Server-Based Clipboard for Cross-Device Data Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cloud computing services lack efficient mechanisms for sharing data between applications across different devices and users, limiting the ability to seamlessly transfer and manage large amounts of data between various computing sessions and devices.
Innovation Solution
A server-based clipboard system that allows users to interact with a cloud-based clipboard, enabling data sharing across multiple computing sessions and devices by storing clipboard items associated with user accounts, allowing authorized users to access and share content, and maintaining formatting and metadata.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If data is stored locally on individual devices using traditional clipboard mechanisms, then data access is fast and immediate, but data cannot be shared across different devices and computing sessions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent moves clipboard data from the local device dimension to the network/cloud dimension by storing clipboard items on a remote server accessible via network connections. This allows data to be accessed from multiple devices and locations while maintaining clipboard functionality, effectively adding a network dimension to the traditional local clipboard system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a clipboard server as an intermediary between users and clipboard data. The server stores clipboard items and manages access control, acting as a mediator that enables cross-device data sharing while maintaining security and user authentication. This intermediary resolves the contradiction by providing both remote accessibility and controlled access.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a network clipboard system is implemented to share data across devices, then data sharing capability is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a universal clipboard system that works across multiple devices, applications, and users through a common network interface. The clipboard server provides multi-functional capabilities including storage, access control, authentication, and data retrieval, allowing a single system to handle diverse clipboard operations across different platforms and devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements a network clipboard that creates copies of local clipboard data and stores them on the remote server. This copying mechanism allows data to exist in multiple locations (local and remote) simultaneously, enabling access from different devices without requiring complex real-time synchronization or data transfer protocols.
3Adaptability or versatility
If clipboard data is stored on a remote server, then data can be accessed from multiple devices and sessions, but data loss risk increases due to network dependency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges local clipboard functionality with remote server storage by integrating both local and networked clipboard operations. The system combines the immediacy of local clipboard access with the persistence and accessibility of remote storage, creating a hybrid system that maintains data availability even when network connectivity is intermittent or lost.
Data Source
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AI summary
A computer-implemented method of sharing data between computer applications is discussed. The method includes receiving, at an application server sub-system of a hosted computer server system and from a first computing device that is remote from the hosted computer server system, commands interacting with an electronic document served by the application server sub-system, and receiving at the hosted computer server system a command to copy content from the electronic document to an electronic clipboard. The method also includes storing, at a clipboard server sub-system of the hosted computer server system, that is separate from the application server sub-system, data that represents the content, receiving a request for the stored data that represents the content, and delivering, from the clipboard server sub-system to a second computing device, the data that represents the content.