US 8,788,944 B1Granted

Personalized mobile device application presentation using photograph-based capability detection

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsSunbir Gill, Kenley B. Capps, David R. Sodt, Mekka C. Okereke, Matthew A. Jones

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Abstract

A network application system provides mobile devices with personalized recommendations of applications based at least in part on the device resources of the mobile devices. Device resources may be detected through an interrogation process performed on the mobile device by a mobile application store client, and/or may be determined based on metadata information contained in a photograph file taken by the mobile device and transmitted to the network application system. The network application system gathers crash data based on incidences of applications crashing on mobile devices in order to detect incompatibilities between applications and device resources. The system may then update application requirements data so that users are not presented with applications likely to crash on their mobile devices. The system may also inform an application's developer of a detected incompatibility so that a new, compatible version may quickly be available to users.

Claims24

Dependent claims

A method of assisting a user in discovering mobile device applications that are compatible with a mobile device of a user, the method comprising:

providing user access to an electronic catalog, said electronic catalog providing functionality for identifying and downloading mobile device applications;
causing a user of the mobile device to be prompted, via a user interface, to send a digital photograph taken with a camera of the mobile device to a designated address or number associated with a device resource detection service;
by the device resource detection service:
receiving, from the mobile device, a digital photograph taken with the camera of the mobile device;
extracting metadata from the received digital photograph, said metadata identifying a model of the mobile device;
and
retrieving, from a database, based at least partly on the extracted metadata identifying the model of the mobile device, information regarding capabilities of the mobile device, said information regarding capabilities of the mobile device comprising an identification of a hardware resource of the mobile device associated with execution of the mobile device applications;
generating, based on the retrieved information regarding capabilities of the mobile device, compatibility information reflective of compatibilities of the mobile device with particular mobile device applications represented in the electronic catalog, wherein generating said compatibility information comprises comparing the information regarding the capabilities of the mobile device to minimum resource requirements data of each of a plurality of mobile device applications;
and
personalizing pages of the electronic catalog for said user based on the compatibility information;
said method performed by a computing system that comprises one or more physical servers, said computing system programmed with executable program code of the device resource detection service.

8 more elements

A system for assisting a user in discovering mobile device applications that are compatible with a mobile device of a user, the system comprising:

a catalog system configured to provide user access to an electronic catalog, said electronic catalog providing functionality for identifying and downloading mobile device applications;
a user interface configured to prompt the user of the mobile device to submit a digital photograph taken with a camera of the mobile device to a designated address or number associated with a device resource detection service;
a receipt system configured to receive, from the mobile device, the submitted digital photograph taken with the camera of the mobile device;
an extraction system configured to extract metadata from the digital photograph, said metadata including information about the mobile device;
a device default data store configured to be populated with information identifying capabilities of a plurality of models of mobile devices;
a capability system configured to obtain, based on the extracted metadata, information regarding capabilities of the mobile device by identifying a model of the mobile device using the extracted metadata, transmitting data identifying the model of the mobile device to the device default data store, and receiving from the device default data store information identifying a capability of the model of the mobile device, wherein the information identifying the capability of the model of the mobile device comprises an identification of a hardware resource of the mobile device associated with execution of the mobile device applications;
and
a compatibility system configured to generate, based on the obtained information regarding capabilities of the mobile device, compatibility information reflective of compatibilities of the mobile device with particular mobile device applications represented in the electronic catalog, said compatibility system configured to compare the information regarding capabilities of the mobile device to minimum resource requirements data of each of a plurality of mobile device applications;
said system comprising one or more physical servers.

6 more elements

A system for selectively presenting mobile device software products to a user based on resources of the user's mobile device, the system comprising:

a user interface component that prompts the user to submit, to a device resource detection service, an image file taken with a camera of the mobile device;
a device data component configured to store device data reflecting said mobile device's resources, said device data obtained by the device resource detection service at least in part by (1) extracting image metadata of the submitted image file to identify a model of the mobile device, and (2) using the identified model of the mobile device to look up resources of the model from a database that stores information identifying the resources for a plurality of devices, said resources comprising a hardware resource relevant to execution of mobile device software poducts;
an application data component configured to store application data for a mobile device software product, said application data indicating minimum resource requirements for a plurality of resources required by a mobile device to properly execute said mobile device software product;
and
a comparison component configured to compare said device data and said application data to determine whether said mobile device meets said minimum resource requirements by comparing at least some of said plurality of resources characterized by said device data with at least some of said plurality of resources required by said minimum resource requirements of said application data, thereby determining whether the mobile device includes the hardware resource relevant to execute the mobile device software product;
and
an output component configured to output a result of comparisons performed by the comparison component, and to selectively present said user with information indicating whether said mobile device is compatible with said mobile device software product.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.