Ubiquitous companion agent

• US 20040100492A1
• Filed: 03/28/2003
• Published: 05/27/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mercs, James S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,443,288 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/744
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/281 indicating a format for calling an appliance service function in a home automation network for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for controlling and interacting with devices across a network using a ubiquitous companion. In one implementation, a ubiquitous companion includes: an agent interface for communicating with an agent residing on a host device accessible to the companion, and accessing host device data indicating one or more capabilities of the host device; a command interface for building one or more agent commands according to the host device data and a request selection received from a user through the host device; an output interface for providing feedback to the user through the host device in a format that is adapted according to the host device data; and a controller for controlling interaction among the agent interface, the command interface, and the output interface.

Claims

1. A ubiquitous companion, comprising:

an agent interface for communicating with an agent residing on a host device accessible to the companion, and accessing host device data indicating one or more capabilities of the host device;

a command interface for building one or more agent commands according to the host device data and a request selection received from a user through the host device;

an output interface for providing feedback to the user through the host device in a format that is adapted according to the host device data; and

a controller for controlling interaction among the agent interface, the command interface, and the output interface.

2. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

storage for storing remote device data indicating one or more capabilities of each of one or more remote devices, and for storing the host device data.

3. The ubiquitous companion of claim 2, wherein at least two of the remote devices are not interconnected by a network.

4. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the agent interface sends one or more agent commands to a remote agent residing on a remote device connected to the host device through a network.

5. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the agent interface sends one or more agent commands to a first remote agent residing on a first remote device connected to the host device through a network, and sends one or more agent commands to a second remote agent residing on a second remote device connected to the host device through the network.

6. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, wherein the ubiquitous companion is portable from on device to another device.

7. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

a security component for conditionally limiting the operation of the companion.

8. The ubiquitous companion of claim 7, wherein the security component authenticates the user, and when authentication fails, the command interface does not build agent commands.

9. The ubiquitous companion of claim 7, wherein the security component provides content control.

10. The ubiquitous companion of claim 9, wherein the security component provides content control using a digital rights management system.

11. The ubiquitous companion of claim 1, further comprising:

a memory device storing the agent interface, the output interface, the command interface, and the controller as executable computer instructions.

12. A method of processing a user request, comprising:

generating a selection list including one or more requests;

formatting the selection list according to the output functionality and input functionality of a host device;

providing the formatted selection list to a host agent residing on a host device to present the formatted selection list to a user through the host device;

receiving a request selection from the host agent indicating a selection of one of the requests in the selection list by the user through the host device;

building one or more agent commands corresponding to the request selection; and

providing the agent commands to the host agent.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

discovering host device data indicating output functionality, input functionality, and service functionality of the host device.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

building one or more agent commands includes using the host device data.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein:

generating the selection list includes using the host device data.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving output data from the host agent;

formatting the output data using the host device data; and

providing the formatted output data to the host agent to present the formatted selection list to the user through the host device.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

discovering remote device data indicating service functionality of a remote device.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein:

building one or more agent commands includes using the remote device data.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein:

generating the selection list includes using the remote device data.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein:

generating the selection list includes using priorities received from the remote device.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the remote device data also indicates input functionality and output functionality of the remote device.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

generating a second selection list including one or more requests;

formatting the selection list using the remote device data; and

providing the formatted selection list to the remote agent residing on the remote device to present the formatted selection list to the user through the remote device.

23. The method of claim 17, wherein:

the remote device is a consumer electronics device.

24. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating the selection list includes using stored user preferences.

25. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving output data from the host agent;

formatting the output data according to the output functionality of the host device; and

providing the formatted output data to the host agent to present the formatted selection list to the user through the host device.

26. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating a device list including devices available to receive commands;

wherein generating the selection list includes using the device list.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

discovering remote device data for each remote device in the device list, wherein the discovered remote device data for each remote device indicates service functionality of that remote device;

wherein generating the selection list includes using the discovered remote device data.

28. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a companion request from a companion residing on a second host device, wherein the companion request indicates a request made by a second user.

29. The method of claim 12, wherein:

a built agent command includes a priority level for resolving a conflict between the agent command and a different command from a different source.

30. The method of claim 12, wherein:

a built agent command includes data for a second user.

31. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing companion restrictions limiting the agent commands that are allowed to be built.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein:

the companion restrictions indicate one or more remote devices to which commands are not to be sent.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein:

the companion restrictions indicate one or more users to which data is not to be sent.

34. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

sending a command to a remote device connected to the host device for directly controlling the remote device.

35. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing two or more user profiles indicating user profile information for respective users;

accessing the user profile information for a user when the user makes a selection from a selection list.

36. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a password from the host agent input by the user through the host device.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein:

the password is a biometric signature.

38. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

sending a financial request to a financial server, wherein the financial request indicates a deduction to be applied to an account corresponding to the user.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein:

the financial request is a request to apply a charge to the user'"'"'s account for accessing a content file.

40. The method of claim 12, wherein:

one or more of the built commands is a network search request.

41. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

storing history information of request selections;

wherein generating the selection list includes adjusting the selection list according to the stored history information.

42. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

generating a representation of the companion for interacting with the user through the host device.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein:

the representation is adapted to the host device.

44. The method of claim 42, wherein:

the representation is adapted to the user.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein:

the representation is an animated graphic.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein:

the animated graphic is an animated image of a person.

47. A method of processing a user request, comprising:

discovering host device data indicating output functionality, input functionality, and service functionality of a host device on which a host agent resides;

discovering remote device data indicating output functionality, input functionality, and service functionality of a remote device on which a remote agent resides;

receiving a request selection from the host agent, wherein the request selection indicates a user request input by a user through the host device;

building one or more agent commands corresponding to the request selection using the remote device data; and

providing the agent commands to the remote agent through the host agent.

48. The method of claim 47, further comprising:

receiving output data from the remote agent;

formatting the output data using the remote device data and the host device data; and

providing the formatted output data to the host agent to present the formatted selection list to the user through the host device.

49. A method of processing a user request, comprising:

receiving a request from a companion for device data indicating service functionality of a device;

retrieving device data from the device;

providing the device data to the companion;

receiving an agent command from the companion;

causing the device to execute the received command;

receiving result data from the device; and

providing the result data to the companion.

50. The method of claim 49, wherein:

the device data also indicates input and output functionality of the device.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising:

receiving a selection list including one or more requests;

causing the device to present the selection list to a user; and

receiving a request selection from the user through an input component of the device, wherein the request selection indicates a selection of one of the requests in the selection list by the user.

52. A computer program, stored on a tangible storage medium, for use in processing a user request, the program comprising executable instructions that cause a computer to:

generate a selection list including one or more requests;

format the selection list according to the output functionality and input functionality of a host device;

provide the formatted selection list to a host agent residing on a host device to present the formatted selection list to a user through the host device;

process a request selection from the host agent indicating a selection of one of the requests in the selection list by the user through the host device;

build one or more agent commands corresponding to the request selection; and

provide the agent commands to the host agent.

53. A computer program, stored on a tangible storage medium, for use in processing a user request, the program comprising executable instructions that cause a computer to:

process a request from a companion for device data indicating service functionality of a device;

retrieve device data from the device;

provide the device data to the companion;

process an agent command received from the companion;

cause the device to execute the received command;

process result data received from the device; and

provide the result data to the companion.