Mobile App State Persistence via Moving Beacons
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Solution Overview
Problem
Mobile applications face challenges in maintaining persistent state information and communicating effectively between applications, especially when offline, due to their short lifetimes and reliance on network connections, which leads to latency and disrupted communication.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system where a mobile device processor identifies running applications, encrypts state information using a shared passcode, and transmits it via moving beacons to maintain state information across application lifetimes, allowing secure communication even when the device is offline.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mobile applications rely on network connections for inter-application communication, then communication can be established, but latency increases and communication is disrupted when offline
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by caching state information and authentication credentials locally on the mobile device before network connectivity is needed. Applications store encrypted state data in a shared location during initial network-connected sessions, enabling offline operation without latency or communication disruption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a shared location (such as a shared database or memory space) as an intermediary between applications. This intermediary stores encrypted state information that applications can read and write without direct network communication, resolving the latency and reliability issues during offline periods.
2Duration of action of moving object
If mobile applications use short lifetimes for execution, then resource consumption is reduced, but maintaining persistent state information becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the application state into two parts: transient execution state within the application memory and persistent state information stored in a shared location. The shared location acts as a persistent storage that survives application termination, allowing state information to be maintained despite short application lifetimes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent ensures continuity of useful action by implementing a mechanism where applications continuously write state information to the shared location during execution and read it upon restart. This continuous maintenance of state in the shared location preserves information across application lifecycles without requiring applications to remain running.
3Measurement precision
If applications transmit state information frequently to maintain persistence, then state accuracy is improved, but communication overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by allowing applications to autonomously manage their own state information in the shared location without centralized coordination. Each application writes its state when modified and reads when needed, eliminating the need for frequent polling or continuous transmission, thus reducing communication overhead while maintaining accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies dynamics by making the state transmission mechanism event-driven rather than time-driven. State information is transmitted only when changes occur (write operations) or when applications need to read current state, adapting the communication frequency to actual needs rather than following a fixed schedule, thereby reducing unnecessary overhead.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for communicating information between mobile applications are presented. In some embodiments, a mobile device may determine that a plurality of applications are running on the mobile device. The mobile device may determine that each application of the plurality of applications uses a shared passcode to encrypt information about a persistent state. The mobile device may generate a beacon that includes encrypted state information. The mobile device may maintain state information across the plurality of applications beyond the lifetime of any one of the plurality of applications by transmitting the beacon from a first application to a second application before the first application's lifetime is completed.