Crowdsourcing and organizing multiple devices to perform an activity

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11528678-B2
Application number	US-201916722128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2019
Priority date	Dec 20, 2019
Publication date	Dec 13, 2022
Grant date	Dec 13, 2022

Abstract

As an example, a computing device may broadcast, via a software application, a message to multiple computing devices requesting devices to participate in an activity occurring at a particular time at a particular location. A subset of the multiple computing devices may gather at the particular location prior to the particular time to participate in the activity. Prior to the particular time, the computing device may discover the subset and create a peer-to-peer network. Based on a set of attributes associated with each computing device in the subset, the computing device may assign individual computing devices in the subset a role and a position. Each of the computing devices in the subset may be positioned in the particular location according to the position and perform the role at the particular time to collectively perform the activity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
broadcasting, by one or more processors, an activity message to a set of computing devices located in a wide area network, the activity message indicating that an activity is scheduled to occur at a particular time and at a particular location, wherein the one or more processors assume a master device role;
performing, by the one or more processors and within a predetermined time interval prior to the particular time, a discovery process to determine a subset of the set of computing devices located within a predetermined distance from the particular location;
instructing, by the one or more processors, the subset of computing devices to create a peer-to-peer network;
determining a role for each of the computing devices in the subset, including a video master role for a first computer device in the subset, an audio master role for a second computer device in the subset, and a streaming master role for a third computer device in the subset, wherein the third computer device, in the streaming master role, provides video content to the first computer device, in the video master role, and audio content to the second computer device, in the audio master role;
sending the roles to the computing devices, respectively, in the subset;
initiating the activity using the subset of computing devices;
determining, by the one or more processors, at least one of the subset of computing devices is suited to take on the master device role;
transferring the master device role to the at least one of the subset of computing devices; and
providing, by the master device to the video master, information regarding which of the subset of computing devices are being used to display video and a position associated with each of the subset of computing devices that are displaying video, wherein the position indicates where each of the subset of computing devices is physically positioned relative to at least one of the other devices to create a composite screen.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the roles further comprises:
sending a request to the subset of computing devices to provide attributes associated with each of the computing devices in the subset;
receiving attributes from each of the computing devices in the subset; and
determining the roles based at least in part on the set of attributes associated with each of the computing devices in the subset.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
determining, based at least in part on the roles and the attributes, positions, respectively, identifying physical placements, respectively, of the computing devices, respectively, in the subset; and
sending the positions to the computing devices, respectively, of the subset.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the attributes comprises:
a video resolution of a display device associated with each of the computing devices of the subset;
a screen size of the display device;
a frequency response of one or more transducers associated with each of the computing devices of the subset;
a clock speed associated with a processor of each of the computing devices of the subset;
a number of cores of the processor;
a maximum download speed associated with each of the computing devices of the subset; and
an amount of storage accessible to each of the computing devices of the subset.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activity comprises at least one of:
playing back media content; or
streaming the media content;
wherein the media content comprises one of music content or video content.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
performing the discovery process a predetermined amount of time after the activity is initiated;
determining, using the discovery process, the subset of computing devices located within a predetermined distance from the particular location;
determining that the subset of computing devices includes a new device;
instructing the new device to join the peer-to-peer network;
determining the role of the new device;
sending the role to the new device; and
resuming the activity using the subset of computing devices that includes the new device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the roles comprise:
a portion of a composite screen;
a left speaker;
a right speaker;
a center channel speaker;
a left rear speaker; or
a right rear speaker.

8. A computing device comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer readable media to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
sending, from a software application, an activity message to a set of computing devices located in a wide area network, the activity message indicating that an activity is scheduled to occur at a particular time and at a particular location, wherein the one or more processors assume a master device role;
performing, within a predetermined time interval prior to the particular time, a discovery process to determine a subset of the set of computing devices located within a predetermined distance from the particular location;
instructing the subset of computing devices to create a peer-to-peer network;
determining a role for each of the computing devices in the subset, including a video master role for a first computer device in the subset, and an audio master role for a second computer device in the subset, and a streaming master role for a third computer device in the subset, wherein the third computer device, in the streaming master role, provides video content to the first computer device, in the video master role, and audio content to the second computer device, in the audio master role;
sending the roles to the computing devices, respectively, in the subset;
initiating the activity using the subset of computing devices;
determining, by the one or more processors, at least one of the subset of computing devices is suited to take on the master device role;
transferring the master device role to the at least one of the subset of computing devices; and
providing, by the master device to the video master, information regarding which of the subset of computing devices are being used to display video and a position associated with each of the subset of computing devices that are displaying video, wherein the position indicates where each of the subset of computing devices is physically positioned relative to at least one of the other devices to create a composite screen.

9. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein determining the roles further comprises:
sending a request to the subset of computing devices to provide attributes associated with each of the computing devices in the subset;
receiving attributes from each of the computing devices in the subset; and
determining the roles of each of the computing devices in the subset based at least in part on the attributes associated with each of the computing devices in the subset.

10. The computing device of claim 9 , wherein the set of attributes comprises:
a video resolution of a display device associated with each of the computing devices of the subset;
a screen size of the display device;
a frequency response of one or more transducers associated with each of the computing devices of the subset;
a clock speed associated with a processor of each of the computing devices of the subset;
a number of cores of the processor;
a maximum download speed associated with each of the computing devices of the subset; and
an amount of storage accessible to each of the computing devices of the subset.

11. The computing device of claim 8 , wherein the activity comprises at least one of:
playing back medi

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Gupta Shubham
• Bikumala Sathish Kumar

Classifications

• H04W84/18

  Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks · CPC title

• H04W84/12

  WLAN [Wireless Local Area Networks] · CPC title

• H04W4/08

  User group management · CPC title

• H04W4/203

  for converged personal network application service interworking, e.g. OMA converged personal network services [CPNS] · CPC title

• H04W84/20 Primary

  Leader-follower arrangements · CPC title