WO2002058420A2

WO2002058420A2 - Method for data alignment

Info

Publication number: WO2002058420A2
Application number: PCT/DE2002/000082
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ulf Niemeyer
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2001-01-19
Filing date: 2002-01-14
Publication date: 2002-07-25
Also published as: WO2002058420A3; DE10102363A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for aligning data in schedules between a mobile communication terminal and another terminal. The data is transmitted via a radio interface of the mobile communication terminal to and/or from the mobile communication terminal.

Description

description

Data matching procedure

The invention relates to a method for comparing data between schedules of a mobile communication terminal and a further terminal. In addition, the invention relates to a terminal for carrying out this method and a system with at least one corresponding mobile communication terminal and a further terminal.

Modern mobile communication terminals, such as cell phones or pagers, are increasingly being equipped with numerous additional functions. Such an additional function, which is already implemented as standard in many devices, is a schedule function. Likewise, there are more and more PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) or other organizers that on the one hand have such a schedule as intended and are also equipped as mobile communication terminals with corresponding mobile radio functions.

It is often necessary to compare different schedules in different devices. On the one hand, this results from the fact that a person is usually connected to other people or groups, for example within a family or within a company or department, in such a way that the different appointments of the different people or group members among themselves and with general ones Group appointments need to be coordinated. Frequently, when such electronic schedules are used seriously, the schedule is not primarily maintained by the user in the mobile terminal, but rather, for example, primarily in a PC located at one's own workplace, in the secretariat or at home. So far, such a comparison has been carried out using a wired or another short-range interface, for example an infrared interface (eg IrDA). In many However, two different devices unfortunately do not have compatible interfaces. For example, many mobile communication terminals have no IrDA interface at all. Accordingly, additional equipment must be installed by the user in order to suitably connect a special mobile end device with a desired further end device, so that such a comparison is possible. Another disadvantage is that these interfaces are short-range and a comparison can only be carried out if the mobile device is in the immediate vicinity of the other device. Automatic comparison over longer distances, for example on business trips with a PC located at a fixed workstation in the office, is not possible.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive alternative to this prior art, which allows a comparison between different devices even over long distances.

This object is achieved by a method according to claim 1 and a terminal according to claim 8, or a corresponding system consisting of at least two such terminals.

According to the invention, the data are transmitted to and / or from the mobile communication terminal via an air interface of the mobile communication terminal. This means that no additional interface, for example a cable connection or an IrDA connection, is required. Instead, only the air interface that the mobile communication terminal has anyway is used, for example the mobile radio network in the case of a mobile radio device and the corresponding data or pager network in the case of a pager. The use of the air-cut parts of the mobile communication terminal to compare the data between the schedule of this device and another terminal has various advantages. le. On the one hand, this interface exists for the normal operation of the device anyway, so that no additional hardware or software is required for the operation of the interface itself. Secondly, there is also no need for increased power consumption, such as occurs when operating an IrDA interface. Furthermore, the air interface is a long-range interface, so that the schedule can be compared over any distance. The already existing standards for the air interfaces can also be used to transmit the data, it being possible to choose between different formats for the transmission of the data. In this way, a particularly cheap, fast and secure type of transmission can be selected.

In addition to the memory with a scheduler and means for entering data into the schedule or for retrieving data from the schedule, a corresponding terminal for carrying out such a method must have a device for converting the data from a format of the schedule of the terminal into have a transmission format for transmitting the data via the air interface and / or for converting the data back from the transmission format into the format of the schedule of the terminal. If the respective terminal and the second terminal with which the schedule comparison is to be carried out have different formats in the schedules, this device for data conversion can alternatively also be designed in such a way that in each case the conversion from the transmission format to the data format of the schedule of the other Terminal and back is done. In this

In this case, the device must then contain a corresponding data conversion device for converting data and / or data records between the format of the schedule of the terminal device itself and the format of the schedule of the other terminal device. At least one of two terminals between which a comparison is to take place must also have a synchronization device which compares data belonging to the schedule of the respective terminal and data belonging to the schedule of the second terminal and controls the exchange of the data necessary for the comparison.

The device for converting the data from a schedule format into a transmission format as well as the synchronization device and the data conversion device can be implemented either by hardware or preferably also by software, for example within a control unit which is already in the terminal.

The comparison is possible between any two end devices, one of which has the air interface as a mobile communication terminal. The second terminal can also be a mobile communication terminal, which means that two people can also synchronize the schedules in their mobile radio devices. However, it can also be any end device without its own air interface, provided that there is the possibility of reaching the mobile communication terminal via the air interface. For example, it can be a PC with an Internet or telephone connection, which can exchange data with the mobile communication terminal in the desired data format.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, the data are transmitted in the form of short messages (SMS) via a mobile radio network. The appointments can be exchanged as plain text SMS, whereby only the agreement of simple conventions regarding keywords, data field sequences, separators etc. within the schedule is required. The additional requirements for changing existing schedule software are only slight. In a second preferred exemplary embodiment, the data are transmitted as WAP data (Wireless Application Protocol) via a mobile radio network. In the case of such a WAP connection, the mobile communication terminal can call up a schedule page to be set up and interpret or compare the content. The result can then be sent back to the WAP page, which in turn can be accessed by a PC, for example. In this way, a simple comparison between a PC and the mobile communication terminal is possible.

Both with SMS format and when using a WAP data format, it is possible to encrypt the data to increase security. In addition, both SMS and WAP data can be compressed if the data volume is too high.

Alternatively, it is also possible to send some of the data as WAP data and some of the data as SMS messages. For this purpose, a terminal preferably has a device for selecting the transmission format. This can be, for example, a selection option within a menu when calling up a "comparison function" of the respective terminal.

In a particularly preferred embodiment, prior to a comparison to determine differences in the schedule data, a comparison of status information of the two schedules is first carried out. This means that the devices transmit their status to a comparison device in the shortest possible, possibly coded form. A comparison will only take place if differences are identified in this comparison, otherwise it can be assumed that the schedules already contain identical information and no comparison is necessary. This status information can be, for example, checksums that can be calculated for the individual dates or so-called “fingerprints” that are characteristic of the current status of the data in the schedule. The transmission in the form of checksums or fingerprints can also be used to hide information from unauthorized third parties. In addition, such preliminary checks keep the data volume low.

It is particularly advantageous if the status information not only contains an entire checksum for the entire calendar, but several checksums for individual months, weeks or even days. In this way, it can be determined exactly where the deviations are before a comparison is then only made for this time range. The comparison of status information can also be carried out in several stages, for example first for the overall data content of the calendar and then, if there are deviations, on a monthly basis and then weekly for the months that show deviations, etc.

After a comparison of the appointment calendar, a check is then preferably carried out again in the same way by comparing the new status information of the two appointment calendars, in order to ensure that the data comparison has been carried out completely and correctly. If a negative result is detected during this check, that is to say that the adjustment was not carried out completely or correctly, the adjustment is carried out automatically again. As an alternative or in addition to this automatic repetition of the data comparison, an error message can be output to the user with a corresponding note.

The invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the attached figures using an exemplary embodiment. Show it: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a mobile device in the schedule comparison with a stationary terminal with connection to a telephone network.

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the essential functional components of the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 1.

3 shows a schematic representation of the chronological sequence of the signal and data exchange between the schedules of the two terminals according to FIGS. 1 and 2 and the synchronization procedure.

In FIG. 1, the data exchange between the appointment calendar 3 of a mobile radio device 1 and an appointment calendar 4 in a stationary PC 2 is shown as an exemplary embodiment. This PC 2 has a connection 18 to a telephone network 17, with which data can be transmitted to the mobile radio device 1 or can be received by the mobile radio device 1 via the air interface 6.

In the exemplary embodiment shown, it is assumed that the data are transmitted as plain text SMS. Accordingly, the PC 2 has a corresponding SMS portal module 5 with which the schedule data can be converted into an SMS format and vice versa incoming SMS messages 5 can be received. Of course, the PC 2 also has all the other usual components of a PC, but these are not shown for the sake of clarity.

FIG. 2 shows how the data is transferred from the appointment calendar 3 of the mobile radio device 1 to the appointment calendar 4 of the stationary PC 2 and vice versa. Starting from the schedule 3, the data are first converted in a conversion device 11 from the format of the schedule 3 into an SMS format and sent via the air interface 6. she are then received by the PC 2 and converted in a conversion device 12 from the SMS format back into the data format of the schedule 3 of the mobile device 1. This conversion device 12 can, for example, be part of the SMS portal module 5 in FIG. 1.

The data are thus in the schedule format of the mobile radio device 1 in the PC 2 and are processed there in a synchronization device 7 which also receives the data from the appointment calendar 4 of the PC 2. This processing includes, among other things, a comparison of the data in order to determine which data are present, for example, in the schedule of the mobile radio device 1 and are missing in the schedule 4 of the PC 2. These data are then forwarded to a data conversion device 8, which converts the data or data records, that is to say, for example, the arrangement of various data of an appointment in a specific order, into a format of the schedule 4 of the PC 2.

This data conversion device 8 consequently forms a data record interface here, which in each case receives the data record definitions 9 of the diary 4 of the PC 2 and the data record definitions 10 of the diary 3 of the mobile radio device 1. The data record definitions 9 of the PC appointment calendar 4 are generally predefined. If the PC is to carry out schedule comparisons with different mobile radio devices 1, each of which has different formats of the data, or data records, in the schedule 3, it makes sense if the data record definitions 10 are used by the respective user of the terminal, for example via the usual one

User interface can be set.

Instead of an explicit entry of the data record definitions 10 of the schedule 3 of the mobile radio device 1, the data record definitions 10 can also be transmitted from the respective mobile radio device 1 to the PC 2 during the comparison. In this In this case, the user no longer needs to set the data record definitions 10 at all.

The variety of data record definitions 9, 10 and the requirements for the flexibility of the data conversion device 8 can be reduced by agreeing on a standard.

In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the actual data comparison, synchronization, takes place on the level of the data format or data record format of the diary 3 of the mobile radio device 1. This is advantageous insofar as it can generally be assumed that the mobile radio device 1, which has a smaller memory and a lower functionality than a stationary PC 2, may also only save smaller, reduced data records. In this respect, when comparing in the manner shown in FIG. 2, only these reduced data records have to be taken into account, whereas a comparison at the level of the format of the data or data records of the PC schedule 4 would mean in some cases unnecessary effort.

Alternatively, synchronization can of course also be carried out at the level of the PC schedule format. In this case, function blocks 7 and 8 in FIG. 2 would have to be interchanged. This is advantageous if a comparison with different mobile radio devices 1 is provided, each of which has different data or data formats in the schedules 3. If the comparison is carried out in the format of the PC schedule 4, this has the advantage that the synchronization device 7 only has to be designed for this one format.

The flow chart of the data synchronization is illustrated in FIG. 3, the data transfer to the synchronization device 7 depending on the schedule 3 of the mobile radio device 1 and the schedule 4 of the PC 2 Time t is shown. In the middle, the process running within the synchronization device 7 is shown as a block with the reference number 13.

First, the mobile radio device 1 transmits status information S _{x of} the schedule 3, which contains the current state of the schedule 3 in coded form. For example, this is a checksum. Status information S _{2 is also} transmitted from the schedule 4 there by the PC 2.

In a first comparison step 14, these two status information items Si, S ₂ are then compared within the synchronization procedure 13. If they match, the synchronization procedure 13 terminates since no further comparison of the schedules 4 is necessary.

Otherwise, it is determined within the comparison step 14 in which parts of the schedules 3, 4 there is a need for synchronization. Accordingly, within a subsequent synchronization step 15 request signals Ri, R _{2 are sent} to the schedules 3, 4 in order to obtain the data for the period to be synchronized. The respective schedules 3, 4 or devices then send their data Di, D ₂ , which are compared within the synchronization step 15. Then, if necessary, the respective data Di, D _{2 are} forwarded to the other schedule 3, 4.

After the synchronization step 15 has been completed, the schedule 3, 4 again transmits status information Si, S ₂ in a final check step 16. This status information Si, S ₂ is then compared again in the test step 16. If there is agreement, it can be assumed that a successful comparison has been carried out and the entire procedure 13 has ended. A warning can also be issued as additional options within procedure 13 if appointments collide with one another in the event of new entries in the schedule 3 of the mobile radio device 1 or in the schedule 4 of the PC 2, so that the user then coordinates the appointments accordingly and one Can perform new entry. Depending on the type of appointment, an automatic comparison is also possible, but it is also advisable for the automatic comparison to provide the user with at least an indication of such a change in the schedule. This can also be done, for example, by highlighting or marking the relevant dates within the schedule, so that the user is immediately notified of such changes when he looks at the schedule after the comparison.

Claims

claims

1. A method for comparing data (Di, D ₂ ) of schedules (3, 4) between a mobile communication terminal (1) and a further terminal (2), characterized in that the data (Di, D ₂ ) via an air interface (6) of the mobile communication terminal (1) to and / or from the mobile communication terminal (1).

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that at least part of the data in the form of short messages (SMS) are transmitted via a mobile radio network.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that at least part of the data is transmitted as WAP data via a mobile radio network.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that a comparison of status information (Si, S ₂ ) of the two schedules (3, 4) is carried out to determine differences in the schedule data (Di, D ₂ ) ,

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that after the comparison for final inspection, a comparison of status information (S _lt S ₂ ) of the two schedules (3, 4) is carried out.

6. The method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the status information (S _x , S ₂ ) comprise a checksum.

7. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that for comparison, the data (Di, D ₂ ) and / or records of a format of the schedule (3, 4) of the mobile communication terminal (1) and / or further Terminals (2) are converted into a format of the other terminal (2, 1).

8. Terminal (1, 2) for carrying out a method for comparing data (D _i7 D ₂ ) of schedules (3, 4) between two terminals (1, 2), one of which is a mobile communication terminal (1) , according to one of the preceding claims, with a memory with a schedule (3, 4) and stored therein

Means for entering data (Di, D ₂ ) in the schedule (3, 4) and / or for retrieving data (Di, D ₂ ) from the schedule (3, 4) and a device (11, 12) for converting the data (Di, D ₂ ) from a format of the schedule (3, 4) of the terminal itself (1, 2) or the other terminal (2, 1) into a transmission format for the transmission of the data (Di, D ₂ ) Via the air interface (6) of the mobile communication terminal (1) and / or for converting the data (Di, D ₂ ) from the transmission format into the format of the schedule (3, 4).

9. Terminal according to claim 8, characterized in that the transmission format is a short message format (SMS) or a WAP data format of a mobile radio network.

10. Terminal according to claim 8 or 9, characterized by a device for selecting the transmission format.

11. Terminal (2) according to one of claims 8 to 10, marked - characterized by a synchronization device (7), which belongs to the schedule (3, 4) of the terminal (1, 2) data (Di, D ₂ ) and the schedule (4, 3) of the further terminal device (2, 1) compares data (Di, D ₂ ) with one another and controls an exchange of the data (Di, D ₂ ) necessary for the comparison.

12. Terminal according to one of claims 8 to 11, characterized by a data conversion device (8) for converting data (Di, D ₂ ) and / or data records between a format of the schedule (4) of the terminal (2) and the further terminal (1) .

13. Terminal according to one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that the terminal (1) is a mobile communication terminal (1).

14. Terminal according to one of claims 9 to 12, characterized in that the terminal (2) is a terminal (2) with means (5) for exchanging data (Di, D ₂ ) with a mobile communication terminal (1) via the air interface (6) of the mobile communication terminal (1).

15. System with a mobile communication terminal (1) according to claim 13 and a further terminal (2) according to one of claims 9 to 13, wherein at least one of the two terminals (1, 2) according to claim 11 has a synchronization device (7) ,