IM Route Notification for Sensor Pre-Collection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Instant Messaging (IM) technology primarily focuses on user-to-user communication and lacks integration with obtaining information about the physical world, limiting its application in accessing and utilizing data from sensors.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that provides route notification to sensors within an IM network by estimating a user's travel route, identifying proximate sensors, and notifying them through the IM network, allowing for pre-collection of sensor information in anticipation of the user's arrival, utilizing a combination of Location Service, Proximity & Policy Service, and messaging services.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If IM systems focus primarily on user-to-user communication, then communication simplicity is maintained, but the capability to obtain information about the physical world is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines IM communication capabilities with sensor data acquisition and route estimation functionalities into an integrated system. The IM client is extended to not only handle user messages but also to estimate user routes, identify proximate sensors, and retrieve sensor information, merging multiple functions into a unified communication platform.
Solution Approach 2:
The IM system is transformed into a multi-functional platform that performs not only communication but also location tracking, route estimation, sensor identification, and data retrieval. This universal approach allows the same system to handle diverse tasks including social communication and physical world information acquisition.
2Loss of time
If sensor information is collected in real-time upon user request, then system resources are conserved, but user wait time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by estimating the user's future route and proactively identifying sensors that will be encountered along this route. Sensor information is pre-fetched and cached before the user actually requests it, reducing wait time. The system activates sensors and retrieves data in advance based on predicted user movement patterns.
3Productivity
If the system proactively notifies sensors of approaching users, then information access speed improves, but network traffic and sensor activation overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial action by notifying only those sensors that are predicted to be proximate to the user's estimated route, rather than activating all sensors in the network. This selective approach balances proactive information retrieval with network traffic management, notifying sensors only when there is a high probability of user proximity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of providing route notification to sensors within an Instant Messaging (IM) network can include estimating one or more travel route of a user having a mobile device that is IM enabled, wherein the estimated route specifies at least one future location, identifying one or more sensors within a predetermined distance of a point along the travel route(s), notifying the sensor(s) of the approaching user via the IM network, and collecting sensor information for each of the one or more sensor in anticipation of the approaching user.