Automatic self-protection for a portable electronic device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9793939-B2
Application number	US-201514818743-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2015
Priority date	Aug 5, 2015
Publication date	Oct 17, 2017
Grant date	Oct 17, 2017

Abstract

Provided are techniques for automatically protecting portable and wearable electronic devices from potential hazards by predicting when such hazards may occur. Techniques may include monitoring a plurality of sensors on the mobile computing device; receiving, on the mobile computing device, context data from a plurality of context-service applications; selecting a set of device-protection policies based upon an availability of the plurality of sensors and the plurality of context-service applications, wherein the set of device-protection policies are configured to determine a level of risk to the mobile computing device based on sensor data received from the plurality of sensors and the context data; applying the sensor data and the context data to the set of device-protection policies to generate the level of risk; and triggering a self-protection action if the level of risk exceeds a pre-determined threshold level of risk.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for protecting a mobile device, comprising:
monitoring a plurality of sensors on the mobile computing device;
receiving, on the mobile computing device, context data from a plurality of context-service applications;
selecting a set of device-protection policies based upon an availability of the plurality of sensors and the plurality of context-service applications, wherein the set of device-protection policies are configured to determine a level of risk to the mobile computing device based on sensor data received from the plurality of sensors and the context data, wherein the context data is used as a factor in determining a potential hazard to the mobile computing device prior to an actual hazard corresponding to the potential hazard being detected by a sensor of the plurality of sensors;
applying the sensor data and the context data to the set of device-protection policies to generate the level of risk; and
triggering a self-protection action if the level of risk exceeds a pre-determined threshold level of risk.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of sensors are selected from a list, the list consisting of:
a plurality of motion sensors;
a plurality of environmental sensors; and
a plurality of position sensors.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the plurality of context-service applications is a cloud-based service.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of plurality of context-service applications is an application executing on the mobile computing device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the self-protection action comprises controlling the mobile computing device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the controlling the mobile computing device comprises powering off the mobile computing device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the self-protection action comprises controlling a device other than the mobile computing device.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the self-protection policies are generated by a method, the method comprising:
collecting historical data corresponding to a plurality of failures of a plurality of mobile computing devices; and
data mining the historical data to identify a particular source of failure of the plurality of failures.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the self-protection policies are based upon crowd-sourced scenarios of a plurality of failures on other mobile computing devices.

10. A mobile computing device, comprising:
a plurality of processors;
a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium coupled to the plurality of processors;
a plurality of sensors; and
logic, stored on the computer-readable recording medium and executed on the plurality of processors, to perform a method the method comprising:
monitoring the plurality of sensors;
receiving, on the mobile computing device, context data from a plurality of context-service applications;
selecting a set of device-protection policies based upon an availability of the plurality of sensors and the plurality of context-service applications, wherein the set of device-protection policies are configured to determine a level of risk to the mobile computing device based on sensor data received from the plurality of sensors and the context data, wherein the context data is used as a factor in determining a potential hazard to the mobile computing device prior to an actual hazard corresponding to the potential hazard being detected by a sensor of the plurality of sensors;
applying the sensor data and the context data to the set of device protection policies to generate the level of risk; and
triggering a self-protection action if the level of risk exceeds a pre-determined threshold level of risk.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of sensors are selected from a list, the list consisting of:
a plurality of motion sensors;
plurality of environmental sensors; and
a plurality of position sensors.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 10 , wherein at least one of the plurality of context-service applications is a cloud-based service.

13. The mobile computing device of claim 10 , wherein at least one of plurality of context-service applications is an application executing on the mobile computing device.

14. The mobile computing device of claim 10 , wherein the self-protection policies are generated by a method, the method comprising:
collecting historical data corresponding to a plurality of failures of a plurality of mobile computing devices; and
data mining the historical data to identify a particular source of failure of the plurality of failures.

15. The mobile computing device of claim 10 , wherein the self-protection policies are based upon crowd-sourced scenarios of a plurality of failures on other mobile computing devices.

16. A computer programming product for protecting a mobile computing device comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a plurality of processors to perform a method comprising, comprising:
monitoring a plurality of sensors the mobile computing device;
receiving, on the mobile computing device, context data from a plurality of context-service applications;
selecting a set of device-protection policies based upon an availability of the plurality of sensors and the plurality of context-service applications, wherein the set of device-protection policies are configured to determine a level of risk to the mobile computing device based on sensor data received from the plurality of sensors and the context data, wherein the context data is used as a factor in determining a potential hazard to the mobile computing device prior to an actual hazard corresponding to the potential hazard being detected by a sensor of the plurality of sensors;
applying the sensor data and the context data to the set of device-protection policies to generate the level of risk; and
triggering a self-protection action if the level of risk exceeds a pre-determined threshold level of risk.

17. The computer programming product of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of sensors are selected from a list, the list consisting of:
a plurality of motion sensors;
a plurality of environmental sensors; and
a plurality of position sensors.

18. The computer programming product of claim 16 , wherein the self-protection action comprises controlling the mobile computing device.

19. The computer programming product of claim 16 , wherein the self-protection policies are generated by a method, the method comprising:
collecting historical data corresponding to a plurality of failures of a plurality of mobile computing devices; and
data mining the historical data to identify a particular source of failure of the plurality of failures.

20. The computer programming product of claim 16 , wherein the self-protection policies are based upon crowd-sourced scenarios of a plurality of failures on other mobile computing devices.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Phung Maggie
• Rozner Eric J
• Sze Chin Ngai
• Wang Zhennan

Classifications

• H04W88/02

  Terminal devices · CPC title

• H04B17/18

  Monitoring during normal operation · CPC title

• H04B1/3888 Primary

  Arrangements for carrying or protecting transceivers · CPC title

• H04B17/104

  of other parameters, e.g. DC offset, delay or propagation times · CPC title