Activity continuation between electronic devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10193987-B2
Application number	US-201414586566-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	May 30, 2014
Publication date	Jan 29, 2019
Grant date	Jan 29, 2019

Abstract

The described embodiments transfer an activity from a source electronic device to a companion electronic device. The source electronic device receives activity information describing an activity performed in a first application at the source electronic device, determines an activity identifier for the activity information, and broadcasts an activity advertisement comprising the activity identifier. Upon receiving the activity advertisement, the companion electronic device determines whether a second application that is associated with the first application is available at the companion electronic device. If the second application is available, the companion electronic device requests extended activity data from the source electronic device. The source electronic device responds by sending extended activity data from the first application to the companion electronic device. Then, the companion electronic device uses the extended activity data to configure the second application and commences performing the activity with the second application at the companion electronic device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
in a companion electronic device, performing operations for:
receiving an activity advertisement message from a source electronic device, the activity advertisement message comprising an encoded representation of information about an activity performed in a first application at the source electronic device, the encoded representation being created by applying a function to the activity information that creates the encoded representation that is smaller in size than the activity information, wherein the activity information comprises an identifier that identifies the first application and an activity descriptor that identifies the activity performed in the first application;
evaluating the encoded representation against a plurality of activity descriptor representations to identify the activity, each of the plurality of activity descriptor representations comprising an identifier that identifies an available application and an activity descriptor that identifies an activity to perform using the available application;
determining, based on the evaluating, that a second application that is associated with the activity is available at the companion electronic device, the second application being identified by at least one of the plurality of activity descriptor representations, wherein the second application is different from the first application, and wherein the evaluating comprises determining that instructions or information on how to perform the corresponding activity will be provided;
requesting extended activity data for the activity from the source electronic device;
using the extended activity data received from the source electronic device to configure the second application at the companion electronic device to perform a corresponding activity; and
commencing performing the corresponding activity in the second application at the companion electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the companion electronic device, performing operations for:
prior to requesting the extended activity data, presenting an indication that the activity is resumable, the indication presented at the companion electronic device; and
upon receiving an acceptance of the indication, performing the using and the commencing.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activity is associated with a cloud-stored document and wherein the extended activity data comprises an identifier for the cloud-stored document.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the companion electronic device, performing operations for:
sending a notification to the source electronic device to cause the first application to stop performing the activity.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
in the companion electronic device, performing operations for:
receiving a second activity advertisement message from a second source electronic device, the second activity advertisement message comprising information about an activity performed at the second source electronic device; and
based on comparing a timestamp included with the activity advertisement message and a timestamp included with the second activity advertisement message, determining that the activity performed in the first application at the first electronic device is a most recent activity of the activity performed in the first application at the first electronic device and the activity performed at the second source electronic device.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activity advertisement is communicated using a Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) network protocol and wherein the extended activity data is communicated using a different communication channel or network interface than is used to communicate the activity advertisement.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the activity information further comprises a timestamp that indicates a time that the activity was last performed, and wherein generating the encoded representation comprises applying a hash function to the activity information.

8. A method comprising:
in a source electronic device, performing operations for:
receiving activity information from a first application of the source electronic device describing an activity performed in the first application;
determining an identifier that identifies the first application;
determining an activity descriptor that identifies the activity performed in the first application;
determining an activity identifier corresponding to the activity information based on the identifier and the activity descriptor;
generating an encoded representation of the activity identifier by applying a function to the activity information that creates the encoded representation that is smaller in size than the activity information and configured to represent both the first application and the activity performed in the first application;
broadcasting an activity advertisement message comprising the encoded representation and an indication that instructions or information on how to perform the activity for a second application on a companion device will be provided, wherein the second application is different from the first application;
in response to broadcasting the activity advertisement message, receiving a request for extended activity data for the activity from the companion electronic device; and
transmitting extended activity data acquired from the first application to the companion electronic device in response to receiving the request for the extended activity data.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
in the source electronic device, performing operations for:
determining that the received activity information meets one or more criteria; and
based on the determination, filtering the activity information, the filtering comprising not broadcasting an activity advertisement message for filtered activity information.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
in the source electronic device, performing operations for:
before transmitting the extended activity data, causing the first application to update the extended activity data.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the activity information further comprises a timestamp that indicates a time that the activity was last performed, and wherein generating the encoded representation of the activity identifier comprises applying a hash function to the activity information including the timestamp.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein the activity advertisement is communicated using a Bluetooth low-energy (BLE) network protocol, and wherein the extended activity data is communicated using a different communication channel or network interface than is used to communicate the activity advertisement.

13. A companion electronic device comprising:
a processing subsystem; and,
a networking subsystem;
wherein the processing subsystem and the networking subsystem are configured to perform operations for:
receiving an activity advertisement message from a source electronic device, the activity advertisement message comprising an encoded representation of information about an activity performed in a first application at the source electronic device, the encoded representation being created by applying a function to the activity information that creates the encoded representation that is smaller in size than the activity information, wherein the activity information comprises an identifier that identifies the first application and an activity descriptor that identifies the activity performed in the first application;
evaluating the encoded representation against a plurality of activity descripto

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Linn Christopher S
• Stattenfield Keith
• Jensen Jr Christopher C
• Ledwith Alexander R
• Carter David A
• Krochmal Marc J
• Iarocci John J
• Grynspan Jonathan

Classifications

• G06F9/4856 Primary

  resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration (G06F9/5088 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L67/22 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/535 Primary

  Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34) · CPC title