MANAGING INTERACTION CONSTRAINTS

• US 20170031333A1
• Filed: 07/19/2016
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arm IP Limited
• Original Assignee: Arm IP Limited
• Inventors: Luff, Geraint David, Pritchard, Andrew John, Crosby, James
• Granted Patent: US 11,218,855 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/308 using the Internet of Things
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/321 using wearable devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring
• 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

Abstract

A method for operating an electronic device to configure a subject device, the method comprising steps of: receiving an intent from a subject device, wherein the received intent comprises an action identifier identifying an action the subject device wishes to perform; receiving action data about the received intent from an intent store, wherein the action data comprises an action associated with each action identifier, and at least one constraint associated with the action; and generating invocation data to perform the action, wherein the invocation data comprises the action identifier, and zero or more parameters.

Claims

1. A machine-implemented method for operating an electronic device to configure a subject device, the method comprising steps of:

receiving an intent from a subject device, wherein the received intent comprises an action identifier identifying an action the subject device wishes to perform;

receiving action data about the received intent from an intent store, wherein the action data comprises an action associated with each action identifier, and at least one constraint associated with the action;

generating invocation data to perform the action, wherein the invocation data comprises the action, and zero or more parameters; and

passing the invocation data to an endpoint.

2. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising receiving at least one parameter for the or each constraint associated with the action.

3. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the or each parameter is a default parameter and wherein the step of receiving the at least one parameter comprises receiving the default parameter from the intent store.

4. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the or each parameter is a predetermined parameter, and wherein the step of receiving the at least one parameter comprises retrieving the predetermined parameter from the electronic device.

5. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the or each parameter is a subject-supplied parameter, and wherein the step of receiving the at least one parameter comprises receiving the subject-supplied parameter from the subject device.

6. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2 further comprising communicating the or each received parameter to a user to select, reject or modify the or each parameter.

7. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of receiving one or more parameters for the or each constraint comprises configuring a user interface on the electronic device to communicate the at least one constraint to a user, and to receive the or each parameter for each constraint.

8. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the action comprises at least two constraints, and the method further comprises:

determining a priority order for the at least two constraints, and

communicating the constraints to a user in the determined priority order.

9. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of receiving an intent comprises receiving at least one endpoint address indicating where the action is to be performed, the method further comprising:

extracting the or each endpoint address from the received intent; and

passing the invocation data to the or each endpoint address specified in the received intent.

10. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

determining at least one endpoint address from the received intent, wherein the or each endpoint address specifies where the action is to be performed; and

passing the invocation data to the or each determined endpoint address.

11. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 9 wherein the endpoint address comprises a primary endpoint and a secondary endpoint, and wherein the step of transmitting the invocation data comprises sending the invocation data to both the primary and second endpoints.

12. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of generating invocation data comprises including a request for a receipt confirming that the action has been performed, and at least one address to which to send the receipt.

13. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising receiving at least one authorization indicating that the electronic device is authorized to generate the invocation data for one or more intents.

14. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of receiving action data about the received intent comprises receiving the action data from a remote intent store.

15. The machine-implemented method as claimed in claim 2 wherein the step of receiving at least one parameter for the or each constraint associated with the action comprises receiving a save flag for the or each parameter indicating that the parameter is to be saved on the electronic device.

16. An electronic device for configuring a subject device, the electronic device comprising a communication module configured to:

receive an intent broadcast by a subject device, wherein the received intent comprises an action identifier identifying an action the subject device wishes to perform;

receive action data about the received intent from an intent store, wherein the intent store comprises an action associated with each action identifier, and at least one constraint associated with each action;

generate invocation data to perform the action, wherein the invocation data comprises the action, and zero or more parameters; and

pass the invocation data to an endpoint.

17. An intent registry comprising:

a data store for storing a plurality of action data, wherein each of the action data comprises an action associated with a pre-registered action identifier, and at least one constraint associated with the action; and

a communication module configured to;

receive a request for action data, wherein the request specifies an action identifier;

retrieve the action data for the specified action identifier from the data store; and

pass the retrieved action data.

18. The intent registry as claimed in claim 17 wherein the communication module is further configured to:

receive a new action data from a third party;

determine if the received new action data matches any of the stored action data in the data store; and

, if there is no match,

store the new action data in the data store.

19. The intent registry as claimed in claim 18 wherein the communication module is further configured to:

receive new action data from a third party;

determine if the received new action data matches any of the stored action data in the data store; and

, if there is no exact match,

determine if there is a partially-matched action data in the data store; and

if so,

add the new action data to the partially-matched action data to provide a new version of the partially-matched action data; and

store the new version of the partially-matched action data in the data store.

20. The intent registry as claimed in claim 17 wherein the action data comprises a natural language description of each action stored in the data store.