Detecting duplicative user data on computing device

• US 8,015,163 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2009
• Issued: 09/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Prasad, Srikiran, Welingkar, Bharat
• Primary Examiner(s): LEWIS, CHERYL RENEA
• Application Number:
  US12/494,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20090313264A1
• Time in Patent Office: 799 Days
• Field of Search: 707/692
• US Class Current: 707/692
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0846 based on copy from other elements
• 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 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A client-side device is capable of wirelessly receiving user data for the device. The device is capable of removing duplicative user data items among data wirelessly received and data already existing on the device. The duplicative data may be “de-duped” even though duplicative data items may arise as a result of synchronization operations using different synchronization engines used to synchronize different sets of data types.

Claims

1. A mobile computing device, comprising:

a first module configured to wirelessly communicate user data on the mobile computing device for storage on a remote system;

a second module configured to wirelessly receive at least a portion of the user data from the remote system; and

a third module configured to detect duplicative user data among the wirelessly received user data and user data already present on the mobile computing device.

2. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the duplicative user data results from merging of data with a plurality of different sources, wherein at least one of the sources is a synchronization engine.

3. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the duplicative user data is removed.

4. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the duplicative user data is deleted.

5. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data using a plurality of synchronization engines.

6. The mobile computing device of claim 5, wherein at least one of the plurality of synchronization engines is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization using another one of the plurality of synchronization engines.

7. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the user data comprises contact data for people.

8. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the third module is further configured to detect a first data item as being duplicative with a second data item even though the first data item and the second data item are not exactly identical.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device comprises a wireless telephony circuit and a wireless telephony application and further comprises a housing configured to be handheld for personal digital assistant use.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein the mobile computing device is configured to wirelessly communicate at least a portion of user data to the remote system for de-duping using a data de-duping module operable on the remote system.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 1, wherein in the case of detected duplicative user data, the third module is further configured to prompt a user to select the wirelessly received user data or the user data already present on the mobile computing device.

12. The mobile computing device of claim 11, wherein the third module is further configured to merge the detected duplicative data.

13. A computing device, comprising:

a first module configured to communicate user data on the computing device for storage on a remote system;

a second module configured to receive at least a portion of the user data from the remote system; and

a third module configured to detect duplicative user data among the received user data and user data already present on the computing device, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data from a plurality of different remote sources, wherein at least one of the sources is a synchronization engine.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the duplicative user data is removed.

15. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the duplicative user data is deleted.

16. The computing device of claim 13 wherein at least one of the plurality of synchronization engines is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization using another one of the plurality of synchronization engines.

17. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the user data comprises contact data for people.

18. The computing device of claim 13, wherein the computing device is a desktop computer or a laptop computer.

19. One or more server computers, comprising:

a first module configured to receive user data from a mobile computing device for storage on one of the server computers;

a second module configured to transmit at least a portion of the user data to the mobile computing device; and

a third module configured to detect duplicative user data among received user data and user data already present on the one or more server computers, wherein the duplicative user data results from synchronization of data from a plurality of different sources, wherein at least one of the sources comprises a synchronization engine.

20. The one or more server computers of claim 19 wherein at least one of the plurality of sources is used to synchronize a set of data types that is different than a set of data types subject to synchronization using another one of the plurality of sources.

21. The one or more server computers of claim 19, wherein the user data comprises contact data for people.

22. The one or more server computers of claim 19, wherein the third module is further configured to detect a first data item as being duplicative with a second data item even though the first data item and the second data item are not exactly identical.

23. The one or more server computers of claim 19, further comprising an account management module configured to establish an account for the mobile computing device.