Patent ID: 8635307

Claim:
A method performed on a sensor device that includes a processor, a sensor, metadata, and a network interface, the method comprising: defining, via a set of policies, various actions that the sensor device is configured to perform based at least on conditions of the sensor, where the various actions include the sensor device communicating via the network interface with a local policy engine and a remote policy engine, where the set of policies was generated based on at least device-specific metadata; including, in the metadata, a classification that defines a type of the sensor device and that describes a protocol sufficient for communicating with the sensor device via the network interface; sending, via the network interface and in accordance with at least one policy of the set of policies and in response to the sensor detecting a particular condition and to detecting the local policy engine, a message to the local policy engine, the message including at least sensory output from the sensor; and sending, via the network interface and in accordance with the at least one policy and in response to the sensor detecting the particular condition and to not detecting the local policy engine, the message to the remote policy engine.