Method and system for transmitting data for a shared application

• US 7,088,871 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2004
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: MacFarquhar, Roderick F., Pollitt, Alex J., Batty, John P., Downes, Anthony M., Hughes, Kenneth P., Mairs, Christopher J., Berry, Mark E.
• Primary Examiner(s): COUSO, YON JUNG
• Application Number:
  US10/860,091
• Publication Number:
  US 20050027896A1
• Time in Patent Office: 796 Days
• Field of Search: 382/276, 382/293, 382/294, 382/295, 382/298, 382/299, 382/307, 345/467, 345/471, 345/948, 345/537, 345/551, 710/5.6, 710/10, 710/16, 710/100, 348/1.11
• US Class Current: 382/293
• 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: G06T 9/005 Statistical coding, e.g. Huffman, run length coding

Abstract

A method and system for compressing bitmap data in a system for sharing an application running on a host computer with a remote computer, wherein the shared application'"'"'s screen output is simultaneously displayed on both computers. Simultaneous display of screen output is achieved by efficiently transmitting display data between the host computer and the remote computer. When a font used by the host computer for displaying text is not available on the remote computer, the host computer sends a bitmap representation of the text for display, rather than the text itself. Bitmap representations are cached by the remote computer, so that the same bitmap representation need not be repeatedly transmitted from the host computer to the remote computer. Bitmap representations are compressed by the host computer prior to transmission, transmitted, then decompressed by the computer.

Claims

1. A method of a first computer system for transmitting data from the first computer system to a second computer system, the data for displaying on a display of the second computer system, the method comprising:

receiving without solicitation, an identification of each font supported by the second computer system;

receiving a request to display text data in a specified font on the second computer system;

checking the received identifications to determine whether the second computer system supports the specified font;

when it is determined that the second computer system supports the specified font, sending the text data along with an identification of the specified font to the second computer system; and

when it is determined that the second computer system does not support the specified font,

generating a bitmap representation of the text data in the specified font; and

sending the generated bitmap representation of the text data to the second computer system thereby enabling the second computer system to display the bitmap representation of the text data in the specified font.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising, prior to sending the generated bitmap representation of the text data, compressing the generated bitmap representation of the text data, and sending the compressed bitmap representation of the text data to the second computer system.

2. A computer-readable storage device containing instructions for controlling a first computer system to transmit graphics display data for displaying on a display of a second computer system, by:

receiving, without solicitation, an identification of each font supported by the second computer system;

receiving a request to display text data in a specified font on the second computer system;

checking the received identifications to determine whether the second computer system supports the specified font;

when it is determined that the second computer system supports the specified font, sending the text data along with an identification of the specified font to the second computer system; and

when it is determined that the second computer system does not support the specified font, generating a bitmap representation of the text data in the specified font, and sending the generated bitmap representation of the text data to the second computer system.

4. A computer system for transmitting data in a specified font to a remote computer system, the data to be displayed on a display of the remote computer system, comprising:

a component that determines whether the remote computer system supports the specified font;

a component that, upon determining that the remote computer system supports the specified font, sends the data along with an identification of the specified font to the remote computer system; and

a component that, upon determining that the remote computer system supports the specified font,

generates a bitmap representation of the data in the specified font; and

sends the generated bitmap representation of the data to the remote computer system.