Title
Automatic deletion of unwanted data from an electronic device
Field
The invention deals with electronic devices what can potentially have some storage space and automatic management of stored data on such devices
Background/Summary of the proposed invention
Many electronic devices have storage space where users can store the data relevant for device. For example, a cell phone may store phone numbers, Picture files, SMSes among other types of data. Some of the phone numbers, photos may not be required after sometime. To use the storage space on her device efficiently and make it clutter-free, one has to check each item and delete the unused ones manually.
As per the proposed invention, when a user stores a new data in a cell phone or receives a new SMS, she will be asked whether she wants to store it permanently or for a limited period of time. If she chooses to store it for a limited period of time, the data will be automatically deleted from the cell phone after the specified time has elapsed. In a similar way, the invention can be applied to other type of devices also apart from cell phon.es..
Drawbacks of known art
There are applications in the market for phones with 'Delete all messages older than 2 months' kind of feature. Also, there are applications for computers (PC) with 'Delete all files older than 1 month' type of feature.
The limitation of these applications is that they delete all the files older than specified time, but some of these files may be useful for the user. As per the proposed invention, as soon as a message/file/contact/photo etc. is stored on a device, the user will be asked whether it should be stored permanently or for a specified period of time. That way, the deletion of data will happen on a case-to-case basis depending upon its importance. Also, the user can change the deletion criteria anytime later depending upon its importance.
Detailed Description of the proposed Invention
The idea deals with temporary storage of data on an electronic device like a Personal Computer (PC), mobile phone, digital photo frame, Digital TV, eBook, Camera or any other device that has some storage space.
Taking the case of a mobile phone:
Many times, we need to store an email, a phone number, an SMS or a photo on a mobile phone which is required for a limited period of time. Even if one has a large amount of storage space on his mobile phone, having an unwanted phone number or photo in the phone clutters the phone book or memory after sometime. For example, if one gets a 'Happy New Year' email on 30th December, he may not feel like deleting it immediately because new year celebration is in the air. But if one reads this email on Feb 1, it may look like an unwanted old thing which is unnecessarily taking space in his inbox.
As per the proposed invention, as soon as one receives an email, he can specify for how long the email should be kept in the inbox. If he says 2 weeks for example, the email will be automatically deleted from the inbox (with or without user's confirmation) after 2 weeks.
Another example - if one is looking for a house on rent or hunting for a new car, chances are she will inquire at many places and she will have many phone numbers with him on this issue. But these numbers may not be required once she has finalized a house or car which is unlikely to take more than a few weeks. As per the proposed invention, when one is saving a new phone number in his phone, she can be given the option to save it permanently or for a limited period of time. If she specifies say 5 days, the contact will be automatically deleted from the phone book after 5 days.
The idea can be similarly extended to other devices like Personal Computer (PC), Digital Photo Frames, Digital TVs, Cameras or Personal Media Players for the corresponding types of data these devices are meant or capable to store.
The settings for temporary storage can be applied/removed to/from a file when it's created or later. E.g. when a music player gets a music file from internet or from some other device, it can be stored normally. After some time (say one week), the user can change the configuration of the file so that it will be automatically deleted after some specified time (say one month). Similarly, if a file is previously configured to be deleted after a certain time, its settings can be changed so that it will not be deleted at all or the time interval after which it's scheduled to delete can be changed.
In another related embodiment of the proposed invention, once a file/email/Contact is stored on a device, the user can change its deletion settings later. E.g. she can specify to delete all emails older than 2 months AND received from person X AND with subject not having the word 'New year'. Any combination of such parameters can be specified using content of the file, last used date, creation date, size etc.
Also, the actual content/data under management can be on the user's device or on some other device. E.g. contacts are usually stored on a phone but emails are actually stored on email server and users usually just view emails on their device (PC/Phone). The invention can be applied to both types of data i.e. whether the data is stored locally on their own device or if they are accessing some other device to view their contents.
Description of Drawings
Figure 1.1 shows the screen of a mobile phone where a new number is being saved in the phone
Figure 1.2 shows an application of the proposed invention asking the user whether or not she wants to save the phone number for a limited period of time in a mobile phone
Figure 1.3 If the user selects 'Yes' for the above question (of Fig 1.2), this figure (1.3) shows the user being asked for how many days the data should be saved. The phone number will automatically deleted from the phone after specified number of days have elapsed
Figure 2 shows the flow chart of a picture being taken using a camera. Right after the picture is taken, the user will be asked whether the picture should be stored for a limited period of time. If the user chooses Yes, the device will ask the user for how many days the picture should be stored. The picture will be automatically deleted from the camera after the specified number of days have elapsed. The invention can be similarly applied to any type of data (like SMS, data file, music/video file etc.) on any type of device.

Claims
1. A method of storing any kind of data temporarily on a electronic device for a limited period of time where this time can be predefined or can be specified by the user and the specified data will be automatically deleted from the device after the specified time has elapsed
2. A method as specified in claim 1 where the device can be a cell phone and the data stored can be an SMS, an entry in contacts, a picture or any other data that can be stored in cell phone memory and the memory can be internal memory or external memory and the corresponding data will be automatically deleted from the cell phone when the time specified by user has elapsed
3. A method as specified in claim 1 where the device can be any electronic device that can potentially have some storage space and the data to be stored temporarily can be any data relevant for that device like a PC, Digital Photo Frame, Digital TV, electronic book reader, Smartphone, Projector, Personal Media Player, Camera, Personal Computer, Tablet computer or any other similar device
4. A method as specified in claim 1 where the time after which a file will be deleted can be applied to a new file or existing file and this time can be changed anytime before the file is deleted
5. A method of automatically deleting data from a device where the deletion criteria can be specified by the user as any combination of creation date, last used date, size, subject, content or any other parameter applicable to the file/contact/photo/data
6. A method of automatic management of data on a device as mentioned in claim 1 where the said data can be on user's device or the actual data may be on a remote device and she may be viewing it from some other device.