Abstract:
A system and method for detecting proximity of at least one outside party to a multi-party communication includes steps of: receiving presence information of the at least one outside party, wherein the presence information comprises sensor data received from at least one sensor indicating that the outside party is in proximity to a second party; analyzing the sensor data to determine its threat level; and transmitting a signal to the first party, the signal indicating that at least one outside party is in proximity to the second party.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    Not Applicable. 
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED-RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Not Applicable. 
       INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC 
       [0003]    Not Applicable. 
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0004]    The invention disclosed broadly relates to the field of mobile communication, and particularly relates to ensuring, before such communication takes place, that the communication is likely to be private. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    Advances in mobile communications and computing have made it possible for people to communicate from almost any kind of milieu, including meeting rooms and public places. This capability brings with it a concern that communications intended to be private will be seen or overheard by outside parties. For this reason, emerging efforts to augment presence services (the services that tell instant-messaging users which other instant-messaging users are currently online and willing to receive instant messages) include ways to specify whether the parties to a would-be communication are in environments appropriate for a private communication. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) proposal RFC 4480 for “RPID: Rich Presence Extensions to the Presence Information Data Format,” by H. Schulzrinne, Columbia Universtiy, V. Gurbani, Lucent, P. Kyzivat and J. Rosenberg, Cisco, June 2006 envisions presence data including a privacy attribute indicating “whether the communication service is likely to be observable by other parties;” separate values can be specified for audio, video, and text communications. A standardization of a format for representing expected levels of privacy is a step towards securing private communications, but it does not specify how the privacy information is to be collected. 
         [0006]    In RFC 2778, “A Model for Presence and Instant Messaging,” by M. Day, Lotus, J. Rosenberg, dynamicsoft, and H. Sugano, Fujitsu, February 2000, the IETF defines “presentity” as an entity that “provides presence information to a presence service.” The proposed Parlay X presence specification includes a description of presence information: “a set of attributes that characterize the presentity, such as current activity, environment, communication means, and contact addresses.” While these efforts address mechanisms for conveying privacy-related presence information, they do not address the problem of how such information is to be gathered. One possible approach is for individuals to manually report their own evaluations of their current environments, but this can be an unwelcome distraction to an individual who is already multitasking, and does not preclude an eavesdropper sneaking up on someone engaged in a conversation. Another approach is to use location information from other users of a service (for example, E911 information from other subscribers to a cellular phone network, Wi-Fi-based location information from other users of a wireless LAN, or location information gathered from badges about their wearers&#39; locations) to determine that those individuals are nearby. However, such an approach detects the presence only of those individuals who are participating in an activity that discloses their locations to the presence infrastructure; it does not address the problem of surreptitious eavesdropping. 
         [0007]    Therefore, there is a need for an improved system that provides dynamic presence information, overcoming the shortcomings of the prior art. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0008]    Briefly, a system for informing a first party in a multi-party communication of the proximity of at least one outside party to second party in the multi-party communication includes: at least one sensor for collecting evidence of proximity of the at least one outside party to the second party in the multi-party communication; an analytical mechanism for interpreting the evidence collected by the at least one sensor to provide a signal indicating the proximity of the at least one outside party; and a transmitter for transmitting the signal to the first party. The at least one sensor is operatively connected to a communication device in use by the second party. 
         [0009]    A method for detecting proximity of at least one outside party to a multi-party communication includes steps or acts of: receiving presence information of the at least one outside party, wherein the presence information includes sensor data received from at least one sensor indicating that the outside party is in proximity to a second party; analyzing the sensor data; and transmitting a signal to a first party, the signal indicating that the at least one outside party is in proximity to the second party. 
         [0010]    The method can also be implemented as a computer program product embodied on a computer readable medium or as hard coded logic in a specialized computing apparatus such as an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0011]    To describe the foregoing and other exemplary purposes, aspects, and advantages, we use the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention with reference to the drawings, in which: 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  depicts the context in which a dynamic presence information system operates; 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram describing the architecture of a dynamic presence information system; 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  is a sequence diagram depicting a protocol in which a first party requests privacy information, and a second party responds to this request, before communications between the first party and the second party commence; 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  is a sequence diagram depicting a protocol in which a first party requests privacy information, and a second party responds to this request, after communications between the first party and the second party have commenced, but before any sensitive information is communicated to the second party; and 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  is a simplified block diagram of the analytical mechanism, according to an embodiment of the present invention. 
       
    
    
       [0017]    While the invention as claimed can be modified into alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0018]    We describe a system and method for gathering dynamic presence information. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a mobile communications device gathers data about its surroundings to automatically determine the presence of potential eavesdroppers. We do not preclude individuals from manually providing information about their surroundings, nor do we preclude the use of information from other peoples&#39; use of services such as cellular phone or wireless LAN networks, or their wearing of badges; but neither do we rely exclusively on such sources of location information. 
         [0019]    According to an embodiment of the present invention, we employ sensors as a part of, or an accessory to, the presentity&#39;s communication device. These sensors detect characteristics of the physical environment surrounding the presentity (presence information). We define presence as an availability of the presentity for communication purposes. It indicates the communication state of the presentity. For example, presence information might encompass the physical proximity of the presentity to a speaker, or it might deal with non-physical proximity, such as the communication range of the presentity vis-à-vis the speaker. A presentity may be considered “present” for a communication while not actually being in close physical proximity to a speaker. This is because a presentity may employ communication devices which pick up long range transmissions. 
         [0020]    A mobile communications device (such as a cell phone, PDA, or laptop computer) includes one or more means for determining the presence or absence of potential eavesdroppers and reporting this information to the potential participants in a communication. These means may include sensors to collect raw information and analytical mechanisms to compare sensor data. The analytical mechanisms may be implemented as computer programs running on processors embedded in either the mobile communications device or the sensors themselves. They compare sensor data to profiles of the sensor data expected when other people are present, or the analytical mechanisms may analyze combinations of data from multiple sensors to deduce the presence or absence of potential eavesdroppers. 
         [0021]    The sensors may include, for example, radio-frequency receivers that read active badges or passive RFID tags, or detect the presence of wireless LAN, Bluetooth, or cellular phone transmissions; microwave, infrared, camera, or ultrasound systems to detect the presence, distance, contours, or motion of objects; infrared systems to detect body heat; microphones to detect ambient noise. A sensor may be embedded in the mobile communications device or mounted on a nearby support, such as a wall or a pole, communicating with the mobile communications device by Bluetooth wireless technology or some other means. 
         [0022]    The sensors may be supplemented by human input, through some sort of a human-computer interface, conveying an individual&#39;s own assessment of his or her surroundings, possibly including the presence, identity, and activities, and threat level of other individuals. This human input may be initiated by the individual supplying it, or supplied in response to a request from another party to the conversation, either before or during the conversation. 
         [0023]    Referring to  FIG. 1 , consider a communication  100  among a first party  110  and one or more second parties  120 ,  130 . Possible forms of the communication include, but are not limited to, electronic mail, cellular telephone, instant message, and audio-video presentation. Before sending sensitive information to a second party  130 , the first party  110  may wish to ascertain whether there are potential eavesdroppers  140  who may see, overhear, or intercept the communication to the second party  130 . 
         [0024]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , there is shown a system  200  for providing a first party  110  with information about the potential presence of eavesdroppers at the location of the second party  130 . This information may consist of a simple alert such as a tone signal or flashing light-emitting diode (LED) indicating the possible presence of a third party. The alert may include a numeric indicator of the likelihood that a third party is present. For example, a value of 0.0 may be used to indicate that a third party is definitely not present, 0.5 to indicate that a third party is equally likely to be present or not, 1.0 to indicate that a third party is definitely present, and values such as 0.25 and 0.75 to indicate intermediate levels of confidence that a third party is present. This numeric indicator might be delivered to a monitoring system operated by the first party  110 , such as a computer system running monitoring software, or it might be displayed directly to the first party  110 , perhaps depicted by a graphical indicator such as a bar graph, similar to the bar graph shown on cellular phones indicating signal strength. 
         [0025]    The alert may optionally contain descriptive information about the apparent third parties, such as whether the outside party appears to belong to a class of people from whom the communication  100  should remain private, or a numeric indication of the likelihood that a third party  140  is a potential eavesdropper. 
         [0026]    The system  200  comprises a mobile communication device  210  with sensors  240 , an analytical mechanism  220 , and a notification system  230 . The mobile communication device  210  is carried and used by the second party  130 . Optionally, both parties may carry the mobile communication device  210 . Possible forms of the mobile communication device  210  include, but are not limited to, a pager, a notebook computer, a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant, and a converged device that performs multiple functions, such as those of a cellular phone, personal digital assistant, and digital camera. 
         [0027]    The analytical mechanism  220  interprets data from the sensors  240  and deduces the likely proximity of potential eavesdroppers (outside parties). The analytical mechanism  220  may comprise any information processing hardware (including but not limited to computing devices), software, or a combination of hardware and software. It may be located entirely on the mobile communication device  210 , it may be distributed over the mobile communication device  210  and one or more other platforms, or it may be distributed over one or more platforms that do not include the mobile communication device  210 . These other platforms may be computing devices connected through a computer network such as the Internet. The analytical mechanism  220  compares sensor data with profiles of sensor data expected when one or more outside parties is in proximity. 
         [0028]    The analytical mechanism  220  may be a computer processor executing analytical software in which the analytical mechanism  220  interprets combinations of data from multiple sensors. Moreover, one or more functions of the analytical mechanism  220  can be performed in one or more of the sensors  240 . The notification system  230  is responsible for informing the first party  110  of the likely presence of potential eavesdroppers in the vicinity of the second party  130   
         [0029]    Examples of the sensors  240  comprise radio-frequency receivers, microwave sensors, infrared sensors, cameras, ultrasound sensors, microphones, and human-input devices. In an application—such as one restricted to a secured building, all of whose occupants are required to wear an identification badge—the radio-frequency receiver may be an RFID-tag (radio-frequency identification-tag) reader for an RFID tag embedded in the badge, or an active-badge reader for a radio-frequency transmitter embedded in the badge. Similarly, a radio-frequency receiver could be used to detect the presence (but not necessarily the content) of transmissions to or from other portable communication devices in the proximity. These transmissions can include, for example, IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b, 802,11g, and 802.11n Wireless Local Area Network transmissions; Bluetooth or Zigbee transmissions; or cellular phone transmissions. An example of a microwave sensor is a radar sensor. 
         [0030]    Either a radar sensor, an infrared sensor, or an ultrasound sensor may be capable of detecting the presence, distance, or motion of a person or other object, or some combination of these properties. In addition, a radar sensor, an infrared sensor, or an ultrasound sensor may be capable of detecting the contours of a person or other object, while a camera would be capable of detecting its appearance from a particular perspective. 
         [0031]    Various sensors  240  may be most effective when situated in a particular way, for example above the heads of people in a crowd, or at some distance from the second party  130  or the mobile communication device  210  of the second party  130 . Therefore, the present invention anticipates that one or more of the sensors  240  may be detached or detachable from the communication device  210 . In a preferred embodiment, detached sensors would communicate with the mobile communication device  210  wirelessly, for example using Bluetooth or Zigbee. Detached or detachable sensors may be accompanied by adhesive tape, hooks, telescoping poles, or telescoping tripods to facilitate their effective placement. 
         [0032]    Of course second parties  130  may themselves become aware of nearby third parties  140 , either on their own or after being alerted by the system  200  to suspicious sensor readings. Therefore, the sensors  240  may also include a conventional human-input device through which second parties  130  could directly communicate their awareness of nearby third parties  140 . Examples of such devices comprise buttons, keyboards, microphones for sensing a second party&#39;s spoken input, and cameras for sensing a second party&#39;s gestures or lip movements. The input provided by the second party  130  may include supplementary information about the third parties  140 . 
         [0033]    Examples of such supplementary information comprise whether or not a particular outside party is known to the second party  130  (and if so, the identity of that outside party), the apparent organizational affiliations of the outside party, the distance of the outside party from the second party  130 , the current activities of the outside party, and whether the outside party appears to be paying attention to the second party&#39;s communications. 
         [0034]    The first party&#39;s request for information may specify the particular types of supplementary information that the first party  110  desires. The system supports a protocol in which a first party  110 , desiring to communicate sensitive information, asks one or more second parties  120  to observe and evaluate their current levels of privacy, and to use their human-input devices to provide information of the kind just described. The supplementary information may include the level of threat posed by one or more outside parties to privacy of communication, based on such attributes such as, but not limited to, whether an outside party is known to the second party, the organizational affiliations of an outside party, the proximity of an outside party, the current activities of an outside party, and whether an outside party appears to be paying attention to the communication between the first party and the second party  120 . 
         [0035]    In one variation, depicted in  FIG. 3 , the system may require this exchange to take place at the beginning of a communication, before any substantive information is exchanged: The first party  310  sends the second party  320  a request  330  for information about how private the communication is likely to be, and the second party  320  responds with this information  340 , after which the first party  310  is permitted to send sensitive or non-sensitive information  350  to the second party  320 . 
         [0036]    In another variation, depicted in  FIG. 4 , this exchange may take place in the middle of a communication in which non-sensitive substantive information  430  has already been exchanged: At some point, desiring to transmit sensitive information, the first party  410  sends the second party  420  a request  440  for information about how private the communication is likely to be, and the second party  420  responds with this information  450 , after which the first party  410  is permitted to send sensitive information  460  to the second party  420 . In either case, the system may automate or facilitate the first party&#39;s request for information from the second party, the second party&#39;s response, or both. 
         [0037]    The analytical mechanism  220  uses raw data from the sensors  240  to deduce the likely presence and nature of third parties. The analytical mechanism  220  may interpret combinations of data from multiple sources, for example to reach more reliable conclusions about the likely presence of an outside party or to reach more reliable conclusions about the degree of threat to privacy of communications posed by a particular outside party. The analytical mechanism  220  may compare sensor data with profiles of data expected when an outside party is present. The analytical mechanism  220  may include low-level components within the sensors  240  themselves, medium-level mechanisms within the mobile communication device  210 , high-level mechanisms elsewhere within the overall presence-information system  200  (perhaps on a computing device accessed over a network), or some combination of these. the analytical mechanism  220  compares sensor data with profiles of sensor data expected when one or more outside parties is present 
         [0038]    A low-level component may detect motion from raw infrared readings or distances from raw radar returns, for example. A medium-level component may identify objects within images, or distinguish radio-frequency transmissions emanating from the second party&#39;s own mobile communication device  210  and from local wireless-network infrastructure from transmissions emanating from outside parties, for example. A high-level component may perform database lookups, voice recognition, or face recognition, for example. Of course other distributions of analytical functions over the components of the analytical mechanism  220  are also possible. 
         [0039]    Examples of a notification system  230  include text messages, instant messages, e-mail, telephonic communications (perhaps using synthesized speech), graphical user interfaces, or a unified messaging system that delivers notifications to the first party in a manner that depends on the current milieu and activities of the first party. 
         [0040]    Referring to  FIG. 5 , there is shown a simplified block diagram of the analytical mechanism  220  configured to operate according to one embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the analytical mechanism  220  may be an information handling system consistent with an embodiment of the present invention. For purposes of this invention, computer system  220  may represent any type of computer, information processing system or other programmable electronic device, including a client computer, a server computer, a portable computer, an embedded controller, a personal digital assistant, and so on. The computer system  220  may be a stand-alone device or networked into a larger system. 
         [0041]    The system  220  could include a number of operators and peripheral devices as shown, including a processor  506 , a memory  502 , and an input/output (I/O) subsystem  508 . The processor  506  may be a general or special purpose microprocessor operating under control of computer program instructions executed from a memory. The processor may include a number of special purpose sub-processors, each sub-processor for executing particular portions of the computer program instructions. Each sub-processor may be a separate circuit able to operate substantially in parallel with the other sub-processors. Some or all of the sub-processors may be implemented as computer program processes (software) tangibly stored in a memory that perform their respective functions when executed. These may share an instruction processor, such as a general purpose integrated circuit microprocessor, or each sub-processor may have its own processor for executing instructions. Alternatively, some or all of the sub-processors may be implemented in an ASIC. RAM may be embodied in one or more memory chips. The memory may be partitioned or otherwise mapped to reflect the boundaries of the various memory subcomponents. 
         [0042]    The memory  502  represents either a random-access memory or mass storage. It can be volatile or non-volatile. The system  220  can also comprise a magnetic media mass storage device such as a hard disk drive. 
         [0043]    The I/O subsystem  508  may comprise various end user interfaces  510  such as a display, a keyboard, and a mouse. The I/O subsystem  508  may further comprise a connection to a network such as a local-area network (LAN) or wide-area network (WAN) such as the Internet. Processor and memory components are physically interconnected using conventional bus architecture. The system  220  may also include at least one sensor for detecting proximity of an outside party. 
         [0044]    According to another embodiment of the invention, a computer readable medium, such as a CDROM  501  can include program instructions for operating the programmable computer  220  according to the invention. What has been shown and discussed is a highly-simplified depiction of a programmable computer apparatus. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that other low-level components and connections are required in any practical application of a computer apparatus 
         [0045]    The presence detection method as described above may be further optimized for providing it as a fee-based service for users. A user of the service may subscribe monthly or pay for the service on a per-use basis. The service may be an add-on, purchased at the time a user purchases a mobile communication device. 
         [0046]    What has been shown and discussed is a highly-simplified depiction of a dynamic presence detection system, according to an embodiment of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of alternatives are possible for the individual elements, and their arrangement, described above, while still falling within the scope of the invention. The above descriptions of embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive or limiting in scope. The embodiments, as described, were chosen in order to explain the principles of the invention, show its practical application, and enable those with ordinary skill in the art to understand how to make and use the invention. It should be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but rather should be interpreted within the full meaning and scope of the appended claims.