Content Representation Synchronization for Multi-Device Editing
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Computing devices with varying resource levels struggle to efficiently process and edit large content files, leading to slow performance or inability to process, causing user frustration.
Innovation Solution
A synchronization system manages multiple representations of content, including a single-file representation for full-resource devices and a composite representation for low-resource devices, using a manifest to identify components and revision identifiers for optimistic concurrency control, allowing changes across devices to be synchronized without imposing locks on files.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If content is stored as a single large file for full-resource devices, then editing capability is maintained, but processing speed and usability deteriorate on low-resource devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments large content files into multiple smaller components that can be selectively loaded and processed. Low-resource devices can work with only the necessary components rather than loading entire large files, improving processing speed while maintaining editing capability for relevant content portions.
Solution Approach 2:
Different device types receive different representations of content optimized for their resource levels. Full-resource devices receive complete content for full editing capability, while low-resource devices receive optimized subsets, ensuring each device operates at optimal speed for its capabilities.
2Speed
If content is divided into multiple components for low-resource devices, then processing speed improves, but synchronization complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple component files are merged with a manifest file to create a unified representation that preserves editing capability. The manifest coordinates the components, allowing synchronization systems to track changes across distributed components without requiring complex individual tracking of each file.
Solution Approach 2:
The manifest acts as an intermediary structure that coordinates between multiple content components and the synchronization system. It provides a single point of reference for tracking content state, simplifying synchronization by eliminating the need to independently track each component file.
3Productivity
If optimistic concurrency control is implemented without locks, then system performance improves, but risk of synchronization conflicts increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where devices check content state before and after operations. Revision identifiers provide feedback about content changes, allowing the system to detect conflicts and resolve them without requiring locks, maintaining both performance and reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
Two different representations of content are maintained, at least one of which is a composite representation of the content. The composite representation is multiple different components, each component stored as a separate file and each component including some of the data of the content. The composite representation also includes a manifest that identifies the various components. Different devices can edit the content, and access to the content is coordinated via a synchronization system. The synchronization system manages generation of one or more representations of the content. The synchronization system also manages synchronization of the different representations of the content, allowing changes made on various different computing devices to be reflected in the different representations of the content, and managing situations in which different computing devices may attempt to change the content concurrently.