| System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device -> Monitor Keywords |
|
|
 
System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication deviceRelated Patent Categories: Electrical Computers And Digital Processing Systems: Multicomputer Data Transferring, Computer Conferencing, Demand Based MessagingSystem and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device description/claimsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20080052365, System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 09/087,623, entitled System and Method for Pushing Information from a Host System to a Mobile Data Communication Device, filed May 29, 1998, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 09/545,963 filed on Apr. 10, 2000. Both of these related applications are hereby incorporated into the present application by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention is directed toward the field of replicating (or synchronizing) information folders between a host system and a mobile data communication device ("mobile device"). Specifically upon receiving this redirected information at their mobile device, the user can then organize this data into hierarchies, commonly known as folders, and may also perform various other operations on the redirected data. These organizational and other operations are then synchronized back to the original host system for replication. The invention also provides for the synchronization of a storage representation model for storing the data in a hierarchy of folders at the host system and the mobile device. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Present systems and methods for replicating information from a host system to a user's mobile data communication device are typically "synchronization" systems in which the user's data items are warehoused (or stored) at the host system for an indefinite period of time and then transmitted in bulk only in response to a user request. In these types of systems and methods, when replication of the warehoused data items to the mobile device is desired, the user typically places the mobile device in an interface cradle that is electrically connected to the host system via some form of local, dedicated communication, such as a serial cable or an infrared or other type of wireless link. Alternatively, the user might have to perform a special `connection` action every so often that will synchronous all the pending items required by the user, provided they remember. Software executing on the mobile data communication device then transmits commands via the local communications link or a network link to the host system to cause the host to begin transmitting the user's data items for storage in a memory bank of the mobile device. In these synchronization schemes, the mobile unit "pulls" the warehoused information from the host system in a batch each time the user desires to replicate information between the two devices. Therefore, the two systems (host and mobile) only maintain the same data items after a user-initiated command sequence that causes the mobile device to download the data items from the host system. [0006] Another major problem with the current pull-based systems is that the user must deal with the information all over again once the user returns to his office and accesses the information store at the host system. This situation occurs because the average user can get hundreds of pieces of electronic information a day. This is very common in e-mail systems where internal company mail, and external Internet mail, merge into one common mailbox creating a multitude of sources all merged into one location. As a result, once the user returns to their office, even though they may have seen and read the mail while traveling on their mobile device, they still have to re-read the messages and then organize the information into folders based upon the content. This results in user frustration, as the mobile device has not solved the problem of saving them time when the user returns to his office and accesses the information store at the host system. [0007] A general problem with these known synchronization systems is that the only time that the user data items are replicated between the host system and the mobile data communication device is when the user commands the mobile device to download or pull the user data from the host system. Five minutes later a new message could be sent to the user, but the user would not receive that message until the next time the user fetches the user data items. Thus, a user may fail to respond to an emergency update or message because the user only periodically synchronizes the system, such as once per day. [0008] Other problems with these systems include: (1) the amount of data to be reconciled between the host and the mobile device can become large if the user does not "synchronize" on a daily or hourly basis, leading to bandwidth difficulties, particularly when the mobile device is communicating via a wireless packet-switched network; (2) reconciling large amounts of data, as can accrue in these batch-mode synchronization systems, can require a great deal of communication between the host and the mobile device, thus leading to a more complex, costly and energy-inefficient system; and (3) the need to deal with the information a second time once the user returns to the office and accesses the information store at the host system. A more automated, continuous, efficient and reliable system of ensuring that user data items are replicated (synchronized) at the user's mobile device is therefore needed. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0009] A system and method of pushing user-selected data items from a host system to a user's mobile data communication device upon detecting the occurrence of one or more user-defined event triggers is provided. The user may then move (or file) the data items to a particular folder within a folder hierarchy stored in the mobile data communication device, or may execute some other system operation on the data item. Software operating at the mobile device and the host system then synchronizes the folder hierarchy of the mobile device with a folder hierarchy of the host system, and any actions executed on the data items at the mobile device are then automatically replicated on the same data items stored at the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to manually repeat the same actions at the host system that have been executed at the mobile data communication device. [0010] As used in this application, the term host system refers to the computer where the redirector software is operating or is associated with. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the host system is a user's desktop PC, although, alternatively, the host system could be a network server connected to the user's PC via a local-area network ("LAN"), or could be any other system that is in communication with the user's desktop PC. In a preferred embodiment, the host system and the mobile device share a secure and private encryption key so that all communications that are exchanged between the end points (i.e., between the host system and the mobile device) are private. [0011] A redirector program operating at the host system enables the user to redirect or mirror certain user-selected data items (or parts of data items) from the host system to the user's mobile data communication device upon detecting that one or more user-defined triggering events has occurred. These data items also include properties and attributes like the data item status, its creation time and data, and information about where it has been placed in an information hierarchy. Once the data items and its properties have been redirected to the user's mobile data communication device, the user may then organize and sort the items into folder hierarchies that are replicated at the host system. Additionally the the user may act upon the redirected data items, such as by reading, organizing, replying or forwarding the data item from the mobile data communication device, the host system is then informed of these actions and automatically reflects the changes on the corresponding data item stored at the host system. This reconciliation process creates a mirrored data store between the host system and the mobile device for those parts of their shared information. The term "mirrored" or "mirroring" when used in this description is meant to convey to the reader that all, substantially all or at least all of the pertinent information of a collection of data the user desires to have access to is accessible at either the mobile or host system. Due to limited display screen sizes and other issues relating to real-estate on a limited screen on a mobile communication, it is within the scope of one aspect of the invention to have representation of the data stored in either the host system or mobile device stored at the mobile device or host system, respectively, thereby still providing a "mirrored" data environment without necessarily the same graphical user interface or presentation of the mirrored data. [0012] Another advantage of this data store mirroring is that traditionally in data storage systems, status icons are used to associate a state with a particular data item. A status icon is a graphical image of what state a given data item is in, i.e. read, replied to, or forwarded. The ability to affect these graphical images when viewed via a computer terminal at or associated with the host system from the mobile device allows the user a quick visual method of reviewing a list of data items in a particular folder to determine their states. This allows the user to know what actions have been performed on them, whether an action occurred from the mobile device, or whether nothing has been done to a given set of data items. [0013] Operating at the host system are various sub-systems that can be configured to create triggering events, such as a screen saver sub-system or a keyboard sub-system, as well as sub-systems for repackaging the user's data items for transparent delivery to the mobile data device, such as a TCP/IP sub-system or one or more E-Mail sub-systems. Other sub-systems for creating triggering events and repackaging the user's data items could also be present at the host system. The host system also includes a primary memory store where the user's data items are normally stored with related information as to which folder the message might have originally been placed into. [0014] Using the redirector program, the user can select certain data items for redirection, such as E-mail messages, calendar events, meeting notifications, address entries, journal entries, personal reminders, contact information, task lists, expense lists, etc. The user can also select which folders get redirected to the mobile device. For example, the user may select that only data items in the Inbox and those in the company X folder shall be sent to the device. The user might select only the work-related journal folder in the journal sub-system, their personal address folder within the contacts sub-system, and their 9 to 5 work calendar folder are to be redirected to their mobile device. Having selected the data items for redirection, the user can then configure one or more event triggers to be sensed by the redirector program to initiate redirection of the user data items. These user-defined trigger points (or event triggers) include external events, internal events and networked events. [0015] Examples of external events include: receiving a message from the user's mobile data communication device to begin redirection; receiving a similar message from some external computer; sensing that the user is no longer in the vicinity of the host system; or any other event that is external to the host system. Internal events could be a calendar alarm, screen saver activation, keyboard timeout, programmable timer, or any other user-defined event that is internal to the host system. Networked events are user-defined messages that are transmitted to the host system from another computer coupled to the host system via a network to initiate redirection. These are just some of the examples of the types of user-defined events that can trigger the redirector program to push data items from the host to the mobile device. [0016] The concept of a data items stored in a hierarchy is very well known in the field of computer science and in science in general. Categorization in the field of species identification has been done for hundreds of years. This same method of classification has been adopted into information systems so that people can deal with the large quantity of information that comes their way in a daily, weekly or yearly basis. Therefore the term folder is used to represent this categorization of information into meaningful and related associations; i.e. especially meaningful to the person filing the information. Naturally in a professional or business setting you might have one or more people filing the same information, i.e. a personal secretary helping a boss stay on top of the information by pre-filing the data for them. [0017] In addition to the functionality noted above, the redirector program provides a set of software-implemented control functions for determining the type of mobile data communication device and its address, for programming a preferred list of message types or folder names that are to be redirected, and for determining whether the mobile device can receive and process certain types of message attachments, such as word processor or voice attachments. The determination of whether a particular mobile device can receive and process attachments is initially configured by the user of that mobile device at the host system. This configuration can then be altered on a global or per message basis by transmitting a command message from the mobile device to the host system. If the redirector is configured so that the mobile data device cannot receive and process word processor or voice attachments, then the redirector routes these attachments to an external machine that is compatible with the particular attachment, such as a networked printer or fax machine or telephone. Other types of attachments could be redirected to other types of external machines in a similar fashion, depending upon the capabilities of the mobile device. For example, if a user is traveling and receives a message with an attachment that the user's mobile device can process or display, the user may from a mobile communications device send a command message to the host system indicating that that attachment is to be sent to a fax machine at a hotel where the user will be spending the evening. This enables the user to receive important E-mail attachments as long as the host system is provided with sufficient information about the destination where the attachment is to be forwarded. [0018] Once an event has triggered redirection of the user data items, the host system then repackages these items in a manner that is transparent to the mobile data communication device, so that information on the mobile device appears similar to information on the user's host system. In additional to repackaging the information itself, the repackaging may also include properties about the message. This might include the folder from which the message has been detected and pushed to the device. The preferred repackaging method includes wrapping the user data items in an E-mail envelope that corresponds to the address of the mobile data communication device, although, alternatively, other repackaging methods could be used with the present invention, such as special-purpose TCP/IP wrapping techniques, or other methods of wrapping the user selected data items. The repackaging preferably results in E-mail messages appearing to come from the host system even though they are initiated at the mobile device, thus enabling the user to appear to have a single E-mail address, such that the recipients of messages sent from the mobile communications device do not know where the user was physically located when the message was first sent. The repackaging also permits both messages to the mobile device and sent from the mobile device to be encrypted and decrypted as well as compressed and decompressed. [0019] In an alternative system and method, the redirector program executes on a network server, and the server is programmed to detect numerous redirection event triggers over the network from multiple user desktop computers coupled to the server via a LAN. The server can receive internal event triggers from each of the user desktops via the network, and can also receive external event triggers, such as messages from the users' mobile data communication devices. In response to receiving one of these triggers, the server redirects the user's data items to the proper mobile data communication device. The user data items and addressing information for a particular mobile device can be stored at the server or at the user's PC. Using this alternative configuration, one redirector program can serve a plurality of users. This alternative configuration could also include an internet- or intranet-based redirector program that could be accessible through a secure webpage or other user interface. The redirector program could be located on an Internet Service Provider's system and accessible only through the Internet. [0020] In another alternative configuration of the present invention, a redirector program operates at both the host system and at the user's mobile data communication device. In this configuration, the user's mobile device operates similarly to the host system described below, and is configured in a similar fashion to push certain user-selected data items from the mobile device to the user's host system (or some other computer) upon detecting an event trigger at the mobile device. This configuration provides two-way pushing of information from the host to the mobile device and from the mobile device to the host. Another embodiment of this original redirector concept is to `relay` information from a host to a mobile and onward to another device capable of dealing with certain messages or attachments. By using a standard like Bluetooth.TM. the mobile device could receive a message with an attached print file and then using Radio Frequency (RF) Bluetooth methods relay that to the printer to produce a hard copy. [0021] Wireless mobile data communications devices, especially those that can return a confirmation signal to the host that the pushed data has been received, are especially well suited for this type of push paradigm. It is also possible for the mobile data communications device to include additional information with the confirmation signal, including, any one or more of the following actions, the fact that the message has been read (the information associated therewith is a "read signal"); has been filed in a specific folder (the information associated therewith is a "filed signal"); has been forwarded to another recipient (the information associated therewith is a "forward signal"); or, has been replied to (the information associated therewith is a "reply signal"). These actions can then be synchronized with the host system, thus eliminating the need for the user to perform these actions a second time. The action signals may advantageously be used to indicate the state of the message at the mobile. Continue reading about System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device... Full patent description for System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: System and method for hunting out mail recipients in order to obtain a response Next Patent Application: System for low power operation of wireless lan interfaces Industry Class: Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomputer data transferring or plural processor synchronization ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the System and method for pushing information from a host system to a mobile data communication device patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.20277 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Daimler Chrysler , DirecTV , Exxonmobil Chemical Company , Goodyear , Intel , Kyocera Wireless , 174 |
 * Protect your Inventions * US Patent Office filing 
PATENT INFO |
|
