Multiplex communications – Pathfinding or routing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-07
2003-04-08
Yao, Kwang B. (Department: 2664)
Multiplex communications
Pathfinding or routing
Reexamination Certificate
active
06546002
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer networks. More particularly, the present invention is directed to an information management and storage system and method. The present invention is further directed to a mobile interface agent that can be used to dynamically access resources stored either locally in the computer device or across a network including programs, applications, bookmarked URLs, user profiles, IP addresses, telephone numbers, television channels, radio stations, and the like that are specific to a user via any computer device. Moreover, the present invention relates to a per user based licensing model that allows the user to locally or remotely access and use computer programs from any computer device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Most computers and portable digital assistants (PDA) have an operating system (OS) such as MS-DOS, UNIX, Windows 98INT/CE, or Linux loaded thereon for managing basic operations. In general, an OS apportions the computer's main memory, handles requests, receives and transmits instructions to and from the input/output (I/O) devices, manages the flow of information into and out of the main processor and the I/O devices, and performs other tasks that are commonly known.
The OS is also used to organize and manage menu items such as software programs, applications, files, folders, documents, and the like that are stored on the computer or PDA. A user interface in an OS generally includes “pointers” to software programs, applications, files, folders, documents, and other menu items. A pointer in this context is a reference to a type of menu item that can be accessible on the computer, PDA or a server.
In the current versions of the Windows 98/NT (believed to be a registered Trademark of Microsoft Corp.) OS, pointers are commonly used to retrieve/access menu items. Pointers can be found in a “Start” menu bar on the Windows 98/NT user interface and includes a list of pointers to folders, files, and programs (e.g., word processing program, spreadsheet data file, personal software folder, etc.). For example,
FIG. 2
illustrates a screen shot of a conventional Windows NT “Start” menu bar.
The “Start” menu bar's main function is to provide easy access to commonly used applications and files. The menu bar also has some basic configuration capability so that a user can personalize the pointer data by adding or removing pointer data found in the menu bar. However, the “Start” menu bar information and configuration for a particular user is limited to the personal computer on which the configuration and pointer information reside. Hence, a user using a different personal computer cannot dynamically recreate the configuration and pointer information stored on another personal computer. Further, the menu bar does not have any intelligence about a network connected to the personal computer so a user may not receive accessibility information about pointer data that may depend on a network connection. Even further, the current Windows “Start” menu bar information cannot be accessed across multiple operating systems or platforms such as on a Macintosh computer running MacOS or within a web browser.
Even further, the “Start” menu bar keeps no user information or profile data associated with the user of the menu bar. A user could save time if the menu bar kept certain user profile data, and applications linked to the menu bar could access this data. Hence, a user who accesses a word processor's Fax template could automatically have the word processor access data kept by the menu bar interface such as his name, address, and telephone number and automatically insert this information into the Fax template. Applications would simply be given some kind of interface such as a software API to query data stored by the menu bar interface, and the stored data could be assumed to be associated with the current user using the menu bar interface.
Computers in many environments are connected to a network such as a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or a wide area network (WAN). Computers on the network can conveniently manage and access software programs, applications, files, folders, documents, and the like from another computer or server. For example, most businesses store such menu items at a centralized location, e.g. central server, so that multiple users connected to the network can gain access to them.
Another popular and common use of a computer or PDA is to access information on the Internet. A web browser such as the Internet Explorer 4.0/5.0 (believed to be a registered Trademark of Microsoft Corp.) or Navigator (believed to be a registered Trademark of Netscape, Inc.) is loaded onto the computer or PDA so that the user can access web sites. The web browser is also used so that the user can receive and transmit data. Because the user may visit many web sites during a given session, each web browser allows the users to store and save the addresses (URLs) of commonly visited web sites. This is done by bookmarking them. The user bookmarks commonly visited web sites so that the user can create shortcuts for future use. As a result, the user does not have to type the complete URLs to access these sites.
It is not uncommon for many users to have multiple computers, PDAs, and other computer-related devices. Each individual computer or PDA may include specific menu items and bookmarks that do not exist in another computer or PDA. For example, a computer used at work may be the only device that includes a spreadsheet program while a computer used at home may be the only device that includes bookmarked URLs. Thus, the user will not have access to the bookmarks from the user's work computer and likewise, will not have access to the spreadsheet program from the user's home computer. As a result, this causes much inconvenience and inefficiency for the computer user.
Further, the bookmarks pointer data is specific to a particular output interface; specifically, the web browser. It would be desirable to have bookmarks that can attach various types of output applications for the pointer data contained in the bookmarks. It would also be desirable to be able to attach various types of interfaces to the bookmarks themselves instead of being tied as a feature of a web browser: an independent entity that can optionally attach various kinds of user interfaces such as some kind of intelligent agent using a graphical icon of a human-like figure (for children to interact with on a Windows 95/98 PC) or a voice activated and controlled menu system (for cellular telephones).
It is common for users to have two computers of two different OS's running an application such as Microsoft Word. In order to share a particular Microsoft Word data file, it is currently necessary in the prior art to manually export the file in the required format so that a computer using one OS can read the file of the computer using the other OS. Time would be saved if there existed a mechanism allowing files to be exported to the network in a format specified using mobile interface agent application data. When the mobile interface agent running on one OS changes to a computer running a different OS, the mobile interface agent can signal a server daemon to perform an OS conversion of the data and get the data file in the proper format. To the user, this process would be automatic and transparent since the user can simply click a data file, which is a pointer data in his/her mobile interface agent.
Currently, users may save a list of phone numbers on her personal computer's telephone directory software. Similarly, a user may go to a television guide web site and save a list of favorite television shows and times. Time and effort could be saved if the list of phone numbers were transparent to the user's telephone and the list of favorite television shows transparent and accessible to the user's television. In other words, besides the advantage of being cross platform, using the mobile interface agent s
Jones Prenell
Yao Kwang B.
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