Method and apparatus for storing and restoring state information of remote user interface

• US 20070174300A1
• Filed: 01/12/2007
• Published: 07/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Yoon-soo
• Granted Patent: US 9,094,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/025 for remote control or remote monitoring of applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/142 Managing session states for stateless protocols; Signalling session states; State transitions; Keeping-state mechanisms

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and method of restoring a remote user interface (RUI) in a Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) environment. In the apparatus and method, an RUI client requests an external storage server to store the state information of the RUI by using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) object processing a HTTP request without reloading a web page, and restores the original state of the RUI by using the stored state information. Accordingly, it is possible to apply a method of storing and restoring state information of a remote user interface, in a UPnP environment, to a HTTP-based remote protocol model having stateless characteristics which do not allow state information of a remote user interface to be stored.

Claims

1. A method of allowing a client, which receives a remote user interface from a server, to request state information of the remote user interface to be saved, the method comprising:

obtaining state information of the remote user interface, which is generated when the remote user interface is used, by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface; and

requesting that the obtained state information be stored.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the remote user interface is a web page based on a stateless protocol which does not allow the state information to be stored.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the object is a Java script object which processes the predetermined request without reloading the web page.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises opening a new socket, which is not a socket being used by the remote user interface, and obtaining the state information via the new socket.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting comprises opening a new socket, which is not a socket being used by the remote user interface, and requesting that the state information be stored via the new socket.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the requesting comprises transmitting the request to a storage server providing a storage for storing the state information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising a user selecting the storage server to store the state information,

wherein the requesting comprises transmitting the request to the storage server based on information regarding the selected storage server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the obtaining comprises:

obtaining state information of the storage server, which is generated when the remote user interface is used; and

obtaining state information of the client, which is generated when the remote user interface is used.

9. The method of claim 8, when a command to store the state information of the server is received from the user, further comprising requesting the server to provide the state information thereof,

wherein the obtaining the state information of the storage server comprises obtaining the state information of the server from a response to the request.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the obtaining the state information of the client comprises reading the state information of the client from the remote user interface in order to obtain the state information of the client.

14. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the remote user interface control point module obtains the information of the storage server during universal plug and play discovery.

11. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a method of allowing a client, which receives a remote user interface from a server, to request storage of state information of a remote user interface, the method comprising:

obtaining state information of the remote user interface, which is generated when the remote user interface is used, by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface; and

requesting that the obtained state information be stored.

12. An apparatus for allowing a client, which uses a remote user interface provided from a server, to request storage of state information of the remote user interface, the apparatus comprising:

a remote user interface control point module which obtains information regarding a storage server which provides storage for storing the state information; and

a web browser module requesting the storage server to store the state information by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface, based on the information regarding the storage server obtained by the remote user interface control point module.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the web browser module obtains state information, which is generated when the client uses the remote user interface, by using the object, and requests that the obtained state information be stored.

15. A method of allowing a client, which receives a remote user interface from a server, to restore state information of the remote user interface, the method comprising:

obtaining state information, which is generated when the remote user interface is used, by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface; and

reflecting the obtained state information in the remote user interface.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the remote user interface is a web page based on a stateless protocol which does not allow the state information to be stored.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the object is a Java script which processes the predetermined request without reloading the web page.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the obtaining the state information comprises opening a new socket, which is not a socket being used by the remote user interface, and obtaining the state information via the new socket.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the obtaining the state information comprises obtaining the state information from a storage server which provides storage for storing the state information.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the obtaining the state information comprises obtaining state information of the client, which is generated when the remote user interface is used, and

the reflecting the obtained state information comprises reflecting the obtained state information of the client in the remote user interface.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the obtaining the state information further comprises:

obtaining state information of the server, which is generated when the remote user interface is used; and

providing the obtained state information of the server to the server.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising displaying a list of web pages, which are restorable when a user selects them, to a user, and allowing the user who recognizes the displayed list of web pages to select one from the list of web pages,

wherein the obtaining the state information comprises obtaining state information needed to restore the selected web page.

23. A computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for executing a method of allowing a client, which receives a remote user interface from a server, to restore state information of the remote user interface, the method comprising:

obtaining state information, which is generated when the remote user interface is used, by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface; and

reflecting the obtained state information in the remote user interface.

24. An apparatus for allowing to a client, which receives a remote user interface from a server, to restore state information of the remote user interface, the apparatus comprising:

a remote user interface control point module which obtains information regarding a storage server providing storage for storing the state information; and

a web browser module which obtains the state information from the storage server by using an object which processes a predetermined request without reloading the remote user interface, based on the information regarding the storage server obtained by the remote user interface control point module; and

reflects the obtained state information in the remote user interface.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the web browser module requests the storage server to provide state information, which is generated when the client uses the remote user interface, by using the object;

and obtaining the state information in response to the request.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the remote user interface control point module obtains the information of the storage server during universal plug and play discovery.