Systems and methods for capturing screen displays from a host computing system for display at a remote terminal
First Claim
1. An apparatus for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system, said apparatus comprising:
- a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display and outputs a second video signal of second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with a digital output of the video controller, said frame grabber capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set;
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location for display; and
a controller in electrical communication with the host computing system, wherein said controller receives information related to the health of hardware of the host computing system for transmission to a remote location.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides systems and methods for monitoring a host computing system from a maintenance computing system located at a remote location. The system of the present invention includes a frame grabber that is connected the digital output of a video controller associated with the host computing system and collects sets of data output in digital form from the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter. Each collected digital data set represents a frame of data displayed on a terminal of the host computing system by the video controller and is stored in a storage device associated with the frame grabber. Successive sets of data are also compared to each other, and the differences between the data are also stored in the storage device. During a maintenance session, a first data set representing the data currently displayed on the terminal of the host computing system is transmitted to the maintenance computing system, and thereafter, only changes between successive data sets are transmitted to update the maintenance computing system.
57 Citations
38 Claims
-
1. An apparatus for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system, said apparatus comprising:
-
a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display and outputs a second video signal of second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with a digital output of the video controller, said frame grabber capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set;
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location for display; and
a controller in electrical communication with the host computing system, wherein said controller receives information related to the health of hardware of the host computing system for transmission to a remote location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system, where the host computing system has a video controller that outputs digital data from a first video signal output representing the data for display while simultaneously outputting a second video signal from a second video signal output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system, said method comprising:
-
while the second video signal is being output for display from the video controller, simultaneously collecting sets of data output in digital form from the first video signal output of the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
storing each of the digital data sets collected by said collecting step in a storage device;
comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said collecting step;
storing the storage device a different data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set; and
transmitting data sets to a remote location for display in addition to locally viewing a display at the terminal associated with the host computing system. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A system for transmitting to a remote location information related to a computing system, said apparatus comprising:
-
a host computing system having a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display an outputs a second video signal of a second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with the digital first video output of said video controller, said frame grabber capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from said video controller independent of an analog of digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set; and
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location so for display in addition to locally viewing a display at the terminal associated with the host computing system. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
31. An apparatus for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system, said apparatus comprising:
-
a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display and outputs a second video signal of second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with a digital output of the video controller, said frame grabber being a piece of hardware capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter and independent of software, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set;
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location for display;
a backup power source for providing power to said apparatus; and
logic in electrical communication with said backup power source, wherein said logic applies power from said backup source to said apparatus if other power sources are not available. - View Dependent Claims (32)
-
-
33. An apparatus for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system said apparatus comprising:
-
a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display and outputs a second video signal of second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with a digital output of the video controller, said frame grabber capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from the video controller independent of an analog to digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set;
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location for display at a remote maintenance computing system which has at least one storage device;
a processor in electrical communication with said storage device and said transmission device, wherein said processor at the beginning of a maintenance session, transmits a current data set to a remote location and thereafter transmits difference data sets provided by said comparator representing changes in the data for display; and
a universal serial bus (USB) interface that emulates the storage device of the remote maintenance computer and that is in electrical communication with said processor and for connection to a USB port of the host computing system, wherein files and information stored in the storage device of the remote maintenance computer can be accessed by the host computing system via said USB interface.
-
-
34. An apparatus for transmitting to a remote location information related to a host computing system, said apparatus comprising:
-
a video controller that simultaneously outputs digital data of a first video output representing data for display and outputs a second video signal of second video output for display on a terminal associated with the host computing system;
a frame grabber in electrical communication with the digital first video output of said video controller, said frame grabber capable of collecting sets of data output in digital form from said video controller independent of an analog to digital converter, wherein each digital data set represents a frame of data for display;
a storage device in electrical communication with said frame grabber for storing each of the digital data sets collected by said frame grabber;
a comparator for comparing a current and a previous digital data set collected by said frame grabber and storing in said storage device a difference data set representing differences between the current and previous digital data set; and
a transmission device for transmitting said data sets to a remote location for display in addition to locally viewing a display at the terminal associated with the host computing system. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37, 38)
-
Specification