MECHANISM FOR SHARING STATES OF APPLICATIONS AND DEVICES ACROSS DIFFERENT USER PROFILES

• US 20140289331A1
• Filed: 03/20/2014
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Nextbit Systems, Inc. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Bornstein, Daniel R., Tong, Linda
• Application Number:
  US14/221,174
• Publication Number:
  US 20140289331A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1787 Details of non-transparently synchronising file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/44 Encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0816 the condition being an adaptation, e.g. in response to network events
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/78 Architectures of resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0853 using an additional device, e.g. smartcard, SIM or a different communication terminal cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication involving additional secure or trusted devices H04L9/3234
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 : specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 : in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• 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 67/1097 : for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 : Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 : Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 : Authentication
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 : Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

At least one embodiment of this disclosure includes a method of sharing application states across different user profiles. The method can include: receiving a request from a first computing device associated with a first user profile to load an application state of a target application, wherein the application state is owned by a second user profile; verifying permission for the first user profile to load the application state owned by the second user profile; configuring a sharing instance of the application state of the target application by accessing application data of the application state associated with the second user profile in a storage service; and sending the sharing instance to be loaded onto the first computing device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of operating an application state broker system, comprising:

authenticating a login from a first user profile at a first computing device;

receiving a request from the first computing device to load an application state of a target application, wherein the application state is owned by a second user profile;

verifying permission for the first user profile to load the application state owned by the second user profile;

configuring a sharing instance of the application state of the target application by accessing application data of the application state associated with the second user profile in a storage service; and

sending the sharing instance to be loaded onto the first computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to receiving the request, determining that the target application is not installed on the first computing device; and

sending the target application or a link to the target application to the first computing device.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

authenticating the second user profile at the application state broker system from a second computing device;

receiving the application data associated with the target application installed on the second computing device; and

generating the application state of the target application for storing in the storage service based on the received application data.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the application state stored in the storage service is up-to-date;

requesting additional application data from the second computing device when the application state is determined not to be up-to-date; and

in response to receiving the additional application data, updating the application state of the target application for storing in the storage service based on the received additional application data.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

after sending the sharing instance, receiving new application data from the first computing device with updates to the application state of the target application; and

updating the application state in the storage service with the new application data from the first computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

after sending the sharing instance, receiving application data from the first computing device with updates to the application state of the target application; and

generating another application state for the target application in the storage service based on the received application data, wherein the other application state is associated with the first user profile.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the sharing instance of the application state includes configuring whether the sharing instance is sharable to a third computing device.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the sharing instance of the application state includes configuring whether new application data, generated after executing the sharing instance of the target application, is to re-integrate with the application data of the application state associated with the second user profile in the storage service.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the sharing instance of the application state includes configuring whether new application data, generated after executing the sharing instance of the target application, is to synchronize as new application data of a new application state associated with the first user profile in the storage service.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the sharing instance of the application state includes configuring the sharing instance as a session-only instance of the target application that expires in accordance with a schedule.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein configuring the sharing instance of the application state includes configuring the sharing instance as a session-only instance of the target application that expires when a condition is met while executing the session-only instance.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application data represents at least a portion of the application state.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application data represents a differential update from a previously sent application data of the target application.

14. A computer-implemented method of operating a first computing, comprising:

requesting an application state, associated with a foreign user profile different from a current user profile logged in on the first computing device, of a target application from an application state broker system;

receiving a sharing instance of the application state from the application state broker system, in response to the requesting;

configuring the target application with the sharing instance of the application state for executing on the first computing device; and

executing the configured target application on the first computing device.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising pausing or terminating the target application on the first computing device prior to executing the configured target application, wherein requesting the application state of the target application occurs when the target application is executing on the first computing device.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein configuring the target application includes initializing the target application with the sharing instance of the application state after the target application is paused or terminated.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein configuring the target application includes modifying a portion of memory, allotted for the target application, of the first computing device after the target application is paused or terminated.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein configuring the target application includes merging the sharing instance with an existing instance already executing on the first computing device.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising receiving a link or a data stream to download the target application in response to requesting the application state, wherein requesting the application state of the target application occurs when the target application has not been installed on an operating system of the first computing device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising backing up a current instance of the application state of the target application executing on the first computing device prior to configuring the target application with the sharing instance.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising synchronizing changes to the application state of the configured target application back to the application state broker system.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein configuring the target application includes passing the sharing instance of the application state to the target application while the target application is executing on the first computing device.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 22, wherein configuring the target application further includes configuring the target application based on the sharing instance of the application state and logical instructions within the target application.

24. A server system comprising:

a memory storing executable instructions;

a processor configured by the executable instructions to;

receive a request from a first computing device associated with a first user profile to load an application state of a target application, wherein the application state is owned by a second user profile;

verify permission for the first user profile to load the application state owned by the second user profile;

configure a sharing instance of the application state of the target application by accessing application data of the application state associated with the second user profile in a storage service accessible to the server system; and

send the sharing instance to be loaded onto the first computing device.