Assisted application operation service for mobile devices using screen sharing

Abstract

A system and corresponding methods to provide assistance to a mobile user (42) to operate applications in the mobile device (31) is described. A call center is enhanced to enable routing mobile device application screens (43) to call center agents in addition to routing voice calls. Such a call center is referred to as remote help center.When a mobile user (42) needs assistance in operating applications (44) at the mobile device (31), he makes a call to remote help center and sends display contents from the mobile device (31) into the remote help center which routes the display contents to corresponding remote help center agents who can provide remote assistance to operate applications (44) at the mobile device (31).

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Not applicableFEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH[0002]Not applicableSEQUENCE LISTING OR PROGRAM[0003]Not applicableBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]1. Field of Invention[0005]The present invention generally relates to assisted application operation services and specifically to assistance provided from a remote service center using screen sharing.[0006]2. Prior Art[0007]Application operation assistance is necessary for mobile device users who want to operate their applications while they are mobile. With advent of smartphones, the number of applications in a mobile device has increased exponentially. This has lead to a complex user interaction with several menus and submenus to get to a desired set of features in applications. Hence it is desirable to have assistance to operate the complex set of menus to access features quickly and efficiently.[0008]Technology in smartphones is improving rapidly providing faster processors and increased memory,...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035]This is achieved by enhancing a call center with screen sharing protocol that enables routing display screens of a mobile device user to call center agents who are live persons who can operate upon applications at the mobile device remotely, in

Problems solved by technology

This has lead to a complex user interaction with several menus and submenus to get to a desired set of features in applications.

But complex desktop like applications provide a lot of features and accessing all of these features without compromising user experience is a big challenge.

Hence mobile device users and application designers face an increasing challenge to balance ease of use with complex features of an application.

Most mobile devices such as smartphones only provide a small keypad or a touch sensitive screen which is not sufficient to easily access complex features of desktop like software applications.

But all these attempts cannot replicate a user experience provided by a desktop or laptop hardware that has a large keyboard, mouse and a large display to enable efficient use of complex desktop application software.

A small keypad in a smartphone can only allow thumb based typing and that can be very limiting while editing large documents.

A gesture based touch screen may enable faster access to some often used application features, but getting access to several hundred features is impossible using gestures as a user cannot remember all the gestures necessary.

But such a system is useful only for applications that are tailored for viewing and not editing.

Applications that require a large amount of user interaction cannot be operated with frequent scaling and panning of a screen.

But such devices are too big to be carried by people on person, without having an extra case or a bag for it.

These devices cater to a different market segment and are not a replacement for a smartphone device that can be carried in a pocket and operated by a single hand.

Even with such devices, it is impossible to get access to all the features while being mobile.

Being mobile, a person can only use one hand and hence it becomes quite difficult to operate all applications with one hand using a netbook.

Currently there are no methods in prior art that offer a solution to this problem.

But all these users are from a trusted group and such systems cannot be used by individual users who might need help in entering large amounts of data into forms or editing a spreadsheet with complex formulae and graphs.

But all of these products setup a communication channel among trusted participants and do not provide an individual mobile device user assistance to operate applications in a mobile device.

Most such systems enable a mobile device user to view screens from a desktop user and join a communication session, but none offer a solution where screens from a mobile device are shared and routed to an agent at a service center who can operate all applications at the mobile device using a larger desktop.

But this does not address the need of a mobile device user to get help to operate applications on the mobile device.

But this does not address the need of a mobile device user who wants help in operating complex applications at the mobile device.

This cannot be used for providing a user with operation assistance for all applications in the mobile device.

Hence this does not address the need of a mobile device user who wants help in operating complex applications at the mobile device.

As can be seen from above, all known prior arts suffer from some limitations in offering a solution that enables a mobile device user to get help in operating a complex set of applications in the mobile device from a remote service center.

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