Abstract:
A system for managing email attachments receives and opens, on a mobile device, a document attached to an email; converts the opened document to a lower-resolution document; stores the lower-resolution document; and synchronizes the stored lower-resolution document with the mobile device. The system can also generate and store a corresponding thumbnail of the lower-resolution document. The original of the opened document may be stored in a remote storage device, optionally encrypting the low-resolution document before storing. The original of the opened document may also be broken into a plurality of pieces which are stored in different remote storage devices.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present disclosure relates to management of email attachments. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    There are existing applications that mine emails for attachments and save the attachments on a cloud server so they are available from any locations. These services allow for sharing of the files and cataloguing based on policies. Referring to  FIG. 1 , a user  100  registers at  10  with a mining service  105 . The mining service in turn sets up the data mining function  102  with the user configurations and the different email services  101   a  . . .  101   m  to be searched by a data mining function  102  for attachments or links to files within the user&#39;s emails of one or more email accounts  101   a  . . .  101   m.  The data mining function  102  provides information to a search engine  103  which maintains metadata  103   a  for quick access. The email attachments  60  are classified by a classification engine  104  and stored to existing remote storage devices such as cloud-based file management services  106   a  . . .  106   n.  A cloud email attachment service administration  105  manages the users (e.g., add/remove users, modify preferences and policies). The administration  105  also handles search requests  30  from the users by querying  50  the search engine  103  and returns the relevant files  40 . 
         [0003]    Accessing these files using a mobile device can be a problem since the files are often too big to be stored on the device or there are no applications on the device capable of rendering the file. Furthermore, there is a need to efficiently manage email attachments so they are readily available on a mobile device regardless of whether connectivity is available or of good quality. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0004]    In accordance with one embodiment, a method for managing email attachments comprises receiving and opening, on a mobile device, a document attached to an email; converting the opened document to a lower-resolution document; storing the lower-resolution document, and synchronizing the stored lower-resolution document with the mobile device. The method preferably also generates and stores a corresponding thumbnail of the lower-resolution document. In one implementation, the original of the opened document is also stored in a remote storage device. The original of the opened document may be broken into a plurality of pieces which are stored in different remote storage devices, preferably encrypting the low-resolution document before storing that document. 
         [0005]    In one implementation, the mobile device includes a low-resolution document application, and the stored lower-resolution document is retrieved from storage and sent to the mobile device. A corresponding thumbnail of the lower-resolution document may be retrieved from storage and sent to the application. 
         [0006]    In another embodiment, a method of adding redundancy to remote storage services, comprises breaking a file to be stored into two or more pieces; adding redundancy pieces; and storing the different pieces the different pieces are stored in different remote storage devices. Each of the pieces is preferably stored in a different remote storage device. 
         [0007]    In a further embodiment, a method of accelerating access to one or more files by a device based on the location of the device comprises storing the one or more files at different geographical locations in remote storage devices, and retrieving the files that are located closest to the location of the device used to access the stored files. 
         [0008]    In yet another embodiment, a method for optimizing usage of free cloud storage services, comprises storing files across different cloud storage services, and viewing the different cloud storage services as a single drive. 
         [0009]    The foregoing and additional aspects and embodiments of the present disclosure will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the detailed description of various embodiments and/or aspects, which is made with reference to the drawings, a brief description of which is provided next. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    The foregoing and other advantages of the disclosure will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings. 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  is an example of existing cloud email attachment management services. 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  is an embodiment of an efficient email attachment management services for mobile devices. 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  is an example of an application using a network performance measurement module. 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  is a flow chart exemplifying the model of the sharing of low-resolution documents. 
       
    
    
       [0015]    While the present disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments or implementations have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail herein. It should be understood, however, that the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed. Rather, the disclosure is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of an invention as defined by the appended claims. 
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    Referring to  FIG. 2 , as a complement to the email attachment mining described in  FIG. 1 , there is provided a system and method to access low-resolution renderings of email attachments to the mobile device  100   b  of a user  100 . The user  100  installs a low-resolution document (LRD) application  205  on a mobile device  100   b.  The user  100  registers with a low-resolution document management module  202  at  92  and sets up configuration and policies for email accounts  101   a  . . .  101   m.  In one embodiment, email attachments  60  (also referred to herein as original files) that are extracted at  102  from emails, or from links within emails, are compressed and/or transcoded at  201  into LRDs  70 . Optionally, the user can input files directly into the data mining system  102  using a computing device  100   c.  A key  80  to the LRD is provided to the search engine  103  to facilitate future searches. 
         [0017]    The LRDs  70  are sent to a low-resolution document management module  202  which maintains a database  206  of the LRDs. Optionally, the LRD is encrypted at  207  prior to storing in an LRD database  206 . Thumbnails  91  of the LRDs are generated in the management module  202  and stored in the LRD database  206 . The thumbnail  91  and the LRD  70  are kept in synchronization with the mobile device  100   b  when the mobile device has access to a network. Optionally, the LRD is encrypted at  207  before being stored in the database  206 , and is sent as an encrypted message to the LRD application  205  located on the mobile device  205 . The LRD application  205  is used to display the thumbnails  91  and to view the LRD  70 . When required, the application  205  handles the decryption of encrypted LRDs. The synchronization between the LRD database  206  and the mobile phone  100   b  can be done using a push or pull method or any known mobile file synchronization technique. Either the application  205  or the user  100  (via a computer) can request that the original files corresponding to LRDs be transmitted to the application  205 , at  97 . The LRD management module  202  is notified and keeps of the LRDs being downloaded and manages the file on the mobile devices  100   b  according to the set-up policies. 
         [0018]    To create a low-resolution document from an original file, the file (e.g. PDF) can be transcoded to an image and then optionally compressed. Other office-type editing files (e.g., Microsoft® office files) are first converted to PDF files or any other image format. Optionally, images are extracted from the original file and transcoded/compressed to lower resolution and then inserted back into the file. The file as a whole can be transcoded/compressed into a low-resolution document. The original files are stored in cloud storage services  106 , which can include any enterprise- hosted storage services or systems, based on policies from a rules engine  203 . 
         [0019]    Optionally, the original files are encrypted at  204  before being stored on the cloud storage service  106 . More than one cloud storage service  106  can be used to store the original files. In one embodiment, the files are duplicated on two or more cloud storage services  106   a  . . .  106   n  to ensure redundancy. In another embodiment, copies of the original files are distributed at different geographical cloud storage services locations, and location-based information is used to extract the closest original file when required to speed up the download. A further embodiment, the original files are stored in a way to optimize the use of free space on different cloud storage services  106 , and in that case all the different cloud storage services are seen as one drive. 
         [0020]    A large original file may be divided into a plurality of (two or more) pieces and redundancy is added in order to be able to recover the original file should one piece be lost. Any known redundancy technique can be used for recovering the original file. Each piece of the original file is stored on a different remote storage device, e.g., cloud storage service, to improve redundancy in an efficient manner. 
         [0021]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , as another embodiment, different quality low-resolution documents of the original files are stored in the low-resolution database  206 . A network performance analysis module  301  monitors the quality of the network connection with the mobile device and depending on the assessed network performance where the mobile device is connected, a higher or lower resolution document is selected for download on the mobile device based on user-configured policies. 
         [0022]    Referring to  FIG. 4 , in another embodiment, a user of the LRD application on the mobile device  100   b  can share documents by selecting one or more document(s) to share at  302  and one or more recipients&#39; email addresses along with an optional message at  303 . The email is sent to the recipient users. Optionally, the email is encrypted before being sent. If the recipient already has the LRD application on its mobile device  304 , it can then view the thumbnails of the low-resolution document(s) at  305  and select to download one or more of the low-resolution documents  306 . If the recipient mobile device does not have the LRD application  304   b,  then the application is first downloaded at  304   c  onto the device. When the downloads are complete, the recipient device can optionally maintain synchronization with the low-resolution document at  307  either permanently or only for a predetermined period of time as prescribed by the policies set up by the sender. 
         [0023]    There can be also a configurable option to allow download of the original file related to the low-resolution document at  308 . The email can optionally include one or more other policies parameters. For example a time-to-live wherein the low-resolution documents downloaded and associated emails are automatically deleted from the recipient mobile devices  304 ,  304   b.  The LRD management function  202  also has an optional capability of wiping off remotely any documents (original files or LRD) and related emails shared using the system. Depending on configurable policies, the recipient mobile device can forward the email with the LRD thumbnails to other users. The LRD management function  202  can optionally keep track of where the files are sent, in order to allow future deletion. 
         [0024]    File names or any type of descriptor for the content of the document can replace thumbnails. 
         [0025]    Referring to  FIG. 3 , a network performance analysis module  301  can be included with the system. The network performance analysis module  301  monitors the quality of the connections (e.g., throughput, file transfer performance) of the active users to put together a map of the best quality networks available (e.g., 3G, 4G, LTE, WIFI hotspots) in an area. This way all the users are crowd-sourcing the network performance information based on their location. Using this feature, a user can locate the most efficient WIFI hotspot to connect to for improved network throughput for better file transfer, web browsing, video streaming or virtual desktop performance 
         [0026]    Although the algorithms described above have been described separately, it should be understood that any two or more of the algorithms disclosed herein can be combined in any combination. Any of the methods, algorithms, implementations, or procedures described herein can include machine-readable instructions for execution by: (a) a processor, (b) a controller, and/or (c) any other suitable processing device. Any algorithm, software, or method disclosed herein can be embodied in software stored on a non-transitory tangible medium such as, for example, a flash memory, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard drive, a digital versatile disk (DVD), or other memory devices, but persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that the entire algorithm and/or parts thereof could alternatively be executed by a device other than a controller and/or embodied in firmware or dedicated hardware in a well known manner (e.g., it may be implemented by an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a programmable logic device (PLD), a field programmable logic device (FPLD), discrete logic, etc.). Also, some or all of the machine-readable instructions represented in any flowchart depicted herein can be implemented manually as opposed to automatically by a controller, processor, or similar computing device or machine. Further, although specific algorithms are described with reference to flowcharts depicted herein, persons of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate that many other methods of implementing the example machine readable instructions may alternatively be used. For example, the order of execution of the blocks may be changed, and/or some of the blocks described may be changed, eliminated, or combined. 
         [0027]    It should be noted that algorithms are illustrated and discussed herein as having various modules which perform particular functions and interact with one another. It should be understood that these modules are merely segregated based on their functions for the sake of description and represent computer hardware and/or executable software code which is stored on a computer-readable medium for execution on appropriate computing hardware. The various functions of the different modules and units can be combined or segregated as hardware and/or software stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium as modules in any manner, and can be used separately or in combination. 
         [0028]    While particular implementations and applications of the present disclosure have been illustrated and described, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the precise construction and compositions disclosed herein and that various modifications, changes, and variations can be apparent from the foregoing descriptions without departing from the spirit and scope of an invention as defined in the appended claims.