This application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 60/371,183 filed on 8/4/2002, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the patentA facsimile reproduction by anyone of the document or patent disclosure, as it appears in the patent and trademark office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notation applies to software and data as described below and is appended to the figures: copyright2001, Sony Electronics, inc.
Detailed Description
In the following detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, like reference numerals in the figures refer to like elements, and illustrate by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, functional and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
FIG. 1 illustrates one embodiment of a peer-to-peer network environment (100) with a hierarchy of peer-to-peer network environments (100) located over a standard network 40, such as a Wide Area Network (WAN) or a Local Area Network (LAN). Each device node connected to the network 40 may be logically coupled through the network 40 with any other node on the network 40 to form the peer-to-peer network environment 100. Each node may correspond to one or more physical devices. By way of illustration, the peer-to-peer network environment 100 includes device 5, device 10, device 15, device 20, device 25, device 30, and device 35. Each device is capable of performing at least peer-to-peer communications with another device in network environment 100 that is acting as a peer. Peer-to-peer communication includes sharing by directly exchanging computer resources and services between peers (or indirectly through intermediate peers). These resources and services may include information exchange, processing cycles, cache storage, and disk storage for files, among other examples, although not all resources and services are required to be present on each peer device. Thus, each device 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 in the network 100 may initiate a peer-to-peer communication session in the network environment 100.
Each device also has the ability to identify the device with which it wants to communicate or initiate a relationship to in order to discover devices entering and leaving the network environment 100 (discovery process) and determine what communication protocol is being used in the network environment 100. For example, communication between peer devices may be implemented via wired and/or wireless protocols, such as TCP/IP, bluetooth, the 802.11x protocol commonly known as WiFi (wireless fidelity), and WAP (wireless application protocol), which, among other communication protocols known in the art, are used to exchange data over a mobile telephone network.
The devices 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 may include mobile devices such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), mobile phones, portable computers, pagers, and portable music players (e.g., MP3 players), among other devices. Alternatively, the devices 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 may comprise typical non-mobile devices such as desktop computers, home entertainment systems, set-top boxes, and gaming systems, among other examples. An exemplary embodiment of a suitable apparatus is described below in conjunction with fig. 5.
It should be understood that the peer-to-peer network environment 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is not intended to limit the network configurations in which embodiments of the present invention may operate. For example, the skilled person can readily understand that: a server may be coupled to the peer-to-peer network to provide centralized services to peers. Furthermore, the person skilled in the art will quickly understand that: more than one peer-to-peer network environment may be layered on the same basic network structure, and each peer device may join multiple peer-to-peer network environments simultaneously.
Each device 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 also includes relationship enabling software 50 that facilitates the creation, sharing, modification and deletion of personal information, as described below. The personal information may reflect the personality, behavior, habits, and personal interests of the user of each device. For example, the user personal information of the device may include a set of attributes such as a list of artists, a list of songs, a list of favorite artists, a user rating, a song review, a list of interests (e.g., vegetarian, chess player, etc.), and other attributes related to the user. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that many attributes may be used and the invention is not limited to only the attributes described herein.
In one embodiment, personal information associated with a device user is automatically collected. For example, the list of interests of the user of the device 5 may be automatically generated by recording websites visited by the user, music listened to by the user, movies watched by the user, and the like. The personal information may be stored as public and private personal information about the device user.
The relationship initiation software 50 on each device 5, 10, 15, 20, 2530 and 35 also allows each device user to initiate relationships and store personal information from one or more other users of devices on the network, as will be described below. For example, a user may seek to initiate a relationship with another user by initiating a session (e.g., querying for other restaurant suggestions, initiating an instant messaging session, etc.) in order to share digital content of common interest (e.g., music, poetry, literature, movies, pictures, etc.), and so forth. Furthermore, depending on the type of relationship that is generated between users, a trust level may be established and visually displayed, as will be described below.
It should also be understood that the relationship may be initiated by the user (e.g., the user determines whether to initiate an instant messaging session with another user on another device) or automatically by the device (e.g., the device automatically determines the music to play based on a favorite list of another user having a common interest in the music).
Fig. 2 illustrates one embodiment of a method (200 and 201) performed by device 5 on network 100 to initiate a relationship. In this embodiment, each device on the network 100 may broadcast an observation (overview) message to initiate the relationship between the devices, as will be described below. In an alternative embodiment, the devices may broadcast a query message to each device over network 100. The query message may include questions such as "do someone recommend a good vegetarian restaurant in san francisco? "upon receipt of a reply, the originating device may weight the reply, as will be described below.
Although the above description describes embodiments of the present invention that use messages to communicate between devices, it should be understood that the messages described herein may include many message configurations depending on the communication protocol used. Further, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that other mechanisms may be used to initiate relationships that do not include messages, and that such mechanisms are not described herein so as not to obscure the description.
The dashed line 202 in fig. 2 distinguishes the processing of the device 5 from the device 10. The method 201 illustrated for device 5 will transmit an initial observation message and the method 200 illustrated for device 10 shows an example of a process flow for receiving the observation message. However, it should be understood that any device may send an initial observation message or receive an observation message from another device.
At block 205, the device 5 generates an observation message. The observation message may include a subset or all of the personal information associated with the user of the device 5. For example, the observation message may include personal interests of the user of the device 5, such as a chess fan. The observation message may also include a query to another user on the network. For example, an observation message may ask another user on the network "someone knows a good vegetarian restaurant in san francisco? "
At block 208, device 5 broadcasts the observation message to other devices on the network.
At block 210, the device 10 on the network 100 receives the observation message. Alternatively, it should be understood that the observation message may be received by any device on the network 100. At block 215, device 10 also analyzes the observation message. For example, device 10 may analyze the observation messages to determine a range of common interest with the user of device 5. The device 10 may also analyze the message to determine whether to reply to the query. The user of device 10 may decide to reply based on the information included in the message.
At block 217, device 10 determines whether to reply to the observation message. If the device 10 determines not to reply to the observation message, control passes to block 218. If device 10 determines to reply to the observation message, control passes to block 220.
At block 218, the device 10 does not respond to receiving the observation message and/or query. The device may automatically determine not to reply to the observation message based on personal information received in the observation message. Alternatively, the user of device 10 may not have an answer to the query.
At block 220, the device 10 generates a reply message and automatically replies directly to the device 5. The device 10 may reply directly to the device 5 on the basis of the identifier included in the observation message, which is received from the device 5. For example, the identifier may be an IP address associated with the device 5, the IP address identifying the device 5 on the network 100. The reply message may include a subset or all of the personal information of the user of device 10. For example, the reply message may include the personal interests of the user of device 10.
The device 10 may also decide to store in the reply message a suggestion of another interest that the user of the device 5 may be likely to be interested in based on the personal information received from the device 5. For example, device 10 may assume that device 5 may like a chessman (Checker) game based on device 5's interest in chess games, and include this suggestion in a reply message to device 5.
The reply message may also include an answer to the query. For example, the user of device 10 may suggest a vegetarian restaurant, or device 10 may include a copy of the user's favorite vegetarian restaurant list of device 10 in the reply message.
In one embodiment, device 10 may directly initiate a relationship with device 5 when analyzing the observation message at block 215. For example, the user of device 10 may include an indication in the reply message to initiate a game chess relationship.
At block 225, device 5 receives the reply message from device 10.
At block 230, device 5 stores the personal information of device 10 in a data store (e.g., a database). The data storage may be on the device 5 or on another remote device. In this way, the device 5 may contain personal information from one or more devices on the network. If the personal information is stored on another remote device, the user of device 5 may link the data on the other device.
At block 240, device 5 analyzes the personal information of device 10. For example, device 5 may automatically determine the sharing interests of the users of device 5 and device 10. The device 5 may automatically present the sharing interests to the user through a user interface on said device 5.
In one embodiment, device 5 generates a visualization of one or more of the devices on the network that share a common interest with the device 5. That is, the device 5 may generate a visual sub-community of the entire network of devices in accordance with variable resolution and time transitions. The user interface may show the network relationships among the various devices.
Fig. 3 illustrates one embodiment of a user interface 300, the user interface 300 displaying the status and activity of devices on the network 100. User interface 300 includes classic jazz badge 305 and chess badge 310. Classic jazz tags 305 include representations of devices 10 and 20, the devices 10 and 20 sharing the same classic jazz interests as the user of the device 5. The chess indicia 310 comprises a representation of device 10, the device 10 sharing the same chess interests as the user of device 5. The representation may be displayed with various color codes to indicate expertise or trust level. For example, the user interface 300 may show the device 10 having a red color in a classic jazz tag 305, the tag 305 indicating that the user of the associated device 10 is a happy listener of classic jazz. User interface 300 may show device 10 having a green color in chess marker 310 to indicate that it is a chess novice. Also, various visual colors and patterns may be used to indicate a level of trust between the device users. For example, the user interface 300 may show the device 10 in a classic jazz label 305 with vertical parallel lines to indicate a high level of trust in exchanging music files. This trust level may be used to give the user more weight to the question response to determine when to initiate a relationship or when to reply to an observed message.
It should be understood that the user interface 300 may include many possible visualizations to represent similar relationships between device users on a network based on attributes of personal information. Several examples are content or network maps, animated lattices of pixels that change color and flash rate depending on the type of content and activity, and status displays showing the user the amount and appropriateness of exchanges of accessible content from peers on the network 100, among other examples.
The visualization may be interactive, allowing the individual to drill down to a range of interest to learn more and may initiate new relationships. The application software on each device may simultaneously include a transaction facility that enables the sharing, playing and purchasing of web content.
At block 250, device 5 initiates a relationship with one or more devices on the network. For example, the user may initiate a protocol for exchanging files for sharing music, literature, poetry, movies, and the like. In another example, the user may initiate a conversation session with one or more devices on the network via email, instant messaging, chat rooms, and the like. The user may also initiate a game session to play chess, for example, with a user on the same skill level on the network 100.
It should be understood that each device on the network 100 may communicate their personal information to other devices on the network to analyze and possibly initiate relationships based on the personal information, as described in one embodiment above. The device 10 may also automatically include a description of the current activity on the device 10 in the reply message. For example, device 10 may indicate that the user of device 10 is currently listening to classic jazz or chess on game play with device 10. Further, upon receiving the reply message, the user of device 10 may decide to initiate the relationship based on the current activity of the device on the network.
Fig. 4 illustrates another embodiment of a process flow (400) for initiating a relationship between devices on the network 100. In this embodiment, the originating device generates a polling message to initiate a relationship between one or more devices, which is to be delivered to each device on the network 100, as will be described below. Process flow 400 is separated by dashed line 402 to illustrate the independent processing of device 5 and device 10 on network 100.
At block 405, device 5 generates a polling message that is shared with each device on network 100. The polling message may comprise a subset or all of the personal information of the device 5, such as a chess fan.
At block 410, device 5 transmits the polling message to device 10 on network 100.
At block 415, the device 10 receives the polling message.
At block 420, the device 10 analyzes the polling message. For example, the device 10 may analyze the polling message to determine a range of common interest with the user of the device 5.
At block 425, the device 10 determines whether it indicates a desire to initiate a relationship with the device 5. At block 425, if the device 10 elects not to indicate a desire to initiate a relationship with the device 5, then control passes to block 430. At block 425, if the device 10 chooses to indicate a desire to initiate a relationship with the device 5, then control passes to block 435.
At block 430, the device 10 does not respond to receiving the polling message from another device. That is, the device 10 ignores the poll message and will forward the message to the next device on the network.
At block 435, the device 10 stores a subset or all of the personal information of the user of the device 10 in the polling message.
At block 440, the device 10 determines which device is to receive the polling message from the device 10 next. If there is another device on the network 100 to receive the polling message from device 10, control passes to block 445. If no other device on the network 100 receives the polling message, control passes to block 450.
At block 445, device 10 determines whether to transmit the polling message to a device that has not received a polling message from device 5. It should be appreciated that in one embodiment, when the next device (e.g., device 15) receives the polling message, it would follow a similar process flow beginning with block 415, as shown by dashed line 447. In this way, each device can store personal information into the polling message.
At block 450, device 10 transmits the poll message to originating device 5.
At block 455, device 5 receives the polling message.
At block 460, device 5 stores the personal information from the one or more devices in a data store (e.g., a database). The data storage may be on the device 5 or on another remote device. In this way, the device 5 may contain personal information from one or more devices on the network.
At block 465, the device 5 analyzes the returned polling message. For example, the device 5 may model the current community activity and the scope of the shared interests, as described above.
At block 475, device 5 initiates and sends a negotiation inquiry message to one or more devices, the negotiation inquiry message indicating a willingness to initiate a relationship. The relationship may be based on shared interests among the device users. For example, a user of device 5 may use application software on each device to select to initiate a relationship with device 10 for playing a chess game.
It should be understood that the process flow 400 may also communicate with devices that are further away than the distance reached via the broadcast process flow 200. Because the message is delivered to each device, one device may also deliver the message outside of the originating device's local area network. For example, the intermediate device in the path may be a gateway type device that connects two local area networks.
FIG. 6 illustrates the components of the relationship initiation software 50 to be executed by the processor. The relationship initiation software 50 includes a message generation component 610, a message analyzer component 620, a relationship initialization component 630, a messaging component 640, an information retrieval component 650, a user interface component 660, and a data storage component 670.
The message generation component 610 includes software instructions to generate messages (e.g., observation messages, reply messages, polling messages, negotiation messages, etc.) as described above with respect to fig. 2 and 4. The message analyzer component 620 includes software instructions to analyze the messages (e.g., observation messages, reply messages, polling messages, negotiation messages, etc.) exchanged between devices on the network 100, as described above with respect to fig. 2 and 4. Relationship initialization component 630 includes software instructions to initiate relationships between devices on network 100, as described above with respect to fig. 2 and 4. The messaging component 640 includes software instructions to transmit messages from devices on the network 100, as described for fig. 5. The information retrieval component 650 includes software instructions to receive messages from devices on the network 100, as described for fig. 5. The user interface component 660 includes software instructions to generate a visualization of the network 100, as described for fig. 3. Data storage component 670 includes software instructions to store and retrieve personal information from a data store, as described with respect to fig. 2, 4, and 5.
In fig. 5, one embodiment of a system suitable for use in the environment of fig. 1 is illustrated. The system 540 includes a processor 550, a memory 555, and input/output capabilities 560 coupled to a system bus 565. The memory 555 is configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor 550, perform the methods described herein. The memory 555 may also store data for performing the methods described in fig. 2 and 4. Input/output 560 provides for the delivery and display of data for performing the methods described in fig. 2 and 4 or portions or representations thereof. Input/output 560 also encompasses various forms of machine or computer readable media, including various storage devices that are accessible by the processor 550. One skilled in the art will immediately recognize that the terms "computer-readable medium" or "machine-readable medium/media" also encompass a carrier wave that encodes a data signal. It should be understood that the computer is controlled by operating system software executing in memory 555. Input/output and related media 560 store machine/computer-executable instructions for the operating system and methods of the present invention, as well as data for performing the methods described in fig. 2 and 4. Input/output 560 may also include components to send and receive messages to/from one or more devices on network 100 (e.g., via a network card, modem, and fax card, among other examples).
The description of FIG. 5 is intended to provide an overview of computer hardware and various operating environments suitable for implementing the invention, and is not intended to limit the applicable environments. It should be appreciated that the system 540 is one example of a variety of suitable devices having different architectures. A typical device will usually include at least one processor, memory, and a bus coupling the memory to the processor. Such configurations include personal computer systems, network computers, television-based systems such as web TVs or set-top boxes, handheld devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants, and the like. Those skilled in the art will immediately appreciate that the invention can be practiced with other system configurations, including multiprocessor systems, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network.
It is to be understood that more or fewer steps may be added to the methods illustrated in fig. 2 and 4 without departing from the scope of the invention, and that the arrangement of blocks shown and described herein is not intended to imply a particular order. The methods described by reference to the flow diagrams enable one of ordinary skill in the art to develop programs containing such instructions to carry out the methods on suitably configured computers (the processors of which execute the instructions from computer-readable media, including memory). Computer-executable instructions may be written in a computer programming language or embodied in firmware logic. If written in a programming language conforming to a recognized standard, such instructions may be executed on a variety of hardware platforms and for interface to a variety of operating systems. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein. Furthermore, the discussion of software in one form or another (e.g., program, procedure, process, application, module, logic, etc.) is generic in the art as a matter of action or as a result. Such expressions are merely a shorthand way of stating the execution of the software by a computer cause the processor of the computer to perform an action or produce a result.
In addition to the typical software subsystems of peer devices, each device on the network 100 may include a relationship initialization software component for performing device discovery, identification, and communication protocols as described above.
The relationship between the boot devices in a network environment has been described. It should be understood that each device on the network 100 may share personal information. In this way, each device may also generate a visualization of the community with the user interface or analyze the network to determine whether to initiate a relationship with other devices having similar discovery interests. Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and described herein, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that any arrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may be substituted for the specific embodiments shown. This application is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of the present invention.
Although the present invention is not limited to any particular implementation, for the sake of clarity simplified methods and systems for initiating relationships between devices have been described. For example, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that a device may include multiple users. Each user of a single device has the ability to store respective personal information that can be used to initiate relationships with other device users on the network. Further, the term "message" as used in this application is meant to include any protocol for communication between devices. Therefore, it is manifestly intended that this invention be limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof.