Crowd sourced data sampling at the crowd

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10614034-B2
Application number	US-201715705895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 15, 2017
Priority date	Apr 21, 2015
Publication date	Apr 7, 2020
Grant date	Apr 7, 2020

Abstract

An approach is provided for sampling crowd sourced data. The approach selects an sampling node from a set of crowd nodes. The sampling node receives a data acquisition request from a data collector and receives data from the set of crowd nodes with the data being responsive to the data acquisition request. The received data is processed by the sampling node to reduce redundant data as defined by the data acquisition request. An acquired data message block is generated and transmitted from the sampling node to the data collector.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system comprising:
one or more processors;
a memory coupled to at least one of the processors; and
a set of instructions stored in the memory and executed by at least one of the processors to abstract crowd sourced data, wherein the set of instructions perform actions of:
selecting an sampling node from a plurality of crowd nodes commonly observing a data item of interest external to the crowd nodes within a region of geo-location commonality;
receiving, at the sampling node, a data acquisition request from a data collector to collect crowd sourced data of the commonly observed data item from the region of geo-location commonality;
receiving, at the sampling node, crowd sourced data from the plurality of crowd nodes of the commonly observed data item from the region of geo-location commonality, wherein the crowd sourced data is responsive to the data acquisition request;
processing, by the sampling node, the received crowd sourced data of the commonly observed data item of interest, wherein the processing reduces redundant data as defined by the data acquisition request and results in an acquired data message block; and
transmitting the acquired data message block from the sampling node to the data collector.

2. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of crowd nodes are handheld mobile devices interconnected on a mobile ad hoc network sampling a commonly observed activity external to the crowd nodes as the commonly observed data item of interest in the region of geo-location commonality.

3. The information handling system of claim 2 wherein sampling a data item of interest includes taking a video of the data item of interest.

4. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the plurality of crowd nodes are interconnected via a mobile ad hoc network and wherein the sampling node communicates with the data collector over a public computer network.

5. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the actions further comprise:
establishing, by the sampling node, a plurality of collections wherein each collection includes at least one of the plurality of crowd nodes;
defining a geo-located region, within the region of geo-location commonality, pertaining to each of the collections;
collecting a representative data from at least one of the crowd nodes included in each of the collections;
counting a number of nodes included in each of the collections that have redundant data as defined by the data acquisition request.

6. The information handling system of claim 5 wherein the actions further comprise:
expanding each of the collections' geo-located regions based on a geo-location of the one or more crowd nodes included in each of the respective collections.

7. The information handling system of claim 6 , wherein the data acquisition request includes a redundancy parameter and a maximum collection geographic area parameter, wherein the steps further comprise:
establishing a maximum size of each of the geo-located regions based on the maximum collection geographic area parameter;
receiving a first data from a first node of the plurality of crowd nodes and a second data from a second node of the plurality of crowd nodes, wherein the first and second nodes are both in a first collection selected from the plurality of collections;
identifying that the received first and second data are within the redundancy parameter; and
in response to identifying redundancy between the first data and the second data, including the first data in the acquired data message block and discarding the second data.

8. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the actions further comprise:
selecting a transmission node from the plurality of crowd nodes, wherein the transmission node is different from the sampling node, wherein the transmission of the acquired data message block from the sampling node to the data collector is performed by passing the acquired data message block from the sampling node through the transmission node to the data collector.

9. The information handling system of claim 1 wherein the data acquisition request that defines one or more data items of interest, a range of data considered redundant, a maximum collection geographic area pertaining to one or more collections of nodes, and a collection radius.

10. The information handling system of claim 1 further comprising upon receiving from the data collector a requested type of data to collect regarding the commonly observed data item of interest, the sampling node obtaining the requested type of data from the crowd nodes, removing redundancy from the requested type of data obtained from the crowd nodes, and transmitting the requested type of data to the data collector.

11. A computer program product stored in a computer readable storage medium, comprising computer instructions that, when executed by an information handling system, causes the information handling system to abstract crowd sourced data by performing actions comprising:
selecting an sampling node from a plurality of crowd nodes commonly observing a data item of interest external to the crowd nodes within a region of geo-location commonality;
receiving, at the sampling node, a data acquisition request from a data collector to collect crowd sourced data of the commonly observed data item from the region of geo-location commonality;
receiving, at the sampling node, crowd sourced data from the plurality of crowd nodes of the commonly observed data item from the region of geo-location commonality, wherein the crowd sourced data is responsive to the data acquisition request;
processing, by the sampling node, the received crowd sourced data of the commonly observed data item of interest, wherein the processing reduces redundant data as defined by the data acquisition request and results in an acquired data message block; and
transmitting the acquired data message block from the sampling node to the data collector.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the plurality of crowd nodes are handheld mobile devices interconnected on a mobile ad hoc network sampling a commonly observed activity external to the crowd nodes as the commonly observed data item of interest in the region of geo-location commonality.

13. The information handling system of claim 12 wherein sampling a data item of interest includes taking a video of the data item of interest.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the plurality of crowd nodes are interconnected via a mobile ad hoc network and wherein the sampling node communicates with the data collector over a public computer network.

15. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the actions further comprise:
establishing, by the sampling node, a plurality of collections wherein each collection includes at least one of the plurality of crowd nodes;
defining a geo-located region, within the region of geo-location commonality, pertaining to each of the collections;
collecting a representative data from at least one of the crowd nodes included in each of the collections;
counting a number of nodes included in each of the collections that have redundant data as defined by the data acquisition request.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the actions further comprise:
expanding each of the collections' geo-located regions based on a geo-location of the one or more crowd nodes included in each of the respective collections.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 , wherein the data ac

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Lection David B
• Stevens Mark B
• Wilson John D

Classifications

• G06F16/282

  Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes · CPC title

• G06F16/174 Primary

  Redundancy elimination performed by the file system (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14) · CPC title

• G06F16/2365

  Ensuring data consistency and integrity · CPC title