Context-aware task processing for multiple devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10484484-B2
Application number	US-201615017423-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Feb 5, 2016
Publication date	Nov 19, 2019
Grant date	Nov 19, 2019

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to processing tasks offloaded from one or more user devices to a cloud service. An example method generally includes receiving a command to be processed by the cloud service from a first device of a group of user devices. The cloud service generates a response based on the command. The cloud service determines weighting scores for each device in the group of user devices for each of audio output, video output, and haptic feedback based on context information about the group of user devices. The cloud service selects a plurality of user devices to receive at least part of the response based on the determined weighting scores, partitions the response into portions corresponding to the selected plurality of user devices, and instructs each of the selected plurality of user devices to output the one or more portions corresponding to the selected plurality of user devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product, comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code configured to perform an operation to process commands offloaded from a user device to a cloud service, the operation comprising:
receiving a command to be processed by the cloud service from a first device of a group of user devices;
generating a response based on the command;
determining weighting scores for each device in the group of user devices for each of audio output, video output, and haptic feedback, the weighting scores being based on context information about the group of user devices, wherein:
the context information comprises information about capabilities of the user device and information about whether a user is interacting with the user device,
the capabilities of the user device comprises one or more of information about a device display size, an ability to play back audio via a connected audio output device, or an ability to output haptic feedback,
the weighting score for audio output is based at least on a connection to an audio output device and audio quality of the device,
the weighting score for video output is based at least on screen size and information about whether the user is looking at or actively manipulating the device, and
the weighting score for haptic feedback is based at least on whether the device is a wearable device and information about whether the user is actively manipulating the device;

selecting a plurality of user devices from the group of user devices to receive at least part of the response based on the determined weighting scores for each device in the group of devices, wherein the selected plurality of devices correspond to devices having a highest weighting score for audio output, video output, and haptic feedback;
partitioning the response into a plurality of portions corresponding to each of the selected plurality of user devices, wherein the plurality of portions comprises at least a first portion corresponding to audio data in the response, a second portion corresponding to video data in the response, and a third portion corresponding to haptic feedback data in the response; and
instructing each of the selected plurality of user devices to output the one or more portions corresponding to the selected plurality of user devices by transmitting the plurality of portions to the corresponding selected plurality of user devices.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the selecting plurality of user devices comprises:
for a type of output, generating a score for each device in the group of user devices based on the context information associated with each device; and
identifying a device with a highest score as the selected user device.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of selected user devices comprises a designated master device of the group of user devices.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the partitioned response comprises routing information identifying one or more user devices to receive each partition of the partitioned response.

5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the context information comprises differences from previously transmitted context information stored at the cloud service.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the context information includes data from one or more sensors at a user device indicating that a user is actively manipulating the user device.

7. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing one or more instructions, which, when executed by the processor, performs an operation to process commands offloaded from a user device to a cloud service, the operation comprising:
receiving a command to be processed by the cloud service from a first device of a group of user devices;
generating a response based on the command;
determining weighting scores for each device in the group of user devices for each of audio output, video output, and haptic feedback, the weighting scores being based on context information about the group of user devices, wherein:
the context information comprises information about capabilities of the user device and information about whether a user is interacting with the user device,
the capabilities of the user device comprises one or more of information about a device display size, an ability to play back audio via a connected audio output device, or an ability to output haptic feedback,
the weighting score for audio output is based at least on a connection to an audio output device and audio quality of the device,
the weighting score for video output is based at least on screen size and information about whether the user is looking at or actively manipulating the device, and
the weighting score for haptic feedback is based at least on whether the device is a wearable device and information about whether the user is actively manipulating the device;

selecting a plurality of user devices from the group of user devices to receive at least part of the response based on the determined weighting scores for each device in the group of devices, wherein the selected plurality of devices correspond to devices having a highest weighting score for audio output, video output, and haptic feedback;
partitioning the response into a plurality of portions corresponding to each of the selected plurality of user devices, wherein the plurality of portions comprises at least a first portion corresponding to audio data in the response, a second portion corresponding to video data in the response, and a third portion corresponding to haptic feedback data in the response; and
instructing each of the selected plurality of user devices to output the one or more portions corresponding to the selected plurality of user devices by transmitting the plurality of portions to the corresponding selected plurality of user devices.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the selecting plurality of user devices comprises:
for a type of output, generating a score for each device in the group of user devices based on the context information associated with each device; and
identifying a device with a highest score as the selected user device.

9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of selected user devices comprises a designated master device of the one or more user devices.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the partitioned response comprises routing information identifying one or more user devices to receive each partition of the partitioned response.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the context information comprises at least one of:
differences from previously transmitted context information stored at the cloud service; or
data from one or more sensors at a user device indicating that a user is actively manipulating the user device.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Liu Su
• Rozner Eric J
• Sze Chin Ngai
• Wei Yaoguang

Classifications

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• G06F2209/509

  Offload · CPC title

• G06F9/5072

  Grid computing · CPC title

• H04L67/16 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/14 Primary

  Session management (for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066) · CPC title