Remote displays in mobile communication networks

• US 20020032751A1
• Filed: 05/22/2001
• Published: 03/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jolly Seven, Series 70 of Allied Security Trust I (Allied Security Trust)
• Original Assignee: Media Forum, Inc. (Rakuten Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bharadwaj, Srinivas
• Granted Patent: US 8,463,912 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5007 Internet protocol [IP] addresses
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5014 using dynamic host configuration protocol [DHCP] or bootstrap protocol [BOOTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/5084 Providing for device mobility network addressing or numbering for mobility support in wireless networks H04W8/26; mobile IP H04W80/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/04 specially adapted for terminals or networks with limited capabilities; specially adapted for terminal portability
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/08 specially adapted for terminal emulation, e.g. Telnet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/24 Negotiation of communication capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4938 comprising a voice browser which renders and interprets, e.g. VoiceXML
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4782 : Web browsing , e.g. WebTV
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4786 : e-mailing message switching systems, e.g. electronic mail systems H04L51/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 : communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 : involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 28/06 : Optimizing the usage of the radio link, e.g. header compression, information sizing , discarding information system modifying transmission characteristic according to link quality by modifying frame length H04L1/0007; dynamic adaptation of the packet size for flow control or congestion control H04L47/365
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0219 : where the power saving management affects multiple terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 52/0264 : by selectively disabling software applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/10 : Connection setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 : Terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/70 : in wireless communication networks

Abstract

A method and system that uses a thin client solution in a mobile network is disclosed. The thin client is not required to be equipped with an execution environment; rather, the client is used as a display device for applications that run on remote servers. Applications such as E-mail client, browser and others execute on a remotely located server, but use the client as a display and input device. The client is equipped with a speech input device, which receives speech input and transmits it to the server for interpretation or recognition at the server. Because bandwidth is limited, a method of combining requests that are transmitted and received between the client and one or more servers is contemplated, which method results in a reduction of traffic between the client and the server(s). The server, which runs applications that are used and accessed by a user via the client, maintains application state on the server. Thus, when a user turns “off” the client device, the server may still maintain the state of the applications the user executed at the server. When the client reestablishes connection with the server, the user'"'"'s prior state may be restored.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a client computer configured to fit in a person'"'"'s hand, comprising;

a central processor unit;

memory device coupled to the central processor unit, said memory being configured to store instructions to direct the central processing unit;

input device coupled to the central processor unit;

a communication device coupled to the central processor unit and adapted to establish a wireless communication link with one or more remotely located server computers; and

a display device coupled to the central processor unit, wherein said client computer device is adapted to act as a remote output device for one or more application programs running on said one or more remotely located server computers without the need for an execution environment on the client computer.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the input device is a stylus, a microphone adapted to receive speech input, a pointing device, keyboard, touch pad, jog dial, joystick, or an infrared input device.

3. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the one or more application programs include one active application.

4. The apparatus as in claim 3, further comprising:

a portion of the memory device configured as a local cache;

wherein drawables corresponding to the one or more application programs are stored in the cache for local retrieval and display.

5. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising:

first component coupled to the memory device, said first component configured to transmit a list of cached drawables for an active application to a server.

6. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising:

second component coupled to the memory device, said second component configured to receive a compound request message from the server.

7. The apparatus as in claim 6, further comprising:

third component coupled to the memory device, said third component configured to use the compound request message to update a display state of the client computer.

8. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising:

fourth component configured to transmit a user'"'"'s identification information to a server; and

fifth component configured to receive information regarding a list of applications previously executing for that user.

9. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising:

sixth component configured to select one of a plurality of applications from a list of available applications.

10. The apparatus as in claim 1, further comprising:

seventh component configured to decode streams of multimedia signals on the client.

11. The apparatus as in claim 10, wherein the seventh component comprises an MPEG decoder.

12. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the input device includes:

a microphone adapted to receive spoken input, and

a voice-activity detector, whereby the voice-activity detector is configured to be activated upon the detection of a speech input present at the microphone.

13. The apparatus as in claim 12, wherein the processor is programmed to instruct the voice-activity detector to detect speech input present at the microphone, and transmit the detected speech.

14. The apparatus as in claim 13, wherein the speech input is directed toward an active application.

15. The apparatus as in claim 13, wherein the speech input is directed toward an application list manager (ALM) module, said ALM module is configured to manage an application.

17. The apparatus as in claim 16, wherein the input device is a stylus, a microphone adapted to receive speech input, a pointing device, a keyboard, a touch pad, a jog dial, joystick, or an infrared input device.

18. The apparatus as in claim 17, wherein the one or more application programs include one active application.

19. The apparatus as in claim 16, further comprising:

a portion of the memory device configured as a local cache;

wherein drawables corresponding to the one or more application programs are stored in the cache for local retrieval and display.

20. The apparatus as in claim 16, further comprising:

fourth component configured to transmit a user'"'"'s identification information to a server; and

fifth component configured to receive information regarding a list of applications previously executing for that user.

21. The apparatus as in claim 16, further comprising:

sixth component configured to select one of a plurality of applications from a list of available applications.

22. The apparatus as in claim 16, further comprising:

seventh component configured to decode streams of multimedia signals on the client.

23. The apparatus as in claim 22, wherein the seventh component comprises an MPEG decoder.

24. The apparatus as in claim 16, further comprising:

first component coupled to the memory device, said first component configured to transmit a list of cached drawables for an active application to a server.

25. The apparatus as in claim 16, wherein the input device includes:

a microphone adapted to receive spoken input, and

a voice-activity detector, whereby the voice-activity detector is configured to be activated upon the detection of speech input present at the microphone.

26. The apparatus as in claim 25, wherein the processor is programmed to instruct the voice-activity detector to detect speech input present at the microphone, and transmit the detected speech.

27. The apparatus as in claim 25, wherein the speech input is directed toward an active application.

28. The apparatus as in claim 25, wherein the speech input is directed toward an application list manager (ALM) module, said ALM module is configured to manage an application.

16. An apparatus comprising:

a client computer configured to fit in a person'"'"'s hand, comprising;

a central processor unit;

memory device coupled to the central processor unit, said memory being configured to store instructions to direct the central processing unit;

input device coupled to the central processor unit;

a communication device coupled to the central processor unit and adapted to establish a wireless communication link with one or more remotely located server computers;

second component coupled to the memory device, said second component configured to receive a compound request message from the server;

third component coupled to the memory device, said third component configured to use the compound request message to update a display state of the client computer; and

a display device coupled to the central processor unit, wherein said client computer device is adapted to act as a remote output device for one or more application programs running on said one or more remotely located server computers over a wide-area mobile network without the need for an execution environment on the client computer.

29. An apparatus comprising:

a server computer, comprising;

a central processor unit;

memory device coupled to the central processor unit, said memory being configured to store instructions to direct the central processing unit;

a communication device coupled to the central processor unit and adapted to establish a wireless communication link with one or more remotely located client computers; and

instructions stored in the memory device, said instructions configured to instruct the central processor unit to establish a session with a remote client over a wireless communication network, execute an application on the server computer, and establish a communication path with the remote client such that the remote client is established as an input/output device for the server-run application.

30. A method of establishing a client-server communication, said method comprising the steps of:

establishing a session between the client and the server computer, said client and server computer being connected using a wireless network;

executing an application program on the server computer;

exporting display of the application program to the client;

receiving a user input at the server computer; and

construing the user'"'"'s input at the server.

31. The method as in claim 30, wherein the step of establishing a session between the client and the server computer comprises the step of:

transmitting server system information to the client.

32. The method as in claim 30, further comprising the step of:

aggregating a number of requests to be sent to the client; and

transmitting a compound request to the client.

33. The method as in claim 30, further comprising the step of:

maintaining a cache of drawables transmitted to the client; and

replaying the client'"'"'s state when the client reestablishes connection with the server.

34. The method as in claim 30, wherein the input from the client is received in a multimodal form.

35. The method as in claim 30, further comprising:

an event system proxy, said event system proxy receives speech input from the client;

a speech recognition server, which receives speech input from the event system proxy, whereupon the server computer is configured to interact with the speech recognition server, construe the speech input at the speech recognition server, and instruct the client in accordance with the construed speech.

36. The method as in claim 30, further comprising the step of:

selectively disabling substreams of audio/visual data.

37. The method as in claim 36, further comprising the step of:

receiving an instruction from a user to selectively disable substreams of audio/visual data.