Synchronizing of Personal Content

20090164667

11/963153

December 21, 2007

A method of synchronizing personal content between remote and local devices includes sending a PIM sync command with a last sync timestamp from the local device to the remote device and receiving at the local device a PIM change report. The PIM change report includes PIM changes in the remote device. The method also includes scanning a change log of the local device for PIM changes in the local device occurring after the last sync timestamp, comparing PIM changes in the remote device and PIM changes in the local device, saving new personal content into a PIM database in the local device, and updating a mapping table with objectID pairs of the new personal content.

Zhang, Rainbow (Nanjing, CN); Adwankar, Sandeep (Buffalo Grove, IL, US); Li, X. H. (Taiyuan, CN); Xu, Tony (Nanjing, CN)

GENERAL INSTRUMENT CORPORATION (Horsham, PA, US)

1. A method of synchronizing personal content comprising: a local device automatically detecting a presence of an active remote device; sending a personal information management (PIM) sync command associated with a last sync timestamp from the local device to the remote device in response to detecting the presence of the remote device; receiving at the local device a PIM change report responsive to the PIM sync command, the PIM change report including PIM changes in the remote device; saving new personal content associated with the PIM change report and received from the remote device into a PIM database organized as a content directory service in the local device; and updating a mapping table in the local device with objectID pairs of the new personal content.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein updating a mapping table in the local device comprises: decoding the personal content to determine an objectID assigned to the personal content by the remote device; assigning a new objected to the personal content; and storing the new objectID and received personal content as an objectID content pair in the mapping table.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: scanning a change log of the local device for PIM changes in the content directory service of the local device occurring after the last sync timestamp; comparing PIM changes in the remote device and PIM changes in the content directory service of the local device to determine whether a conflict exists; resolving the conflict between the PIM changes in the local and remote device according to a user predefined conflict resolution rule when a conflict is determined to exist.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sending a PIM sync command comprises: encoding PIM changes in the local device into a local device report and sending the local device report to the remote device; the PIM changes in the remote device are encoded in the PIM change report in an XML format; and the receiving at the local device includes decoding the PIM changes to recover the new personal content.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: decoding the last sync timestamp from the PIM sync command at the remote device; scanning a change log of the remote device for PIM changes in the remote device occurring after the last sync timestamp; encoding the PIM changes in the remote device into the remote device report; sending the remote device report to the local device; receiving at the remote device a local device report that includes PIM changes in the local device after the last sync timestamp, the PIM changes in the local device including new personal content; recovering new personal content from the local device report; saving the new personal content from the local device report in a PIM database organized as a content directory service in the remote device; and updating a mapping table in the remote device with objectID pairs of the new personal content from the local device report.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein: the PIM changes in the remote device includes the new personal content from the local device report and a timestamp of when the new personal content was created; and the encoding of PIM changes in the remote device encodes the PIM changes in the remote device report in an XML format.

7. A method of synchronizing personal content comprising: detecting an altering of personal content in a PIM database organized as a content directory service in a remote device according to user inputs, the altering including at least one of adding, deleting and modifying the new personal content; entering, in a change log, a report of the altered personal content in response to the altering of the personal content in the PIM database is detected; broadcasting an advertisement when the report of new personal content is entered in the change log, the advertisement including a deviceID, an objectID and an action type; receiving, at the remote device, a browse command transmitted from a local device in response to the broadcasted advertisement; decoding an objectID from the browse command; scanning a change log of the remote device for PIM changes in the remote device identified by the objectID; encoding the PIM changes into a remote device report; and sending the remote device report to the local device.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the advertisement is broadcasted to a plurality of devices in a network or is broadcasted wirelessly to any devices within range of the remote device.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein synchronizing personal content comprises: receiving a broadcasted advertisement at a local device, wherein the advertisement reports when new personal content is produced in a remote device, the advertisement including a deviceID, an objectID and an action type; determining whether the local device has interest in the new personal content of the remote device; sending a browse command to the remote device when the local device has interest in the new personal content of the remote device, the browse command including the objectID; receiving at the local device a remote device report that includes the new personal content defined by the objectID in response to sending the browse command; recovering the new personal content from the remote device report; saving the new personal content in a PIM database organized as a content directory service in the local device; and updating a mapping table with objectID pairs of the new personal content.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the determining of whether a local device has interest in the new personal content of the remote device includes determining whether the local device has interest in the action type, the action type including one of ADD, DELETE or MODIFY the objectID.

11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the new personal content is encoded in the remote device report in an XML format; and the recovering of the new personal content includes decoding the XML format of the remote device report.

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the recovering of the new personal content includes decoding the remote device report into the PIM object, the action type and objectID; and when the action type is ADD, the local device saves the PIM object in the PIM database of the local device, assigns it a new local objectID and then the new local objectID and the decoded objectID are saved in a mapping table.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the recovering of the new personal content includes decoding the remote device report into the PIM object, the action type and objectID; and when the action type is MODIFY, the local device saves the PIM object in the PIM database of the local device, searches for the decoded objectID in pairs of objectIDs in a mapping table in the local device to find the local objectID and then replaces the prior local objectID with the a new local objectID in the mapping table, the new local objectID pointing to the newly saved PIM object.

14. The method according to claim 9, wherein the PIM changes include a multimedia objectID and associated media content, the method further comprising: saving the media content in a PIM database in the local device; assigning a new local content ID according to media type; replacing the multimedia objectID with the new local content ID; and updating the mapping table with the new local content ID of the media content.

15. The method according to claim 9, wherein the PIM changes in the remote device includes a timestamp of when the multimedia content objectID and the associated media content were created; and the receiving of the PIM change report includes decoding the PIM changes in the remote device report in an XML format.

16. A local device operable to automatically synchronize with a remote device, the local device comprising: a controller, an extended content directory service module, a PIM module, a change log module, a mapping table, a PIM database organized as a content directory service and a change log, wherein the controller is operable to engage in automatic discovery of an active remote device and send a PIM sync command with a last sync timestamp to the remote device in response to detecting the remote device during discovery; the controller is further operable to receive a PIM change report responsive to the PIM sync command, the PIM change report including new personal content in the remote device; the change log module is operable to scan the change log for PIM changes recorded in the change log occurring after the last sync timestamp; the controller is further operable to compare PIM changes received in the PIM change report and PIM changes recorded in the change log to determine whether a conflict exists; the controller is further operable to resolve the conflict according to a user predefined conflict resolution rule when a conflict is determined to exist; the PIM module is operable to save the new personal content into the PIM database based on the resolved conflict; and the extended content directory service module is operable to update the mapping table with objectID pairs of the new personal content.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein: the PIM changes include a multimedia objectID and associated media content; the PIM module is operable to save the media content in a PIM database and assign the media content a new local content ID according to a media type; the controller is operable to replacing the multimedia objectID with the new local content ID; and the extended content directory service module is operable to update the mapping table with the new local content ID of the media content.

18. A local device operable to automatically synchronize with a remote device, the local device comprising: a controller, an extended content directory service module, a PIM module, a change log module, a mapping table, a PIM database organized as a content directory service and a change log, wherein the controller is operable to receive a broadcasted advertisement that reports when new personal content is produced in a remote device, the advertisement including a deviceID, an objectID and an action type; the controller is further operable to determine whether the system has interest in the new personal content of the remote device; the controller is further operable to send a browse command to the remote device when the system has interest in the new personal content of the remote device, the browse command including the objectID; the controller is further operable to receive a remote device report that includes the new personal content defined by the objectID; the controller is further operable to recover the new personal content from the remote device report; the PIM module is operable to save the new personal content in the PIM database; and the extended content directory service module is operable to update the mapping table with objectID pairs of the new personal content.

19. A method of automatic synchronization for PIM without user interaction comprising: creating a synchronization relationship between two devices including an identification of types of content to be synchronized between the devices, wherein the synchronization relationship is established using a unique device ID for each of the devices; setting at least one security level for at least one of the types of content; and after forming the synchronizing relationship, synchronizing the types of content between the security devices in accordance with the at least one security level without a user initiating the synchronization.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising: the two devices performing automatic discovery to perform the synchronization.

709/248

06

edspap.20090164667