Direct input from a nearby device

Abstract

The subject technology provides a system of server and client devices, of which at least one server device includes an application configured to receive data directly from another one of the client devices. The application is configured to obtain a list of available client devices and associated features and provide input options for display based on the list. When one of the input options is selected, the application activates a component and/or an application of the client device for generation of the desired data. When the desired data has been generated by the client device, the generated data is directly input from the client device into the running application on the server device, without storage of the generated data at the client device, and without operation of the same application on the client device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A server device, comprising:
 a memory; and   at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to:   provide, for display, a content-editing view of a content-editor application, the content-editing view including one or more selectable options for modifying the content-editing view, wherein the one or more selectable options include at least one option to obtain data from a client device that is communicatively coupled to the server device;   receive, via the content-editor application, a selection of the at least one option to obtain data from the client device;   activate, via the content-editor application, an additional application on the client device; and   receive the data for modifying the content-editing view from the additional application on the client device.   
     
     
         2 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 discover the client device;   identify one or more available features of the client device; and   identify one or more types of input that are obtainable using the one or more available features, at least one of the one or more types of input corresponding to the data.   
     
     
         3 . The server device of  claim 2 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate the one or more selectable options based on the one or more types of input. 
     
     
         4 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the client device further comprises an available component, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to advertise a feature flag for use of the available component for providing data to the server device. 
     
     
         5 . The server device of  claim 4 , wherein the available component of the client device comprises a camera, a touch screen, a stylus, a light sensor, a motion sensor, an activity sensor, or a location sensor. 
     
     
         6 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the data from the client device comprises an image, a video, augmented reality content, image markup metadata, handwriting recognition data, freehand sketch data, steps data, heart rate data, electro-cardio data, calorie data, blood pressure data, or mood data. 
     
     
         7 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the additional application is activated and the data is received from the client device without execution of the content-editor application on the client device. 
     
     
         8 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the additional application activated on the client device is unrelated to the server device or to the content-editor application. 
     
     
         9 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the additional application activated on the client device is a camera application associated with a camera of the client device, a drawing entry application associated with a stylus of the client device, a handwriting recognition application, an image markup application, an activity monitoring application associated with a sensor of the client device, or a health monitoring application associated with the sensor of the client device. 
     
     
         10 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the content-editing view comprises a representation of a document in a word processing application. 
     
     
         11 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein the content-editor application comprises a word processor, a presentation editor, an email editor, a spreadsheet, an image editing application, or a messaging application. 
     
     
         12 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the data comprises:
 generating commands, with the content-editor application, for operating a component of the client device to generate content for insertion; and providing the generated commands to the client device with communications circuitry of the server device.   
     
     
         13 . The server device of  claim 1 , wherein receiving the data comprises:
 calling, from the content-editor application of the server device to an application programming interface of the server device, a function for requesting the data; and   providing, via the application programming interface and responsive to the calling of the function, commands for operating a component of the client device to generate content for insertion.   
     
     
         14 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by at least one server computing device, cause the at least one server computing device to perform operations comprising:
 providing, for display, a content-editing view of a content-editor application, the content-editing view including one or more selectable options for insertion of content into the content-editing view, wherein the one or more selectable options include at least one option to obtain content from a remote client device;   receiving, from within the content-editor application, a selection of the at least one option to obtain content from the remote client device;   activating, with the content-editor application, an additional application on the remote client device; and   receiving content for insertion into the content-editing view, with the content-editor application from the additional application on the remote client device.   
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 14 , wherein activating the additional application on the remote client device comprises activating the additional application outside of a lockscreen of the remote client device. 
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise inserting the content for insertion by controlling a component of the remote client device with the remote client device or with the content-editor application. 
     
     
         17 . A method comprising:
 providing, for display, a content-editing view of a content-editor application, the content-editing view including one or more selectable options for modifying the content-editing view, wherein the one or more selectable options include at least one option to obtain data from a client device that is communicatively coupled to the server device;   receiving, via the content-editor application, a selection of the at least one option to obtain data from the client device;   activating, via the content-editor application, an additional application on the client device; and   receiving the data for modifying the content-editing view from the additional application on the client device.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 discovering the client device;   identifying one or more available features of the client device; and   identifying one or more types of input that are obtainable using the one or more available features, at least one of the one or more types of input corresponding to the data.   
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 generating the one or more selectable options based on the one or more types of input.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 advertising a feature flag for use of an available component for providing data to the server device.   
     
     
         21 . A client device comprising:
 a memory;   a component; and   at least one processor configured to:   control the component to generate data for a content-editor application running on a server device, the component having been activated from within the content-editor application running on the server device; and   modify a content-editing view of the content-editor application of the server device using the generated data.   
     
     
         22 . The client device of  claim 21 , wherein the client device is a smartphone or a tablet device, wherein the component of the client device is a camera, and wherein the at least one processor is configured to control the component by operating the camera to capture an image, responsive to selection of an image capture option at the client device. 
     
     
         23 . The client device of  claim 22 , wherein the at least one processor is configured to modify the content-editing view using the data by transmitting the captured image from the client device to the content-editor application of the server electronic device, responsive to the selection of the image capture option at the client device, and without further input to the client device or the server device. 
     
     
         24 . The client device of  claim 23 , wherein the content-editor application comprises a word processing application with a displayed document for editing in the content-editing view, and wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit the captured image for display in the displayed document, without storing the captured image at the client device. 
     
     
         25 . The client device of  claim 21 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to:
 receive an image from the server device;   display the image;   receive image markup input via a touchscreen of the client device; and   provide image markup metadata based on the image markup input to the server device, without storing the image or the image markup metadata, and without sending the image to the server device, wherein the data comprises the image markup metadata.