U.S. patent application number 11/091694 was filed with the patent office on 2005-10-06 for context providing method, system, and apparatus.
This patent application is currently assigned to NEC CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Nihei, Katsumi.
Application Number | 20050222999 11/091694 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35055615 |
Filed Date | 2005-10-06 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050222999 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Nihei, Katsumi |
October 6, 2005 |
Context providing method, system, and apparatus
Abstract
A context providing method includes the collection step of
collecting context information representing a situation of a target
via a network, the generation step of applying a predetermined rule
to the collected context information and information associated
with a context entity which generates/utilizes the context
information, thereby generating new context information, and the
step of transmitting the generated context information to a context
requester via the network. A context providing system and apparatus
are also disclosed.
Inventors: |
Nihei, Katsumi; (Tokyo,
JP) |
Correspondence
Address: |
FOLEY AND LARDNER
SUITE 500
3000 K STREET NW
WASHINGTON
DC
20007
US
|
Assignee: |
NEC CORPORATION
|
Family ID: |
35055615 |
Appl. No.: |
11/091694 |
Filed: |
March 29, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 ;
707/999.005; 707/E17.143 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 16/907
20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/005 |
International
Class: |
G06F 007/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Mar 31, 2004 |
JP |
2004-104630 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A context providing method comprising: the collection step of
collecting context information representing a situation of a target
via a network; the generation step of applying a predetermined rule
to the collected context information and information associated
with a context entity which generates/utilizes the context
information, thereby generating new context information; and the
step of transmitting the generated context information to a context
requester via the network.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is a relationship between
context entities contained in the colleted context information, and
the generation step comprises the step of applying the
predetermined rule to the collected context information and the
relationship between the context entities contained in the
collected context information, thereby generating the new context
information.
3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is at least one of a
relationship between context entities contained in the colleted
context information, prestored context entity attribute
information, and a prestored relationship between the context
entities, and the generation step comprises the step of applying
the predetermined rule to the collected context information and
said at least one of the relationship between the context entities
contained in the collected context information, the prestored
context entity attribute information, and the prestored
relationship between the context entities, thereby generating the
new context information.
4. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of
laying out, in correspondence with a context entity, a context
source which detects presence of the context entity, the collection
step comprising the step of collecting context information made up
of a pair of a context source and a corresponding context
entity.
5. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of
setting the predetermined rule, the generation step comprising the
step of generating context information in accordance with a set
rule.
6. A context providing system including a radio communication
system connected to a network, and a context providing apparatus
which collects context information representing a target situation
and containing temporary context information notified from said
radio communication system, and providing context information newly
generated in accordance with a context information request, said
context providing apparatus comprising: context information
collection means for collecting context information via said
network; context generation means for applying a predetermined rule
to context information output from said context information
collection means and information associated with a context entity
which generates/utilizes the context information, thereby
generating new context information; and context transmission means
for transmitting the context information from said context
generation means to a context requester via said network.
7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is a relationship between
context entities contained in the colleted context information, and
said context generation means applies the predetermined rule to the
collected context information and the relationship between the
context entities contained in the collected context information,
thereby generating the new context information.
8. A system according to claim 6, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is at least one of a
relationship between context entities contained in the colleted
context information, prestored context entity attribute
information, and a prestored relationship between the context
entities, and said context generation means applies the
predetermined rule to the collected context information and said at
least one of the relationship between the context entities
contained in the collected context information, the prestored
context entity attribute information, and the prestored
relationship between the context entities, thereby generating the
new context information.
9. A system according to claim 6, further comprising a context
source which is laid out in correspondence with a context entity to
detect presence of the corresponding context entity, wherein said
context information collection means collects context information
made up of a pair of a context entity and said context source via
said radio communication system.
10. A system according to claim 6, further comprising rule holding
means for holding the predetermined rule, wherein said context
generation means generates context information in accordance with
the rule held in said rule holding means.
11. A context providing apparatus comprising: context information
collection means for collecting context information representing a
situation of a target via a network; context generation means for
applying a predetermined rule to the context information output
from said context information collection means and information
associated with a context entity which generates/utilizes the
context information, thereby generating new context information;
and context transmission means for transmitting the generated
context information from said context generation means to a context
requester via said network.
12. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is a relationship between
context entities contained in the colleted context information, and
said context generation means applies the predetermined rule to the
collected context information and the relationship between the
context entities contained in the collected context information,
thereby generating the new context information.
13. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is at least one of a
relationship between context entities contained in the colleted
context information, prestored context entity attribute
information, and a prestored relationship between the context
entities, and said context generation means applies the
predetermined rule to the collected context information and said at
least one of the relationship between the context entities
contained in the collected context information, the prestored
context entity attribute information, and the prestored
relationship between the context entities, thereby generating the
new context information.
14. An apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said context
information collection means collects context information made up
of a pair of a context entity and a context source which detects
presence of a context laid out in correspondence with the context
entity.
15. An apparatus according to claim 11, further comprising rule
holding means for holding the predetermined rule, wherein said
context generation means generates context information in
accordance with the rule held in said rule holding means.
16. A recording medium which records a program which executes: the
collection procedure of collecting context information representing
a situation of a target via a network; the generation procedure of
applying a predetermined rule to the collected context information
and information associated with a context entity which
generates/utilizes the context information, thereby generating new
context information; and the procedure of transmitting the
generated context information to a context requester via the
network.
17. A medium according to claim 16, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is a relationship between
context entities contained in the colleted context information, and
the generation procedure comprises the procedure of applying the
predetermined rule to the collected context information and the
relationship between the context entities contained in the
collected context information, thereby generating the new context
information.
18. A medium according to claim 16, wherein the information
associated with the context entity is at least one of a
relationship between context entities contained in the colleted
context information, prestored context entity attribute
information, and a prestored relationship between the context
entities, and the generation procedure comprises the procedure of
applying the predetermined rule to the collected context
information and said at least one of the relationship between the
context entities contained in the collected context information,
the prestored context entity attribute information, and the
prestored relationship between the context entities, thereby
generating the new context information.
19. A medium according to claim 16, wherein the program comprises a
program for executing a procedure of laying out, in correspondence
with a context entity, a context source which detects presence of a
context entity, and the collection procedure comprises the
procedure of collecting context information made up of a pair of a
context source and a corresponding context entity.
20. A medium according to claim 16, wherein the program further
comprises a program which executes a procedure which sets the
predetermined rule, and the generation procedure comprises a
procedure which generates context information in accordance with a
set rule.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a context providing method,
system, and apparatus for acquiring or generating a context
satisfying a request representing the context representing a
situation for a user, article, environment, or the like, and
sending a context notification.
[0002] Conventionally, a computer system has been proposed, which
generates context information representing a context requested from
an application and transferring the context information to the
application via a network. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
2001-216315 (reference 1) discloses the following method of
generating and providing context information having a high degree
of satisfaction for a user.
[0003] (1) At least one context data unit information made up of
identification information of one context data used for generating
context information and at least one attribute information for
designating a feature of the context data is made to correspond to
identification information of the context information and
registered in an information-data unit correspondence table in
advance,
[0004] (2) the context data unit information is made to correspond
to a context data source suitable for acquiring context data
identified by the identification information of the context data
unit information and registered in a data unit-source
correspondence table,
[0005] (3) at least one context data unit information having
context data of a feature suitable for generating context
information associated with a management target requested from an
application is specified by looking up the information-data unit
correspondence table,
[0006] (4) a context data source suitable for acquiring context
data identified by the identification information of the specified
context data unit information is specified by looking up the data
unit-source correspondence table, and
[0007] (5) context data is acquired from the specified context data
source, and context information requested from the application is
generated using the acquired context data and output.
[0008] The conventional context providing method described above
can be summarized as follows. An attribute for a context source
required for generating the requested context information is
determined using the information-data unit correspondence table. A
context source having the determined attribute is determined using
the data unit-source correspondence table to generate and provide
the context information.
[0009] The conventional context providing method, however,
determines the context source from the requested context
information through the context source attribute. For example, an
automobile has a GPS (Global Positioning System) as a context
source, and an automobile position is defined as a context. In
addition, another context that a user gets in this automobile is
present. In this case, a context as the user's position cannot be
generated from the above two contexts.
[0010] In the conventional case, a new context cannot be
disadvantageously generated from a combination of a plurality of
contexts, as described above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] It is an object of the present invention to allow generation
of a context using a context from a context source which is not
directly relevant to a context entity which wants to grasp the
context.
[0012] In order to achieve the above object of the present
invention, there is provided a context providing method comprising
the collection step of collecting context information representing
a situation of a target via a network, the generation step of
applying a predetermined rule to the collected context information
and information associated with a context entity which
generates/utilizes the context information, thereby generating new
context information, and the step of transmitting the generated
context information to a context requester via the network.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a context providing
system according to the first embodiment of the present
invention;
[0014] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a context providing apparatus
shown in FIG. 1;
[0015] FIG. 3 is a view showing the structure of context
information;
[0016] FIG. 4 is a view for explaining a context generation
sequence by a context generation unit shown in FIG. 2;
[0017] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a context providing
system according to the second embodiment of the present invention;
and
[0018] FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a context generation
sequence by a context generation unit shown in FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0019] The present invention will be described in detail with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0020] The definitions of terms and their relationships will be
described.
[0021] Context: information representing the situation of a given
object is defined as a context. Examples of the context are a
profile (e.g., the position, age, and sex of a user), favor, room
temperature, presence/absence, network bandwidth, and resolution of
a personal computer.
[0022] Context Entity: An object which generates or utilizes a
context is defined as a context entity. Examples of the context
entity are a user, article, and environment. An application which
only receives and utilizes a context is also defined as a context
entity. A given context entity is distinguished from another
context entity by a context entity identifier.
[0023] Material Context: A raw context obtained from a sensor is
defined particularly as a material context.
[0024] Context Source: A source for generating a material context
or externally providing a context is defined as a context source. A
sensor is an example of the context source. A database capable of
collecting contexts and externally providing them is another
example of the context source. A given context source is
distinguished from another context source by a context source
identifier. Each context source necessarily has a context entity
serving as a parent. Any context obtained from a context source
serves as the context of a parent context entity.
[0025] Context Information: Information expressing a context in a
format interpretable by a recipient is defined as context
information. Information describing a context by XML (extensible
Markup Language) in the PIDF (Presence Information Data Format) is
an example of context information.
[0026] Each context necessarily has one context entity. For
example, a user is a context entity for a user's position. An
engine is a context entity for an engine temperature. A personal
computer is a context entity for the screen resolution of the
personal computer. A situation in which a given RFID tag is
detected by a given RFID reader at given time is an example of the
context. At this time, the detection itself is a material context,
the RFID reader is a context source, and the RFID tag is a context
entity identifier. The context source identifier of the reader,
context entity identifier of the RFID tag, and information
expressing the detection time in a specific format are pieces of
context information. Note that the identifier of the RFID itself is
generally used as the context entity identifier of the RFID.
First Embodiment
[0027] A context providing system according to the first embodiment
of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
1 and 2. As shown in FIG. 1, the context providing system comprises
a network 100, a base station 101, context providing apparatus 120,
and context user terminal 130 which are connected to the network
100, an automobile 140 which can communicate with the base station
101 by radio, and a cellular phone 160 which communicates with the
base station 101 by radio.
[0028] The automobile 140 comprises a GPS position detection device
141 which detects a position by GPS, a communication device 142
which communicates with the base station 101 by radio, and an RFID
tag 143. The communication device 142 notifies, via the base
station 101 and network 100, the context providing apparatus 120 of
the position detected by the GPS position detection device 141. The
cellular phone 160 comprises an RFID tag reader 161.
[0029] The context user terminal 130 serves as a terminal device
which utilizes a context. In this case, the context user terminal
130 simply designates a specific context from a given object entity
to send a context request to the context providing apparatus 120.
The context user terminal 130 displays the context information
received from the context providing apparatus 120. Note that the
context user terminal 130 can be an agent or server or may be a
device which processes context information.
[0030] The automobile 140, RFID tag 143, user 150, and cellular
phone 160 serve as context entities, respectively. The GPS position
detection device 141 and the RFID tag reader 161 mounted in the
cellular phone 160 serve as context sources, respectively. Each
context source necessarily has one parent context entity. The
contexts collected by the context source are dealt as the contexts
of the parent context entity. In this embodiment, the parent
context entity of the GPS position detection device 141 serving as
a context source is the automobile 140. The position information
detected by the GPS position detection device 141 directly serves
as the context information of the automobile 140. Similarly, the
parent context entity of the RFID tag reader 161 serving as the
context source is the cellular phone 160. The information of the
RFID tag 143 which is detected by the RFID tag reader 161 is the
context information of the cellular phone 160.
[0031] As shown in FIG. 2, the context providing apparatus 120
comprises a context collection unit 121, context request reception
unit 123, and context transmission unit 124 which are connected to
the network 100, a context holding unit 122 connected to the
context collection unit 121, and a context generation unit 125
connected to the context holding unit 122, context request
reception unit 123, and context transmission unit 124.
[0032] The context information of the context entity is recorded on
the context holding unit 122 of the context providing apparatus
120, as shown in FIG. 3. In this embodiment, context information of
the user 150 (to be referred to as user context information) 300
contains "Alice" representing the context entity identifier of the
user 150, "In Work" representing the status of the user 150, and
"Mphone02" representing the context entity identifier of the
carried context entity as a semifixed link with the user 150.
[0033] Context information of the cellular phone 160 (to be
referred to as cellular phone context information) 301 contains
"idle" representing the status of the cellular phone 160 and
"Alice" representing the context entity identifier of the user 150
which serves as a semifixed link.
[0034] Context information (to be referred to as RFID context
information) 302 of the RFID tag 143 serving as the contact entity
contains "RFID0123" representing the context entity identifier of
the RFID tag 143 and "Car01" representing the context entity
identifier of the automobile 140 which serves as a fixed link.
[0035] Context information (to be referred to as automobile context
information) 303 of the automobile 140 serving as the context
entity contains "car01" representing the context entity identifier
of the automobile 140, "RFID0123" representing the context entity
identifier of the RFID tag 143 serving as the fixed link
destination, "Drive" representing the status of the automobile 140,
and "135.degree.42'10" east longitude, 44.degree.15'30" north
latitude, error within 10 m" representing the position information
detected by the GPS position detection device 141.
[0036] Note that since the status of the user 150, the telephone
status of the cellular phone 160, and the status of the automobile
140 can be generated by a general technique, a method of generating
them will not be described.
[0037] FIG. 4 shows a program example by a pseudo-language
representing the generation of the context generation unit 125.
FIG. 4 shows a sequence (rule) for obtaining specific context
information (target context information) of a specific context
entity (target context entity).
[0038] In this sequence, it is checked if the target context
information is present in the context information of the target
context entity. If so, the target context information is output. If
the target context information is not present, the above process is
recursively executed for context information of another context
entity linked by the context information of the target context
entity until a desired result is obtained. In an actual
implementation, the relationship between the context entities may
be looped. For this reason, a mechanism for eliminating this loop
is required. Assume that no loop is present in FIG. 4.
[0039] The operation of the context providing system having the
above arrangement will now be described. This operation is
performed such that a program prestored on a recording medium (not
shown) is read and executed by a CPU (Central Processing Unit: not
shown).
[0040] The user 150 gets in the automobile 140. The RFID tag reader
161 mounted in the cellular phone 160 carried by the user 150
detects the RFID tag 143 mounted in the automobile 140. The
cellular phone 160 notifies the context providing apparatus 120 of
context information made up of a pair of the cellular phone 160 and
RFID tag 143 via the base station 101 and network 100. The context
collection unit 121 in the context providing apparatus 120 receives
the context information from the cellular phone 160 and adds cellar
phone-RFID tag information as a temporary link to the cellular
phone context information 301, as shown in FIG. 3. The context
collection unit 121 also adds RFID tag-cellular phone information
305 as a temporary link to the RFID tag context information
302.
[0041] The context user terminal 130 requests the position context
information of the user 150 to the context providing apparatus 120.
The context request reception unit 123 in the context providing
apparatus 120 receives the request from the context user terminal
130 and starts the context generation unit 125. A case wherein the
context information of the context entity identified as "Alice" is
requested will be exemplified.
[0042] The context generation unit 125 starts determining the
position information of the user 150 serving as the context entity
in response to the request from the context user terminal 130. The
context generation unit 125 searches the context holding unit 122
for the context entity identified by "Alice". As a result of
search, the context generation unit 125 extracts the user context
information 300 containing the context entity identifier as
"Alice".
[0043] The context generation unit 125 checks if the context
information of the position information is present in the user
context information 300. Since the user context information 300
does not contain the context information whose type is position
information, the context generation unit 125 searches for another
context entity associated with the user 150. In this case, the
context entity identifier "Mphone02" of the cellular phone 160 as a
semifixed link is recorded. The context generation unit 125 then
searches for context information having "Mphone02" as the context
entity identifier and extracts the cellular phone context
information 301.
[0044] No position information is present in the cellular phone
context information 301. The RFID tag context information 302 is
extracted using the context entity identifier "RFID0123" of the
cellular phone-RFID tag information 304 recorded as a temporary
link. No position information is present in the RFID tag context
information 302, either. The automobile context information 303
having the context entity identifier "Car01" as a fixed link is
extracted. Since position information is contained in the
automobile context information 303, the context generation unit 125
determines the position information contained in the automobile
context information 303 as the position information of "Alice".
[0045] The context providing apparatus 120 sends back, to the
context user terminal 130 as the context of the user 150, the
position information context originally serving as the position
information of the automobile 140 and determined in the above
step.
[0046] According to this embodiment, when position information of
the user 150 cannot be obtained from only the context of the user
150, the context entities associated with the user 150 are
sequentially traced, and the position information of the found
context entity is provided to the request terminal as the context
information of the user 150.
[0047] In this embodiment, a single network is used as the network
100, and the base station 101 is shared in communication with the
communication device 142 and cellular phone 160. However, the
present invention is not limited to this. A plurality of networks
such as a cellular phone network, wireless LAN network, and the
Internet or a plurality of base stations may be used.
[0048] In this embodiment, all pieces of context information are
held in the context holding unit 122. However, the context holding
means may be divided into a plurality of parts depending on the
characteristics of information, such as permanent or temporary
information. For example, the attributes representing the features
of context entities and context sources, and the fixed
relationships between the context entities may be held in another
holding means.
Second Embodiment
[0049] A context providing system according to the second
embodiment of the present invention will be described with
reference to FIG. 5. The overall arrangement of the second
embodiment is the same as in FIG. 1. The arrangement of a context
providing apparatus 120 is shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, a rule
holding unit 126 which holds rules used for context generation is
added to the arrangement in FIG. 2.
[0050] In the second embodiment, a context generation unit 125 does
not hold a sequence for generating a context, but generates a
context by interpreting a rule held in the rule holding unit 126.
If a rule 400 shown in FIG. 4 is held in the rule holding unit 126,
the same operation as in the first embodiment is performed.
[0051] When a rule 401 shown in FIG. 6 is employed as a position
acquisition rule, more flexible position information acquisition is
achieved. More specifically, in the rule 400 shown in FIG. 4,
processing is ended when necessary context information is extracted
for the first time. In the rule 401 in FIG. 6, however, all pieces
of position information of all associated context entities are
collected, and among them all, position information having a
smallest error is selected as the position information of a target
context entity.
[0052] For example, when a cellular phone 160 has a position
detection means whose precision is poorer than that of a GPS
position detection device 141, and a user 150 does not get in an
automobile 140, the position information detected by the cellular
phone 160 serves as the position information of the user 150. On
the other hand, when the user 150 gets in the automobile 140,
position information detected by a higher-precision GPS position
detection device 141 serves as the position information of the user
150.
[0053] According to this embodiment, a flexible system can be
constructed by adding or changing a rule.
[0054] As has been described above, according to the present
invention, by utilizing the relationship between context entities,
necessary context information is generated using context
information obtained from a context source not directly related to
a target context entity whose context should be grasped. An
opportunity for utilizing generated context information can be
enhanced.
* * * * *