System and method of enabling additional functions or services of device by use of transparent gateway or proxy

Abstract

A system, apparatus, or method for enabling an application developer to access the events, data and functionality of a device, such as a mobile phone, without being limited by the API provided by the device manufacturer. In some embodiments, the present invention utilizes a transparent gateway as a proxy that is inserted into the device stack to enable an application developer to access features and functions of the device beyond those exposed by the manufacturer provided API. For example, the transparent gateway may be inserted into the wireless stack of a mobile phone, in between the Bluetooth stack and the device's API. The transparent gateway may be installed in the mobile phone via an over the air provisioning or another suitable method.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A device, comprising:
 a data transfer bus, and electrically coupled with the data transfer bus:
 an antenna; 
 a processor; 
 a wireless network stack electrically coupled with the antenna through the data transfer bus; 
 a communication interface configured to receive an event from an external wireless source, the event wirelessly received by the wireless network stack and communicated to the communications interface through the data transfer bus; 
 a first application program interface; 
 a transparent gateway disposed between and in communication with the wireless network stack and the first application program interface; 
 a first extensible application program interface in communication with the first application program interface; 
 a second application program interface in communication with an extensible application program interface manager and the transparent gateway; 
 a local application program interface in communication with the second application program interface; 
 a third application program interface in communication with the second application program interface and with an external backend service via a network connection, the third application program interface including functions distributed between the external backend service and the second application program interface; and 
 a rule base including a set of rules, the rule base in communication with a rule manager configured to update rules in the rule base, the rule manager in communication with the transparent gateway, 
 the transparent gateway configured to: receive the event from the communication interface; process, using the processor, the event to determine whether the event satisfies a rule in the set of rules of the rule base, and if the event satisfies the rule in the set of rules, apply the rule to the event, 
 the transparent gateway configured to: examine an incoming event received via the communications interface against one or more rules in the rule base, and pass the incoming event to the extensible application program interface manager when the one or more rules request the incoming event be exposed to the second application program interface.