Hierarchical Display

• US 20130219012A1
• Filed: 02/22/2012
• Published: 08/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Suresh, Ashwin, Rivera, Juan
• Granted Patent: US 9,423,994 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04803 Split screen, i.e. subdividing the display area or the window area into separate subareas
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1462 with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the remote displays
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0686 with two or more screen areas displaying information with different brightness or colours
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/0693 Calibration of display systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2320/103 Detection of image changes, e.g. determination of an index representative of the image change
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0407 Resolution change, inclusive of the use of different resolutions for different screen areas
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/0464 Positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/14 Solving problems related to the presentation of information to be displayed
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2354/00 Aspects of interface with display user
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2370/022 Centralised management of display operation, e.g. in a server instead of locally
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

Systems and methods that provide a hierarchical display to a user based on a position of the user'"'"'s focus are described herein. The position of the user'"'"'s focus may be determined by tracking, for example, a position of the user'"'"'s eyes, a position of a mouse cursor within the display, a position of an application window within the display, or a combination thereof. Based on the position of the user'"'"'s focus, the display may be divided into multiple display regions, and the display regions may be ranked, such as by prioritizing a display region that the user is focusing on. Display quality (e.g., transmission rate, image resolution, degree of image compression, etc.) of the display regions may be determined based on the rank of the display regions, thereby providing higher display/image quality to regions based on what the user is actively looking at.

Claims

1. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

receive, from a client device, information identifying a position of a user focus within a display area;

rank a plurality of display regions of the display area based on the information identifying the position of the user focus; and

transmit, to the client device, at least one display region of the plurality of display regions, the at least one display region transmitted with a display quality based on its corresponding rank.

2. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein ranking the plurality of display regions comprises:

identifying a primary display region of the plurality of display regions based on the position of the user focus;

identifying a secondary display region of the plurality of display regions, the secondary display region different from the primary display region;

transmitting the primary display region with a first display quality; and

transmitting the secondary display region with a second display quality, the first display quality being higher than the second display quality.

3. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 2, wherein ranking the plurality of display regions comprises identifying a tertiary display region of the plurality of display regions, wherein:

the secondary display region is closer to the primary display region than the tertiary display region is to the primary display region; and

the display quality of the secondary display region is higher than a display quality of the tertiary display region.

4. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 2, having additional computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

detect an image change in the secondary display region; and

in response to detecting the image change in the secondary display region, prevent transmission of an updated frame of the secondary display region.

5. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the display quality of the display region comprises at least one of an image resolution, an image transmission rate, and a degree of image compression.

6. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein:

receiving information identifying the position of the user focus comprises receiving the information in response to a change in the position of the user focus by more than a predetermined threshold; and

ranking the plurality of display regions comprises updating rankings for the plurality of display regions based on the change in position of the user focus.

7. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 1, having additional computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

identify the position of the user focus relative to a display region of the plurality of display regions; and

select a primary display region corresponding to the identified position of the user focus.

8. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 7, wherein identifying the position of the user focus relative to a display region of the plurality of display regions comprises determining a position of an input device indicator in the display area.

9. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 7, wherein identifying the position of the user focus relative to a display region of the plurality of display regions comprises determining a window focus in the display area.

10. A method, comprising:

receiving, from a client device, information identifying a position of a user focus in a display area;

identifying a primary display region of the display area, the primary display region being associated with the position of the user focus in the display area;

setting the display quality of the primary display region higher than a display quality of a secondary display region different from the primary display region; and

transmitting, to the client device, at least one of the primary display region and the secondary display region.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

identifying a tertiary display region of the display area, wherein the secondary display region is closer to the primary display region than the tertiary display region is to the primary display region; and

setting the display quality of the secondary display region higher than a display quality of the tertiary display region.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

detecting an image change in the secondary display region; and

in response to detecting the image change in the secondary display region, preventing transmission of an updated frame of the secondary display region.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the display quality of the primary display region comprises at least one of an image resolution, an image transmission rate, and a degree of image compression.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein:

receiving information identifying the position of the user focus comprises receiving the information in response to a change in the position of the user focus from a first display region to a second display region different from the first display region; and

identifying the primary display region of the display area comprises identifying the second display region as the primary display region.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

determining that the position of the user focus has changed to a new display region in the display area,

wherein identifying the primary display region of the display area comprises identifying the new display region as the primary display region.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining that the position of the user focus has changed to the new display region in the display comprises determining that a position of an input device indicator associated with the user focus has changed to a position in the new display region in the display area.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein determining that the position of the user focus has changed to the new display region in the display area comprises determining that at least a portion of an application window is within the new display region.

18. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from the client device, information identifying the position of another user focus in the display area;

identifying another primary display region of a display area, the another primary display region being associated with the position of the another user focus; and

setting the display quality of the another primary display region to the display quality of the primary display region.

19. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

detecting an image change in the primary display region; and

in response to detecting the image change in the primary display region, performing the transmitting step.

20. A system, comprising:

a client device having a display screen configured to display a display area, the display area comprising a first display region and a second display region; and

a server comprising;

a processor; and

memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to;

determine that a position of a user'"'"'s focus within the display area has changed from the second display region to the first display region;

assign a first transmission rate to the first display region;

assign a second transmission rate to the second display region, the second transmission rate lower than the first transmission rate;

transmit, to the client device, frames of the first display region at the first transmission rate; and

transmit, to the client device, frames of the second display region at the second transmission rate.