Abstract: An audio system with a dynamic sound field adaptation to follow a listeners position. The audio system includes a relative location determination mechanism for determining the relative positions of at least all sound emitting components of the audio system with respect to each other, a personal device detector for detecting a personal device belonging to a user, a personal device position tracking mechanism for tracking the position of the personal device, and a re-calibration mechanism for re-calibrating the sound field such that the sweet spot of the sound field is placed at the current position of the personal device.

Abstract: A method for protecting a user's privacy, wherein the user operates a communication device capable of processing context and wherein the user provides context information—real context—related to one or more reference context variables to a third party, is characterized in the steps of faking at least one of the one or more reference context variables, on the basis of the faked reference context variable, gathering real context information—decoy context—related to reference context variables other than the faked reference context variable, publishing the thus generated decoy context instead of the user's real context. In addition, a corresponding communication device is disclosed.

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile multimedia middleware, quality-of-service, shared resource reservation mechanisms, distributed processing systems, handheld computers, computer networking and wireless communication. Particularly, the present invention describes a processing system and pieces of software for one or more communication networks, with middleware comprising an application programming interface (102) cast over a data model describing quality-of-service contracts and quality-of-service adaptation paths specified by quality-of-service aware mobile multimedia applications (101) using said programming interface, in order to manage quality-of-service and mobility-aware for managing network connections with other applications. The present invention hereby relates to a corresponding data model as well as the necessary architecture.

Abstract: A technique for managing the migration of mobile agents to nodes of a communication network is proposed. The trustworthiness of at least one node (102b) of the network is checked (301). In case the trustworthiness exceeds a pre-set trust threshold, a trust token for the checked node (102b) is generated (306) and the trust token is stored (303) in the network. In advance to a migration of a mobile agent (104a) to a node of the network it is verified (108, 109) if a valid trust token is existing for the corresponding node (102b). The migration of the mobile agent (104a) is restricted (107) to nodes having a valid trust token.

Abstract: In mobile computing and context awareness in mobile ad-hoc networks, node connectivity is unpredictably time-varying. A middleware entity solves the problem of automatically executing a user-defined set of actions, collected in a user profile, upon detection of events such as an attachment of a mobile terminal to the ad-hoc network, changes of the underlying network topology, the moving of mobile terminals into the physical proximity of further mobile terminals, the presence of services and/or of users within the network, and a detachment of a mobile terminal from the ad-hoc network. Thereby, the actions are invocations of services hosted on the mobile terminal or other mobile terminals interconnected via the ad-hoc network. The aforementioned profiles are stored on mobile terminals (e.g. PDAs, mobile phones, etc.) or on fixed or mobile customer-edge devices such as television sets, home gateways, etc. Also envisioned is the deployment of a distributed database holding the profiles.

Abstract: A wireless multi-hop ad-hoc network in which a wireless communication device is enabled to register with a multi-hop network in a secure and easy-to-use way. In one implementation a user's wireless communication device is registered before allowing the device to enter a wireless multi-hop ad-hoc network and the device participates in communication with wireless nodes connected to the network. For this purpose, the device wirelessly transmits a registration request message to all the wireless nodes and determines the nearest wireless node in its environment being authorized to register the device to the network by evaluating wirelessly received response messages from the nodes.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication device and a software for operating multimedia applications in one or more communication networks, with a computing manager unit (52) for managing and providing multimedia applications on the basis of a communication with one or more communication devices in the one or more communication networks, whereby the computing manager unit (52) controls a device discovery manager unit (58) for detecting the availability of one or more devices and/or one or more communication networks, a service discovery manager unit (56) for providing available services from and/or for said one or more communication networks, and a virtual device manager unit (60) providing a graphical user interface for controlling devices and/or services of the one or more communication networks. The present invention particularly enables mobile multimedia applications to effectively use mobile ad-hoc networks in a simple and effective way.

Abstract: A portal application implemented on a multipurpose computer provides access from a client to a multimedia service. The portal application comprises a plurality of services respectively structured according to a model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern and respectively comprising at least one model containing data, a controller and at least one view for the presentation of data of the model. The services are designed to communicate with each other by way of the controller. Therefore, services can be dynamically installed and removed. Due to the presence of a plurality of uses associated with a single controller, the various services are supported to produce different kinds of mark-up languages for each of a plurality of different devices.

Abstract: A wireless multi-hop ad-hoc network in which a wireless communication device is enabled to register with a multi-hop network in a secure and easy-to-use way. In one implementation a user's wireless communication device is registered before allowing the device to enter a wireless multi-hop ad-hoc network and the device participates in communication with wireless nodes connected to the network. For this purpose, the device wirelessly transmits a registration request message to all the wireless nodes and determines the nearest wireless node in its environment being authorized to register the device to the network by evaluating wirelessly received response messages from the nodes.

Abstract: A method for distributing contents to several users, wherein users are interconnected as members of one or more groups and wherein the group members can be pre-arranged from the user side is characterized in that based on his context a user can select one or more content from offered contents, in that the selected contents are dynamically personalized by taking advantage of a correlation of selected contents on the one hand and a group on the other hand by embedding communication triggers into the contents to initiate a communication with a group, and in that the personalized group-related contents are pushed to the members of the group.

Abstract: A method for identifying potential recipients of a message wherein the message comprises a text message and wherein the message is in electronic form is—regarding a possibly simple usability and user-friendliness—designed and further developed in such a way that the content of the message undergoes a text analysis and based on the result of the text analysis a potential recipient or a group of potential recipients are identified from a list of recipients.

Abstract: An audio system with a dynamic sound field adaptation to follow a listeners position. The audio system includes a relative location determination mechanism for determining the relative positions of at least all sound emitting components of the audio system with respect to each other, a personal device detector for detecting a personal device belonging to a user, a personal device position tracking mechanism for tracking the position of the personal device, and a re-calibration mechanism for re-calibrating the sound field such that the sweet spot of the sound field is placed at the current position of the personal device.

Abstract: The invention generally related to the field of mobile multimedia middle-ware, computer networking, distributed processing systems, data bases, hand-held computers and wireless communication. A method for conveniently managing user profile information in an unified instant messaging system (7) is proposed. This method operates on a data base structure, which accommodates in a flexible way subscribers' information. More specifically, this method takes into account the mutable characteristics of the environment where subscribers' devices (9) are operating: subscribers can in fact freely modify their personal user profiles (1) as situations change and/or as they move to different geographical locations.

Abstract: A carry on service which allows a mobile device adapted for wireless communication over a permanent communication network carries information objects on behalf of other devices. Carry on information objects are transferred from a carry on user device over a wireless ad-hoc network to a carry on provider device. There, they are stored until they can be forwarded to a carry on gateway device of the permanent communication network. This device forwards the carry on information objects to an appropriate service. The service provider checks the received information objects and executes the contained service requests.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a mobile agent system (1) for a communication unit (5, 6, 7) of a communication system, with at least one mobile agent (3) comprising an allocated agent policy (8), in which migration parameters of the respective mobile agent (3) are defined, migration control means (16) for controlling the migration behavior of a mobile agent (3) in the communication system on the basis of a current migration policy of the mobile agent (3) and current parameters of the communication system. The present invention further relates to a method for controlling such a mobile agent system (1) and allows a flexible way of controlling the migration behavior of mobile agents (3) depending on system parameters.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a communication unit and a communication method for communicating data in a communication system, with storage means (9) for storing a profile data base, said profile data base comprising parameter data describing attributes of the communication system, said parameter data being arranged in parameter sets respectively describing a collection of attributes, whereby the parameter sets are allocated to profile units so that each profile unit comprises at least one parameter set and one parameter set can be allocated to a plurality of profile units, and managing means (10) for managing said parameter data in said profile data base and for controlling a means (18) for reading and writing parameter data from and in said storage means (9). The present invention provides a flexible and efficient way to manage and retrieve profile data in communication systems.

Abstract: A technique for the determination of the current position of a mobile device based on a plurality of geolocation positioning services is proposed. Different position information sources are accessed wirelessly to acquire position information. The position information thereby comprises respectively at least information about the position of the corresponding position information source. At least one of the plurality of accessed position information sources is selected depending on the values of operation parameters, such as for example availability, cost, speed, power consumption and quality of the position information, wherein the operation parameters are associated with the different position information sources. The position of the mobile device is then determined based on the position information of the at least one selected position information source.

Abstract: The present invention relates to the field of geographic information systems (GIS). The invention presents an apparatus and a method for automatic managing a database (1) of geolocation information and for providing this information to geoinformation systems of for example wireless communication systems. According to the present invention an automatic search agent is provided effecting the following steps for managing the database (1): searching (4) nodes of a network, detecting (13), if geographical position information and associate information of a location is present at the searched node, retrieving the geographical position information and the associated information of the location present at the node of the network, and automatically entering the acquired geographical position information and associated information to the geographic information database (1).

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to the field of mobile multimedia middleware, quality-of-service, shared resource reservation mechanisms, distributed processing systems, handheld computers, computer networking and wireless communication. Particularly, the present invention describes a processing system and pieces of software for one or more communication networks, with middleware comprising an application programming interface (102) cast over a data model describing quality-of-service contracts and quality-of-service adaptation paths specified by quality-of-service aware mobile multimedia applications (101) using said programming interface, in order to manage quality-of-service and mobility-aware for managing network connections with other applications. The present invention hereby relates to a corresponding data model as well as the necessary architecture.

Abstract: A component-based control application structure for the dynamic configuration, adaptation and extension of applications in wireless communication is presented. Thereby, a control application (304) for technical elements (301) of a mobile communications device (101a, 101b) is structured in components of a predetermined configuration (305), wherein the configuration (305) depends on the task to be performed. Each component (401) is provided with its own thread (404). Each component (401) is furthermore provided with a method interface (403) comprising different commands for the control of the operation of the respective component (401). The configuration (305) of the control application (304) can be changed dynamically (203) depending on the current task to be performed by the device.