U.S. patent application number 14/178516 was filed with the patent office on 2014-12-04 for item delivery optimization.
This patent application is currently assigned to SkySocket, LLC. The applicant listed for this patent is SkySocket, LLC. Invention is credited to John DiRico, Erich Stuntebeck.
Application Number | 20140358703 14/178516 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 51986212 |
Filed Date | 2014-12-04 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140358703 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Stuntebeck; Erich ; et
al. |
December 4, 2014 |
Item Delivery Optimization
Abstract
Item delivery optimization may be provided. Items may be
identified as available for delivery at a first location to at
least one second location. A route from the first location to the
second location may be calculated and at least a portion of the
route from the first location to the second location may be
provided to a delivery mechanism, such as an automated delivery
device and/or a user.
Inventors: |
Stuntebeck; Erich;
(Marietta, GA) ; DiRico; John; (Atlanta,
GA) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
SkySocket, LLC |
Atlanta |
GA |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
SkySocket, LLC
Atlanta
GA
|
Family ID: |
51986212 |
Appl. No.: |
14/178516 |
Filed: |
February 12, 2014 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
13909179 |
Jun 4, 2013 |
|
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14178516 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/15 ;
705/330 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 50/12 20130101;
G06Q 10/087 20130101; G06Q 10/08355 20130101; G07C 9/32 20200101;
G06Q 10/083 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/15 ;
705/330 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/08 20060101
G06Q010/08; G06Q 50/12 20060101 G06Q050/12 |
Claims
1. A method comprising: identifying at least one item as available
for delivery at a first location; identifying a second location
associated with a recipient of the item available for delivery
according to a device associated with the recipient; calculating a
route from the first location to the second location; and
displaying at least a portion of the route from the first location
to the second location.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a food
item.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a medication
item.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a mail
item.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the item comprises a food
item.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating the route from the
first location to the second location comprises estimating a travel
time between the first location and the second location.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning a delivery
coordinator to the item available for delivery.
8. The method of claim 7, further comprising estimating a second
travel time for the delivery coordinator to arrive at the first
location.
9. The method of claim 8, further comprising: determining whether a
second delivery coordinator is closer to the first location than
the assigned delivery coordinator; and in response to determining
that the second delivery coordinator is closer to the first
location than the assigned delivery coordinator, replacing the
assigned delivery coordinator with the second delivery
coordinator.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein displaying at least a portion of
the route from the first location to the second location comprises
displaying the at least the portion of the route from the first
location to the second location on a mobile device associated with
the assigned delivery coordinator.
11. A system comprising: a memory storage; and a processor coupled
to the memory storage, wherein the processor is configured to:
identify a plurality of items as available for delivery at a first
location, identify a plurality of receiving locations, wherein each
of the plurality of items available for delivery is associated with
one of the plurality of receiving locations, calculate a route from
the first location to at least one of the plurality of the
receiving locations; and display at least a portion of the route
from the first location to the at least one of the plurality of the
receiving locations.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further
configured to assign a priority to each of the plurality of items
available for delivery.
13. The system of claim 12, wherein the priority assigned to each
of the plurality of items available for delivery is based on at
least one of the following: a time of an order of each of the
plurality of items available for delivery, an urgency condition
associated with at least one of the plurality of items available
for delivery, a recipient priority associated with at least one of
the plurality of items available for delivery, and a time each of
the plurality of items available for delivery became available for
delivery.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further
configured to calculate the route from the first location to at
least a subset of the plurality of receiving locations based at
least in part on the priority assigned to each of a respective
subset of the plurality of items available for delivery.
15. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further
configured to: identify a plurality of available delivery vehicles;
and calculate the route from the first location to at least a
subset of the plurality of receiving locations based at least in
part on the identified plurality of available delivery
vehicles.
16. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions
that when executed performs a method executed by the set of
instructions comprising: identifying a plurality of items as
available for delivery at a first location; identifying a
respective receiving location for each of the items available for
delivery; calculating a route from the at least one first location
to at least one of the plurality of the respective receiving
locations; and causing at least a portion of the route from the
first location to the at least one of the plurality of the
receiving locations to be displayed.
17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:
providing an access credential associated with at least one
physical access point associated with the route from the at least
one first location to the at least one of the plurality of
respective receiving locations.
18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:
determining whether the at least one of the plurality of receiving
locations has changed; and in response to determining that the at
least one of the plurality of receiving locations has changed:
identifying a current location of the item available for delivery
associated with the at least one of the plurality of receiving
locations, calculating a second route from the current location of
the item available for delivery associated with the at least one of
the plurality of receiving locations to the changed receiving
location, and causing at least a portion of the second route to be
displayed.
19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein determining
whether the at least one of the plurality of receiving locations
has changed comprises receiving a signal from a mobile device
associated with a recipient of the item available for delivery
associated with the at least one of the plurality of receiving
locations.
20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:
assigning a priority to at least one of the plurality of items
available for delivery; and calculating the route from the at least
one first location to at least one of the plurality of the
respective receiving locations based at least in part on the
priority assigned to the at least one of the plurality of items
available for delivery.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 13/909,179, filed on Jun. 4, 2013, which is
hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Item delivery optimization provides for dynamic delivery
route optimization when a destination may be mobile. In some
situations, recipients for ordered items may be mobile and/or may
be situated at a non-fixed location. For example, restaurant food
ordered via counter service may need to be provided to patrons who
are free to select their own table, or medications may need to be
delivered to patients in a hospital who may move from room to room
for exams, tests, procedures, etc. Similarly, mail packages may
need to be delivered to office workers whose work locations may
change due to reorganizations, remodeling, travel between office
locations, meetings in conference rooms, etc. Conventional
approaches address this problem by delivering the items to a
location specified at the time the order is placed, or by forcing
the delivery courier to locate the recipient manually. These
approaches often result in delays in the delivery.
SUMMARY
[0003] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of
concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in
the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify
key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter.
Neither is this Summary intended to be used to limit the claimed
subject matter's scope.
[0004] Item delivery optimization may be provided. Items may be
identified as available for delivery at a first location to at
least one second location. A route from the first location to the
second location may be calculated and at least a portion of the
route from the first location to the second location may be
provided to a delivery mechanism, such as an automated delivery
device and/or a user.
[0005] It is to be understood that both the foregoing general
description and the following detailed description are examples and
explanatory only, and should not be considered to restrict the
disclosure's scope, as described and claimed. Further, features
and/or variations may be provided in addition to those set forth
herein. For example, embodiments of the disclosure may be directed
to various feature combinations and sub-combinations described in
the detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] Many aspects of the present disclosure can be better
understood with reference to the following diagrams. The drawings
are not necessarily to scale. Instead, emphasis is placed upon
clearly illustrating certain features of the disclosure. Moreover,
in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding
parts throughout the several views. In the drawings:
[0007] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an operating environment for
providing device management;
[0008] FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for item
delivery optimization.
[0009] FIGS. 3A-3B are illustrations of an area in which delivery
optimization may be used; and
[0010] FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a remote server and a
client device.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0011] The following detailed description refers to the
accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference
numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to
refer to the same or similar elements. While embodiments of the
disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other
implementations are possible. For example, substitutions,
additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated
in the drawings, and the methods described herein may be modified
by substituting, reordering, or adding stages to the disclosed
methods. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not
limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure
is defined by the appended claims.
[0012] Item delivery optimization may be provided. There are many
situations in which items need to be delivered to various
recipients, such as food orders in a restaurant or mail and
packages throughout an office building. In many of these
situations, the person responsible for delivery of these items may
not know where the recipients are currently located. For example,
workers in a flexible environment may often move between desks or
change areas to coordinate with other workers. For another example,
patrons at a counter service restaurant or food truck may order and
pick their own place to sit or wander around while waiting for
their food to be ready. In such cases, it would be helpful for the
person responsible for delivery to not only be able to easily
locate the recipients, but to work out an optimal and efficient
delivery route.
[0013] Traditional approaches to route optimization are often
described as solutions to the `shortest route problem` or the
`traveling salesman problem`. These solutions include, but are not
limited to Dijkstra's algorithm, the Bellman-Ford algorithm, the
Floyd-Warshall algorithm, and Johnson's algorithm. Such
mathematical approaches are well known when the endpoints of a
routing calculation are fixed, such as when a road network is
mapped to identify a route for a global positioning system (GPS)
navigation device.
[0014] For example, a road network can be considered as a graph
with positive weights. The nodes represent road junctions and each
edge of the graph is associated with a road segment between two
junctions. The weight of an edge may correspond to the length of
the associated road segment, the time needed to traverse the
segment or the cost of traversing the segment. Using directed edges
it is also possible to model one-way streets. Such graphs are
special in the sense that some edges are more important than others
for long distance travel (e.g. highways). There are a great number
of algorithms that exploit this property and are therefore able to
compute the shortest route a lot quicker than would be possible on
general graphs.
[0015] Many of these algorithms work in two phases. In the first
phase, the graph is preprocessed without knowing the source
(origination) or target (destination) node. The second phase is the
query phase. In this phase, source and target node are known. The
idea is that the road network is static, so the preprocessing phase
can be done once and used for a large number of queries on the same
road network. The algorithm with the fastest known query time is
called hub labeling.
[0016] In scenarios such as restaurant food delivery and mail
delivery described above, the pre-processing can be done based on
building schematics, and may include factors such as one-way doors
(often used in restaurant settings), elevator availability and
speed, major pathways and hallways versus side corridors, and
measurements that take into account the necessity of moving
equipment through certain areas. For example, delivery carts of a
known width may be needed to move heavy or large packages, and the
pre-processing phase may evaluate which hallways are suitable for
such a cart as opposed to those that may be too narrow, that
utilize doors that may not accommodate the cart, or areas which are
not accessible at all, whether due to space constraints, lack of
elevator access, lack of security access, or similar
restrictions.
[0017] The pre-processing phase is particularly important in
scenarios in which the recipients may be moving around. In such
cases, the query phase may need to be recalculated each time a
recipient is determined to have changed locations. For example, a
mail delivery courier may be distributing packages to several
people on the same floor when one of the recipients is determined
to have changed floors. The courier's route may then be updated to
complete the deliveries on the current floor before redirecting
that courier to the recipient who has moved.
[0018] The technical effects of some embodiments of this disclosure
may include establishing control of access to networks and
resources for user devices when access lists may not be predefined,
and reducing and/or eliminating the burden of predefining access
lists to control access to networks and resources. Moreover, the
technical effects of some embodiments may include enhancing network
access control by assigning specific access rights based on access
lists to client devices authorized to access associated network
beacons and resources.
[0019] Other technical effects of some embodiments of this
disclosure may offer group management solutions to managing content
access and distribution. For example, users of a sales group may
have read access to marketing documents and presentations, while
users in a marketing group may be able to edit and/or annotate the
market documents. Similarly, users in an accounting or business
services group may be the only ones with access to enterprise
financial documents. These access controls may be provided by
distributing authorization credentials to devices associated with
users of the respective group. Each user may then authenticate to
their device, such as by inputting a username, password,
authentication key, and/or biometric data, before the device may
access and/or retrieve the content authorized for distribution to
that device. These authentication types are provided as examples
only and are not intended to be limiting as many other types of
user authentication are in use and/or may be contemplated in the
future.
[0020] Content access may be further limited by policies that
enforce other compliance restrictions based on properties of the
device such as time, location, device security and/or integrity,
presence of another device, software versions, required software,
etc. For example, educational settings may designate student and
instructor groups. These groups may be further assigned to specific
classes such that only student group members associated with a
given class may access content associated with that class. Further,
edit access to the content for the class may be restricted to the
user(s) in the instructor group and/or student group members may be
permitted to add content that only the instructor may view (e.g.,
homework assignments.) In some embodiments, the instructor group
user(s) may be able to push content to student group user(s) and/or
activate temporary control of the students' devices to prevent the
devices from accessing non-class related content during class
time.
[0021] To reduce the cost of ownership of user devices and cellular
and/or data service charges associated with use of such user
devices, an enterprise such as an educational institution and/or a
business may implement a "bring your own device" (BYOD) policy to
allow an employee to use his/her personal device to access
enterprise resources rather than provide the user with an
enterprise owned user device for such purpose. To support such a
BYOD policy, a user device administrator (i.e. IT administrator)
may manage a group of personally owned user devices, via a
management application executed by a management server in
communication with the user devices over a network, to provide the
user devices with secure access to enterprise resources.
[0022] The user device administrator may enroll user devices into
the management system to monitor the user devices for security
vulnerabilities and to configure the user devices for secure access
to enterprise resources. The user device administrator may create
and/or configure at least one configuration profile via a user
interface provided by the management system. A configuration
profile may comprise a set of instructions and/or settings that
configure the operations and/or functions of a user device, which
may ensure the security of the accessed resources. The user device
administrator may, for instance, configure an enterprise email
configuration profile by specifying the network address and access
credentials of an enterprise email account that the users of the
user devices are authorized to access. Other configuration policies
may include, but are not limited to, hardware, software,
application, function, cellular, text message, and data use
restrictions, which may be based at least in part on the current
time and/or location of the restricted user device. The user device
administrator may thereafter deploy the configuration profiles to
specific user devices, such as to groups of user devices of users
with similar roles, privileges and/or titles.
[0023] Access credentials may uniquely identify a client device
and/or the user of the client device. For example, the access
credentials for a user may comprise a username, a password, and/or
biometric data related to facial recognition, retina recognition,
fingerprint recognition, and the like. Access credentials related
to a device may uniquely identify the device and may comprise, for
example, a unique hardware identifier such as a GUID (Globally
Unique Identifier), UUID (Universally Unique Identifier), UDID
(Unique Device Identifier), serial number, IMEI (Internationally
Mobile Equipment Identity), Wi-Fi MAC (Media Access Control)
address, Bluetooth MAC address, a CPU ID, and/or the like, or any
combination of two or more such hardware identifiers. Additionally,
the access credentials may be represented by a unique software
identifier such a token or certificate, based at least in part on
the aforementioned unique hardware identifiers.
[0024] The user devices may also have access to personal
configuration profiles that may be created by the users of the user
devices. The user devices may, for instance, have access to a
personal email configuration profile that was created by a user of
the user device to provide access to her personal email account.
Thus, a user device enrolled in a BYOD management system may have
more than one configuration profile for a given use of the user
device, such as a personal email configuration profile and an
enterprise email configuration profile that are both used for
accessing email accounts on the user device.
[0025] The user devices may be instructed to enable and/or disable
certain configuration profiles according to authorization rights
specified by the user device administrator, such as location and/or
time-based authorization rights. For example, a BYOD policy may
specify that user devices enrolled in the BYOD management system
are authorized for personal use outside of the workday and are
authorized for business use during the workday. Similarly, a BYOD
device may be restricted to enterprise uses while in work locations
and/or prohibited from accessing enterprise resources while outside
of secure work locations. To implement such a policy, a user device
administrator may instruct the user devices to toggle between
personal configuration policies and enterprise configuration
policies based on factors such as the current time and/or location
associated with the user device.
[0026] The current time may be based on the current time at the
current location of the user device, which may be determined by
GPS, Wi-Fi, Cellular Triangulation, etc., or may be based on the
current time at a configured primary location associated with the
user device, which may be the primary office location of an
employee user of the user device. As an example, time-based
configuration profile toggling may be provided by instructing a
user device to enable business configuration profiles and disable
personal configuration profiles while the current time is between 9
AM and 5 PM at the current location of the user device, and to
disable business configuration profiles and enable personal
configuration profiles while the current time is between 5 PM and 9
AM at the current location of the user device.
[0027] FIG. 1 illustrates a networked environment 100 according to
various embodiments. The networked environment 100 includes a
network 110, a client device 120, a remote server 130, a compliance
server 140, and a physical access point 150. The network 110
includes, for example any type of wireless network such as a
wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless wide area network
(WWAN), and/or any other type of wireless network now known and/or
later developed. Additionally, the network 110 includes the
Internet, intranets, extranets, microwave networks, satellite
communications, cellular systems, PCS, infrared communications,
global area networks, and/or other suitable networks, etc., and/or
any combination of two or more such networks. Embodiments
consistent with this disclosure are described below in connection
with WWANs (as illustrated in FIG. 1); however, it should be
understood that embodiments described herein may be used to
advantage in any type of wireless network.
[0028] In some embodiments, the network 110 facilitates the
transport of data between at least one client device, such as
client device 120, the remote server 130, the compliance server
140, and the physical access point 150. Client devices may include
a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant, a cellular
telephone, a set-top device, music players, web pads, tablet
computer systems, game consoles, and/or other devices with like
capability. Client device 120 comprises a wireless network
connectivity component, for example, a PCI (Peripheral Component
Interconnect) card, USB (Universal Serial Bus), PCMCIA (Personal
Computer Memory Card International Association) card, SDIO (Secure
Digital Input-Output) card, NewCard, Cardbus, a modem, a wireless
radio transceiver (including an RFID transceiver), and/or the like.
Additionally, the client device 120 may include a processor for
executing applications and/or services, and a memory accessible by
the processor to store data and other information. The client
device 120 is operable to communicate wirelessly with the remote
server 130 and the physical access point 150 with the aid of the
wireless network connectivity component.
[0029] Additionally, the client device 120 may store in memory a
device identifier 121, user access credentials 122, a device
profile 123, and potentially other data. In some embodiments, the
device identifier 121 may include a software identifier, a hardware
identifier, and/or a combination of software and hardware
identifiers. For instance, the device identifier 121 may be a
unique hardware identifier such as a MAC address, a CPU ID, and/or
other hardware identifiers. The user access credentials 122 may
include a username, a password, and/or biometric data related to
facial recognition, retina recognition, fingerprint recognition,
and the like. Additionally, the device profile 123 may include a
listing of hardware and software attributes that describe the
client device 120. For instance, the device profile 123 may include
hardware specifications of the client device 120, version
information of various software installed on the client device 120,
and/or any other hardware/software attributes. Additionally, the
device profile 123 may also include data indicating a date of last
virus scan, a date of last access by IT, a date of last tune-up by
IT, and/or any other data indicating a date of last device
check.
[0030] The client device 120 may further be configured to execute
various applications such as an "enterprise access application"
124. The enterprise access application 124 may be executed to
transmit a request for a physical access credential. One such
credentials are received, they may be stored on the client device
120 for later reference and/or transmission, possible via
communication system 125.
[0031] Communication system 125 may be the same or different than
the wireless network connectivity component previously discussed,
include the same or different communication abilities, and may at
least be specifically able to communicate with physical access
points 150, discussed below.
[0032] The client device 120 may also be configured to execute
other applications such as, for example, browser applications,
email applications, instant message applications, word processing
applications, spreadsheet applications, database applications,
and/or other applications. For instance, a browser and/or word
processing application may be executed in the client device 120,
for example, to access and render network pages, such as web pages,
documents, and/or other network content served up by remote server
130, the compliance server 140, and/or any other computing
system.
[0033] The remote server 130 and the compliance server 140 can each
be implemented as, for example, a server computer and/or any other
system capable of providing computing capability. Further, the
remote server 130, compliance server 140, and any other system
described herein may be configured with logic for performing the
methods described in this disclosure. Although one remote server
130 and one compliance server 140 are depicted in FIG. 1, certain
embodiments of the networked environment 100 include more than one
remote server 130 and/or compliance server 140. At least one of the
servers may be employed and arranged, for example, in at least one
server bank, computer bank, and/or other arrangements. For example,
the server computers together may include a cloud computing
resource, a grid computing resource, and/or any other distributed
computing arrangement. Such server computers may be located in a
single installation and/or may be distributed among many different
geographical locations. For purposes of convenience, the remote
server 130 and the compliance server 140 are each referred to
herein in the singular.
[0034] Various applications and/or other functionality may be
executed in the remote server 130 and the compliance server 140,
respectively, according to certain embodiments. Also, various data
is stored in a data store 131 that is part of and/or otherwise
accessible to the remote server 130 and/or a data store 141 that is
part of and/or otherwise accessible to the compliance server 140.
The data stored in each of the data stores 131 and 141, for
example, may be accessed, modified, removed, and/or otherwise
manipulated in association with the operation of the applications
and/or functional entities described herein.
[0035] The components executed in the remote server 130 include a
authentication service 135, and may include other applications,
services, processes, systems, engines, and/or functionality not
discussed in detail herein. As used herein, the term
"authentication service" is meant to generally refer to
computer-executable instructions for performing the functionality
described herein for authorizing and distributing physical access
credentials 136. The authentication service 135 is executed to
receive a request for physical access 136 from an enterprise access
application 124 executed on a client device 120 and to determine
whether to grant or deny the request 136. Upon determining to grant
the request 136, the authentication service 135 may then send
physical access credentials 134, as will be described.
[0036] The data stored in the data store 131 of the remote server
130 may include, for example, approved device identifiers 132,
approved user access credentials 133, physical access credentials
134, and potentially other data. The approved device identifiers
132 represents a listing of device identifiers 121 that have been
pre-approved for potential accessing physical access credentials
134 which will entitle holders of client devices 120 to physical
access at physical access points 150. The approved device
identifiers 132 may have been previously provided to the remote
server 130 by a system administrator and/or the like. The approved
user access credentials 133 represents a listing of user access
credentials 122 that have been pre-approved for potential accessing
physical access credentials 134 which will entitle them to physical
access at physical access points 150.
[0037] The components executed in the compliance server 140 include
a compliance service 143, and may include other applications,
services, processes, systems, engines, and/or functionality not
discussed in detail herein. As used herein, the term "compliance
service" is meant to generally refer to computer-executable
instructions for performing the functionality described herein for
authorizing the device characteristics of another device, such as a
client device 120. The compliance service 143 is executed to
determine whether the device characteristics of the client device
120 comply with the compliance rules 142 that are stored in the
data store 141. For instance, the compliance service 143 may
identify the device characteristics from the device profile 123 of
each client device 120. Additionally, the compliance rules 142
represents a listing of hardware restrictions, software
restrictions, and/or mobile device management restrictions that
need to be satisfied by the client device 120 for use of physical
access credentials 134.
[0038] In some embodiments, hardware restrictions included in the
compliance rules 142 may comprise restrictions regarding use of
specific client devices 120 and specific client device features,
such as, for instance, cameras, Bluetooth, IRDA, tethering,
external storage, a mobile access point, and/or other hardware
restrictions. Software restrictions included in the compliance
rules 142 may comprise restrictions regarding the use of specific
client device operating systems and/or other applications 125,
internet browser restrictions, screen capture functionality, and/or
other software restrictions. Mobile device management restrictions
included in the compliance rules 142 comprise encryption
requirements, firmware versions, remote lock and wipe
functionalities, logging and reporting features, GPS tracking,
and/or other mobile device management features.
[0039] The compliance service 143 may determine whether the device
characteristics of a client device 120 satisfy at least one of the
restrictions enumerated in the compliance rules 142. For example,
the compliance service 143 may determine that a client device 120
that has a camera, Bluetooth capability, and is executing a
specified version of an operating system is compliant with the
compliance rules 142. As another example, the compliance service
143 may determine that a client device 120 that is associated with
an external storage unit and has screen capture functionality
enabled is not compliant with the compliance rules 142. All of
these restrictions discussed above may affect whether the client
device 120 is entitled to use a given physical access credential
134. In some embodiments, however, the compliance service 143 may
not be used and physical access authorization may be determined
solely based on approved user access credentials 133 and/or
approved device identifiers 132.
[0040] A user operating a client device 120 may wish to receive at
least one physical access credential 134 so that the user may
physical access a building, location, door, gate, drawer, filing
cabinet, storage unit, cabinet, etc. In some embodiments, the user
may interact with an input device to manipulate a network page
displayed by a locally executed application, such as a browser
application, to generate the request for physical access 136. In
some embodiments, the user may manipulate a user interface
generated by a locally executed application to generate the request
136. In either case, the user may provide login information and/or
the application may automatically retrieve the login information
from the memory of the client device 120. Login information may be,
for instance, a unique user name, a password, biometric data,
and/or other types of user access credentials 122. The application
may then communicate the request to the enterprise access
application 124, which may generate and transmit the request 136 to
the authentication service 135. In some embodiments, the enterprise
access application 124 may itself receive the input from the user
directly and then transmit the access request 136 to the remote
server 130.
[0041] Upon receiving the request 136, the authentication service
135 determines whether to grant or deny the request 136. In some
embodiments, the authentication service 135 may first authenticate
the client device 120 and the user operating the client device 120.
To this end, the authentication service 135 determines whether the
device identifier 121 associated with the client device 120 matches
one of the identifiers listed in the listing of approved
identifiers 132. For instance, the device identifier 121 of the
client device 120 may be included as part of the request 136
transmitted by the enterprise access application 124. In some
embodiments, the authentication service 135 may request the device
identifier 121 from the client device 120 in response to receiving
the access request 136. Upon identifying and/or receiving the
device identifier 121, the authentication service 135 determines
whether the device identifier 121 matches one of the approved
identifiers 132 stored in the data store 131. In some embodiments,
the authentication service 135 may authenticate the client device
120 dynamically by determining whether the device identifier 121 is
within a predetermined range of approved device identifiers 132. In
some embodiments, the authentication service 135 may authenticate
the client device 120 dynamically by performing an algorithm on the
device identifier 121.
[0042] Additionally, the authentication service 135 may also
authenticate the user operating the client device 120 by
determining whether the user access credentials 122 associated with
the user match one of the credentials in the listing of approved
user access credentials 133. For instance, the user access
credentials 122 associated with the user on the client device 120
may be included as part of the access request 136 transmitted by
the enterprise access application 124. In some embodiments, the
authentication service 135 may request the user access credentials
122 from the client device 120 in response to receiving the access
request 136. Upon identifying and/or requesting the user access
credentials 122, the authentication service 135 may determine
whether the user access credentials 122 matches one of the approved
user access credentials 133 stored in the data store 131. In some
embodiments, the authentication service 135 may authenticate the
user operating the client device 120 without also authenticating
the client device 120. In other words, certain authenticated users
may be authorized to gain the requested physical access regardless
of what device they used to submit the physical access request
136.
[0043] In some embodiments, having authenticated the client device
120 and the user operating the client device 120 as authorized to
receive the physical access credential 134, the authentication
service 135 communicates with the compliance service 143 to further
authorize the client device 120 to receive the physical access
credential 134. In some embodiments, the compliance service 143
authorizes the client device 120 by determining whether device
characteristics of the client device 120 comply with applicable
compliance rules 142. For instance, the compliance service 143 may
identify the device characteristics of the client device 120 from
the device profile 123. All or part of the device profile 123 may
have been provided by the client device 120 in conjunction with the
request 136 and/or may be subsequently requested from the client
device 120 by the authentication service 135 and/or the compliance
service 143. The compliance service 143 then analyzes the device
characteristics to determine whether the software restrictions,
hardware restrictions, and/or device management restrictions
defined in the compliance rules 142 are satisfied and returns the
result of the determination to the authentication service 135. In
an alternative embodiment, the authentication service 135 may
include and perform functionality for determining whether the
client device 120 complies with the compliance rules 143.
[0044] If the authentication service 135 determines and/or receives
a determination that the client device 120 is authorized, the
authentication service 135 then associates the client device 120
with at least one physical access credential 134. In some
embodiments, the authentication service 135 sends the physical
access credentials 134 to the client device 120 and authorizes the
client device 120 to use such credentials in connection with
accessing physical access points 150. In some embodiments, the
authentication service 135 may also send the physical access
credentials to physical access point 150.
[0045] In some embodiments, the physical access credential 134 may
be revoked at any time by the remote server 130. Revocation may
occur for any number of reasons, including but not limited to, a
change in device profile 123, a change in approved device
identifiers 132, a change in approved user access credentials 133,
expiration of a defined time period, and/or a request from the user
of the client device 120.
[0046] In some embodiments, the physical access point 150 is an
electro-mechanical device capable of sending and/or receiving
information, and in response thereto opening a physical barrier,
for example a building, location, door, gate, drawer, filing
cabinet, storage unit, cabinet, etc. Depending on the embodiment,
the physical access point may or may not be in communication with
network 110 and servers and devices connected therewith. In these
embodiments, the physical access point may have authorized physical
access credentials 134 embedded and/or stored therein, either in a
ROM-type storage unit, and/or in a non-networked RAM-type storage
unit. A non-networked RAM-type storage unit could be updated
locally by direct connection via USB and/or the like, with
additional security mechanisms to prevent unwanted
tampering/changing of the embedded/stored physical access
credentials 134.
[0047] The physical access point 150 may include a data store 151
for maintaining data and/or applications which relate to
determining whether a client device 120 may be allowed access by
the physical access point 150. In some embodiments, the data store
151 may only include a single access code and/or datum that is
expected to be matched by any client device 120 providing the same,
thereby entitling the client device 120 to access beyond the
physical barrier. In some embodiments, the data store 151 may
include a plurality of access codes, any of which may be matched by
a client device 120 to verify authority to access beyond the
physical barrier. The physical access point may have a processor to
implement such methods.
[0048] The physical access point 150 may also include a physical
lock actuator 152, for example, a solenoid and/or other
electro-mechanical actuator, which is operable to physically unlock
the physical barrier upon command to do so by the physical access
point 150. The physical access point may also include a
communication system 153 for sending and receiving information with
a client device 120 (for example, an RFID transceiver, a wireless
radio transceiver, a near field communication device, and/or the
like).
[0049] FIG. 2 is a flow chart setting forth the general stages
involved in a method 300 consistent with embodiments of this
disclosure for providing item delivery optimization. Method 200 may
be implemented using elements of operating environment 100 as
described above and a schematic block diagram 400 as described
below. Method 200 is described below with respect to operations
performed by a computing device, with the understanding that such a
computing device may comprise any number devices programmed for
operation of any and/or all of the steps of method 200. The
described computing device may comprise, for example, client device
120, remote server 130, compliance server 140, and/or physical
access point 150. Ways to implement the stages of method 200 will
be described in greater detail below. Method 200 may begin at stage
205 where a computing device may identify one and/or more items
available for delivery. For example, remote server 130 may identify
food and/or beverage items available for delivery to customers in a
restaurant or bar, or a number of packages and mail items available
for delivery to recipients within an office complex. Other
scenarios in which method 200 may be employed comprise, for
example, pickup and delivery of inventory items within a warehouse
or multi-building storage complex and/or delivery of items around a
geographic area, such as a city.
[0050] In some embodiments, the identified items may be selected
based on factors such as known methods of transport, a priority for
the available items and/or a known limit on the number of items
that may be transported at a given time. For example, the number of
items identified may be limited to the number of items able to be
carried on a restaurant server's tray or on an office mail
cart.
[0051] In some embodiments, the items available for delivery may be
associated with multiple origination locations. For example, mail
delivery items may originate from locations such as a mail sorting
room, a loading dock, and a reception desk. Restaurant items may
originate from a bar, a serving pass, multiple kitchens, hot or
cold storage areas, etc.
[0052] In some embodiments, all items available for delivery within
an environment may be identified at stage 205. Characteristics for
the items may also be identified, such as size, weight, time the
item has been available, assigned delivery person or mechanism,
etc. These characteristics may be maintained by the computing
device based on inputs from users associated with preparing the
items for delivery and/or may be scanned into the computing device
based on labels, order tickets, RFID tags, or other data sources
associated with the items for delivery. Collection of these
characteristics may aid in prioritization, ordering, selection,
and/or routing of the items in other stages of method 200.
[0053] From stage 205, method 200 may advance to stage 210 where
the computing device may identify receiving locations for the items
available for delivery. For example, at least some of the items
available for delivery may be associated with recipients located
within a particular geographic area. Such an association may
comprise a predefined delivery location (e.g., a particular table
in a restaurant or a cubicle within an office building) and/or the
association may comprise an association with a mobile device.
[0054] In a use case for some embodiments of this disclosure, for
example, a restaurant patron may place an order at a front counter
or a bar. The order may be associated with a mobile device
operative to provide its location to a delivery dispatch computing
device such as that described with respect to method 200. Such
mobile devices may belong to the patron and/or may be provided by
the restaurant. For example, the patron may register their cellular
phone as a location identifier, using communication options built
into the phone, such as wi-fi networking, near-field communications
(NFC), radio frequency identifier tags (RFID), and/or Bluetooth. In
some embodiments, the restaurant may issue a locatable mobile
device, such as a pager, tablet, Bluetooth, NFC, or RFID tag, or
other mobile device. The restaurant may provide receivers, such as
wi-fi routers and NFC or RFID readers, around the geographic area
for tracking the locations and movements of the locatable mobile
devices. Such an arrangement may be similarly applied to other use
cases, such as by using employees' devices to track their current
locations within an office complex or campus.
[0055] From stage 210, method 200 may advance to stage 215 where
the computing device may identify a delivery route. For example, a
number of orders may be available for delivery from the kitchen to
various tables within a restaurant. An optimized route from the
kitchen to each of the table delivery locations may be computed
according to various algorithms. The optimized route may take
account of factors such as whether the delivery locations are on
different floors, such that all items to be delivered on a first
floor are routed to before items on another floor.
[0056] From stage 215, method 200 may advance to stage 220 where
the computing device may retrieve access credentials needed for the
optimized delivery route. For example, remote server 130 may
determine whether the identified route will require passage through
physical access point 150. If so, remote server 130 may associate
physical access credentials 134 with the identified route. In
various embodiments, the criteria for optimization of the delivery
route may be different. For example, in some embodiments,
optimization may refer to minimizing the time it takes to deliver
the items and/or to delivering the items in a prioritized order.
For example, a restaurant order item that has been waiting the
longest may be prioritized and the route optimized to deliver that
item first even if other delivery locations are physically
closer.
[0057] From stage 220, method 200 may advance to stage 225 where
the computing device may provide the route (and access credentials,
if needed) to the delivery person and/or mechanism. For example,
the route and credentials may be provided to a tablet and/or other
GPS-type device associated with the user who will be performing the
delivery of the items. In some embodiments, the route and
credentials may be provided to an automated delivery mechanism,
such as an un-manned forklift operating in a warehouse. For a
person, the route may be displayed on a screen associated with the
device; for an automated mechanism, such a display may be
unnecessary.
[0058] From stage 225, method 200 may advance to stage 230 where
the computing device may determine whether the delivery location
for any of the items on the optimized route has changed. For
example, the mobile devices associated with recipients of the items
may be determined to have moved, such as when restaurant patrons
are moving between tables or mingling in a bar area. Similarly,
employees in an office complex may move between work areas,
offices, labs, conference rooms, etc. In some embodiments, a
delivery location may be changed by remote server 130 in response
to a user input (e.g., changing of the delivery location identifier
from one location to another, regardless of where the recipient
is).
[0059] If the delivery location is determined to have changed at
stage 230, method 200 may advance to stage 235 where the computing
device may update the optimized route. For example, the route may
display directions to the new delivery location. In some
embodiments, this may result in a re-ordering of the delivery
items, such as where a delivery location for a first item is
determined to now be further away than a delivery location of a
second item.
[0060] After updating the route at stage 235, or if no updates were
determined to be required at stage 230, method 200 may advance to
stage 240 where the computing device may update a current position
of the delivery person and/or mechanism. For example, a waiter may
have delivered two of the restaurant order items; the waiter's
current location may be identified and the optimized route to the
next delivery location may be displayed.
[0061] FIGS. 3A-3B illustrate an example use case for item delivery
optimization in accordance with method 200. The example use case is
illustrated in FIG. 3A with respect to a restaurant floorplan 300
comprising a plurality of tables 305(A)-(F), a waiter 310, a
plurality of restaurant patrons 315(A)-(G), a bar 320, and a
plurality of wireless beacons 330(A)-(C). Waiter 310 may be
notified that items are available for delivery at the bar 320. A
route 325 may be identified and displayed on client device 120
carried by waiter 310.
[0062] FIG. 3B illustrates an updated route in accordance with
stage 240 of method 200. For example, in FIG. 3B, restaurant patron
315(G) has moved before receiving their order from waiter 310. An
updated route 350 is identified and provided to waiter 310 such
that restaurant patron 315(G) will receive their ordered item at
their new location at table 305(F). Similarly, restaurant patron
315(C) is determined to be moving, and the delivery location for
the items associated with restaurant patron 315(C) has been
updated.
[0063] Although the above figure illustrates a restaurant order
delivery use case, this should be considered a non-limiting
example. Many other uses have been contemplated, such as
mail/parcel delivery, personnel location, emergency services aid,
logistics tracking, equipment deployments, and others. For example,
mail items for delivery to various persons within an office
building may be routed and prioritized as described above, with
routing instructions taking elevator availability and speeds into
account. For the personnel location use case, mobile devices
associated with a specified group of individuals could be tracked
and a route to locate each and/or some of those individuals could
be calculated. This may be particularly useful in a security
application (e.g., tracking each member of a delegation or family)
and/or in an educational setting (e.g., tracking the location of
pre-schoolers and alerting a teacher when one is wandering out of
bounds, then displaying a route to the child or helping chaperones
locate their students while on a field trip).
[0064] In emergency situations, such as a fire, routes to people
who may be trapped could be displayed, and/or routes to pre-defined
rescue points and special needs people and/or their pets could be
calculated. By relying on reports made by mobile devices associated
with those who need assistance, emergency workers may receive
additional information about the situation surrounding each, and
routing priorities may be calculated accordingly. The mobile
devices may receive inputs actively from users and/or may use
sensors such as microphones and cameras to passively record and
report the environment. Such passive recordings may also assist in
determining which devices are actually associated with a user in
need of assistance and which are simply in the area but not with a
person.
[0065] Logistics tracking and equipment deployment cases may allow
shippers and/or deployment managers to track and verify that
multiple components of a shipment or deployment are on schedule,
routed and/or deployed to the correct destinations, and properly
prioritized. For example, a new wireless network deployment may
specify a delivery location for a central Internet router and then
a route to each of several repeater locations.
[0066] FIG. 4 illustrates schematic block diagram 400 of the remote
server 130 and the client device 140 according to embodiments of
the present disclosure. The remote server 130 includes at least one
processor circuit, for example, having a processor 403 and a memory
406, both of which are coupled to a local interface 409. To this
end, the remote server 130 may comprise, for example, at least one
server computer and/or like device. Similarly, the client device
140 includes at least one processor circuit, for example, having a
processor 413 and a memory 416, both of which are coupled to a
local interface 419. Additionally, the client device 120 may be in
data communication with a display for rendering user interfaces and
at least one other I/O device for inputting and outputting data. To
this end, the client device 140 may comprise, for example, at least
one mobile wireless device, computer, and/or like device. The local
interfaces 409 and 419 may comprise, for example, a data bus with
an accompanying address/control bus and/or other bus structure as
can be appreciated.
[0067] Stored in the memories 406 and 416 are both data and several
components that are executable by the processors 403 and 413. In
particular, stored in the memory 406/416 and executable by the
processors 403 and 413 are a authentication service 135, an
enterprise access application 124, and potentially other
applications. Also stored in the memories 406 and 416 may be a data
stores 131 and 418 and other data. In addition, an operating system
may be stored in the memories 406 and 416 and executable by the
processors 403 and 413.
[0068] It is to be understood that there may be other applications
that are stored in the memories 406 and 416 and are executable by
the processors 403 and 413 as can be appreciated. Where any
component discussed herein is implemented in the form of software,
any one of a number of programming languages may be employed such
as, for example, C, C++, C#, Objective C, Java, Javascript, Perl,
PHP, Visual Basic, Python, Ruby, Delphi, Flash, and/or other
programming languages.
[0069] A number of software components are stored in the memories
406 and 416 and are executable by the processors 403 and 413. In
this respect, the term "executable" means a program file that is in
a form that can ultimately be run by the processors 403 and 413.
Examples of executable programs may be, for example, a compiled
program that can be translated into machine code in a format that
can be loaded into a random access portion of the memories 406 and
416 and run by the processors 403 and 413, source code that may be
expressed in proper format such as object code that is capable of
being loaded into a random access portion of the memory 406/416 and
executed by the processors 403 and 413, and/or source code that may
be interpreted by another executable program to generate
instructions in a random access portion of the memories 406 and 416
to be executed by the processors 403 and 413, etc. An executable
program may be stored in any portion and/or component of the
memories 406 and 416 including, for example, random access memory
(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), hard drive, solid-state drive, USB
flash drive, memory card, optical disc such as compact disc (CD)
and/or digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, magnetic tape,
and/or other memory components.
[0070] The memories 406 and 416 is defined herein as including both
volatile and nonvolatile memory and data storage components.
Volatile components are those that do not retain data values upon
loss of power. Nonvolatile components are those that retain data
upon a loss of power. Thus, the memories 406 and 416 may comprise,
for example, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM),
hard disk drives, solid-state drives, USB flash drives, memory
cards accessed via a memory card reader, floppy disks accessed via
an associated floppy disk drive, optical discs accessed via an
optical disc drive, magnetic tapes accessed via an appropriate tape
drive, and/or other memory components, and/or a combination of any
two and/or more of these memory components. In addition, the RAM
may comprise, for example, static random access memory (SRAM),
dynamic random access memory (DRAM), and/or magnetic random access
memory (MRAM) and other such devices. The ROM may comprise, for
example, a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable
programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable
programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), and/or other like memory
device.
[0071] Also, the processors 403 and 413 may represent multiple
processors, and the memories 406 and 416 may represent multiple
memories that operate in parallel processing circuits,
respectively. In such a case, the local interfaces 409 and 419 may
be an appropriate network 109 (FIG. 1) that facilitates
communication between any two of the multiple processors 403 and
413, and/or between any two of the memories 406 and 416, etc. The
local interfaces 409 and 419 may comprise additional systems
designed to coordinate this communication, including, for example,
performing load balancing. The processors 403 and 413 may be of
electrical and/or of some other available construction.
[0072] Although the authentication service 135, the enterprise
application service 124, and other various systems described herein
may be embodied in software and/or code executed by general purpose
hardware as discussed above, as an alternative the same may also be
embodied in dedicated hardware and/or a combination of
software/general purpose hardware and dedicated hardware. If
embodied in dedicated hardware, each can be implemented as a
circuit and/or state machine that employs any one of and/or a
combination of a number of technologies. These technologies may
include, but are not limited to, discrete logic circuits having
logic gates for implementing various logic functions upon an
application of at least one data signal, application specific
integrated circuits having appropriate logic gates, and/or other
components, etc.
[0073] The embodiments and functionalities described herein may
operate via a multitude of computing systems, including wired and
wireless computing systems, mobile computing systems (e.g., mobile
telephones, tablet or slate type computers, laptop computers,
etc.). In addition, the embodiments and functionalities described
herein may operate over distributed systems, where application
functionality, memory, data storage and retrieval and various
processing functions may be operated remotely from each other over
a distributed computing network, such as the Internet or an
intranet. User interfaces and information of various types may be
displayed via on-board computing device displays or via remote
display units associated with one or more computing devices. For
example user interfaces and information of various types may be
displayed and interacted with on a wall surface onto which user
interfaces and information of various types are projected.
Interaction with the multitude of computing systems with which
embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced include, keystroke
entry, touch screen entry, voice or other audio entry, gesture
entry where an associated computing device is equipped with
detection (e.g., camera) functionality for capturing and
interpreting user gestures for controlling the functionality of the
computing device, and the like. The Figures above and their
associated descriptions provide a discussion of a variety of
operating environments in which embodiments of this disclosure may
be practiced. However, the devices and systems illustrated and
discussed with respect to the Figures are for purposes of example
and illustration and are not limiting of a vast number of computing
device configurations that may be utilized for practicing
embodiments of this disclosure as described herein.
[0074] The term computer readable media as used herein may include
computer storage media. Computer storage media may include volatile
and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in
any method or technology for storage of information, such as
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,
or other data. System memory, removable storage, and non-removable
storage are all computer storage media examples (i.e., memory
storage.) Computer storage media may include, but is not limited
to, RAM, ROM, electrically erasable read-only memory (EEPROM),
flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile
disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic
tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or
any other medium which can be used to store.
[0075] The term computer readable media as used herein may also
include communication media. Communication media may be embodied by
computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules,
non-transitory media, and/or other data in a modulated data signal,
such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes
any information delivery media. The term "modulated data signal"
may describe a signal that has one or more characteristics set or
changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By
way of example, and not limitation, communication media may include
wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and
wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared,
and other wireless media.
[0076] A number of applications and data files may be used to
perform processes and/or methods as described above. The
aforementioned processes are examples, and a processing unit may
perform other processes. Other programming modules that may be used
in accordance with embodiments of this disclosure may include
electronic mail, calendar, and contacts applications, data
processing applications, word processing applications, spreadsheet
applications, database applications, slide presentation
applications, drawing or computer-aided application programs,
etc.
[0077] Generally, consistent with embodiments of this disclosure,
program modules may include routines, programs, components, data
structures, and other types of structures that may perform
particular tasks or that may implement particular abstract data
types. Moreover, embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced
with other computer system configurations, including hand-held
devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or
programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe
computers, and the like. Embodiments of this disclosure may also be
practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are
performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a
communications network. In a distributed computing environment,
program modules may be located in both local and remote memory
storage devices.
[0078] Furthermore, embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced
in an electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements,
packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a
circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing
electronic elements or microprocessors. Embodiments of this
disclosure may also be practiced using other technologies capable
of performing logical operations such as, for example, AND, OR, and
NOT, including but not limited to mechanical, optical, fluidic, and
quantum technologies. In addition, embodiments of the disclosure
may be practiced within a general purpose computer or in any other
circuits or systems.
[0079] Embodiments of this disclosure may, for example, be
implemented as a computer process and/or method, a computing
system, an apparatus, device, or appliance, and/or as an article of
manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer
readable media. The computer program product may be a computer
storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer
program of instructions for executing a computer process. The
computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a
carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer
program of instructions for executing a computer process.
Accordingly, the present disclosure may be embodied in hardware
and/or in software (including firmware, resident software,
micro-code, etc.). In other words, embodiments of the present
disclosure may take the form of a computer program product on a
computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having
computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the
medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution
system. A computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any
medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or
transport the program for use by or in connection with the
instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
[0080] The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for
example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical,
electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus,
device, or propagation medium. More specific computer-readable
medium examples (a non-exhaustive list), the computer-readable
medium may include the following: an electrical connection having
one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a random access
memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable
read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, and a
portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM). Note that the
computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or
another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the
program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical
scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted,
or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then
stored in a computer memory.
[0081] Embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced via a
system-on-a-chip (SOC) where each and/or many of the elements
described above may be integrated onto a single integrated circuit.
Such an SOC device may include one or more processing units,
graphics units, communications units, system virtualization units
and various application functionalities, all of which may be
integrated (or "burned") onto the chip substrate as a single
integrated circuit. When operating via an SOC, the functionality,
described herein, with respect to training and/or interacting with
any element may operate via application-specific logic integrated
with other components of the computing device/system on the single
integrated circuit (chip).
[0082] Embodiments of this disclosure are described above with
reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of
methods, systems, and computer program products according to
embodiments of the disclosure. The functions/acts noted in the
blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For
example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed
substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed
in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts
involved.
[0083] While certain embodiments have been described, other
embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although embodiments of the
present disclosure have been described as being associated with
data stored in memory and other storage mediums, data can also be
stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such
as secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or a
CD-ROM, a carrier wave from the Internet, or other forms of RAM or
ROM. Further, the disclosed methods' stages may be modified in any
manner, including by reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting
stages, without departing from the disclosure.
[0084] Embodiments of the present disclosure, for example, are
described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational
illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products
according to embodiments of the disclosure. The functions/acts
noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any
flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact
be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes
be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the
functionality/acts involved.
[0085] While certain embodiments of the disclosure have been
described, other embodiments may exist. Furthermore, although
embodiments of the present disclosure have been described as being
associated with data stored in memory and other storage mediums,
data can also be stored on or read from other types of
computer-readable media, such as secondary storage devices, like
hard disks, floppy disks, or a CD-ROM, a carrier wave from the
Internet, or other forms of RAM or ROM. Further, the disclosed
methods' stages may be modified in any manner, including by
reordering stages and/or inserting or deleting stages, without
departing from the disclosure.
[0086] All rights including copyrights in the code included herein
are vested in and the property of the Assignee. The Assignee
retains and reserves all rights in the code included herein, and
grants permission to reproduce the material only in connection with
reproduction of the granted patent and for no other purpose.
[0087] While the specification includes examples, the disclosure's
scope is indicated by the following claims. Furthermore, while the
specification has been described in language specific to structural
features and/or methodological acts, the claims are not limited to
the features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features
and acts described above are disclosed as example for embodiments
of the disclosure.
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