Display-screen-sharing system, display-screen-sharing method, transmission-side terminal, reception-side terminal, and recording medium

• US 7,743,135 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2004
• Issued: 06/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Azuma, Takafumi
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen; Thu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hussain; Tauqir
• Application Number:
  US10/788,224
• Publication Number:
  US 20040253991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,308 Days
• Field of Search: 709224-225, 455/566
• US Class Current: 709/224
• 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: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A display-screen-sharing system capable of transmitting data of a display screen appearing on a transmission-side terminal to a reception-side terminal with a high degree of efficiency in accordance with a processing state of the reception-side terminal. The transmission-side terminal includes a search unit and a transmission-side transmission/reception unit. The search unit sets an area to serve as a search object on the display screen. The reception-side terminal includes a reception-side transmission/reception unit for receiving the display-screen data from the transmission-side terminal and transmitting the ready-for-reception signal to the transmission-side terminal.

Claims

1. A display-screen-sharing system, which comprises one or more transmission-side terminals, one or more reception-side terminals as well as a network for connecting said transmission-side terminals to said reception-side terminals and allows display-screen data of said transmission-side terminals to be shared by said reception-side terminals, wherein:

each of said transmission-side terminals comprises;

a search execution unit for carrying out a search process on a search-object area on a display screen to detect an updated area of said display when a search flag is set,

wherein when the search flag is in an ON state the search execution unit is placed into an executable state,

wherein when the search flag is in an OFF state the search execution unit is placed into a waiting state, and

wherein the updated area includes updated information caused by an updating event, which includes an operation carried out by a user at the transmission-side terminals and activation of multiple kinds of software;

a transmission-side transmission/reception unit for encoding at least display-screen data of said updated area and for transmitting at least the encoded display-screen data of said updated area to said reception-side terminals; and

a search-process control unit for putting said search process in a state of being unexecutable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of transmission of said display-screen data;

every individual one of said reception-side terminals has a reception-side transmission/reception unit for receiving said display-screen data from any of said transmission-side terminals and transmitting a ready-for-reception signal to any of said transmission-side terminals transmitting said display-screen data as a signal indicating that said individual reception-side terminal has already entered a state of being ready to receive further display-screen data;

said transmission-side transmission/reception unit receives said ready-for-reception signal; and

said search-process control unit puts said search process in a state of being executable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signal.

2. A display-screen-sharing system comprising a plurality of terminals connected to each other by a network so as to allow display-screen data of one or more of said terminals each having a transmission right to be shared by one or more of said reception-side terminals, wherein:

each of said terminals each having said transmission right comprises;

a search execution unit for carrying out a search process on a search-object area on a display screen to detect an updated area of said display screen when a search flag is set,

wherein when the search flag is in an ON state the search execution unit is placed into an executable state,

wherein when the search flag is in an OFF state the search execution unit is placed into a waiting state, and

wherein the updated area includes updated information caused by an updating event, which includes an operation carried out by a user at the transmission-side terminals and activation of multiple kinds of software;

a transmission-side transmission/reception unit for encoding at least display-screen data of said updated area and for transmitting at least the encoded display-screen data of said updated area to said other terminals; and

a search-process control unit for puffing said search process in a state of being unexecutable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of transmission of said display-screen data;

every individual one of said other terminals has a reception-side transmission/reception unit for receiving said display-screen data from any of said terminals each having said transmission right and transmitting a ready-for-reception signal to any of said terminals each having said transmission right and transmitting said display-screen data as a signal indicating that said other individual terminal has already entered a state of being ready to receive further display-screen data;

said transmission-side transmission/reception unit receives said ready-for-reception signal; and

said search-process control unit puts said search process in a state of being executable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signal.

3. A transmission-side terminal allowing display-screen data to be shared by one or more reception-side terminals connected to said transmission-side terminal by a network, said transmission-side terminal comprising:

a search execution unit for carrying out a search process on a search-object area on a display screen to detect an updated area of said display screen when a search flag is set,

wherein when the search flag is in an ON state the search execution unit is placed into an executable state,

wherein when the search flag is in an OFF state the search execution unit is placed into a waiting state, and

wherein the updated area includes updated information caused by an updating event, which includes an operation carried out by a user at the transmission-side terminals and activation of multiple kinds of software;

a transmission-side transmission/reception unit for encoding at least display-screen data of said updated area and for transmitting at least the encoded display-screen data of said updated area to said reception-side terminals; and

a search-process control unit for putting said search process in a state of being unexecutable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of transmission of said display-screen data, wherein;

said transmission-side transmission/reception unit receives a ready-for-reception signal from every individual one of said reception-side terminals as a signal indicating that said individual reception-side terminal has already entered a state of being ready to receive further display-screen data; and

said search-process control unit puts said search process in a state of being executable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signal.

4. The transmission-side terminal according to claim 3, said transmission-side terminal further comprising:

an event-monitoring unit for detecting an updating event, which updates said display screen, and generating information on a range of a window included in said display screen as a window associated with said detected updating event; and

a search-object-area management unit for setting said search-object area on the basis of said information on a range of a window.

5. The transmission-side terminal according to claim 4 wherein:

when said search-process control unit has already put said search process in a state of being unexecutable by said search execution unit, said search-object-area management unit stocks said set search-object area on a search list; and

after said search-process control unit puts said search process in a state of being executable by said search execution unit by, said search execution unit carries out said search process on one or more search-object areas stocked on said search list.

6. The transmission-side terminal according to claim 5 wherein said search-object-area management unit adjusts one or more search-object areas already stocked on said search list in order to prevent portions of said search-object areas from overlapping each other.

7. A transmission-side terminal according to claim 3 wherein said search-process control unit puts said search process in a state of being executable by said search execution unit in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signals from all said reception-side terminals.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing a program for a display-screen-sharing method executed by a transmission-side terminal to at least allow display-screen data of said transmission-side terminal to be shared by one or more reception-side terminals connected to said transmission-side terminal by a network, said program comprising:

a search execution step of carrying out a search process on a search-object area on a display screen to detect an updated area of said display screen when a search flag is set,

wherein when the search flag is in an ON state the search execution unit is placed into an executable state,

wherein when the search flag is in an OFF state the search execution unit is placed into a waiting state, and

wherein the updated area includes updated information caused by an updating event, which includes an operation carried out by a user at the transmission-side terminals and activation of multiple kinds of software;

a transmission-side transmission/reception step of encoding at least display-screen data of said updated area and transmitting at least the encoded display-screen data of said updated area to said reception-side terminals;

a search-process control step of putting said search process in a state of being unexecutable at said search execution step in accordance with completion of transmission of said display-screen data,

a transmission-side transmission/reception step of receiving a ready-for-reception signal from every individual one of said reception-side terminals as a signal indicating that said individual reception-side terminal has already entered a state of being ready to receive further display-screen data; and

a search-process control step of putting said search process in a state of being executable at said search execution step in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signal.

9. A display-screen-sharing method for allowing at least display-screen data of an updated area of one or more transmission-side terminals to be shared by one or more reception-side terminals connected to said transmission-side terminals by a network, said display-screen-sharing method comprising the steps of:

driving any of said transmission-side terminals to carry out a search process on a search-object area of a display screen to detect an updated area of said display screen when a search flag is set,

wherein when the search flag is in an ON state the search execution unit is placed into an executable state,

wherein when the search flag is in an OFF state the search execution unit is placed into a waiting state, and

wherein the updated area includes updated information caused by an updating event, which includes an operation carried out by a user at the transmission-side terminals and activation of multiple kinds of software;

driving any of said transmission-side terminals to encode at least display-screen data of said updated area;

driving any of said transmission-side terminals to transmit at least the encoded display-screen data of said updated area to said reception-side terminals and putting said search object in an unexecutable state,

driving every individual one of said reception-side terminals to receive said display-screen data from any of said transmission-side terminals and transmit a ready-for-reception signal to any of said transmission-side terminals transmitting said display-screen data as a signal indicating that said individual reception-side terminal has already entered a state of being ready to receive further display-screen data;

driving every individual one of said reception-side terminals to decode the received display-screen data of the updated area, which is encoded by the transmission-side terminals; and

driving any of said transmission-side terminals to receive said ready-for-reception signal and putting said search object in an executable state.

10. A display-screen-sharing method according to claim 9, said display-screen-sharing method further including the step of driving any of said transmission-side terminals to:

detect an updating event, which possibly updates said display screen, and generating information on a range of a window included in said display screen as a window associated with said detected updating event; and

set said search-object area on the basis of said generated information on a range of a window.

11. The display-screen-sharing method according to claim 10 wherein said step of driving any of said transmission-side terminals to set said search-object area further comprises the steps of:

stocking said set search-object area on a search list if said search process has already been put in a state of being unexecutable; and

carrying out said search process on one or more search-object areas stocked on said search list if said search process has already been put in a state of being executable.

12. A display-screen-sharing method according to claim 11 wherein said step of setting said search-object area further includes the step of adjusting a plurality of search-object areas already stocked on said search list in order to prevent portions of said search-object areas from overlapping each other.

13. A display-screen-sharing method according to claim 9 whereby, at said step of putting said search object in an executable state, said search object is put in an executable state in accordance with completion of reception of said ready-for-reception signals from all said reception-side terminals.

14. A display-screen-sharing method according to claim 9, said display-screen-sharing method further having the step of driving each of said reception-side terminals to:

carry out a picture-rendering process on said display-screen data received from any of said transmission-side terminals; and

generate said ready-for-reception signal upon completion of said picture-rendering process.