One-Click Universal Screen Sharing

• US 20080016155A1
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LiveLOOK, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Khalatian, Igor
• Granted Patent: US 7,933,955 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0383 Remote input, i.e. interface arrangements in which the signals generated by a pointing device are transmitted to a PC at a remote location, e.g. to a PC in a LAN
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

Described are systems and methods for screen sharing between computing systems. A guest system and a host system are coupled to a server over a network. The guest system automatically executes program code embedded in a web page received from the server. The program code sends a request to the server for image data corresponding to an image on a display screen of the host system. The host system automatically executes program code embedded in a web page received from the server. The program code captures image data from the display screen of the host system and sends the captured image data to the server. The server sends captured image data received from the host system to the guest system in response to the request from the guest system. The guest and host systems can participate in a screen-sharing session without having to download and install special software.

Claims

1. A method for sharing an image on a display screen of a computing system, the method comprising:

activating a region on a web page displayed in a browser window on the display screen of the computing system with an input device in order to host a screen-sharing session;

automatically receiving, in response to launching the screen-sharing session, program code over a network;

automatically executing the program code by a browser upon receiving the program code; and

capturing, by the execution of the program code, an image on the display screen of the computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of activating a region on a web page with an input device in order to host a screen-sharing session occurs with a single click of the input device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of sending the captured image data to a server over the network.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of detecting at least one change in the image on the display screen since captured image data was last sent to the server, and wherein the step of sending the captured image data includes sending each detected image change to the server.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of compressing the captured image data before sending the captured image data to the server over the network

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of compressing includes the step of selecting a file type in which to save the compressed image data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the file type is one of a JPG and a PNG file type.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of receiving a session code to be shared with a user of a guest computing system in order to participate in the screen-sharing session.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the program code includes a JAVA applet that uses a screen-capture method.

10. A method for viewing at a local computing system an image on a display screen of a remote computing system, the method comprising:

activating a region on a web page displayed in a browser window on a display screen of the local computing system with an input device in order to a join a screen-sharing session;

automatically receiving, in response to activating the region on the web page, program code over a network;

automatically executing the program code upon receipt to generate an HTTP request for image data;

receiving image data corresponding to the display screen of the remote computing system in response to the request; and

displaying the image data corresponding to the display screen of the remote computing system on the display screen of the local computing system.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of supplying a session code to a web page to become a participant in the screen sharing-session.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of supplying an operator password to become authorized for participating in the screen-sharing session.

13. A method of conducting a screen-sharing session during which a user of a guest computing system can view an image displayed on a display screen of a host computing system, the method comprising:

sending a first web page with embedded program code to the host computing system for capturing image data corresponding to an image displayed on the display screen of the host computing system;

sending a second web page with embedded program code to the guest computing system for generating a request for image data;

receiving, from the host computing system, image data representing an image displayed on the display screen of the host computing system;

receiving a request from the guest computing system for image data; and

sending image data received from the host computing system to the guest computing system in response to the request received from the guest computing system.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of determining from multiple updates of image data received from the host computing system, which image data to send to the guest computing system.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of providing a session code to the host computing system.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of maintaining a registry of host computing systems authorized to host screen-sharing sessions.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of searching the registry using an identifier provided by the host computing system to determine whether the host computing system is authorized to host the screen-sharing session.

18. A screen-sharing system comprising:

a guest computing system and a host computing system coupled to a server system over a network,

the guest computing system automatically executing program code embedded in a web page received from the server system, the program code sending a request to the server system for image data corresponding to an image on a display screen of the host computing system,

the host computing system automatically executing program code embedded in a web page received from the server system, the program code capturing image data from the display screen of the host computing system and sending the captured image data to the server system, and

the server system sending captured image data received from the host computing system to the guest computing system in response to the request from the guest computing system.

19. A method for enabling screen-sharing functionality on a computing system, the method comprising pasting hypertext markup language (HTML) code into a web page accessed by the computing system through a Web browser, the HTML code producing a region on the web page, which, when activated, launches a screen-sharing session.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step of launching the screen-sharing session by activating the region on the web page with a single click of an input device.