TRANSFERRING APPLICATION STATE ACROSS DEVICES

• US 20130325967A1
• Filed: 07/01/2013
• Published: 12/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Parks, Jason, Pelly, Nicholas Julian, Hamilton, Jeffrey William, Hsieh, Cheng-Hsueh Andrew, Chen, Chinyue, Lo, Yung-Chieh
• Granted Patent: US 10,225,711 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/0062 in RFID [Radio Frequency Identification] Systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 5/77 for interrogation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72406 by software upgrading or downloading
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/04 including near field communication means, e.g. RFID
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

A first client device or system performs a method that includes retaining in memory registration information for a respective application indicating the respective application is registered for sharing application state with other client devices or systems. The method further includes storing an application state of a respective application, and detecting a transfer triggering condition. The transfer triggering condition includes presence of a second client device or system within a predefined proximity of the first client device or system, and the predefined proximity is a predefined proximity for near field communication. Furthermore, upon detecting the triggering condition, the first client device or system determines, in accordance with the stored registration information, that the respective application is registered for application state sharing, and transmits the application state of the respective application to the second client device or system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

transmitting, from a first computing device comprising one or more processors, an application state for an application executing at the first computing device to a remote server, the application being configured to share the application state with other computing devices;

establishing, at the first computing device, communication with a second computing device via a short-range wireless communication medium; and

transmitting, from the first computing device, information to the second computing device via the short-range wireless communication medium, the information permitting the second computing device to obtain at least a portion of the application state for the application from the remote server.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the information causes the second computing device to transmit a request to the remote server to obtain the application state for the application, and wherein the request causes the remote server to transmit at least the portion the application state for the application to the second computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting, from the first computing device, a first portion of the application state to the second computing device via the short-range wireless communication medium, wherein the information causes the second computing device to obtain a second portion of the application state for the application from the remote server, the first and second portions corresponding to two distinct portions of the application state.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising notifying, at the first computing device, the application that the application state has been transmitted to the second computing device by at least one of the remote server and the first computing device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising terminating, at the first computing device, execution of the application in response to the notifying.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the information causes the second computing device to execute the application with the application state.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device transmits the application state to the remote server when the application state requires greater than an amount of memory appropriate for storage at the first computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device establishes communication with the second computing device via the short-range wireless communication medium automatically in response to the first computing device and the second computing device being within a predefined proximity of each other.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the short-range wireless communication medium is one of near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, and WiFi.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application state for the application includes at least one of the group consisting of:

one or more unsent message drafts, state information for an ongoing telephone call, a playback position for video content, a playback position for audio content, a message account identifier, a message identifier for an unsent message draft, a message identifier for a currently viewed message, and a mime type associated with the application.

11. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a server comprising one or more processors, an application state for an application from a first computing device located remotely from the server, the application executing at the first computing device and being configured to share the application state with other computing devices;

receiving, at the server, a request for the application state for the application from a second computing device that is located remotely from the server and that has established communication with the first computing device via a short-range wireless communication medium; and

transmitting, from the server, at least a portion of the application state for the application to the second computing device in response to receiving the request.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the request is for a full copy of the application state.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the request is for a second portion of the application state that is distinct from a first portion of the application state obtained at the second computing device from the first computing device via the short-range wireless communication medium, and wherein the server transmits the second portion of the application state to the second computing device in response to receiving the request.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting, from the server, a notification to the first computing device that at least the portion of the application state for the application has been transmitted to the second computing device by the server.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the notification causes the first computing device to terminate execution of the application.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein receiving at least the portion of the application state causes the second computing device to execute the application with the application state.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the server receives the application state from the first computing device when the application state requires greater than an amount of memory appropriate for storage at the first computing device.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising storing, at the server, the application state for the application at a memory in response to receiving the application state for the application from the first computing device.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the short-range wireless communication medium is one of near field communication (NFC), Bluetooth, and WiFi.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the application state for the application includes at least one of the group consisting of:

one or more unsent message drafts, state information for an ongoing telephone call, a playback position for video content, a playback position for audio content, a message account identifier, a message identifier for an unsent message draft, a message identifier for a currently viewed message, and a mime type associated with the application.