Providing distributed managed communications functionality via multiple mobile devices
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- receiving, by one or more configured computing devices located remotely from a plurality of mobile devices in a geographical area, information about the plurality of mobile devices in the geographical area;
determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, that at least some mobile devices of the plurality are available to participate in executing an application in a distributed manner, wherein the at least some mobile devices include multiple types of wireless connection capabilities to enable the at least some mobile devices to be inter-connected via multiple distinct wireless networking protocols;
selecting, by the one or more configured computing devices, multiple mobile devices of the at least some mobile devices to participate in a group that executes the application in the distributed manner on the multiple mobile devices;
determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, one of the multiple mobile devices to act as a host device for the group to manage communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group in accordance with at least some of the multiple distinct wireless networking protocols, the determining being based at least in part on wireless connection capabilities of the determined one mobile device to perform the managing of the communications; and
after the determining, exchanging, via the determined one mobile device and over one or more wireless connections established between the multiple mobile devices using the at least some distinct wireless networking protocols, multiple communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group as part of executing the application in the distributed manner on the multiple mobile devices.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are described for providing functionality to users of mobile devices, including coordinating the inter-connection of multiple mobile devices, such as for multiple mobile devices of multiple distinct types, and optionally using multiple different types of inter-connections. In some situations, the described techniques include performing matchmaking operations to determine whether and/or how a group of multiple inter-connected mobile devices will provide functionality to each other and/or will access functionality from one or more remote server computing systems, including to select a host mobile device for the group. In addition, in some situations, the described techniques include providing a distributed display canvas functionality, by using the displays of multiple inter-connected mobile devices of a group to display some or all of the graphical user interface (“GUI”) of an application, such as by displaying on each mobile device a distinct portion of the GUI specific to that mobile device.
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Citations
37 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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receiving, by one or more configured computing devices located remotely from a plurality of mobile devices in a geographical area, information about the plurality of mobile devices in the geographical area; determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, that at least some mobile devices of the plurality are available to participate in executing an application in a distributed manner, wherein the at least some mobile devices include multiple types of wireless connection capabilities to enable the at least some mobile devices to be inter-connected via multiple distinct wireless networking protocols; selecting, by the one or more configured computing devices, multiple mobile devices of the at least some mobile devices to participate in a group that executes the application in the distributed manner on the multiple mobile devices; determining, by the one or more configured computing devices, one of the multiple mobile devices to act as a host device for the group to manage communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group in accordance with at least some of the multiple distinct wireless networking protocols, the determining being based at least in part on wireless connection capabilities of the determined one mobile device to perform the managing of the communications; and after the determining, exchanging, via the determined one mobile device and over one or more wireless connections established between the multiple mobile devices using the at least some distinct wireless networking protocols, multiple communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group as part of executing the application in the distributed manner on the multiple mobile devices. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored contents that cause one or more computing devices to perform a method, the method comprising:
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determining, by the one or more computing devices, that at least some computing devices within a geographical area are available to participate in executing a game application in a distributed manner, wherein the at least some computing devices collectively include multiple types of wireless connection capabilities to enable the at least some computing devices to be inter-connected within the geographical area via multiple distinct wireless networking protocols; selecting, by the at least some computing devices, multiple computing devices of the at least some computing devices to participate in a group that executes the game application in the distributed manner on the multiple computing devices; determining, by the multiple computing devices, one of the multiple computing devices to act as a host device for the group to manage communications between the multiple computing devices of the group within the geographical area and in accordance with at least some of multiple distinct wireless networking protocols, the determining being based at least in part on the wireless connection capabilities of the determined one computing device to perform the managing of the communications; before performing a distributed execution of the game application by the multiple computing devices, distributing a copy of the game application from a game server to at least one of the multiple computing devices; and initiating the performing of the distributed execution of the game application by the multiple computing devices, wherein the distributed execution occurs without any interactions between any of the multiple computing devices and the game server during the distributed execution and includes exchanging, via the determined one computing device and over multiple wireless connections established between the multiple computing devices in accordance with the at least some distinct wireless networking protocols, multiple communications between the multiple computing devices of the group. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A system comprising:
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one or more processors of one or more computing devices located remotely from a first geographical area; and one or more memories containing software instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the at least one processor to manage interactions for a group that executes an application in a distributed manner by; identifying, by the one or more remote computing devices, multiple mobile devices in the first geographical area to participate in the group to execute the application in the distributed manner on the multiple mobile devices; determining, by the one or more remote computing devices, one of the multiple mobile devices to act as a host device for the group to manage communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group, the determining being based at least in part on the capabilities of the determined one mobile device to perform the managing of the communications; after the determining, initiating the performing of the distributed execution of the application by the multiple mobile devices, wherein the distributed execution includes exchanging, via the determined one mobile device and over one or more wireless connections established between the multiple mobile devices, multiple communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group; identifying, after the exchanging of the multiple communications and by the one or more remote computing devices, that the determined one mobile device is unavailable to continue acting as the host device for the group, and determining a second mobile device of the multiple mobile devices to continue acting as the host device for the group; and continuing the distributed execution of the application by exchanging, via the determined second mobile device, multiple additional communications between the multiple mobile devices of the group. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification