Sensor data availability from remote devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10004979-B2
Application number	US-201514633000-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 26, 2015
Priority date	Feb 26, 2015
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

Example apparatus and methods concern a first off-the-shelf device (e.g., game console, laptop) that may lack a sensor interacting with a second off-the-shelf device(s) (e.g., smart phone, tablet) that has a sensor. The first device may ask remote devices to expose sensors, may select a remote device and sensor to work with, may control communications between the devices and may use the sensor data provided by the second data to run an application on the first device. The application may be acquired from a consumer-oriented application repository, may require sensor data, and may run unmodified on the first device due to the availability of the sensor data from the second device. The combination of devices improves the capability of the first device, saves energy, and reduces computing complexity. A game console or application written for the game console may perform better using sensor data from a remote device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for running an unmodified sensor-dependent application on a local off-the-shelf device without using sensor data from the local off-the shelf device, without modifying hardware of the local off-the-shelf device, and without modifying an operating system on the local off-the-shelf device, the method comprising:
acquiring the unmodified sensor-dependent application from a consumer-oriented application repository;
transmitting a request to a remote device to expose a specific sensor available on the remote device;
detecting an exposed sensor available on the remote device;
establishing a communication link with the remote device;
receiving sensor data from the exposed sensor, and
using the sensor data in the unmodified sensor-dependent application running on the local off-the-shelf device.

2. The method of claim 1 , where the remote device is an off-the-shelf device, an embedded device, or a prototype device.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising broadcasting a request to one or more remote devices to expose one or more sensors available on the one or more remote devices.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising requesting sensor data from the remote device.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the remote device to provide sensor data.

6. The method of claim 1 , where the sensor data is associated with an accelerometer or a gyroscope.

7. The method of claim 1 , where the sensor data is associated with a vendor defined sensor.

8. The method of claim 7 , where the vendor defined sensor is a thermometer, a barometer, a light meter, or a sound meter.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the sensor-dependent application to surface a user experience based, at least in part, on the sensor data.

10. The method of claim 1 , comprising controlling the remote device to selectively power down a circuit or process associated with a sensor on the remote device.

11. The method of claim 1 , where establishing the communication link includes establishing a peer-to-peer communication link between the local device and the remote device.

12. The method of claim 1 , where establishing the communication link includes establishing an operating system to operating system link between an operating system on the local device and an operating system on the remote device or establishing an application to operating system link between an application on the local device and an operating system on the remote device.

13. The method of claim 1 , where the local device is a game console or laptop computer and where the remote device is a smart phone or a tablet computer.

14. The method of claim 1 , where detecting an exposed sensor available on a remote device includes detecting a plurality of exposed sensors available on one or more remote devices, and
where receiving sensor data from the exposed sensor includes receiving the sensor data from the plurality of exposed sensors.

15. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
distinguishing the exposed sensor from a local sensor on the local off-the-shelf device and selectively controlling the sensor-dependent application to use sensor data from the exposed sensor or to use sensor data from the local sensor.

16. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor;
a memory;
a set of logics that facilitate acquiring data from a sensor on a remote device, and
a physical interface to connect the processor, the memory, and the set of logics, the set of logics comprising:
a first logic that controls detecting the sensor available on the remote device, where the first logic requests that the remote device exposes the sensor and detects the sensor on the remote device when the sensor is exposed;
a second logic that controls communication of sensor data between the remote device and the apparatus; and
a third logic that controls a user experience provided by the apparatus, where the user experience depends, at least in part, on the sensor data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 , where the second logic causes sensor data to be communicated for the sensor using a peer-to-peer approach, an operating system to operating system approach, or an application to operating system approach.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 , where the sensor is an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a prototype sensor, a vendor defined thermometer, a vendor defined barometer, a vendor defined light meter, or a vendor defined sound meter.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 , where the user experience involves movement of an object associated with the user or transitions between scenes experienced by the user, and where the user experience depends on an awareness of a movement of the remote device as sensed by the sensor.

20. The apparatus of claim 16 , comprising a fourth logic that controls selectively powering down the sensor on the remote device or a sensor on the apparatus upon determining that the sensor on the remote device or the sensor on the apparatus is not needed for the user experience.

21. A system, comprising:
an off-the-shelf game console running a first off-the-shelf operating system and a first off-the-shelf application, where the first application requires data provided from an accelerometer or gyroscope, where the first application was acquired from a consumer-oriented data repository, and
an off-the-shelf smart phone running a second off-the-shelf operating system and a second off-the-shelf application, where the smart phone includes an accelerometer or gyroscope,
where the game console uses data provided by the accelerometer or the gyroscope on the smart phone to run the first application in an unmodified mode.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Ayers Justin
• Roussos George
• Wang Paul
• Zhao Chunshui

Classifications

• Y02D70/00

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/142

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D70/166

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• A63F13/21 Primary

  characterised by their sensors, purposes or types · CPC title