Method and apparatus for back-up of customized application information

• US 20050164692A1
• Filed: 09/09/2004
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Voice Signal Technologies Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Voice Signal Technologies Incorporated (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Gillick, Laurence S., Cohen, Jordan, Roth, Daniel L.
• Application Number:
  US10/936,882
• Publication Number:
  US 20050164692A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/419
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 24/04 Arrangements for maintaining operational condition
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/18 Processing of user or subscriber data, e.g. subscribed services, user preferences or user profiles; Transfer of user or subscriber data
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/22 Processing or transfer of terminal data, e.g. status or physical capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 8/245 from a network towards a terminal

Abstract

A method of operating a mobile communication device having a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customization, the method comprising detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since an earlier time, and for all applications for which the user-configurable customization has changed since said earlier time, wirelessly transmitting those changes to a remote server. The method further comprises maintaining a set of flags indicating whether changes have occurred to the user-configurable customization, wherein detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since said earlier time includes reading the set of flags. The remote server is one of a carrier server and a third party provider server.

Claims

1. A method of operating a mobile communication device that includes a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customization, said method comprising:

detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since an earlier time; and

for all applications for which the user-configurable customization has changed since said earlier time, wirelessly transmitting those changes to a remote server.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a set of flags indicating whether changes have occurred to the user-configurable customization, wherein detecting whether the user-configurable customization of any of the applications has changed since said earlier time includes reading the set of flags.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising in addition to wirelessly transmitting said changes to the remote server, clearing all flags of the set of flags that had indicated that changes had occurred.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said user-configurable customization is selected from a group comprising adaptive vocabulary, pronunciation information, acoustic models, preferences of a user such as phonebook entries, button mapping, and a plurality of settings of a plurality of applications.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the user-configurable customization of the set of one or more applications is transmitted to the remote server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting said changes occurs by one of upon a user request and at a predetermined time.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined time comprises at least one of a predetermined polling time of the device and a predetermined polling time of the remote server.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device has a voice channel, an SMS (short messaging service) channel, and a (WAP) wireless application protocol channel, and wherein transmitting involves transmitting over one of the voice channel, the WAP channel and the SMS data channel.

4. (canceled)

10. (canceled)

11. (canceled)

12. A method for saving user-configurable customization associated with a set of one or more applications in a communication device having speech recognition capabilities, the method comprising:

storing the user-configurable customization as a database entry in the device;

identifying at least one bit associated with each database entry that is indicative of an update to said user-configurable customization;

monitoring said at least one bit associated with each database entry to determine if an update to the user-configurable customization has occurred; and

transmitting updated database entries to a remote server at one of a predetermined time and upon user request.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein user-configurable customization is selected from a group comprising of preferences of a user such as phone number entries, adaptive vocabulary, pronunciation information, acoustic models, button mapping, and a plurality of settings of the application.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the user-configurable customization of the set of one or more applications are transmitted to the remote server.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein a predetermined time comprises at least one of a predetermined polling time of the communication device, or a predetermined polling time of the remote server.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising clearing the at least one bit indicative of an update to said entry upon sending the updated database entries.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising the device receiving an acknowledgement message of receipt of updated database entries from the remote server.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication device has a voice channel and an SMS data channel and wherein transmitting involves transmitting over one of the voice channel and the SMS data channel.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the communication device is enabled with a wireless protocol selected from a group comprising of Bluetooth protocol, and internet-protocols such as 802.11 and wherein transmitting involves using one of said wireless protocols.

18. (canceled)

21. A mobile communication device that includes a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customizations, comprising:

a wireless transceiver circuit for transmitting and receiving auditory information and data including application customization information;

a processor; and

a memory storing executable instructions when executed on the processor causes the mobile communication device to provide functionality to a user of the mobile communication device, said executable instructions including detecting whether the user-configurable customization has changed since an earlier time; and

for all applications for which the user-configurable customization has changed since said earlier times, wirelessly transmitting those changes to a remote server.

22-31. -31. (canceled)

32. A method for configuring a mobile communication device that includes speech recognition capabilities, the method comprising;

establishing communication between a remote server and the communication device, the remote server having saved therein plurality of data indicative of user-configurable customization associated with a plurality of application programs of the communication device;

the remote server receiving a request to transmit said user-configurable customization to the communication device; and

the remote server transmitting the plurality of data indicative of user-configurable customization to the communication device.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein said user-configurable customization is selected from a group comprising of adaptive vocabulary, pronunciation information, acoustic models, preferences of a user such as phonebook entries, button mapping, and a plurality of settings of a plurality of applications

35. The method of claim 32, wherein said mobile communication device has a voice channel, a SMS data channel, and a high-speed digital data channel, and wherein transmitting from the remote server uses one of the voice channel, SMS data channel and high-speed digital data channel.

36. The method of claim 32, wherein the mobile communication device is enabled with a digital protocol selected from a group comprising of Bluetooth protocol, and internet-protocols such as 802.11, and wherein the remote server is enabled with said digital protocol such that transmitting the user-configurable customization involves using one of said digitial protocols.

33. (canceled)

37. A method for generating revenue by a carrier service, the carrier including a set of servers;

said method comprising;

establishing an account for each of a plurality of wireless communication devices, wherein on each of said wireless communication device there is a set of one or more applications, each with its own associated user-configurable customization;

the set of servers receiving each user-configurable customization from each of a plurality of wireless communication devices;

the set of servers storing each user-configurable customization from each of the plurality of wireless communication devices; and

billing the account for services.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the services included in billing the account is selected from a group comprising of storing each user-configurable customization;

updating said customization;

transmitting updates to a device, and provisioning new devices.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the set of servers include a plurality of database files and wherein storing said user-configurable customization includes storing each user-configurable customization as an entry in one file of said plurality of database files and associating a user name and date with each entry.

40. (canceled)