WO2008071124A1

WO2008071124A1 - Remotely controlling operation

Info

Publication number: WO2008071124A1
Application number: PCT/CN2007/071216
Authority: WO
Inventors: Paul-Bao-Quan Shen; Yong-Gang-Steele Mao; Zhenghong Chen; Yong Zhang; Dong-Hui Zhang; Xing Chen; Dong-Dong Guo; Ning Wang; Lanqing Dai
Original assignee: Microsoft Corporation
Priority date: 2006-12-11
Filing date: 2007-12-11
Publication date: 2008-06-19
Also published as: CN101202760B; CN101202760A

Abstract

A method, an apparatus and a computer program product that a wireless user terminal controls remotely to execute an operation through the third service system are provided. According to the scheme of the invention, receiving a message such as a short message service message or multimedia message service message and so on from the wireless user terminal through the third service system such as Web service or SMTP and so on; parsing the message to extract an user identification such as an user account indicating the identity of the wireless user and the executing information indicating the operation to be executed; authenticating the wireless user using the user identification; if authentication succeeds, providing the user identification and the executing information to the corresponding executing component of the wireless user, such as client application or mail server reserving the wireless user information, to execute the operation.

Description

Remote control operation

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to the field of information technology and, more particularly, to remote control operations. Description of the prior art

In today's society where information management is electronic, people are increasingly inclined to provide integrated electronic solutions for the organization and management of various information such as emails, processes, tasks, notes, contacts, and so on. For example, a personal information manager such as Outlook developed by Microsoft Corporation can implement functions such as managing communication, organizing work information, and personal information.

With the development of wireless technology, people can no longer be satisfied with the use of such personal information managers in office desktop computers. Instead, they need to obtain or store valuable personal information at any time, or manage and operate personal information at any time. One approach is to load a personal information manager on a high-performance wireless user terminal so that it can be carried around and manipulated as needed. However, the personal information manager on such wireless user terminals is not a substitute for personal information managers in office desktop computers. This is because the latter is usually connected directly to a private network within the enterprise, which in turn leads to more critical information (eg, important meeting schedules, important internal mail, etc.).

The current personal information manager can already implement sending a short message service (SMS) message or a multimedia message service (MMS) message to a user terminal such as a mobile phone through a third party service system, so as to transmit important information such as an e-mail to, for example, a short message. A service message or a multimedia message service message or the like is sent to the wireless user terminal of the user who has left the office. A typical existing work process is as follows: After the client as the personal information manager receives information (such as email, calendar, schedule, etc.) from an email server such as POP3 or Exchange server, A third-party service provider (such as a web service provider) sends the above information. Then, the third party service provider will send the above letter The information is sent to the mobile network operator/mobile service provider. Finally, the mobile network operator/mobile service provider sends the above information to the user's wireless user terminal in the form of a short message service message or a multimedia message service message. Thus, even if the user does not sit in the office and directly uses the client application as a personal information manager, as long as he or she has a wireless user terminal in hand, the above important information can also be seen in time.

Obviously, the above existing process is initiated by the client side as a personal information manager, and the user's personal wireless user terminal can only passively receive information transmitted in the form of a message. This creates a problem. When a user leaves the office or is inconvenient to use the personal information manager in the office, he cannot actively obtain the information in the personal information manager (ie, the client application), nor can he timely access the individual. The information obtained or set in the information manager is remotely operated and managed. Summary of invention

Therefore, in order to solve the above technical problem, the present invention provides a remote control capable of directly initiating a client or a corresponding server by a wireless user terminal, for personal remote client application or personal information (eg, email, calendar, schedule) , contacts, etc.) The solution to perform the corresponding operations.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a method of remotely controlling a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform an operation is provided. The method includes: a receiving step, for receiving a message from the wireless user terminal, such as a short message service message or a multimedia message service message, by a third-party service system such as a web service or SMTP; and a parsing step, The message is parsed to obtain a user identifier, such as a user account or the like, indicating the identity of the wireless user, and execution information indicating that the operation is to be performed; an authentication step, configured to authenticate the wireless user by using the user identifier; If the authentication is successful, the user identifier and the execution information are provided to the corresponding execution component of the wireless user, such as a client application or a mail server storing the wireless user information, in the providing step, to perform the operation. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a remote proxy device for remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform operations is provided. At the remote agent device Receiving, by the third party service system, such as a Web service or SMTP, a message from the wireless user terminal, such as a short message service message or a multimedia message service message, etc.; the parsing device parses the message to obtain an indication a user identifier of the identity of the wireless user, such as a user account or the like, and execution information indicating that the operation is to be performed; the authentication device authenticates the wireless user with the user identifier; if the authentication is successful, the user is provided by the providing device The identification and the execution information are provided to a respective execution component of the wireless user, such as a client application or a mail server holding the wireless user information, to perform the operation.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a corresponding computer program product is provided for remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform operations. The computer program product comprising: a first code for receiving a message from the wireless user terminal by a third party service system; for parsing the message to obtain a user identification and indication including an identity indicating the wireless user a second code for performing execution information of the operation; a third code for authenticating the wireless user with the user identification; and for providing the user identification and the execution information to the host if the authentication is successful A fourth execution code of the wireless user's respective execution component to perform the operation.

According to the technical solution of the present invention, when a user cannot directly use his own client application (for example, when it is located off-site or inconvenient to work on the client), it may be through its own wireless user terminal such as a short message service message or A form editing command of the multimedia message service message to remotely control the client application or a server corresponding to the client application (eg, a POP3 server, an Exchange server, etc.) to perform the corresponding action.

The invention has been described in a simplified form and described in the Detailed Description. The summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, and is not intended to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and effects of the present invention will become more apparent and appreciated from the following description of the appended claims.

Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of a system in which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented Figure

2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the system shown in FIG. 1 for remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform operations;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram showing the functionality of a remote proxy device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 4 schematically shows a functional block diagram of a general purpose computer system in which a remote agent device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention may be implemented.

In all of the above figures, the same reference numerals indicate the same or similar features or functions. Detailed description of the preferred embodiment

Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system in which an embodiment in accordance with the present invention can be implemented.

As shown in FIG. 1, wireless user terminal 110 communicates directly with wireless system 120, such as a mobile operating system and/or a mobile service providing system. As described in the background, wireless system 120 and third party service system 130 are communicatively coupled to one another, wherein the third party service system preferably can include Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service 131 and Web service 132. The third party service system 130 - can communicate with the wireless system 120 and, on the other hand, can interact with a plurality of control and query systems 140 (only one control and query system 140 is shown in Figure 1 as an example).

The control and query system 140 can include a server (e.g., POP3 server, Exchange server, etc.) 141 having a remote proxy device 300 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a client having a remote proxy device 300 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention (e.g., A personal information manager such as Outlook, etc. 143, and a roaming system 142 that provides information transfer between the server 141 and the client 143 for data and commands. The remote proxy device 300 on the client 143 has the same functionality as the remote proxy device 300 on the server 141 and can be implemented in hardware or software. In one example, the user establishes, stores, and stores personal information (eg, email, email) in the database 1430 via the client 143. Calendars, schedules, contacts, etc.), and manage them. Moreover, the user may also choose to transfer all of the information items or selected information items to the server 141 for backup via the roaming system 142. In fact, although FIG. 1 shows only one client 143 as an example, the server 141 can serve multiple clients through the roaming system 142 (eg, the mail server serves multiple mail clients), and thus is in the database of the server 1410. Maintenance has information items belonging to the multiple clients.

As mentioned before, when the user is in an environment incapable of directly using the client 143 (for example, leaving the terminal device on which the client 143 is installed), it is difficult for the user to obtain the storage at the client 143 or may An item of information obtained by the function of the client 143. In order to solve this problem, in the system shown in FIG. 1, the user can edit the short message service message and the multimedia message service message through the wireless user terminal no, wherein the message contains information indicating the identity of the user (for example, moving) User Integrated Services Digital Network

The (MSISDN) number, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), or the user account and password contained in the message content, etc., are forwarded by the third party service system 130 to the user-specified control and query system 140 for execution by the corresponding The component (server 300 or client 300) performs the operation.

The process of remote operation by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system is described in detail below by way of a specific example.

In this example, the user of the wireless user terminal 110 wishes to remotely obtain information of the contact "Ma Ling" stored in the client 143 or the server 141. The user edits the short message service message "GetC name:Ma Ling" using the wireless user terminal 110 and enters the recipient's number (this number is typically given by the third party service system 130 for identifying the recipient and/or the provided service) Types of) . The wireless system 120 transmits the message to the corresponding third party service system 130 based on the recipient's number. The third party service system 130 forwards the short message service message with the user identity information to the user-specified control and query system 140 based on the user identity information in the short message service message. Therein, according to one implementation, the message is forwarded through the SMTP service 131. The remote proxy device 300, which resides in the mail server server 141 and the client 143 as the mail client respectively, receives the message from the wireless user terminal through the third party service system 130, and parses the message to obtain the indication. User identification of the identity information of the user, such as a pre-registered email account corresponding to a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network (MSISDN) number, an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), etc., a system login account, etc.; in another embodiment, The content of the message may also directly contain the email account and/or the system login account and its password, so that the user can also perform the operations of the present invention using the wireless terminal device without the pre-registration service. The execution information indicating the operation to be performed is then parsed by, for example, looking up a user-pre-customized command map, in which case "GetC name:Ma Ling" is also parsed as "Get contact information named Ma Ling". The remote agent device 300 needs to authenticate the user identification of, for example, an email account, for example, verifying whether the user identification is valid, verifying whether the user identification is a user identification for which remote operation control is possible, and the like.

Since the client 143 is typically dedicated to one user, its database 1430 holds relatively complete user personal information items, and the server 141 typically stores only a portion of the important backup personal information items for each user due to storage capacity limitations. It is therefore advantageous for the query command to be able to execute the query command by the client 143. Therefore, when the authentication process is successful, if the client 143 is running, the remote proxy device 300 therein provides the parsed result to the client 143 which is the execution component at this time. The client 143 looks up the information of the contact Ma Ling in the database 1430 and sends it to the wireless system 120 through the third party service system 130 so that the wireless user terminal 110 can receive the query result in the form of a short message service message.

If the client 143 has been closed at this time and cannot respond to any remote control commands, the remote proxy device 300 in the server 141 provides the parsed result to the server 141 which is the execution component at this time. The server 141 looks up the information of the contact Ma Ling in the database portion of its database associated with the user identification, e.g., the email account. If the contact information exists in the database 1410, it is sent to the wireless system 120 via the web service 132 in the third party service system 130 so that the wireless user terminal 110 can receive the query results in the form of a short message service message.

It should be noted here that the remote proxy device 300 in the server 141 can know in various ways whether the client has been closed, thereby knowing whether the parsing result needs to be provided to the execution component server 141. For example, the status of each potential client is maintained in the server 141. Information to indicate whether the corresponding client is down. When the client 143 is turned on or off, it can actively send its status information via the roaming system 142 to update the corresponding status in the server 141. Another possible solution is that the server 141 can periodically poll all potential clients via the roaming system 142 to determine their status information. Therefore, it can be ensured that the remote proxy device 300 in the server 141 can know whether the current corresponding client is running or not. If the authentication process is unsuccessful, the resolution result of the command is not provided to any one of the server 141 and the client 143. Thus the server 141 and the client 143 do nothing. Or alternatively, an unauthenticated indication is provided to any of the server 141 and client 143 available components for returning to the wireless user terminal 110 via the web service 132 in the third party service system 130 an indication of authentication failure. Message.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the third party service system needs to reach an agreement with the user of the wireless user terminal 110 in advance, and the protocol may include the identity information of the user in the wireless system and the identity information of the user in the control and query system. Information to present the user's identity information as user identity information that can be identified by the control and query system when forwarding messages from the wireless user terminal. This information can be declared to and configured by the third party service provider when the user proposes to the third party service system to activate the remote control operation service in accordance with the present invention.

It should be noted here that in the above example, the operation of the system shown in FIG. 1 is illustrated by taking a query command as an example, but the user can also edit a control command such as a command server or a client to perform certain operations (for example, The mail server sends the mail, the mail client customizes a meeting record, etc.). After the remote proxy device resolves, it only needs to provide the command to the corresponding execution component (server or client), and the corresponding execution component can complete the corresponding operation according to the command. The code and/or content of these control or query commands can be customized by each user. For example, the user can express a certain command on the client with a phrase or a combination of letters that is easy to remember. The command can perform operations by recording a macro or Defined by programming. The user can update the command map maintained by the remote proxy device 300 on the client 143 and/or the server 141 at any time with his own defined commands.

Figure 2 shows the use of a third party service by a wireless user terminal in the system shown in Figure 1. A workflow diagram of the system for remote control to perform operations.

In step S201, the wireless user equipment transmits a query or control command in the form of a short message service message.

In step S202, the query or control command is forwarded by the mobile operator and/or the wireless service provider's wireless system.

In step S203, the query or control command is forwarded by the SMTP server of the third party service provider. The third-party service system can maintain association information between the identity information of the user in the wireless system and the identity information of the user in the control and query system, so as to express the identity information of the user as control when forwarding the message from the wireless user terminal. Query the user identity information that the system can recognize. Or the third-party service system can forward the message to the corresponding client and/or based on the number of the wireless terminal device according to a pre-customized rule when the service is customized.

Remote proxy device in the Exchange/POP3 server.

In step S204, the remote proxy device receives and parses the control or query command. Thereby, a user identifier indicating the identity information of the user is obtained, and execution information indicating that the action is to be performed is obtained.

In step S205, the identity of the user of the wireless user equipment is authenticated by checking whether the user identity is valid, checking whether the user identity is a user identity for which remote operation control is possible, and the like.

In step S206, it is determined whether the client is an execution component. Here, for the query command, it can be determined whether the client is running at this time. If it is running, it is determined that the current command can be processed by the client, that is, the client is an execution component, otherwise the server is determined to be an execution component. For the control command, it can be determined whether the command is a control command only for the client and judge whether the client is running. If yes, it is determined that the current command needs to be processed by the client, that is, the client is an execution component, otherwise Make sure the server is the execution component.

If it is determined in step S206 that the server is an execution component, then in step S207, the remote proxy device residing on the server side provides the authentication result (including the user identification and execution information) to the server application through authentication.

In step S208, the server application generates an execution result, such as executing a query or executing A specific action, etc.

In step S209, the execution result of, for example, whether the query result and the control function are successfully executed is transmitted by the server in an appropriate format.

If it is determined in step S206 that the client is an execution component, then in step S210, the remote proxy device located on the client side provides the authentication result (including the user identification and execution information) to the client application through the authentication.

In step S211, the client application generates an execution result, such as executing a query or performing a specific operation or the like.

In step S212, the execution result of, for example, whether the query result and the control function are successfully executed is transmitted by the client in an appropriate format.

In step S213, the execution result is forwarded by the web service of the third party service provider. In step S214, the execution result is forwarded by the mobile operator and/or the mobile service provider's wireless system in the form of a short message service message.

In step S215, the wireless user terminal receives a message indicating the execution result, and presents the execution result to the user.

The corresponding processing after the user identification authentication indicating the user identity fails in step S205 is not shown in FIG. If the authentication process fails in step S205, the remote proxy device does not provide a resolution result of the command to any of the server and the client, whereby the server application and the client application do nothing. Alternatively, the remote proxy device may provide an unauthenticated indication to any of the server and the client, such that the web service in the third party service system returns a failure indicating the authentication failure to the wireless user terminal. Message.

Fig. 3 schematically shows a functional block diagram of a remote proxy device in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 3, reference numeral 300 denotes a remote proxy device; reference numeral 310 denotes a receiving device for receiving a message from the wireless user terminal through the third party service system; reference numeral 320 denotes for receiving the received A parsing device that parses the message; reference numeral 330 denotes an authentication device for authenticating the user identity; and reference numeral 340 denotes a providing device for providing the parsing result to the execution component. In the remote proxy device 300, the receiving device 310 receives a message from the wireless user device that is forwarded by the third party service system with user identification information indicating the identity of the wireless user device user. Next, the received message is parsed by the parsing device 320 to obtain a user identifier indicating the identity of the wireless user and execution information indicating that the action is to be performed. Since the commands sent by the user are usually intended to operate on their personal client applications or private data, and usually such remote control is only provided for pre-customized users, in order to be able to identify whether the user is authorized to perform the remote operation A user identification such as an email account needs to be authenticated. The user identity is authenticated in the authentication device 330 by using the user identification information provided by the parsing device 320. For example, it is checked whether the user identifier is valid, whether the user identifier is a user identifier for which remote operation control can be performed, and the like. After the authentication is successful, the providing device 340 is configured to provide the authenticated user identification and execution information of the remote control operation to the corresponding execution component of the wireless user to perform the operation. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the remote control command is a query command, the execution component is the client when the client is running, and is the server when the client is closed. The providing device 340 can determine whether the current client is running in a manner familiar to those skilled in the art, such as querying the current state information of the client maintained in the server, or receiving a message indicating the current state information of the client, and the like. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the remote control operation command is a control command, the execution component is the body of the execution operation specified by the control command.

Subsequently, an execution component, such as a server or client, can perform corresponding information queries or actions such as "forwarding", "customized meeting reminders", etc., based on the user identification information and the execution information.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the functions implemented by the remote proxy device residing on the server side and the remote proxy device residing on the client side are the same, because when the client is closed Only server-side remote proxy devices work. Of course, those skilled in the art can also simplify the functions of the client-side and/or server-side remote proxy devices, or add new functions to optimize their implementation. These modifications may make the functions implemented by the remote proxy device residing on the server side and the remote proxy device residing on the client side different from each other, but this does not depart from the idea of the present invention, because according to the present specification The teachings, such modifications or improvements will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Fig. 4 schematically shows a functional block diagram of a general purpose computer system in which an embodiment in accordance with the present invention may be implemented.

The computer system shown in FIG. 4 includes a processing unit 410, a RAM (random access memory) 420 in which an operating system 421, an application 422, program data 423, and the like resides, and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 430 in which a BIOS resides. , a system bus 440, a storage device interface 450 to which the hard disk drive 451, the floppy disk drive 452 and the optical disk drive 453 are connected, a user input interface 460 to which the keyboard 461 is connected, a network interface 470 for connecting to the remote device 471, for connecting to The peripheral device interface of the peripheral device 481, the video interface 490 to which the display 491 is connected, wherein the processing unit 410, the RAM 420, the ROM 430, the storage device interface 450, the user input interface 460, the network interface 470, and the peripheral are connected to the system bus 440. Device interface 480, video interface 490.

The function of each of the components of Figure 4 is well known in the art, and the structure shown in Figure 4 is also conventional. Some of the components shown in Figure 4 may be omitted in different applications. The entire system shown in Figure 4 is controlled by computer readable instructions that are typically stored as software in hard disk 451, or stored in EPROM or other non-volatile memory. The software can also be downloaded from the network (not shown). Either the software stored in the hard disk 451 or downloaded from the network can be loaded into the RAM 420 and executed by the processing unit 410 to perform the functions determined by the software.

The invention may also be embodied as a computer program product for use by, for example, the computer system of FIG. 4, comprising means for performing remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system for performing operations in accordance with the present invention. The code of the method. The code may be stored in a memory of another computer system prior to use, for example, in a hard disk or in a removable memory such as an optical disk or floppy disk, or via the Internet or other computer, to make the present invention easier to understand, The above description omits some more specific technical details that are well known to those skilled in the art and that may be necessary for the implementation of the present invention.

The description of the present invention is provided for purposes of illustration and description and is not intended to be exhaustive or The invention is limited to the disclosed form. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Therefore, the embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the embodiments of the invention and the embodiments of the invention It is intended to be within the scope of the invention as defined.

Claims

Rights request

A method for remotely controlling a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform a process, including:

a receiving step, configured to receive, by the third party service system, a message from the wireless user terminal;

And a parsing step, configured to parse the message to obtain a user identifier indicating an identity of the wireless user and execution information indicating an operation to be performed;

An authentication step, configured to authenticate the wireless user by using the user identifier, and a step of providing the user identifier and the execution information to a corresponding execution component of the wireless user after the authentication is successful to execute the Said operation.

2. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processing comprises querying an information item,

The parsing step includes:

Parsing the message to obtain a query condition for querying a database, where the database is associated with the user identifier,

The providing step includes:

The user identification and query conditions are provided to the execution component to perform a query in accordance with query conditions in a database corresponding to the user identification to be queried and to return a query result to the wireless user terminal.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the execution component is selected from the group consisting of a client application and a server application.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the providing step comprises:

Providing the user identifier and the query condition to the client application when the client application is running, to perform a query according to a query condition in a database corresponding to the user identifier by the client application and The wireless user terminal returns a query result.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the providing step comprises:

Providing the information to the server application when the client application has been closed, to be applied by the server in a database corresponding to the user identifier to be queried according to The query condition performs a query and returns a query result to the wireless user terminal.

6. The method of any of claims 3 - 5, wherein the client application comprises an email client application and the server application comprises an email server application.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the operations further comprise the mail client application or the server application sending a mail, the mail client application or the server application receiving a mail, the mail client The application or the server application customizes a personal process, and the mail client application or the server application cancels an operation such as a personal schedule.

8. A remote proxy device for remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform operations, comprising:

a receiving device, configured to receive, by the third-party service system, a message from the wireless user terminal;

a parsing device, configured to parse the message to obtain a user identifier indicating an identity of the wireless user and execution information indicating an operation to be performed;

An authentication device, configured to authenticate the wireless user by using the user identifier; and providing means, after the authentication is successful, providing the user identifier and the execution information to a corresponding execution component of the wireless user to execute Said operation.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the operation comprises a query for an item of information, the parsing device further for:

Parsing the message to obtain a query condition for querying a database, wherein the database is associated with the user identifier,

The providing device is further configured to:

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the execution component is selected from the group consisting of a client application and a server application.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the providing means is further configured to: provide the user identification and query conditions to the client application when the client application is running The client application, by the server application, performs a query according to the query condition in a database corresponding to the user identifier to be queried and returns a query result to the wireless user terminal.

12. The device according to claim 10, wherein the providing means is further configured to: when the client application has been closed, provide the information to the server application to be applied by the server The database corresponding to the user identifier to be queried performs a query according to the query condition and returns a query result to the wireless user terminal.

13. Apparatus according to any of claims 10-12, wherein the client application comprises an email client application and the server application comprises an email server application.

14. The device according to claim 13, wherein the operation further comprises the mail client application or the server application sending a mail, the mail client application or the server application receiving a mail, the mail client The application or the server application customizes a personal process, and the mail client application or the server application cancels an operation such as a personal schedule.

15. A computer program product for remote control by a wireless user terminal through a third party service system to perform a work, comprising:

a first code for receiving a message from the wireless user terminal through a third party service system;

And configured to parse the message to obtain a second code including a user identifier indicating an identity of the wireless user and execution information indicating an operation to be performed;

a third code for authenticating the wireless user with the user identification; and a corresponding execution component for providing the user identification and the execution information to the wireless user if the authentication is successful to perform the The fourth code of operation.