Unified Task Manager for Cross-Device Application Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies lack the ability to seamlessly synchronize task lists and application lists across multiple user devices, requiring users to manually view and manage tasks and applications on each device individually, which is inconvenient and burdensome, especially when access to all devices is not physical.
Innovation Solution
A unified task manager and app tray system that synchronizes task and application lists across devices, allowing users to view and manage tasks and applications from one device, with features like app pulling and app casting, enabling actions on tasks and applications across devices through a centralized interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users manually view and manage tasks and applications on each device individually, then they can access device-specific information, but the process becomes inconvenient and burdensome, especially when physical access to all devices is not available
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple device-specific task lists and application lists into a single unified view that displays all tasks and applications across all user devices. This merging eliminates the need for users to manually access each device separately, allowing them to view and manage all tasks and applications from one centralized interface, thereby improving convenience and reducing time consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The unified task manager and app tray system provides universal access to tasks and applications across different device types (smartphones, tablets, computers). Users can perform actions such as launching, terminating, and transferring tasks and applications from any device in the group, making the system adaptable to various user scenarios and device configurations.
2Adaptability or versatility
If users access tasks and applications on multiple devices individually, then they can perform device-specific operations, but the system complexity increases and user burden grows
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary that receives task lists and application lists from multiple user devices, synchronizes this information, and distributes it back to all devices. This intermediary layer handles the complexity of multi-device management centrally, allowing users to interact with a simplified unified interface while the server manages the underlying complexity of coordinating across multiple devices.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms where changes made on one device (such as launching, terminating, or transferring tasks and applications) are automatically synchronized and reflected across all other devices in the group. This real-time feedback ensures consistency across the system and reduces user burden by automatically updating the state of tasks and applications across all devices without requiring manual intervention on each device.
3Loss of information
If no synchronization mechanism is implemented, then each device operates independently, but users cannot view or manage tasks and applications across all devices from a single interface
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges task lists and application lists from multiple devices into a unified view that displays all tasks and applications across all user devices in one centralized interface. This consolidation ensures that users have complete visibility of all their tasks and applications without needing to access each device separately, preventing information loss and improving accessibility.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosure is directed to presenting a unified view of tasks and applications across multiple computing devices of a user. A unified view of the tasks can be presented using a task manager. The task manager presents a list of tasks that are executing at each of the devices. The user can perform multiple actions on the tasks, e.g., launch on a first device a task executing on a second device from the first device, or terminate from the first device a task that is executing on the second device. A unified view of the applications can be presented using an app tray. The app tray displays a list of apps installed on each of the devices of the user. In displaying the list on a particular device, the app tray displays the apps that are not installed on the particular device in a distinct format, e.g., as shadow icons.