METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING VIDEO DATA FROM MULTIPLE SOURCE COMPUTERS IN A MULTI-MONITOR COMPUTER SYSTEM

• US 20110035448A1
• Filed: 01/07/2009
• Published: 02/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Antonyuk, Viktor, Leung, Andrew, McElhinney, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 8,938,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/04 Exchange of auxiliary data, i.e. other than image data, between monitor and graphics controller
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/001 Arbitration of resources in a display system, e.g. control of access to frame buffer by video controller and/or main processor

Abstract

An apparatus, method and computer program product, for displaying video data from at least one source computer in a multi-monitor computer system, are provided. The apparatus includes a source computer interface for receiving at least video data from at least one source computer, and a multi-monitor interface for providing video data to multiple monitors. A processing structure coordinates routing of video data received via the multi-monitor interface to the monitors based on display requests received from the at least one source computer.

Claims

1. An apparatus for displaying video data from at least one source computer in a multi-monitor computer system, comprising:

a source computer interface for receiving at least video data from at least one source computer;

a multi-monitor interface for providing video data to multiple monitors; and

a processing structure coordinating routing of video data via the multi-monitor interface to the monitors based on display requests received from the at least one source computer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the source computer interface comprises multiple source computer interface devices, each source computer interface device for receiving at least video data from a respective source computer.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the multi-monitor interface comprises multiple monitor interface devices, each monitor interface device for providing video data to a respective monitor.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a storage device for storing at least video data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a network interface sending and receiving at least video data to and from a remote computer.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing structure routes video data from each source computer to a respective monitor.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing structure in response to receiving a display request creates an electronic reservation record to associate the requesting source computer with a requested monitor.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing structure creates the electronic reservation record only in the event that video data is not, at the time of the request, being routed to the requested monitor.

9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the processing structure informs the source computer providing the display request that the display request has been granted.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processing structure causes the display of an administrator interface for manually granting or denying display requests received from source computers.

11. A method of displaying video data from at least one source computer in a multi-monitor computer system, comprising:

receiving at least video data from at least one source computer; and

coordinating routing of the received video data to respective monitors based on display requests received from the at least one source computer.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

providing monitor identifiers to the at least one source computer for inclusion in display requests.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the coordinating comprises:

receiving a display request including a monitor identifier from a requesting source computer to route its respective video data to a requested monitor that corresponds to the received monitor identifier.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

denying the display request in the event that video data is already being routed to the requested monitor.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

creating an electronic reservation record to associate the requesting source computer with the requested monitor.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

creating an electronic reservation record to associate the requesting source computer with an alternative monitor in the event that the requested monitor is already associated with a source computer.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the routing is coordinated in accordance with the electronic reservation record.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

providing monitor availability data to the at least one source computer in association with respective monitor identifiers to indicate whether or not video data is already being routed to the monitors.

19. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

queuing display requests in the event that video data is already being routed to all of the monitors.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

causing the display of an administrator interface for manually granting or denying display requests received from source computers.

21. A computer readable medium embodying a computer program for displaying video data from at least one source computer in a multi-monitor computer system, the computer program comprising:

program code receiving at least video data from at least one source computer; and

program code coordinating routing of the received video data to multiple monitors based on display requests received from the at least one source computer.

22. A system comprising a plurality of monitors operatively associated with at least one computing device for receiving at least video data from at least one source computer and executing a display management procedure, the display management procedure coordinating routing of the received video data to respective ones of the monitors based on display requests received from the at least one source computer.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the display management procedure provides a monitor identifier unique to each monitor to the at least one source computer for selection by a respective user thereby to include in a display request.

24. The system according to claim 22, wherein the display management procedure in response to receiving a display request creates an electronic reservation record to associate a requesting source computer with a requested monitor in the event that the requested monitor is not already associated with another source computer.

25. The system according to claim 22, wherein the display management procedure presents a user interface for enabling a user of the at least one computing device to view and grant display requests received from the source computers.

26. The system according to claim 23, wherein in the event a requesting source computer provides a display request including a monitor identifier for a requested monitor that is already associated with another source computer, the display management procedure denies the display request.

27. The system according to claim 23, wherein in the event a requesting source computer provides a display request including a monitor identifier for a monitor that is already associated with another source computer, the display management procedure automatically dissociates the requested monitor from the other source computer and associates the requested monitor with the requesting source computer.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the display management procedure automatically associates the dissociated other source computer with an alternative monitor.

29. The system according to claim 23, wherein each source computer is caused to display a user-selectable icon representing each monitor.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein each source computer is caused to display an availability message for each monitor in association with its icon.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein each availability message comprises, in the event that a respective monitor is associated with a source computer, information identifying the source computing device that is currently using the monitor.

32. The system of claim 22, further comprising memory for storing at least video data received from one or more of the at least one source computer.

33. The system of claim 22, wherein the display management procedure stores a queue of display requests in the memory.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the administrator interface enables a user to adjust display requests stored in the queue thereby to associate a source computer with an available monitor.