Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Juan J Perez

Christopher Allen Schoppa

Andrew John Fuller

Curt Andrew Steeb

Matthew P Rhoten

Affan Arshad Dar

Niels Van Dongen

Adrian Mark Chandley

Elio Damaggio

Samuel John George

Cameron William Skinner

Steven T Kaneko

William Jefferson Westerinen

Pasquale DeMaio

Chad Magendanz

Dale Clark Crosier

Arjmand Samuel

Jason Michael Anderson

Michael Richard Yagley

Chipalo Street

Simon Porter

Kenneth Wade Stufflebeam, Jr

Seiya Ohta

Stephen Richard Drake

Damon Luke Barry

Olivier Bloch

Ajith Kumar Gande

Pasquale Demaio

Chad L Magendanz

Jr Kenneth W Stufflebeam

The disclosed technology is generally directed to communications in an IoT environment. In one example of the technology, device twins for corresponding IoT devices are stored, wherein the device twins include metadata that is associated with the corresponding IoT devices. A schedule job instruction may be received, and at least one candidate IoT device among the IoT devices that is associated with the schedule job instruction may be identified. In some examples, executors associated with the at least one candidate IoT device are created, and jobs are executed via the executors such that the executors are capable of resuming execution after at least one of an outage or a failure.

IoT device jobs

A plurality of module twins that respectively correspond to modules of a plurality of modules of an edge application are stored on an edge device, and the modules comprise the edge application. The modules of the plurality of modules are capable of being used interoperably with other modules without altering the other modules. The plurality of module twins individually include metadata associated with the corresponding module of the plurality of modules. Communications are enabled between the modules of the plurality of modules and the IoT support service according to a common security context, and the metadata of each module twin of the plurality of module twins is synchronized based on the module.

Creation of modular applications with corresponding twins in the cloud

A plurality of module twins that respectively correspond to a plurality of modules of edge applications on a plurality of edge devices are stored. The plurality of module twins individually include metadata associated with the corresponding module of the plurality of modules. At least one further module to be deployed is determined. Edge devices of the plurality of edge devices to receive the determined at least one module are identified. The determined at least one further module is caused to be deployed to the identified edge devices. In response to deploying the determined at least one further module, the plurality of module twins is updated by adding, to the plurality of modules twins, modules twins corresponding to the deployed modules.

Deployment of modular applications from the cloud to local devices

The disclosed technology is generally directed to communications in an IoT environment. In one example of the technology, a virtual IoT device is maintained and controlled to act as a representation of a connected device. Communications are received from an IoT support service. The received communications from the IoT support service are acted in response to, including sending communications to the IoT support service in response to the received communications, and changing the virtual IoT device as if the virtual IoT device were the connected device. The connected device is communicated with based on changes in the virtual IoT device.

Cloud management of low-resource devices via an intermediary device

Metadata associated with IoT devices is stored. The metadata may include categories associated with the IoT devices. At least a first category may be hierarchical such that the first category includes at least two hierarchical levels, with each hierarchical level including at least two categories, and such that each category in a hierarchical level that is below another hierarchical level is a subset of one of the categories in the hierarchical levels above that hierarchical level. User information associated with users is stored. A request associated with one of the users and further associated with access to at least one of the IoT devices is received. Responsive to the request, the access is selectively granted to the at least one of the IoT devices based upon the stored user information and the stored metadata.

Context-aware device permissioning for hierarchical device collections

Described is a mechanism by which application programs (or plug-ins) and an auxiliary service adjust the output and/or data available for output on an auxiliary device based on changes detected in the current context of the auxiliary display. Context sensors detect and report changes in context, whereby some action is taken with respect to what information is displayed or can be displayed on the auxiliary display device. Examples of context data that can change include the physical location of the display, detected movement or motion data, presence of a particular user or others, power state, network connectivity status, privacy status and so forth. The auxiliary device can have context as to its position relative to the main display. Information sensitivity levels may be used to specify whether an application program's data can be displayed, based on the perceived sensitivity of the information and the user's current context.

Context aware auxiliary display platform and applications

Described is an architecture by which application programs can provide data to auxiliary display devices of essentially any type for display to a user. A defined application layer (e.g., accessed via interfaces) allows programs to provide data to a service that controls the output of data to an auxiliary display device, and returns navigational data to the application upon appropriate user interaction with the device via actuators. Enumeration allows applications to discover the capabilities of a device, while arbitration determines which application has input-output rights to the device. The architecture further provides a protocol layer including pluggable protocol proxies that allow various types of displays to serve as an auxiliary display. This platform-like model allows program developers the ability provide programs that leverage auxiliary displays when available, and provides display manufacturers the ability to provide displays with extensible capabilities.

Auxiliary display system architecture

Described is a system and system by which application programs provide data to auxiliary display device (that is associated with a main computer system) for display, including at times when the main computer system is powered down. The cache maintains the user data in association with structured navigational information, to allow navigation within the data via the structure. When online, the main computer system prepares the data cache from program data in combination with navigational information, and transfers the cache to an offline medium such as auxiliary storage in firmware. The cache may be arranged as a tree structure, such that navigation commands result in output according to data in the tree. Other events such as time-based events can change the auxiliary device output.

Caching data for offline display and navigation of auxiliary information

Described is a mechanism for receiving new data at an auxiliary device associated with a main computer system, and processing that new data within the auxiliary device firmware to take some action. The receipt and processing of the data is independent of whether the main computer system is in a powered-up state (online) or powered-down state (offline). A cache that maintains the user application data for offline navigation may be updated with new data, either to change existing data in the cache or add a new navigation path. The received data can be processed to perform other actions, depending on the context of that data as determined by auxiliary processing.

Processing information received at an auxiliary computing device

Context-aware auxiliary display platform and applications

A computing system that incorporates an auxiliary processor to the main system processor. The auxiliary system utilizes a separate application runtime for processes and is capable of operating even when the primary system is in an off state. Methods for load-balancing are provided based on computing needs respective to power consumption requirements. Processes that are not computationally intensive are processed by a low-power, auxiliary processor. In addition, peripheral components accessible to the overall computing system are shared.

Task-oriented processing as an auxiliary to primary computing environments

Growing community of inventors

Seattle, WA, United States of America

Juan J Perez