SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PREDICTIVE DATA ACQUISITION

• US 20100332586A1
• Filed: 06/30/2009
• Published: 12/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sandisk Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Kavanagh, Brendan Barry, Schram, James Frederick, Balma, Phillip Jeffrey, Caillon, Pascal Achille, Webster, Kurt Forsyth, Hutton, Henry Ricardo, Broadwin, Elliot, Alluf, Aviv, Jogand-Coulomb, Fabrice
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,760 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

Systems and methods of predictive data acquisition are disclosed. A personal proxy server is configured to acquire first data in response to a first request to access the first data and to acquire second data prior to receiving a second request to access the second data. The first request and the second request are received from a common source. The personal proxy server is also configured to store the acquired first data and the acquired second data so that the acquired first data and the acquired second data are accessible to the personal proxy server.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

an interface for receiving requests; and

a personal proxy server operatively coupled to the interface and configured to acquire first data in response to a first request to access the first data,

wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to acquire second data prior to receiving a second request to access at least a portion of the second data, the first request and the second request being originated from a common source,

wherein at least a portion of the personal proxy server is implemented at a removable device, and

wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to store the acquired first data and the acquired second data at the removable device so that the acquired first data and the acquired second data are accessible to the personal proxy server.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the common source includes a user, an application, or a system external to the removable device.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the removable device in which the personal proxy server resides is one of a memory card, a host, or a combination thereof.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the personal proxy server is a split proxy server that includes a first portion that is implemented at the removable device and a second portion that is implemented by an accessing device coupled to the removable device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the removable device includes a controller that implements the personal proxy server.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a scheduler triggers acquisition of the second data, and wherein the scheduler is operative to access a profile associated with the common source.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the scheduler is implemented at the removable device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the personal proxy server is responsive to an instruction from the system external to the removable device to initiate acquiring the second data.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the instruction is a short message service (SMS) instruction.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to acquire the second data based on a profile of the common source.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the common source is identified via a subscriber identification module (SIM).

12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to prevent the common source from accessing at least a portion of the acquired second data prior to a predetermined date.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second data comprises a plurality of advertisements, and wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to select at least one advertisement from the plurality of advertisements for display.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the acquired first data and the acquired second data are exclusively accessible via the personal proxy server.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein an activation of the personal proxy server is selectively enabled at least partially based on control information stored at a subscriber identification module (SIM).

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the control information includes status information.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the control information includes authentication information and wherein the activation of the personal proxy server requires authentication to the removable device.

18. A host device comprising:

an interface to a removable device; and

a personal proxy server operatively coupled to the interface and configured to acquire first data in response to a first request to access the first data,

wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to acquire second data prior to receiving a request to access at least a portion of the second data, the second request and the first request being originated from a common source,

wherein at least a portion of the personal proxy server is implemented at the removable device, and

wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to store the acquired first data and the acquired second data at the removable device when the removable device is coupled to the host device.

19. The host device of claim 18, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to acquire the second data based on a profile associated with the common source.

20. The host device of claim 19, wherein the profile is stored at the removable device.

21. The host device of claim 18, wherein the personal proxy server includes a scheduler that schedules acquisition of the second data.

22. The host device of claim 18, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to prevent the common source from accessing at least a portion of the acquired second data prior to receiving an instruction to make the portion of the acquired second data accessible, wherein the instruction is received from an external system.

23. The host device of claim 18, wherein the removable device stores preloaded third data that is accessible via the personal proxy server, wherein the preloaded third data is written to the removable device prior to the removable device being first coupled to the host device.

24. The host device of claim 18, further comprising a user interface including an input device, wherein the first request and the second request are received via the input device.

25. The host device of claim 18, further comprising a subscriber identification module (SIM) storing control information, and wherein an operation of the personal proxy server is selectively enabled at least partially based on the control information.

26. A removable device comprising:

an interface to an external device;

a memory controller operatively coupled to the interface and including a personal proxy server that is configured to acquire first data in response to a request to access the first data, wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to acquire second data prior to receiving a request to access at least a portion of the second data, the second request and the first request being originated from a common source; and

a memory coupled to the memory controller and operative to store the acquired first data and the acquired second data.

27. The removable device of claim 26, wherein the personal proxy server is responsive to a second proxy server at the external device.

28. The removable device of claim 27, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to store content for the second proxy server.

29. The removable device of claim 27, wherein the personal proxy server is configured to track access to the acquired first data and to the acquired second data by the second proxy server.

30. The removable device of claim 29, wherein the personal proxy server or the second proxy server implements at least one network communication protocol that is not implemented by the other one of the personal proxy server or the second proxy server.

31. The removable device of claim 26, wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to store profile information at a secure portion of the memory, the profile information constructed from at least one of user specified preferences, frequently accessed content pages, timestamp data of content access, bookmarks, duration of content page views, and global positioning system (GPS) data.

32. The removable device of claim 31, wherein the user specified preferences include at least one page specified by a user of the external device.

33. The removable device of claim 26, wherein the memory controller is further configured to track usage data and store user tracking data.

34. The removable device of claim 33, wherein the memory controller is further configured to report user tracking data to a service provider, the user tracking data corresponding to a particular user of the external device.

35. The removable device of claim 26, wherein the personal proxy server is further configured to perform data metering for billing the particular user.

36. The removable device of claim 35, wherein the particular user is not charged for the second data prior to accessing the second data.

37. The removable device of claim 26, wherein an activation of the personal proxy server is selectively enabled at least partially based on control information stored at a subscriber identification module (SIM).

38. A removable data storage device comprising:

a user interface to an external device;

a memory operative to store a profile and to store prefetched data; and

a memory controller coupled to the memory and coupled to the external interface, wherein the memory controller implements a scheduler, and wherein the scheduler is operative to initiate acquisition of the prefetched data for a personal proxy server in accordance with the profile.

39. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the memory controller is configured to store the prefetched data in a secure portion of the memory.

40. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the prefetched data is acquired by the personal proxy server.

41. The removable data storage device of claim 40, wherein the personal proxy server comprises:

a first proxy server that is executable at the memory controller; and

a second proxy server that is executable at the external device.

42. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the personal proxy server is operative to access the acquired prefetched data from the memory in response to receiving a network access request from a client application of the external device.

43. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the prefetched data is stored in a secure portion of the memory.

44. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the profile and tracking data corresponding to a particular user of the external device are stored in a secure portion of the memory.

45. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the memory controller is further configured to store profile information at a secure portion of the memory, the profile information constructed from at least one of user specified preferences, frequently accessed content pages, timestamp data of content access, bookmarks, duration of content page views, and global positioning data.

46. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein a credential associated with a service provider network subscription is stored at a secure portion of the memory.

47. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the scheduler initiates acquisition of the prefetched data by instructing the personal proxy server to predictively retrieve content from a public network for later consumption by a user of the external device.

48. The removable data storage device of claim 47, wherein the scheduler initiates the acquisition of the prefetched data in response to at least one of an availability of an external server, a connection type of the external device, a roaming condition of the external device, a battery condition, and a credential of the particular user.

49. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the memory is further operative to store tracking data for promotion and advertising.

50. The removable data storage device of claim 38, wherein the memory controller restricts the personal proxy server from accessing the prefetched data prior to authenticating the personal proxy server.

51. The removable data storage device of claim 50, wherein at least a portion of the prefetched data includes promotional data that is preloaded to the memory prior to a user preference being stored to the profile.

52. A method comprising:

providing a profile to a scheduler of a network proxy server, wherein the profile is stored at a removable device and includes at least one user preference;

receiving data at the removable device via the network proxy server, wherein at least a portion of the data is retrieved based on the at least one user preference and is acquired by the network proxy server in response to the scheduler; and

storing the received data in a memory at the removable device.

53. The method of claim 52, wherein the scheduler is implemented at the removable device.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein the scheduler is implemented at an external device that is coupled to the removable device.

55. The method of claim 52, wherein the network proxy server is configured to retrieve updates to the data in response to the scheduler, wherein the updates are retrieved at times that are independent of an expiration status of the received data.

56. The method of claim 52, wherein the received data comprises data having a first data format corresponding to a first host device and data having a second data format corresponding to a second host device.

57. The method of claim 52, further comprising preventing caching of at least one page of retrieved content at the memory to enable tracking of access to the at least one page.

58. The method of claim 52, wherein the network proxy server is configured to receive a network access request of a client application at an external device and to provide the client application with access to the data from the memory.

59. The method of claim 52, further comprising authenticating the network proxy server prior to enabling access to the memory.

60. The method of claim 52, wherein an activity of the network proxy server is restricted based on control information stored at a subscriber identification module (SIM).