SYNCHRONIZING AN INSTANCE OF AN APPLICATION BETWEEN MULTIPLE DEVICES

• US 20140287818A1
• Filed: 06/02/2014
• Published: 09/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Razer (Asia-Pacific) Pte. Ltd. (Razer Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Nextbit Systems, Inc. (Razer Incorporated)
• Inventors: Chan, Michael A., Quan, Justin, Bornstein, Daniel R., Moss, Tom, Tong, Linda
• Granted Patent: US 9,061,210 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/24
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/35 Details of game servers
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/49 Saving the game status; Pausing or ending the game
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/77 involving data related to game devices or game servers, e.g. configuration data, software version or amount of memory
• 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

Abstract

A technique and apparatus for backing up and restoring game application state across multiple devices are disclosed herein. The method includes running an instance of a game application at a first device. Based on any of various criteria, such as the proximity between the first device and a second device or a priority of synchronization, a computer makes a determination to synchronize the application state between the two devices. The computer causes the application state data, which represents an application state of the game application running on the first device, to be saved and made available to the second device, such as by saving the application state data to cloud storage. The second device receives the application state data and restores the game application state.

Claims

1. A method for synchronizing application instances between multiple devices, comprising:

receiving an indication, by a computer system, that a first instance of an application is being run at a first mobile device, the first mobile device being one of a plurality of devices that are associated with a user, the plurality of devices including a second mobile device;

accessing a storage device, by the computer system, to obtain user profile data associated with a user profile of the user, the user profile data including proximity algorithm data that is based on input from the user, and that is utilized by a proximity-based synchronization algorithm to customize the proximity-based synchronization algorithm;

performing an analysis, by the computer system, that utilizes the proximity-based synchronization algorithm, the user profile data, and an indication of a location of the first mobile device or the second mobile device, and that produces an analysis result;

determining a priority of synchronization, by the computer system, wherein the priority of synchronization is based on the user profile data and the analysis result;

determining a schedule to synchronize, based on the priority of synchronization, application state data of the first instance of the application, the determination of the schedule made by the computer system, the application state data being state data of the first instance of the application that enables the first instance of the application to be replicated at another device; and

in response to meeting the schedule to synchronize the application state data, causing, by the computer system, the application state data to be transferred from the first mobile device to the second mobile device to enable a second instance of the application to be initiated, based on the application state data, at the second mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application state data is transferred from the first mobile device to the second mobile device via one or more intermediary devices.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein an intermediary device of the one or more intermediary devices is a cloud storage server, and wherein the application state data is stored at the cloud storage server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the application state data is transferred via direct short-range wireless communication between the first mobile device and the second mobile device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining which state data of the first instance of the application changed between a first saved state that corresponds to a first point in time, and a second state that corresponds to a second point in time,

wherein said determining indicates that the state data that changed between the first saved state and the second state is a portion of the state data, the portion being less than all of the state data, and

wherein the application state data is a delta synchronization that includes the portion of the state data, and does not include all of the state data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the application state data includes any of memory data of the first instance of the application, local storage data of the first instance of the application, hardware configuration data, or user account configuration data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the second instance of the application was initiated, based on the application state data, at the second mobile device.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

causing the second instance of the application to be initiated, based on the application state data, at the second mobile device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is one of the first mobile device or the second mobile device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mobile device is any one of a smart phone, a tablet computer, a portable media device, a wearable computing device, or a laptop, and wherein the second mobile device is any one of a smart phone, a tablet computer, a portable media device, a wearable computing device, or a laptop.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the location is any of a global positioning system (GPS) coordinate, a message being sent via direct short range wireless communication between the first mobile device and the second mobile device, a name of a WLAN to which the first mobile device has access, or an indication that the first mobile device is within a geo-fence.

12. A method comprising:

receiving an indication, by a computer system, that a first instance of an application is being run at a first mobile device, the first mobile device being one of a plurality of devices that are associated with a user, the plurality of devices including a second mobile device;

obtaining, by the computer system, user profile data that is associated with a user profile of the user, and user history data that includes data that indicates historic usage by the user of at least one of the first mobile device or the second mobile device, wherein the user profile data includes proximity algorithm data that is associated with a proximity-based synchronization algorithm;

performing an analysis, by the computer system, to determine a priority of synchronization, wherein the analysis is based on the user history data, the proximity-based synchronization algorithm, the proximity algorithm data, and an indication of a location of one or both of the first mobile device or the second mobile device;

determining a schedule to synchronize, based on the priority of synchronization, application state data of the first instance of the application, the determination of the schedule made by the computer system, the application state data being state data of the first instance of the application that enables the first instance of the application to be replicated at another device; and

in response to meeting the schedule to synchronize the application state data, causing the application state data to be transferred from the first mobile device to the second mobile device to enable a second instance of the application to be initiated, based on the application state data, at the second mobile device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said at least one of the first mobile device or the second mobile device is the first mobile device, and wherein said one or both of the first mobile device or the second mobile device is the second mobile device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the priority of synchronization of the second mobile device is higher than the priority of synchronization of a selected device of the plurality of devices when the second mobile device is physically close to the first mobile device, and is lower than the priority of synchronization of the selected device when the second mobile device is located remotely from the first mobile device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the first mobile device is physically close to the second mobile device when the first mobile device is at a same location as the second mobile device, when the first mobile device is within direct short range wireless communication range of the second mobile device, or when the first mobile device is separated from the second mobile device by less than a predefined distance.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the user history data indicates that the user switches from the first mobile device to the second mobile device when the first mobile device is physically close to the second mobile device.

17. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a communication interface coupled to the processor, through which to communicate with remote devices; and

a storage device coupled to the processor, the storage device storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the computer system to perform operations including;

receiving an indication that a first instance of an application is being run at a first mobile device, the first mobile device being one of a plurality of devices that are associated with a user, the plurality of devices including a second mobile device;

accessing the storage device to obtain user profile data associated with a user profile of the user, and to obtain proximity algorithm data that is associated a proximity-based synchronization algorithm and that is based on input from the user;

performing an analysis based on the proximity-based synchronization algorithm, the proximity algorithm data, an indication of a location of one or more of the plurality of devices, and the user profile data to determine a priority of synchronization;

determining to synchronize, based on the priority of synchronization, application state data of the first instance of the application, the application state data being data which represents a state of the first instance of the application; and

in response to the determination to synchronize the application state data, causing the application state data to be transferred from the first mobile device to the second mobile device to enable a second instance of the application to be initiated, based on the application state data, at the second mobile device.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the operations further include:

receiving an indication that the first mobile device is at a first location, an indication that the second mobile device is at the first location, and an indication that a third device is at the first location, the third device being one of the plurality of devices,

wherein said causing the application state data to be transferred from the first mobile device to the second mobile device is further in response to the priority of synchronization of the second mobile device being higher than the priority of synchronization of the third device.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the first location is any of a residence, a business, or an area whose boundary is defined by a geo-fence.

20. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the proximity-based synchronization algorithm data indicates to prioritize, when the first mobile device, the second mobile device, and the third device are all at a same location, synchronizing the first mobile device to the second mobile device higher than synchronizing the first mobile device to the third device.

21. The computer system of claim 18, wherein said performing the analysis is further based on user history data that indicates historic usage by the user of any of the first mobile device, the second mobile device, or the third device, and wherein the user history data indicates that the user switches from the first mobile device to the second mobile device more often that the user switches from the first mobile device to the third device when the first mobile device, the second mobile device, and the third device are all at a same location.