Cross-Device State Synchronization via Intermediate Server
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods fail to provide seamless cross-device operations and collaboration between user devices with different platforms and screens, limiting the ability to maintain consistent experiences and share interactions across multiple devices.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that uses an intermediate device to manage state information and perform operations such as migrating, synchronizing, or duplicating elements between user devices, enabling cross-device operations by generating and updating content trees and sub-trees, and utilizing a virtual browser to split and render content across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If conventional methods are used to support applications on different user devices, then application compatibility across platforms is improved, but cross-device sharing and collaboration capabilities deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary component that receives state information from multiple user devices, stores it centrally, and distributes it back to the devices. This mediator enables cross-device sharing and collaboration by acting as a hub that connects otherwise isolated device instances, allowing users to share content and collaborate seamlessly across different platforms without compromising application compatibility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If separate application versions are created for different user devices, then device-specific optimization is improved, but system complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the application into multiple independent instances, with each instance running on a different user device. Each instance is optimized for its specific device while maintaining a common codebase. The server coordinates these segmented instances, allowing device-specific optimization without requiring separate application versions for each platform, thereby reducing overall system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal application framework that can run on multiple device types simultaneously. By using a single codebase that supports multiple platforms and introducing a server to coordinate device instances, the system achieves multi-functionality without the complexity of maintaining separate optimized versions for each device type.
3Productivity
If a single codebase is used across multiple platforms, then development efficiency is improved, but cross-device collaboration capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as a mediator that enables cross-device collaboration while the application maintains a single codebase. The server receives state information from different device instances, stores it centrally, and distributes it to appropriate devices, thereby adding collaboration capability without requiring platform-specific code modifications.
4Ease of operation
If device states are exchanged between user devices, then seamless cross-device experience is improved, but information synchronization complexity deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The server serves as a centralized intermediary that manages state information exchange between user devices. Instead of implementing complex peer-to-peer synchronization protocols between devices, the server receives state updates from any device, stores them centrally, and distributes relevant state information to other devices, thereby enabling seamless cross-device experience while simplifying the synchronization architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of providing for cross-device operations between user devices includes maintaining, using an intermediate device connected to the user devices, state information on different elements in different sub-views displayed respectively on first and second ones of the user devices. The first and second user devices are different from each other. The method further includes performing: migrating and synchronizing the state of one of the elements which is moved from the sub-view of the first user device to the sub-view of the second user device; and/or generating a shadow element on the sub-view of the second user device and linking the shadow element to one of the elements on the first user device which is duplicated from the sub-view of the first user device on the sub-view of the second user device, and updating the states of the linked elements.