Scalable synchronization of events among server and clients with varying lag-times

• US 8,312,173 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2011
• Issued: 11/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Auga Technologies Ltd.
• Original Assignee: LUMS Technology
• Inventors: Wikars, Marcus, Holtlund, Magnus, Berg, Johannes
• Primary Examiner(s): Ibrahim, Mohamed
• Application Number:
  US13/269,211
• Publication Number:
  US 20120089718A1
• Time in Patent Office: 403 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/248
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/64 Retargetable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

The invention relates generally to synchronizing functions on handheld devices and more particularly to precisely synchronizing a function among a large number of devices having multiple different platforms. The invention provides the ability to cause a large number of handheld devices to perform certain functions simultaneously, within seconds or fractions of a second of each other. In certain aspects, the invention provides an apparatus for synchronizing a function among devices, including one or more processors in communication with a memory and configured to, for each of the devices, send an event to the device, receive a timepacket, and send a return timepacket, thereby causing the device to receive the event and invoke the function after a delay.

Claims

1. An apparatus for synchronizing a function on a plurality of devices, the apparatus comprising:

a memory comprising an event, the event comprising a reference to the function and a desired event time (DET);

one or more processors in communication with the memory and configured to, for each of the devices;

send content comprising the function and the event to the device;

receive a timepacket comprising a start time t₁ sent at the start time t₁ from the device;

add to the each timepacket a system time t₂; and

send a return timepacket comprising return time t₂ to the device;

whereby the device;

receives the return timepacket at a receipt time t₃;

determines a roundtrip time (RTT=t₃−

t₁) and calculate a server difference (SD=t₂+(RTT/2)−

t₃);

receives, at an event receipt time t₄, the event;

calculates a delay (D=DET−

(t₄+SD)); and

exhibits the function at a synchronized event time (SDET=t₄+D).

2. The apparatus of claim 1 further wherein, for each of the plurality of devices, the function comprises displaying a question relating to a real world event and a prompt for an input and the functionality is exhibited simultaneously with the real-world event, thereby causing the plurality of devices to collect a plurality of inputs.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising a core database in communication with the memory and the one or more processors, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

aggregate the plurality of inputs to create an aggregate result;

store the aggregate result as a group item in the core database;

create a displayable object comprising the aggregate result; and

cause each of the plurality of devices to display the displayable object.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 further wherein the one or more processers send the event within approximately 45 seconds in advance of the desired event time.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 further wherein, for each device, the one or more processors cause the device to invoke the function within approximately one second of when each of the other of the plurality of devices exhibit the functionality.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein, for one of the plurality of devices, the start time t₁ comprises a Java Virtual Machine system time from a Java Virtual Machine environment and, for a second one of the plurality of devices, a second start time t₁ comprises an iOS system time from an iPhone platform.

7. A method for synchronizing a function on a plurality of devices by means of a computing system comprising one or more processors, the method comprising:

sending, from a memory comprising an event, the event comprising a reference to the function and a desired event time (DET);

sending content comprising the function to a device and a second device;

receiving a timepacket, the timepacket comprising a start time t₁ indicating the time at which the timepacket was sent, from a device

adding, to the timepacket, a system time t₂;

sending a return timepacket to the device;

receiving a second timepacket from a second device and sending a second return timepacket to the second device; and

sending the event to the second device, thereby causing the device to;

determine a roundtrip time (RTT=t₃−

t₁) and calculate a server difference (SD=t₂+(RTT/2)−

t₃),

receive, at an event receipt time t₄, the event,

calculate the delay (D=DET−

(t₄+SD)), and

exhibit the function at a synchronized event time (SDET=t₄+D), and also causing the second device to invoke the function within approximately 1 second of when the device invokes the function.

8. The method of claim 7 further wherein the function comprises displaying a question relating to a real world event and a prompt for an input and the functionality is exhibited on the device and the second device substantially simultaneously with the real-world event, thereby causing the device to collect an input and the second device to collect a second input.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising a core database in communication with the memory and the one or more processors, and wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

aggregate the input and the second input to create an aggregate result;

store the aggregate result as a group item in the core database;

create a displayable object comprising the aggregate result; and

cause the device and the second device to display the displayable object.

10. The method of claim 7 further wherein the one or more processers send the event within approximately 45 seconds in advance of the desired event time.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the start time t₁ comprises a Java Virtual Machine system time from a Java Virtual Machine environment and the second start time t₁ comprises an iOS system time from an iPhone platform.

12. A system for synchronizing handhelds, the system comprising:

a server comprising a processor and a memory, wherein the server is configured to send content comprising functionality and an event, the event comprising a reference to the content and a desired event time (DET);

a plurality of handheld devices, each in communication with the server and each configured to;

obtain the content and store it;

send a timepacket at a start time t₁ comprising the start time t₁;

receive, at a return timepacket receipt time t₃, from the server, a return timepacket comprising a return time t₂;

determine a roundtrip time (RTT=t₃−

t₁) and calculate a server difference (SD=t₂+(RTT/2)−

t₃);

receive, at an event receipt time t₄, the event;

calculate a delay (D=DET−

(t₄+SD)); and

exhibit the functionality at a synchronized desired event time (SDET=t₄+D).

13. The system of claim 12 further wherein the functionality comprises displaying a question relating to a real world event to an end-user and a prompt for input and the functionality is exhibited by the plurality of devices substantially simultaneously with the real-world event.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the server sends the event in advance of the desired event time by an amount of time ranging from approximately 30 seconds to approximately 45 seconds.

15. The system of claim 12 further wherein each of the plurality of devices exhibits the functionality within approximately one second of when each of the other of the plurality of devices exhibit the functionality.