US Patent 9801013 Electronic-device association based on location duration

A controller electronic device selectively associates one or more monitoring electronic devices and a viewing electronic device, so that the viewing electronic device can selectively access content acquired by the one or more monitoring electronic devices, such as captured images and/or measured acoustic information corresponding to sound in environments. In particular, the controller electronic device may receive messages with timestamps and current locations of a monitoring electronic device that is associated with the viewing electronic device. Based on a duration of time the monitoring electronic device is at a fixed or an approximately fixed location, the controller electronic device may establish the associations. For example, a maximum distance associated with the associations may increase as the duration of time increases. Alternatively, the controller electronic device may remove the associations when a difference between a current location of the monitoring electronic device and the fixed location exceeds a predefined value.