FORM-2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
& THE PATENTS RULES, 2003


PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
(See section 10 and rule 13) DATA PROTECTION SYSTEM
TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED,
an Indian Company of
Nirmal Building, 9th Floor,
Nariman Point, Mumbai - 21,
Maharashtra, India.

The following specification particularly describes the nature of the invention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of mobile devices.
Particularly, the present invention relates to protective mechanisms in
mobile devices.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cellular and mobile telephones are increasingly impacting our daily lives. They have grown from simple, audio, telephonic devices to full scale data, voice and video communication tools which are indispensable for our daily lives. Even the highly advanced 'smart phones' (the term used to define the latest generation phones) are increasingly being used by people across all the walks of society.
The different functionalities supported by mobile phones include sending and receiving data and facsimiles. The data functionalities include sending short messages (or "text messages" or SMS), access WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) services, and provide full internet access using technologies such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). Modern mobile phones usually have a clock, an alarm, a calculator and multiple games.
Most of the current mobile phone models also have inbuilt digital camera systems which have resolutions as high as 8 Mega Pixels. Sound recording systems and video recording systems are also supported. In addition, sending and receiving pictures and videos are also possible through MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) for long distances and through Bluetooth for short distances.
2

Also, there are many features aimed towards personalization including user-defined and downloadable ring tones and logos. Moreover, mobile phone content advertising has become massively popular.
As a result of all these features being packed into a tiny device, the current mobile phones hold a large amount of important data. The critical data stored in the mobile phone will be lost or altered if any damage happens to the mobile phone.
One of the common causes of the damage of a mobile phone is its fall from a certain height. It may affect not only the data stored in the phone's internal memory, but also the data stored in the memory card if the device falls into some extreme conditions like fire or water.
Therefore, there is a need for a data protection system for mobile phones which:
• senses the possibility of the mobile phone to undergo a fall;
• activates an application that backs up the data present in the phone on detection of a fall; and
• regularly backs up the data present in the mobile phone.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a data protection system for mobile phones which senses the possibility of the mobile phone to undergo a fall.
3

It is another object of the present invention to provide a data protection system for mobile phones which activates an application that backs up the data present in the phone on detection of a fall.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a data protection system for mobile phones which regularly backs up the data present in the mobile phone.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a data protection system for mobile phones comprising:
• a sensor unit adapted to sense and monitor the vertical component of the acceleration of the phone and the time for which the vertical component of the acceleration is deviated from its default value;
• a protection unit adapted to calculate the velocity of fall and to start a data back up process if the velocity is in a dangerous zone;
• an archival mechanism adapted to archive the data from the phone and its memory card; and
• a server unit adapted to receive the archived data from the archival mechanism and store the received archived data.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying, drawing, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram of the data protection system for mobile phones.
4

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The drawing and the description thereto are merely illustrative of a data protection system for mobile phones and only exemplify the system of the invention and in no way limit the scope thereof.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a data protection system for mobile phones which senses the possibility of the mobile phone to undergo a fall; activates an application that backs up the data present in the phone on detection of a fall; and regularly backs up the data present in the mobile phone.
Figure 1 illustrates the block diagram of the data protection system for mobile phones. The system comprises of a sensor unit 12, a protection unit 14 and an archival mechanism 16 embedded in the mobile phone 10 and a server unit 18 which is remotely located.
The sensor unit 12 continuously monitors and measures two parameters to detect the fall of the mobile phone 10 from a height. These parameters are:
• the vertical component of the acceleration of the phone 10; and
• the time for which the vertical component of acceleration is deviated from its default value (which is typically 0).
The sensor unit 12 typically comprises of an accelerometer. Accelerometers are devices which measure the acceleration to which they are subjected to. Accelerometers can sense and measure both the magnitude and direction of the acceleration as vector quantities.
The monitored parameter values are fed by the sensor unit 12 to the protection unit 14. The protection unit 14 processes these parameters to
5

arrive at a decision whether the data back up process has to be initiated or not. When the vertical component of acceleration is too high, there is a high possibility of the phone getting damaged and the back up process is to be initiated as early as possible. If the vertical component is not high, the phone 10 may not get damaged if it falls for a shorter period of time (i.e. if it travels a lesser distance). Therefore, a time factor is to be considered. If a non-zero vertical component is obtained by the sensor unit 12 for more than a predetermined period of time, then the back up process has to be initiated.
The processing steps followed by the protection unit 14 are as given below: i. Finding out the value of velocity using the equation v=a*t, wherein a = the average of the values for the vertical component of the acceleration obtained at fixed intervals of time and t = the time in seconds for which the vertical component of the acceleration is deflected from its default value. For averaging, typically, only the non-zero readings of the sensor unit 12 for the vertical component of the acceleration are taken after the last default (zero) reading, ii. Comparing the value of the velocity (v) thus obtained with a threshold value, vjhreshold, to find out whether the velocity is in a dangerous zone. If v > vjhreshold, then the velocity is concluded to be in the dangerous zone and an application named as the archival mechanism 16 for carrying out the back up process is activated.
The sensor unit 12 and the protection unit 14 are activated as soon as the phone is switched on. The sensor unit 12 continuously monitors the value of a and t and provides them to the protection unit 14 at fixed time intervals.
6

The archival mechanism 16 is the unit responsible for taking the back up of all the data present in the mobile phone and its memory card on the detection of a fall. The data is copied, compressed and sent to a remote server unit 18. The remote server unit 18 typically comprises of a database to store all the archived data. When the mobile phone 10 is dropped, the archival mechanism 16 gets only a limited time to do the jobs of copying, compressing and sending. If the whole chunk of data present in the mobile phone 10 is to be archived (copied and compressed), the time required will be large. Therefore, a technique named as differential data archiving is used by the archival mechanism 16 which is explained below.
At the time of installation of the data protection system in the phone 10, the initial data present in the mobile phone 10 and its memory card is archived by the archival mechanism 16 and sent to the server unit 18. After this initial archival, the differential data is archived at regular intervals. The differential data consists of the modified and added data present in the mobile phone 10 and its memory card after the previous archival. The regular interval can typically be an interval of a few days and the typical timing of archival can be at the midnight.
As the archival of the differential data takes only a little time, the data archival when the mobile phone 10 drops is achieved in a very short duration, before the phone 10 gets damaged. This is possible because the amount of differential data is expected to be very less.
Example
In this example, the value of v_threshold is set to be 9.8m/s. It is considered for this example that the mobile phone 10 will not be damaged if it falls with
7

an acceleration equal to the earth's acceleration due to gravity for a time period less than 2 seconds. Also, it is considered that the minimum time required for the archival mechanism 16 to complete the archival of data and sending it to the remote server 18 is 0.8 second.
The velocity of the fall of the phone, v will be in dangerous zone if v > v_threshold. If the phone is falling for a time, t <= 1 second, the maximum velocity it can achieve is v = a * t which gives
v = 9.8 m/s2* 1 s =-9.8 m/s. If the phone falls for a time, t > 1 second, then the velocity v exceeds the vJhreshold (9.8 m/s), and the protection unit 14 activates the archival mechanism 16 to immediately start the back up process of archiving differential data from the phone and its memory card (if any) and sending the archived data to the remote server 18. The time required for the back up process completion by the archival mechanism 16 is considered to be 0.8 seconds. Hence, there is enough time for the back up process to be finished before the phone 10 reaches the 2 seconds limit of damage. Hence, it can be seen that the value of v threshold is appropriately chosen in this example. The value of v jhreshold hence depends upon the time required for the back up process completion and the upper limit of the time of fall of the phone 10, beyond which the phone 10 gets damaged.
If the phone 10 falls for a time, t < 1 second, the protection unit 14 will not activate the archival mechanism 16 considering that the phone 10 will not get damaged if it falls for a time less than 2 seconds.
8

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, when the mobile phone 10 is in a state of rest, the value of a transferred by the sensor unit 12 to the protection unit 14 will be 0. When the mobile phone 10 falls, the sensor unit 12 starts giving readings of a having values more than 0. It also increases the value of/ from the default value 0 periodically.
The value of v will be increased in either of the cases as given below:
• when the value of a increases; and
• when the value of t increases.
TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS
The technical advancements of the present invention include realization of a data protection system for mobile phones which:
• senses the possibility of the mobile phone to undergo a fall;
• activates an application that backs up the data present in the phone on detection of a fall; and
• regularly backs up the data present in the mobile phone.

While considerable emphasis has been placed herein on the particular features of this invention, it will be appreciated that various modifications can be made, and that many changes can be made in the preferred embodiments without departing from the principles of the invention. These and other modifications in the nature of the invention or the preferred embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein, whereby it is to be distinctly understood that the foregoing descriptive matter is to be interpreted merely as illustrative of the invention and not as a limitation.

Dated this, 16th day of July, 2009.
MOHAN DEWAN Of R.K.DEWAN&CO. APPLICANTS' PATENT ATTORNEY