationship based on similarities or dissimilarities between the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user.

46. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium recited in claim 45, wherein executing the computer-executable instructions on the one or more processors further causes the one or more processors to:

display data associated with the first cluster representation specific to the owner user and the second cluster representation specific to the at least one visitor user according to the locations where the tracked interactions occurred.