Universal environment extender

• US 10,021,180 B2
• Filed: 06/04/2013
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kingston Digital, Inc. (Kingston Technology Corporation), Kingston Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Kingston Digital, Inc. (Kingston Technology Corporation)
• Inventors: Chen, Ben Wei
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Krishnan, Raji
• Application Number:
  US13/909,889
• Publication Number:
  US 20140359477A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,862 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/029 Firewall traversal, e.g. tunnelling or, creating pinholes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1078 Resource delivery mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4222 Remote control device emulator integrated into a non-television apparatus, e.g. a PDA, media center or smart toy remote control device for a television receiver integrated into a mobile phone H04M1/72415

Abstract

A universal environment extender is disclosed. The universal environment extender comprises a smart device; and a main control utility running on the smart device. Then the main control utility allows the extender as a receiver to operate in a mode that allows the extender to explore and reverse-explore the source content/applications and to extend the display environment from another smart device as a transmitter.

Claims

1. A universal environment extender (UEE) system, comprising:

a smart device comprising a memory and a processor coupled to the memory; and

a main control utility application running on the smart device, the main control utility application including computer-executable instructions stored in the memory of the smart device, wherein when the main control utility application is executed, the smart device operates as a UEE receiver to;

receive content location information from another smart device operating as a UEE transmitter to build a reverse content explorer onto the another smart device,

explore content stored on the smart device and in the network domain accessible to the smart device,

receive content selection from the another smart device,

pull at least a portion of the selected content to be streamed directly from the content location without utilizing resources dedicated to the transmitter,

decrypt the source content,

determine if the source content is playable on the receiver, and

play the source content,

wherein the main control utility application utilizes a virtual user interface (UI) driver to communicate with a non-native operating system of the another smart device.

2. The UEE system of claim 1, wherein the main control utility application provides an autoconfiguration function, which allows the smart device to associate with other smart devices and one or more access points.

3. The UEE system of claim 1, wherein the content includes video, audio, photos and documents in various formats.

4. The UEE system of claim 1, wherein the main control utility allows the smart device operating as a UEE receiver to play an application from a source on a receiver accessible network devices, wherein if the application cannot be executed locally, outside resources are summoned.

5. The UEE system of claim 1, wherein the smart device operating as UEE receiver can be accessed as a private cloud server by the another smart device operating as UEE transmitter, and wherein the UEE transmitter requires no outside or third party routing server in a wireless area network (WAN) and requires no additional router setup in a local area network (LAN) to establish a secure peer-to-peer communication channel with the UEE receiver.

6. The UEE system of claim 1, wherein the smart device further includes:

a local storage and network storage;

an I/O connected to video and audio devices;

a downstream wireless interface;

a upstream wireless interface;

an operating system; and

a virtual user interface (UI) utility that is able to communicate with a virtual UI from the another smart device.

7. A universal environment extender (UEE) transmitter device comprising:

a smart device comprising a memory and a processor coupled to the memory; and

a main control utility application executed by the processor, wherein the main control utility application includes;

a virtual user interface (UI) utility that is able to pair with a UEE receiver device that includes a non-native operating system and to provide a reverse mirror display of the UEE receiver device on the UEE transmitter device;

a remote control utility to configure and to control the UEE receiver device via a transmitter display panel on the UEE transmitter device; and

a user interface menu to;

display, via the reverse mirror display, source content and applications available on the UEE receiver device,

explore the source content and the applications,

select at least a portion of the source content and applications,

designate a target display panel to play the selection, wherein the target display panel is at least one of the transmitter display panel of the UEE transmitter device and a receiver display panel of the UEE receiver device, and

play the content.

8. The UEE transmitter device of claim 7, wherein the remote control utility includes control of “

choose display” and

“

reverse mirror”

to select an active display panel on the UEE transmitter device and the UEE receiver device.

9. The UEE transmitter device of claim 7, wherein the remote control utility includes control of finger mouse, “

search left”

, “

play/pause”

, “

search right”

, “

volume down”

, “

volume up”

, “

back to last”

, “

home”

, “

soft keyboard”

, “

reverse mirror/toggle”

, “

choose display” and

“

shut down”

on the display.

10. The UEE transmitter device of claim 7, wherein the remote control utility configures the UEE receiver device to join another wireless network access point (AP) while on a peer-to-peer wireless network with the UEE receiver device.

11. The UEE transmitter device of claim 7, wherein the remote control utility allows the UEE transmitter device to access the UEE receiver device as a private cloud server from anywhere at any time.

12. The UEE transmitter device of claim 11, wherein the private cloud server is behind a firewall with fixed or dynamic IP addresses.

13. The UEE transmitter device of claim 11, wherein, while accessing the UEE receiver device as a private cloud server, the UEE transmitter device can access applications or storage from the UEE receiver.