Information providing apparatus and information providing method, wireless communication apparatus and wireless communication method, computer program, and wireless communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9313721-B2
Application number	US-201013394404-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 4, 2010
Priority date	Sep 14, 2009
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

To reduce power consumption for communication operation wherein a client terminal at the time of offline searches a base station or access point.
A server uses a communication information predicting algorithm to predict a location or time whereby the server becomes an offline state over a movement route of a client terminal, and a location or time whereby the server returns to an online state, and informs to the client terminal. The client terminal suspends a communication function when reaching the informed offline predicted location or time. The client terminal at the time of offline determines that the current location or time has reached an online return predicted location or time using location recognition or point-in-time recognition, and restores the communication function.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An information providing apparatus comprising:
a communication unit configured to connect to a client terminal, comprising a transmitter and receiver, to perform communication;
a contents analyzing unit configured to receive private content stored by the client terminal and to estimate the destination of a user in possession of the client terminal based at least in part on the received private content, the received private content comprising an email history of a user of the client terminal, memo history of the user of the client terminal, and/or image information stored on the client terminal;
a movement predicting unit configured to estimate the current location of said client terminal, and also to predict a movement route from said current location to said estimated destination; and
a communication predicting unit configured to:
predict an offline area at which said client terminal will be unable to connect to a base station or access point over said predicted movement route, and to instruct said client terminal to suspend supply of power to the transmitter and receiver for a duration of a set time period which begins when the client terminal is to approach the predicted offline area, and ends when the client terminal is to leave the predicted offline area;
transmit, if predicting that there is an offline area where said client terminal has an inability to connect to any base station or access point over said movement route, communication prediction information comprising the predicted offline area in which said client terminal will be in a connection disabled state, and an area in which said client terminal will assume a connectable condition with a base station or access point; and
release a pause of a connection with said client terminal to attempt connection therewith when another predetermined condition is satisfied, even in the event that said client terminal has not assumed said connectable condition.

2. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the private content received by the content analyzing unit is stored by the client terminal in a private content database, and
wherein said contents analyzing unit analyzes the private content held in said private content database, and estimates the user's destination based at least in part on an obtained action schedule.

3. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said received private content comprises an action history of the user of the client terminal, the action history comprising at least one of a user's login ID, login time and date, login location, logoff time and date, logoff location, transportation system history, purchase history of various products, viewing history of broadcast programs and other contents, and operation history of various types of information equipment.

4. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said movement predicting unit estimates said current location based at least in part on sensor information obtained from said client terminal.

5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein said sensor information includes at least one of GPS (Global Positioning System) reception radio wave information, received signal strength information of a WiFi base station (RSSI: Receiving Signal Strength Indicator), acceleration information measured by an acceleration sensor, or other sensor information for estimating the location information of said client terminal, measured by said client terminal.

6. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said movement predicting unit predicts, at least in part, a movement route from the estimated current location to a destination using a learning algorithm employing a hidden Markov model.

7. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a communication information database configured to hold the communication information of a base station or access point at each spot;
wherein said communication predicting unit predicts a connection state between said client terminal and a base station or access point over said movement route based on said communication information database.

8. The information providing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein said communication information includes at least one of the transmission rate or received radio wave strength of a base station or access point at each spot.

9. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said communication prediction information includes, as information of said connection disabled state, an offline predicted location or offline predicted time with said client terminal arriving at said offline area, and includes, as information of said connectable condition, an online return predicted location or online return predicted time with said client terminal returning to an online area.

10. A method for providing information to a client terminal comprising a transmitter and receiver, the method comprising:
a content receiving step comprising receiving, from the client terminal, private content stored by the client terminal, the received private content comprising an email history of a user of the client terminal, memo history of the user of the client terminal, and/or image information stored by the client terminal;
a contents analyzing step comprising estimating the destination of a user in possession of the client terminal based at least in part on the received private content;
a movement predicting step comprising estimating the current location of said client terminal, and predicting a movement route from said current location to said destination;
a communication predicting step comprising predicting an offline area at which said client terminal will be unable to connect to a base station or access point over said predicted movement route, and instructing said client terminal to suspend supply of power to the transmitter and receiver for a duration of a set time period which begins when the client terminal is to approach the predicted offline area, and which ends when the client terminal is to leave the predicted offline area;
a communication prediction information transmission step comprising transmitting, to said client terminal, communication prediction information including the predicted offline area in which said client terminal will be in a connection disabled state, and an area in which said client terminal will assume a connectable condition with a base station or access point; and
a connection pause releasing step comprising releasing a pause of a connection with said client terminal to attempt connection therewith when another predetermined condition is satisfied, even in the event that said client terminal has not assumed said connectable condition.

11. At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encoded thereon which, when executed by a computer operating as a server in a wireless communication system where a server and a client terminal mutually transfer information and are mutually synchronized by wireless communication, cause said computer to perform a method comprising acts of:
connecting to a client terminal, comprising a transmitter and receiver, to perform communication;
receiving, from the client terminal, private content stored by the client terminal, the received private content comprising an email history of a user of the client terminal, memo history of the user of the client terminal, and/or image information stored on the client terminal;
estimating the destination of a user in possession of the client terminal based at least in part on the received private content;
estima

Assignees

• Abe Shinichiro
• Arisawa Shigeru
• Usui Takashi
• Esaka Seiji
• Sonoda Shuhei
• Takada Masayuki
• Yamasuge Hiroyuki
• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Abe Shinichiro
• Arisawa Shigeru
• Usui Takashi
• Esaka Seiji
• Sonoda Shuhei
• Takada Masayuki
• Yamasuge Hiroyuki

Classifications

• H04W48/16 Primary

  Discovering, processing access restriction or access information · CPC title

• H04W64/00

  Locating users or terminals {or network equipment} for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management · CPC title

• H04W52/0258

  controlling an operation mode according to history or models of usage information, e.g. activity schedule or time of day · CPC title

• Y02B60/50

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• Y02D30/70

  in wireless communication networks · CPC title