Virtual shadow briefcase in servers supporting moving embedded clients

• US 6,912,580 B1
• Filed: 01/27/1999
• Issued: 06/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kanevsky, Dimitri, Zadrozny, Wlodek Wlodzimierz
• Primary Examiner(s): Cardone, Jason D.
• Application Number:
  US09/239,109
• Time in Patent Office: 2,344 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/208, 709/227, 709/237, 709/317, 709/320, 709/328, 709/228, 709/225, 455/421, 455/422, 455/433, 455/436, 455/437, 455/440, 455/442, 455/456, 370/331
• US Class Current: 709/228
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

A computer has one or more communication interfaces that determine if one or more client (client devices) is within a range of communication of the computer. The computer also has one or more computer interfaces capable of communicating with one or more of the second computers. The second computers can be at any general location and/or installed as subsystems of other devices. An application process determines from the client signal that the client is within the range of communication and that requests and receives one or more of the application programs through the computer interface from one or more of the second computers at the commuter location. Thus, the application program (and necessary databases) are moved to a next computer as the client moves within the range of communication of this next computer. The application programs/databases can be discarded once the client moves outside of the range of communication of the computer.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

one or more memories and one or more central processing units (CPUs);

one or more communication interfaces, each of the communication interfaces capable of receiving a client signal from one or more clients indicating that a client is within a range of communication of the computer;

one or more computer interfaces capable of communicating with one or more second computers, the second computers each having a computer location and one of more application programs;

an application process that determines from one or more client signals that one or more clients are within the range of communication and that requests and receives one or more of the application programs through the computer interface from one or more of the second computers so that one or more clients can cause one or more of the CPUs to execute one or more of the application programs, the one or more CPUs executing the one or more application programs when the one or more clients request the one or more application programs.

2. A computer system, as in claim 1, where one or more of the second computers is a local computer that has copies of all applications for all clients that are in a communication range of another second computer that is in a communication range with the local computer.

3. A computer system, as in claim 2, where one or more clients send a request for some item/application in a package and an address of the local computer to one or more second computers.

4. A computer system, as in claim 3, where the item/application is sent to the client if it is found on one or more second computers.

5. A computer system, as in claim 4, where one or more second computers check whether they are in a communication range from the local computer at the address that was sent by the client.

6. A computer system, as in claim 5, where the local computer checks whether it has the requested item/application if it is in the range of communication from one or more second computers and where the local computer sends the requested item/application if the local computer found the item/application.

7. A computer system, as in claim 5, where the request/application and the address of the local computer is sent to a main server if it was found that the local server is not in the communication range of one or more second computers.

8. A computer system, as in claim 7, where the item/application from the main server is sent to the client that requested this item/application if this item/application was found.

9. A computer system, as in claim 7, where the request for the item/application was sent to the local server at the address that was received by the main server if this item/application was not found in the main server.

10. A computer system, as in claim 9, where the local server sends the item/application to the main server and the main server sends this item/application to the client.

11. A computer system, as in claim 1, where one or more of the applications is an application portion.

12. A computer system, as in claim 11, where the application portions are classified in accordance with how processes that are needed to run these applications can be handled.

13. A computer system, as in claim 12, where processes can be handled to be run in parallel, can be shared by different applications or can be substituted.

14. A computer system, as in claim 13, where application portions are classified as parallel, shared or substituted.

15. A computer system, as in claim 14, where the application portions are scheduled to be run in CPUs and memories in accordance with their classification.

16. A computer system, as in claim 11, where the application portion is a front end of a speech recognition system.

17. A computer system, as in claim 16, where the front end of the speech recognition system includes a microphone and signal processor.

18. A computer system as in claim 11, where the application portion is a front end of a word processing system.

19. A computer system, as in claim 18, where the front end of the word processing system includes a keyboard.

20. A computer system, as in claim 11, where the application portion includes any one or more of the following:

an automatic speech recognition front end, an automatic handwriting recognition system front end, a user verification system front end, a user identification system front end, a natural language understanding system front end.

21. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the computer determines that one or more clients pass outside of the range of communication.

22. A computer system, as in claim 21, where the computer discards one or more of the applications after one or more clients pass outside of the range and after the discarded applications have been sent to one or more of the second computers.

23. A computer system, as in claim 22, where applications that are discarded belong to one package.

24. A computer system, as in claim 23, where all clients that are linked to the package pass outside of the range.

25. A computer system, as in claim 21, where one or more clients that pass outside of the range of communication are linked to the same package.

26. A computer system, as in claim 21, where the computer discards one or more of the applications after one or more client pass outside of the range.

27. A computer system, as in claim 26, where all applications in one package are discarded after all clients that are linked to this package pass outside of the range.

28. A computer system, as in claim 21, where the computer determines whether one or more clients are outside of range by measuring distance from this computer to these clients.

29. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the communication interface receives a second client signal when one or more clients pass outside of the range of communication.

30. A computer system, as in claim 29, where the communication interface receives a second client signal when one or more clients that are linked to a package of programs pass outside of the range of the communication.

31. A computer system, as in claim 30, where all clients linked to one package of programs are wearable by one person.

32. A computer system, as in claim 1, where application programs are grouped into packages and one or more clients are linked to packages in such a way that application programs in each package support only clients that are linked to this package.

33. A computer system, as in claim 32, where all clients that are wearable by one person are linked to one package of application programs.

34. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the computer discards one or more of the applications after the discarded applications have been sent to one or more of the second computers.

35. A computer system, as in claim 34, where all discarded applications belong to the same package.

36. A computer system, as in claim 34, where the second computer is less busy than the computer.

37. A computer system, as in claim 1, where part of the application remains as a second portion on one or more of the second computers.

38. A computer system, as in claim 37, where the second portion includes any one or more of the following:

an automatic speech recognition back end, an automatic handwriting recognition system back end, a user verification system back end, a user identification system back end, a natural language understanding system back end, a word processing system back end, and a database.

39. A computer system, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions run in parallel with one or more of another second portions.

40. A computer system, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions is shared by different clients.

41. A computer, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions belong to the same package.

42. A computer, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions belong to different packages.

43. A computer system, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions shares the same data stored by one or more of another second portions.

44. A computer system, as in claim 43, where one or more of the second portions are signal processing that perform on inputs from different mikes located on different clients.

45. A computer system, as in claim 37, where one or more of the second portions are the following:

Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Automatic Handwriting Recognition (AHR).

46. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the applications are received in a priority order.

47. A computer system, as in claim 46, where priority order includes the following:

applications that are currently used by a user, applications that are shared by many users, applications that shared by small number of users, applications that involve clients that are wearable by a user.

48. A computer system, as in claim 46, where priority order is defined by history data on how often some applications were used.

49. A computer system, as in claim 1, where one of the computer interfaces receives a second client signal when one or more clients pass outside of the range of communication.

50. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the communication interface includes any one or more of the following:

a radio link, an infrared link.

51. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the computer interface includes any one or more of the following:

a network, a wide area network, a local area network, an internet, an intranet, a telephone network, a radio frequency network.

52. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the client includes any one or more of the following:

a moving computer, a pen input device, a personal data assistant, a watch, a palm top, a telephone, a key, a speech recognition system.

53. A computer system, as in claim 1, that is incorporated in any one or more of the following:

a printer, a television, a microwave, a refrigerator, a car, a public structure, a lamppost, a mail box.

54. A computer system, as in claim 1, where one or more of the second computers is a main computer that has copies of all of the applications as backup.

55. A computer system, as in claim 1, where one or more clients send a request for some item or application in a package to one or more second computers and if such application or an item is not available one or more second computers send a request for this application or item to a main computer and the main computer performs the requested application for these one or more clients or sends the requested item to the one or more clients.

56. A computer system, as in claim 55, where the requested item and application are sent to packages in one or more second computers that are linked to one or more clients that requested this item or application.

57. A computer system as in claim 1, where the applications are received from a backup computer if communication with second computer fails.

58. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the client signal is received from one or more of the following location devices:

a pressure sensor, an ultrasonic detector, a radio frequency tag, a motion detector.

59. A computer system, as in claim 1, where the applications include any one or more of the following:

a web browser, a financial program, a word processing program, a search engine, a database used by the application, a general database.

60. A computer system, as in claim 1, where selected one or more of the applications are discarded if the selected one or more applications are not executed by one or more of the CPUs within a time period.