Contextual computing system

• US 20040054569A1
• Filed: 07/31/2003
• Published: 03/18/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: TrueContext Mobile Solutions Corporation
• Inventors: Zamfir, Adrian, McGuire, Kevin H., Pombo, Alvaro, Sultan, Karim A., Haskins, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,930,215 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

A contextual computing system allows a variety of actors to interact with system components to carry out computational and communication tasks. The system is provided as a self-contained and portable solution for communications needs, employable by a number of entities such as telecommunications companies, enterprises, and system operators. The computing system is implemented using layers, with components within the layers carrying out computational and communication tasks in response to input from actors. The system allows business logic and communication to be integrated into a single solution, providing for efficient communication and remarkable ease of use in a variety of possible deployments.

Claims

1. A computing system for specifying and managing chains of supply of digital goods from a plurality of producers to a multiplicity of end-user devices over a plurality of network connections according to a plurality of contexts of use of said end-user devices, comprising:

one or more data warehouses containing a plurality of digital goods;

means for identifying one or more of said contexts of use for a specified one of said end-user devices; and

means for identifying, presenting, packaging, delivering, and managing selected digital goods from said data warehouses to said specified one of said end-user devices, said system being managed by one or more administrators and allowing access to one or more end-users.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said chains of supply include actors selected from the group consisting of authors, publishers, ratings agents, validation agents, validation agents, aggregators, wholesalers, retailers, advertisers, payment services, and consumers.

3. The system of claim 1 which includes means for allowing end-users to rate and comment on specified digital goods in said data warehouse.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said system is accessible to publishers, administrators, and end-users, said system further including means for controlling a flow of information between said publishers, administrators, and end-users.

5. The system of claim 4 which includes means for allowing administrators to send text messages to specified end-user devices.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein said publishers include one or more of said end-users.

7. The system of claim 1 which includes means for allowing administrators to control the delivery of digital goods to specified end-user devices.

8. The system of claim 1 which includes means for describing entities including users, devices, catalogs, and items according to entity attributes.

9. The system of claim 8 which includes means for describing a relationship between the entities.

10. The system of claim 8 which includes means for logically partitioning said users, said end-user devices, and said items for the purposes of security and administrative assignment and responsibility.

11. The system of claim 1 which includes means for said one or more administrators to interrogate said end-user devices to determine resident operating systems, hardware details, and information regarding applications resident on said end-user devices.

12. The system of claim 1 which includes means for creating records for a billing system.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said billing system is external to said computing system.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said billing system bills end-users based on the selection of digital goods by end-users.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein said billing system bills end-users based on usage of services, including backup and restore functions provided by the system to each end-user.

16. The system of claim 1 which includes means for logging system events.

17. The system of claim 1 which includes means for reporting usage of system resources.

18. The system of claim 1 which includes means for pushing selected digital goods directly to selected end-user devices.

19. The system of claim 1 which includes means enabling end-user devices to supply digital goods for storage in said data warehouse and for listing in at least one catalog providing views of the digital goods stored in said warehouse.

20. The system of claim 1 which includes means for describing a workflow by which said digital goods move through said computing system.

21. The system of claim 1 which includes:

means defining contexts for individual end-user devices; and

means for tailoring digital goods to be delivered from said data warehouse to a specified end-user device according to the context of that specified device.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein said contexts of use of said end-user devices include at least one context selected from the group consisting of personal data, environmental data, proximity data, time data, and location data.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein said contexts of use represent the real-time contexts of said end-user devices.

24. The system of claim 1 further comprising an event-driven rules engine which specifies and enforces system behavior.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein said rules engine specifies and implements business logic.

26. The system of claim 24 which includes means for triggering selected rules in response to specified system events and for testing a condition, such that when the condition is met a specified action will occur.

27. The system of claim 1 which includes means enabling said end-user devices to declare profiles of said end-users.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein said profiles include information regarding end-user devices.

29. The system of claim 27 which includes means for recording information regarding end-users, end-user devices, digital goods, and network connection characteristics and preferences in profiles.

30. The system of claim 1 which includes at least one catalog providing views of the digital goods in said warehouse.

31. The system of claim 30 which includes means for supporting a plurality of catalog views of digital goods in said data warehouse, with each catalog having the capability of overriding the attributes of selected digital goods.

32. The system of claim 30 which includes means for customizing said catalogs for said end-user devices to simplify browsing of said catalogs.

33. The system of claim 1 wherein said one or more data warehouses include a local warehouse accessible by administrators, and a system warehouse accessible by system operators.

34. The system of claim 1 wherein said one or more data warehouses contain digital warehouse items defining applications.

35. The system of claim 1 wherein said data warehouse includes warehouse items defining data.

36. The system of claim 1 wherein selected digital goods are stored in said warehouse as meta representations of a resource.

37. The system of claim 36 which includes means for setting and constraining attributes of said meta representations.

38. The system of claim 1 wherein said data warehouse includes an entitlement warehouse defining digital goods to which a specified end-user device or group of end-user devices is entitled.

39. The system of claim 1 wherein said data warehouses may be logically and physically distributed and geographically separated for storing digital goods owned by separate legal entities.

40. The system of claim 1 which includes means enabling end-user devices to select digital goods for installation, removal, backup, restoration and publishing.

41. The system of claim 1 wherein said end-user devices include devices having different characteristics, including different form factors and different operating systems.

42. The system of claim 1 wherein said network includes at least one network operated by telecommunication service providers.

43. The system of claim 1 which includes a server communicating with multiple end-user devices over HTTP.

44. The system of claim 1 wherein said chains of supply include trusted chains of supply and untrusted chains of supply.

45. The system of claim 1 wherein said network connections include simultaneous network connections and possible network connections.

46. A system for providing digital goods to a number of users using a distributed architecture organized into layers and components, comprising:

a data layer having access to a main database;

a business logic layer in communication with said data layer and having components for implementing business operations;

a presentation layer in communication with said business logic layer and having components for translating digital goods; and

a client layer in communication with said presentation layer and having components for formatting and displaying digital goods received from the presentation layer on user devices.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the data layer utilizes a database server for providing the business logic layer with access to data in the main database.

48. The system of claim 47 wherein the business logic layer includes a data access component for accessing the database server at the data layer.

49. The system of claim 46 wherein the presentation layer has a translation sub-layer provided therein for receiving digital goods from the business logic layer and translating the digital goods for receipt and display by the client layer.

50. The system of claim 46 wherein the client layer includes a client stub component adapted to acquire device information about the user devices and forward the device information to the presentation layer.

51. The system of claim 50 wherein the device information is selected from the group consisting of device location information, information other devices with which a device is in communication, device type and version information, device display capability information, and device memory information.

52. A system for implementing business logic and coordinating communications among multiple users comprising:

a plurality of devices accessible by users, the devices including means for collecting status information about the devices and means for transmitting the status information to a first server having a data display and translation component, said devices further including means for receiving digital goods from said first server;

means for editing and implementing business logic rules defining allowed interactions between said devices based on said status information, said business logic rules being implemented by a second server in communication with the first server;

wherein said second server is adapted to forward business logic rules as digital goods to the first server, and the data display and translation component on the first server is adapted to receive the digital goods and translate the digital goods for use by the users.

53. A method for provisioning content to multiple users of a computing system comprising:

providing one or more data warehouses having catalogs therein;

inputting business logic rules into an application server;

providing a plurality of devices with access to a web server, the web server being in communication with the application server; and

allowing access to certain ones of the catalogs by certain ones of the devices through the web server based on business logic rules in the application server.

54. The method of claim 53 wherein said step of allowing access to certain ones of said catalogs by certain ones of said devices is further based on statuses of the devices.

55. A method for administering a computing system comprising:

providing access to said computing system to system operators, application developers, administrators, and end-users via devices;

providing catalogs in data warehouses within the computing system;

populating the catalogs with digital goods from the application developers;

receiving business logic rules from the system operators and administrators and storing the business logic rules in a database;

providing client stubs on the devices, the client stubs collecting status information about the devices and storing the status information on the devices and in the database;

providing access to certain digital goods in certain ones of the catalogs by certain ones of the devices based on the status information and further based on the business logic rules; and

providing the administrators and system operators with data describing which of the digital goods are being accessed by which of the devices.