Web simulator

• US 7,386,432 B1
• Filed: 06/26/2000
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Medical Learning Co., Inc.
• Original Assignee: Medical Learning Company Incorporated /WEB Simulator
• Inventors: Kurzweil, Raymond C., Taraschansky, Stas, Bergeron, Bryan, Haakonsen, Karl
• Primary Examiner(s): Rodriguez; Paul
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sharon; Ayal
• Application Number:
  US09/603,604
• Time in Patent Office: 2,906 Days
• Field of Search: 703/11, 434/262, 434/366, 709/220
• US Class Current: 703/11
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

A method of providing a software application to different network clients from a server including maintaining one or more sets of state data, each set of state data describing the state of an instance of an application, each instance of an application corresponding to one or more network clients, updating the sets of state data in accordance with applications running on one or more computers connected to the server via a local area network and for at least one of the sets of state data generating an interface based on the set of state data and transmitting the generated interface to the corresponding network client(s).

Claims

1. A method of providing a software simulation application to different network clients from a server, the method comprising:

maintaining one or more sets of state data, the state data describing states of instances of simulation applications, the simulation applications being run on remote computers connected to the server via a local area network, the instances providing information generated by the simulation applications to one or more network clients connected to the server through a global network, the remote computers being different from the network clients;

generating interface instructions based on the one or more sets of state data, the interface instructions controlling display of the information at the one or more network clients;

updating the sets of state data in accordance with the simulation applications, while controlling execution speed of the application based on the speed of a user'"'"'s connection to the server or how frequently the user interacts with an interface generated by the interface instructions;

and

transmitting the interface instructions to the one or more network clients.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the global network comprises the Internet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the clients comprise web-browsers.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein application interface instructions are dynamically generated.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the interface instructions comprise HTML (HyperText Markup Language) instructions.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein generating interface instructions comprise processing a script.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the script comprises a PHP (Personal Home Page) script.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein generating interface instructions comprises generating instructions including applets.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the applets access the server to update features of the interface.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving data from a client;

and

wherein generating application interface instructions comprises generating application interface instructions in response to the received data.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving a request from a client for access to the application;

and

selecting an application on the local area network computers responsible for the client.

12. The method of claim 1 1, wherein selecting comprises selecting to load-balance between applications based on how many different instances each application currently handles and speed of the local area network computer running the application.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the server communicates with the computers by:

setting a handshake flag indicating user input requires an application to process the input and after the application process the input, the application resets the handshake flag; and

wherein generating a new interface occurs after the application resets the handshake flag.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the simulator comprises a medical patient simulator.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising

receiving data from a client;

and

modifying the set of state data corresponding to the client'"'"'s instance based on the received data.

16. A method comprising:

providing information generated by a virtual patient software simulator to different web browser clients connected to a server via a global network, providing information includes;

maintaining one or more sets of state data, the state data describing states of a virtual patient generated by the simulator, the simulator being run on remote computers in communication with the server;

dynamically generating, HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) instructions based on the one or more sets of state data, the instructions controlling display of the information at the web browser clients,

updating the sets of state data in accordance with virtual patient simulators running on one or more remote computers connected to the server via a local area network, while controlling execution speed of the application based on the speed of a user'"'"'s connection to the server or how frequently the user interacts with an interface generated by the HTML instructions; and

transmitting the generated HTML instructions to one or more of the web browser clients to construct an interface that depicts a state of the virtual patient simulator running on the corresponding computer and controls to further modify a subsequent state of the virtual patient.

17. A computer program product, disposed on a computer readable medium, for providing a software application to different network clients from a server, the program including instructions for causing a processor to:

maintain sets of state data, the state data describing the states of instances of applications, the applications being run on remote computers connected to the server via a local area network, the instances providing information generated by the applications to one or more network clients connected to the server through a global network, the remote computers being different from the network clients;

generate interface instructions based on the sets of state data the interface instructions controlling display of the information at the network clients,

update the sets of state data based on the information received from the applications running on the remote computers, while controlling execution speed of the application based on the speed of a user'"'"'s connection to the server or how frequently the user interacts with an interface generated by the interface instructions; and

transmit the generated interface instructions to the network clients to construct interfaces that depict states of the virtual patient and controls to further modify a subsequent states of the virtual patient.

18. The computer program of claim 17, wherein the global network comprises the Internet.

19. The computer program of claim 17, wherein the clients comprise web-browsers.

20. The computer program of claim 17, wherein the instructions that generate an interface comprises instructions that dynamically generate application interface instructions.

21. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the interface instructions comprise HTML (HyperText Markup Language) instructions.

22. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the instructions that generate interface instructions comprise instructions that process a script.

23. The computer program of claim 22, wherein the script comprises a PHP (Personal Home Page) script.

24. The computer program of claim 20, wherein the instructions that generate interface instructions comprises instructions that generate instructions including applets.

25. The computer program of claim 24, wherein the applets access the server to update features of the interface.

26. The computer program of claim 17, further comprising instructions that:

receive data from a client; and

wherein the instructions that generate application interface instructions comprise instructions that generate in response to the received data.

27. The computer program of claim 17, further comprising instructions that

receive a request from a client for access to the application;

and

select an application on the local area network computers responsible for the client.

28. The computer program of claim 27, wherein the instructions that select comprise instructions that select to load-balance between applications.

29. The computer program of claim 17, wherein the application comprises a simulator.

30. The computer program of claim 29, wherein the simulator comprises a medical patient simulator.

31. The computer program of claim 17, further comprising instructions that:

receive data from a client; and

modify the set of state data corresponding to the client'"'"'s instance based on the received data.

32. A system for providing an application to different network clients, the system comprising:

one or more copies of application instructions operating on one or more remote computers connected to a local area network;

a server connected to the remote computers via the local area network and to the network clients via a global network, the remote computers being different from the network clients, the server comprising;

a database that maintains sets of state data, the state data corresponding to a states of instances of the application instructions, the instances providing information generated by the application instructions to the network clients;

interface instructions for generating interfaces for the network clients based on the sets of state data, the interface instructions included in the application;

instructions for causing the server to change the sets of state data based on the information received from the application instructions over the local area network, while controlling speed of execution of the application based on a speed of a user'"'"'s connection to the server or how frequently the user interacts with an interface generated by the interface instructions;

and

instructions for transmitting the interface instructions to the network clients.