Copy and paste between devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10863338-B2
Application number	US-202016748631-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 21, 2020
Priority date	May 30, 2016
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A device may comprise at least one wireless transceiver, a memory configured to store a local pasteboard, and a processor. The processor may be configured to receive local selections of data to be placed on a local pasteboard, broadcast advertisements indicating that the local data is on the local pasteboard, and wirelessly transmit the local data to remote device pasteboards. The processor may also be configured to receive advertisements indicating that remote data is available on remote pasteboards of other devices, request the remote data in response to a paste command, wirelessly receive the remote data, and paste the remote data.

First claim

What we claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a second device, a command to paste data;
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, a first advertisement comprising information indicative of data of a first device being available;
responsive to the first advertisement: establishing, with the second device, at least one peer-to-peer connection between the second device and the first device;
transmitting, by the second device, a request for data to the first device; and
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, the data from a first pasteboard of the first device through the at least one peer-to-peer connection.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
prior to receiving the data, wirelessly transmitting, with the second device, a request for a type list to the first device, the type list comprising a plurality of data types of a plurality of subsets of the data on the first pasteboard; and
breaking, at the second device, the at least one peer-to-peer connection between the first device and the second device in response to completing transfer of the data from the first pasteboard.

3. The method as recited in claim 2 , further comprising:
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, the type list directly from the first device;
selecting, with the second device, at least one of the plurality of data types as the data to be transmitted; and
wirelessly transmitting, with the second device, a response including a selection of the data to be transmitted to the second device prior to receiving the data.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising:
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, a second advertisement of an available WiFi service from the first device;
wirelessly responding, with the second device, to the second advertisement with a request to connect to the available WiFi service from the first device; and
establishing, with the second device, a direct WiFi connection between the first device and the second device.

5. The method as recited in claim 4 , wherein the first advertisement is received using a direct, peer-to-peer Bluetooth low energy transmission.

6. The method as recited in claim 5 , further comprising displaying, with the second device, a user interface while the data from the first pasteboard is being received, the user interface comprising information selected from a group comprising: an indication of data receipt progress, and a cancel option.

7. The method as recited in claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving, at the second device, a cancel command via the user interface;
stopping, with the second device, receipt of the data from the first pasteboard in response to receiving the cancel command; and
breaking, at the second device, the direct WiFi connection between the first device and the second device upon stopping receipt of the data from the first pasteboard.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first pasteboard is a data storage element configured to store data and facilitate cut, copy, and paste operations for the data, the method further comprising:
placing, with the second device, the data in a second pasteboard of the second device in response to completing transfer of the data from the first pasteboard; and
pasting, with the second device, the data from the second pasteboard.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the first advertisement is received using a Bluetooth low energy transmission, and wherein the at least one peer-to-peer connection is chosen by the first device based on a size of the data from the first pasteboard.

10. The method as recited in claim 9 , wherein the at least one peer-to-peer connection is a Bluetooth low energy connection in response to the size of the data from the first pasteboard being less than a threshold, and wherein the at least one peer-to-peer connection is a direct WiFi connection between the first device and the second device in response to the size of the data from the first pasteboard being at least as great as the threshold.

11. A device, comprising:
at least one wireless transceiver;
a memory configured to store a local pasteboard; and
a processor configured for:
receiving, at a second device, a command to paste data;
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, a first advertisement comprising information indicative of data of a first device being available;
responsive to the first advertisement: establishing, with the second device, at least one peer-to-peer connection between the second device and the first device;
transmitting, by the second device, a request for data to the first device; and
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, the data from a first pasteboard of the first device through the at least one peer-to-peer connection.

12. The device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured for:
prior to receiving the data, wirelessly transmitting, using the at least one wireless transceiver, a request for a type list to the first device, the type list comprising a plurality of data types of a plurality of subsets of the data on the first pasteboard; and
breaking, at the second device, the at least one peer-to-peer connection between the first device and the second device in response to completing transfer of the data from the first pasteboard.

13. The device as recited in claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured for:
wirelessly receiving, using the at least one wireless transceiver, the type list directly from the first device;
selecting at least one of the plurality of data types as the data to be transmitted; and
wirelessly transmitting, using the at least one wireless transceiver, a response including a selection of the data to be transmitted to the second device prior to receiving the data.

14. The device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured for:
wirelessly receiving, at the second device, a second advertisement of an available WiFi service from the first device;
wirelessly responding, with the second device, to the second advertisement with a request to connect to the available WiFi service from the first device; and
establishing, with the second device, a direct WiFi connection between the first device and the second device.

15. The device as recited in claim 14 , wherein the first advertisement is received using a direct, peer-to-peer Bluetooth low energy transmission.

16. The device as recited in claim 15 , wherein the processor is further configured for displaying a user interface while the data from the first pasteboard is being received, the user interface comprising information selected from a group comprising: an indication of data receipt progress, and a cancel option.

17. The device as recited in claim 16 , wherein the processor is further configured for:
receiving a cancel command from the user interface;
stopping receipt of the data from the first pasteboard in response to receiving the cancel command; and
breaking, using the at least one wireless transceiver, the direct WiFi connection between the first device and the second device upon stopping receipt of the data from the first pasteboard.

18. The device as recited in claim 11 , wherein the first pasteboard is a data storage element configured to store data and facilitate cut, copy, and paste operations for the data, and wherein the processor is further configured for:
placing the data in a second pasteboard of the second device in response to completing transfer of the data from the first pasteboard; and
pasting the

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Stattenfield Keith
• Edmonson Douglas R
• Krochmal Marc
• Iarocci John J
• Perry Kevin S
• Rahardja David
• Linn Christopher S

Classifications

• H04L67/1095 Primary

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title

• H04W76/14

  Direct-mode setup · CPC title

• H04L67/75

  Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display · CPC title

• G06F9/543

  User-generated data transfer, e.g. clipboards, dynamic data exchange [DDE], object linking and embedding [OLE] · CPC title