Apparatus and method for context-aware mobile data management

• US 9,392,073 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2014
• Issued: 07/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Howard University
• Original Assignee: Howard University
• Inventors: Burge, Legand L. III
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, KAUSHIKKUMAR M
• Application Number:
  US14/294,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20140289318A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0862 with prefetch
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• 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 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5683 Storage of data provided by user terminals, i.e. reverse caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2242/40 Data synchronization between user terminals and central server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

A context of a mobile device is determined. A context preference of a user associated with the mobile device is determined. The context of the mobile device and the user context preference is transmitted to another node and responsively returned data is received. Available free space in the mobile device is determined. All data whose timestamp is within a predetermined threshold is cached. The data is cached in at least a portion of the free space.

Claims

1. A method that efficiently caches and replicates application data in a context-aware system, the method comprising:

at a mobile device;

transmitting a context, a private data update, and a first shared data update to a server;

receiving first content from the server, the server returning the first content based upon the context;

wherein the exchange of the context, the private data update, the first shared data update, and the first content is effective to maintain a first consistency between the server and the mobile device;

transmitting the context to a peer mobile device;

receiving second content and second shared data update from the peer mobile device;

determining a most relevant data from the first content data and the second content data;

transmitting the most relevant data and the first shared data update to the peer mobile device;

wherein the exchange of the most relevant data, the second content, the first shared data update, and the second shared data update is effective to maintain a second consistency between the mobile device and the peer mobile device, the first consistency and the second consistency being maintained so as to be generally different from each other.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting is made using at least one queue and wherein free space in the at least one queue is maximized.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a relevance score is calculated and subsequently utilized to maximize the free space.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the mobile device is associated with at least one of:

an event associated with the mobile device, a time associated with the mobile device, a location associated with the mobile device, the pitch/yaw associated with the mobile device, and a heading associated with the mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the context of the mobile device is associated with a demographic associated with a user, or user activity within the application associated with the user.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising accessing content and services via a menu driven user interface and obtaining implicit access to content and services via asynchronous notifications.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the asynchronous notifications are selected from the group consisting of:

a dynamically generated list of advertisements, SMS text messages, emails, and a dynamically generated list of content and services.

8. A mobile device that efficiently caches and replicates application data in a context-aware system, the mobile device comprising:

an interface having an input and output;

a memory including at least one queue;

a controller coupled to the memory and the interface, the controller configured to transmit a context, a private data update, and a first shared data update to a server at the output of the interface, the controller configured to receive first content from the server at the input of the interface, the server returning the first content based upon the context such that the exchange of the context, the private data update, the first shared data update, and the first content is effective to maintain a first consistency between the server and the mobile device, the controller being further configured to transmit the context to a peer mobile device and to receive second content and second shared data update from a peer mobile device at the input of the interface, the controller configured to determine a most relevant data from the first content data and the second content data and transmit the most relevant data and the first shared data update to the peer mobile device via the output of the interface, such that the exchange of the most relevant data, the second content, the first shared data update, and the second shared data update is effective to maintain a second consistency between the mobile device and the peer mobile device, wherein the first consistency and the second consistency are maintained so as to be generally different from each other.

9. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the memory has at least one guess to transmit data and free space in the at least one queue is maximized.

10. The mobile device of claim 9 wherein a relevance score is calculated by the controller and utilized to maximize the free space.

11. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the context of the mobile device is associated with at least one of:

an event associated with the mobile device, a time associated with the mobile device, a location associated with the mobile device, the pitch/yaw associated with the mobile device, and a heading associated with the mobile device.

12. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the context of the mobile device is associated with a demographic associated with a user, or user activity within the application associated with the user.

13. The mobile device of claim 8, wherein the controller receives asynchronous notifications to access content and services.

14. The mobile device of claim 13 wherein the asynchronous notifications are selected from the group consisting of:

a dynamically generated list of advertisements, SMS text messages, emails, and a dynamically generated list of content and services.