Collaborative computing for mobile devices

• US 8,355,711 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2009
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zerotouchdigital Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Zerotouchdigital Incorporated
• Inventors: Heins, Douglas B., Morey, Gregory M.
• Primary Examiner(s): TAYLOR, BARRY W
• Application Number:
  US12/510,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20100022231A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,268 Days
• Field of Search: 455/418, 455/419, 455/466, 455/420
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/15 Information service where the information is dependent on the location of the subscriber
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4872 Non-interactive information services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0063 where the network is a peer-to-peer network

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure include systems and methods for collaborative computing for mobile devices. The system includes methods for leveraging a mobile device and computing resources in a peer-to-peer network in a manner that does not require a central controlling entity, nor the transmission and/or downloading of computer-executable code (e.g., program applications) such that mobile device applications can defer the costly execution of said program applications to the collaborative computing resources in a peer-to-peer network where computing resources are cheaper and network bandwidth and connectivity is more reliable and less expensive in comparison to a mobile device.

Claims

1. A method of collaborative computing in a distributed mobile device program execution platform, the method comprising,

using a communication network with multiple peer computing devices for processing in the distributed mobile device program execution platform;

wherein, a peer computing device in the communication network includes an operating system, a local compiled program, and individual program execution and resource capabilities;

and

leveraging a peer-to-peer infrastructure for enabling distributed program execution with shared resources and shared program execution capabilities among the multiple peer computing devices in the communication network to execute one or more portions of the distributed program, the distributed program initiated by one or more applications on a mobile device connected to the communication network;

wherein the collaborative computing does not require a central controlling entity and wherein leveraging the peer-to-peer network includes transferring, in response to determining that the peer computing device includes the local compiled program unavailable on the mobile device, an instruction to the peer computing device for executing the local compiled program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the peer computing device executes a portion of the distributed program and identifies another peer computing device to execute another portion of the distributed program.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

querying one or more of the multiple computing devices to identify a receiving peer computing device;

transferring the program execution, together with any data, to the receiving peer computing device;

wherein the peer computing device is in possession of the program execution and wherein said receiving peer computing device is identified as capable of continuing execution of the distributed program.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising, transferring the program execution, together with any data, to said receiving peer to execute at least the portion calling for the running of the distributed program.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein, upon execution of the distributed program, the one or more applications are executed and resultant data transmitted to multiple destinations;

wherein the multiple destinations includes the mobile device.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein, the peer computing device controls execution of the distributed program.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein, the control includes performing, one or more of, resource monitoring and resource allocation.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein, the control includes performing, one or more of, recovery, exception handling, and error handling.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein, the control includes performing, execution state management.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the peer computing device and the another peer computing device form an execution path.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the execution path is chosen according to routing tables.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the execution path is determined ad-hoc by one or more of the network of peer computing devices.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein, the execution path includes multiple execution environments which execute portions of the instruction set independently of one another.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the multiple peer computing devices are connected to each other via wireless proximal ad-hoc connections.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the multiple peer computing devices are connected to each other via wired connections.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein, the multiple peer computing devices includes additional mobile devices.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein, mobile devices include, one or more of, cell phones, PDAs, RFID tags, data sensors, remote web-cams.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein, the multiple peer computing devices further includes computer servers.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein, the computer servers include, one or more of, personal computers, headless servers, media set-top boxes, and game players.

20. A machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed perform a method of a mobile device platform, the method, comprising,

using a communication network with multiple peer computing devices for processing in the distributed mobile device program execution platform;

wherein, a peer computing device in the communication network includes an operating system, a local compiled program, and individual program execution and resource capabilities;

and

leveraging a peer-to-peer infrastructure for enabling distributed program execution with shared resources and shared program execution capabilities among the multiple peer computing devices in the communication network to execute one or more portions of the distributed program, the distributed program initiated by one or more applications on a mobile device connected to the communication network;

wherein the collaborative computing does not require a central controlling entity, and wherein leveraging the peer-to-peer network includes transferring, in response to determining that the peer computing device includes the local compiled program unavailable on the mobile device, an instruction to the peer computing device for executing the local compiled program.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the peer computing device executes a portion of an instruction set and identifies another peer computing device to execute another portion of the instruction set.

22. The method of claim 20,

wherein the peer computing device and the another peer computing device form an execution path;

wherein, the peer computing device is configured to perform health care related tasks.

23. A system of a mobile device platform, the system, comprising,

means for, using a communication network with multiple peer computing devices to function as a microprocessor for the mobile device platform,

wherein, a peer computing device of the multiple peer computing devices includes an operating system, a local compiled program, and individual program execution capabilities;

means for, leveraging a peer-to-peer infrastructure for enabling shared program execution resources among the multiple peer computing devices in the communication network to execute one or more applications on a mobile device connected to the communication network;

wherein the collaborative computing does not require a central controlling entity, and wherein leveraging the peer-to-peer network includes transferring, in response to determining that the peer computing device includes the local compiled program unavailable on the mobile device, an instruction to the peer computing device for executing the local compiled program.