EFFICIENT SCREEN IMAGE TRANSFER

• US 20140270557A1
• Filed: 03/13/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OLogN Technologies AG
• Original Assignee: OLogN Technologies AG
• Inventors: Ligoum, Dmitri, Ignatchenko, Sergey
• Granted Patent: US 9,235,905 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/239
• 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: G06T 9/00 Image coding bandwidth or redundancy reduction for static pictures H04N1/41; coding or decoding of static colour picture signals H04N1/64; methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/02 Handling of images in compressed format, e.g. JPEG, MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2350/00 Solving problems of bandwidth in display systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/65 using error resilience

Abstract

A system including a source display, externally updatable, an image compression algorithm database, a network connection, and a frame transfer engine. The algorithm database comprises a plurality of image compression algorithms. The frame transfer engine is configured to receive a plurality of updates made to the source display, store at least some of the updates in a queue, and select, based on a bandwidth of the network connection, a size of the update, and sizes and times of updates currently present in the queue, an image compression algorithm in the algorithm database for current transfer over the network connection.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a source display, externally updatable;

an algorithm database comprising a plurality of image compression algorithms;

a network connection; and

a frame transfer engine executing on a computer processor and configured to;

receive a plurality of updates made to the source display;

store at least some of the updates in a queue; and

select, based on a bandwidth of the network connection, a size of the update, and sizes and times of updates currently present in the queue, an image compression algorithm in the algorithm database for current transfer over the network connection.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the frame transfer engine uses Tguar to determine which image compression algorithm shall be used for the current transfer of the update in the queue, wherein Tguar comprises a maximum time which any update is allowed to stay within the frame transfer engine before it is completely transferred.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the frame transfer engine aborts the current transfer to satisfy Tguar requirements.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of updates comprises a first update.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein storing at least some of the updates in the queue comprises:

generating a first queue item comprising the first update; and

storing the first queue item in the queue.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein selecting the image compression algorithm in the algorithm database for current transfer over the network connection comprises:

generating a first query using the first queue item;

querying the algorithm database with the first query;

receiving, in response to the first query, a first algorithm identifier identifying a first image compression algorithm;

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

process the first update using the first image compression algorithm to obtain a processed first update; and

transmit the processed first update to a target computer system via the network connection.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first queue item further comprises a first timestamp indicating a time at which the frame transfer engine received the first update.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein generating the first query using the first queue item comprises:

obtaining a first update size from the first queue item;

determining a first bandwidth of the network connection; and

generating the first query using the first update size and the first bandwidth.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first query comprises a Tguar.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processed first update is a size capable of transmission to the target computer system via the network connection with the first bandwidth within the Tguar.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

before the transmission of the processed first update is complete, receive a second update from the source display;

generate a second queue item comprising the second update and a second timestamp indicating a time at which the frame transfer engine received the second update; and

abort the transmission of the processed first update based on a determination that transmission of the second update following the transmission of the first update will exceed the Tguar.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

merge the first update with the second update to obtain a merged update;

generate a third queue item comprising the merged update and the first timestamp;

obtain a third update size from the third queue item;

determine a second bandwidth of the network connection;

query the algorithm database with a second query comprising the third update size, the second bandwidth, and a remaining time, wherein the remaining time is a portion of the Tguar;

receive, in response to the second query, a second algorithm identifier identifying a second compression algorithm;

process the merged update using the second compression algorithm to obtain a processed merged update, wherein the processed merged update is a size capable of transmission to the target computer system via the network connection with the second bandwidth within the remaining time; and

transmit the processed merged update to the target computer system via the network connection.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

process a second update using a second compression algorithm to obtain a processed second update, wherein the processed second update is a size capable of transmission to the target computer system via the network connection with a second bandwidth within the Tguar; and

transmit the processed second update to the target computer system via the network connection.

16. The system of claim 15,

wherein the second compression algorithm is used in response to a determination that the second bandwidth is larger than the first bandwidth, and

wherein the processed second update is a higher quality than the processed first update.

17. The system of claim 15,

wherein the second compression algorithm is used in response to a determination that a rate of updates to the source display has increased, and

wherein the processed second update is a lower quality than the processed first update.

18. The system of claim 7, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

determine that the transmission of the processed first update has completed;

determine that the first image compression algorithm is a lossy compression algorithm;

generate a flag in the first queue item indicating that the first update was transmitted using the lossy compression algorithm; and

merge the first queue item into the queue.

19. The system of claim 7, wherein the frame transfer engine is further configured to:

determine that the transmission of the processed first update has completed;

determine that the first image compression algorithm is a lossless compression algorithm;

process a second update using the lossless compression algorithm to obtain a processed second update; and

transmit the processed second update to the target computer system via the network connection.

20. The system of claim 7,

wherein the first image compression algorithm is a lossless compression algorithm,

wherein the lossless compression algorithm is received based on a determination that the first bandwidth is sufficient to transmit the first update using the lossless compression algorithm.

21. A system comprising:

a client computer system comprising a target display; and

a server computer system, connected via a network connection to the client computer system, comprising;

a source display, and

a memory configured to store;

an algorithm database comprising a plurality of image compression algorithms;

a transmission queue;

a frame transfer engine executing on a computer processor and configured to;

determine that the transmission queue comprises an untransmitted queue item, wherein the untransmitted queue item comprises a display frame and a timestamp indicating a time at which the frame transfer engine received the display frame;

obtain a first image compression algorithm from the algorithm database;

process the display frame using the first image compression algorithm to obtain a processed display frame; and

transmit the processed display frame to the client computer system via the network connection.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein obtaining the first image compression algorithm from the algorithm database comprises:

obtaining a display frame size from the untransmitted queue item;

determining a bandwidth of the network connection between the server computer system and the client computer system;

querying the algorithm database with a query comprising the display frame size, the bandwidth, and a transfer guarantee time; and

receiving, in response to the query, an algorithm identifier identifying the first image compression algorithm.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein processing the display frame using the first image compression algorithm to obtain the processed display frame comprises:

determining that the first image compression algorithm results in a quality below a minimum quality threshold;

merging the display frame with the untransmitted queue item to obtain a merged display frame;

obtaining a second compression algorithm from the algorithm database;

processing the merged display frame using the second compression algorithm to obtain a processed merged display frame; and

transmitting the processed merged display frame to the client computer system.

24. A method for updating a remote display comprising:

receiving a first display frame of a source display;

generating, using a computer processor, a first queue item comprising the first display frame;

generating a first query using the first queue item;

querying an algorithm database with a first query;

receiving, in response to the first query, a first algorithm identifier identifying a first image compression algorithm;

processing, using the computer processor, the first display frame using the first image compression algorithm to obtain a processed first display frame; and

transmitting the processed first display frame to a target computer system via a network connection.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the first queue item further comprises a first timestamp indicating a time at which the first display frame was received.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein generating the first query using the first queue item comprises:

obtaining a first display frame size from the first queue item;

determining a first bandwidth of the network connection; and

generating the first query using the first display frame size and the first bandwidth.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the first query comprises a transfer guarantee time.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the processed first display frame is a size capable of transmission to the target computer system via the network connection with the first bandwidth within the transfer guarantee time.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

before the transmission of the processed first display frame is complete, receive a second display frame from the source display;

generating a second queue item comprising the second display frame and a second timestamp indicating a time at which the second display frame was received; and

aborting the transmission of the processed first display frame based on a determination that transmission of the second display frame following the transmission of the first display frame will exceed the transfer guarantee time.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

merging the first display frame with the second display frame to obtain a merged display frame;

generating a third queue item comprising the merged display frame and the first timestamp;

obtaining a third display frame size from the third queue item;

determining a second bandwidth of the network connection;

querying the algorithm database with a second query comprising the third display frame size, the second bandwidth, and a remaining time, wherein the remaining time is a portion of the transfer guarantee time;

receiving, in response to the second query, a second algorithm identifier identifying a second compression algorithm;

processing the merged display frame using the second compression algorithm to obtain a processed merged display frame, wherein the processed merged display frame has a size capable of transmission to the target computer system via the network connection with the second bandwidth within the remaining time; and

transmitting the processed merged display frame to the target computer system via the network connection.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first bandwidth is greater than the second bandwidth.

32. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

determining that the transmission of the processed first display frame has completed;

determining that the first image compression algorithm is a lossy compression algorithm;

generating a flag in the first queue item indicating that the first display frame was transmitted using the lossy compression algorithm; and

merging the first queue item into a transmission queue.

33. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

determining that the transmission of the processed first display frame has completed;

determining that the first image compression algorithm is a lossless compression algorithm;

processing a second display frame using the lossless compression algorithm to obtain a processed second display frame; and

transmitting the processed second display frame to the target computer system via the network connection.

34. The method of claim 24,

wherein the first image compression algorithm is a lossless compression algorithm,

wherein the lossless compression algorithm is received based on a determination that the first bandwidth is sufficient to transmit the first display frame using the lossless compression algorithm.