Entitlement Locker Synchronization for Cross-Device Application Portability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing personal computing devices are not designed to seamlessly transfer applications and data between users or devices, limiting the portability and accessibility of user-specific content across different devices.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that enables the synchronization of user profiles and applications across multiple personal computing devices through a networked environment, utilizing a locker manager application that verifies user entitlement and allows access to purchased applications and data, while maintaining saved states and settings, allowing users to access their entitled content on any device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If personal computing devices are designed for single-user access with local storage only, then device security and data integrity are maintained, but user content cannot be accessed across multiple devices
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary component that mediates between multiple personal computing devices and the user's entitlement locker. The server receives synchronization requests from devices, verifies user credentials, and manages the transfer of application states and data between devices. This intermediary approach enables cross-device accessibility without requiring direct peer-to-peer device communication, thus maintaining security while achieving portability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-device local storage model to a multi-dimensional distributed architecture where user content exists across multiple devices and a centralized server. The entitlement locker on the server provides a cloud-based dimension for storing application states and data, allowing users to access their content from any registered device. This dimensional expansion resolves the contradiction by decoupling data storage from individual devices while maintaining device-level security controls.
2Ease of operation
If user profiles and application states are synchronized across multiple devices, then user experience continuity is improved, but data security and access control become more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary authentication and entitlement verification before allowing access to synchronized content. When a user attempts to access applications or data on a device, the system first verifies the user's credentials and checks their entitlement status in the entitlement locker. This preliminary action ensures that only authorized users can access their content on any device, maintaining security while enabling seamless synchronization across the user's device ecosystem.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs feedback mechanisms through continuous synchronization of user profiles, application states, and entitlement information between devices and the server. The system monitors changes on each device and automatically updates other devices and the server entitlement locker, ensuring data consistency. This feedback loop maintains both security (through centralized entitlement verification) and continuity (through real-time synchronization of user experience data).
3Speed
If application states and data are stored locally on each device, then access speed is fast, but data portability between devices is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the storage architecture into local and remote components. Application states and data are cached locally on each device for fast access during active use, while simultaneous copies are maintained in the entitlement locker on the server. This segmentation allows the system to provide both fast local access speeds and cross-device portability, as users can switch between devices and their content will be available from the server cache on the new device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges local device storage with centralized cloud storage in a hybrid architecture. The entitlement locker on the server combines with local device storage to create a unified data access system. When users access their applications on different devices, the system intelligently retrieves data from either the local cache or the server entitlement locker, providing both the speed of local storage and the portability of cloud storage.
4Productivity
If multiple users can access the same device, then device utilization is maximized, but user-specific content isolation becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses copying mechanisms to create user-specific instances of profiles, application states, and data from the central entitlement locker. When a user logs into a shared device, the system copies their personalized content from the server to the local device temporarily. When the user logs out, their content is removed from the device. This copying approach allows multiple users to share the same device while maintaining complete isolation of their content, as each user's data exists only in their own temporary session on the device.
Data Source
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AI summary
Disclosed are various embodiments enabling a saved state of an application to be stored at a central location and to be retrieved by multiple computing devices executing the application. Accordingly, saved states of applications and interfaces are also enabled to follow a user from one personal computing device to the next.