Filtering obscured data from a remote client display

• US 7,765,483 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2005
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Saul, Elton, Schmieder, Robert Wilhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): Bashore; William L
• Assistant Examiner(s): PHANTANA ANGKOOL, DAVID
• Application Number:
  US11/304,299
• Publication Number:
  US 20070061399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,685 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/753
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication

Abstract

Present implementations include one or more applications at a sending computer system that generate data intended for display at a receiving computer system over a network connection. A mirror driver at the sending computer system renders shared data in a bitmap, which is sent to the receiving computer system. The mirror driver also renders one or more simple image files in place of unshared data that is not intended for display, and sends the replacement images to the receiving computer system. The receiving computer system, in turn, renders what it receives using its existing resources. In one implementation, a driver interface mediates at the sending computer system between the one or more applications generating data, one or more display drivers, and the mirror driver. Thus, the driver interface can pass data to a normal display driver, and also to the mirror driver, which then filters the data as appropriate.

Claims

1. In a computerized system in which a sending computer system is configured to share a desktop view with a receiving computer system over a network connection, a method of filtering shared and obscured application drawing commands at the sending computer system, comprising the acts of:

identifying one or more shared drawing commands, the shared commands intended to be displayed at both the sending computer system and a receiving computer system;

identifying one or more obscured drawing commands, the obscured drawing commands intended to be displayed at the sending computer system but intended to be hidden from the receiving computer system;

a driver interface receiving both the shared commands and the obscured commands;

the driver interface identifying a display driver on the sending computer system;

the driver interface passing the shared commands and the obscured commands to the display driver on the sending computer system;

the display driver on the sending computer system rendering the shared commands and the obscured commands;

displaying the rendered shared commands and obscured commands at a local display;

the driver interface identifying a mirror driver, the mirror driver being a remote view driver and the mirror driver resident on the sending computer system;

the driver interface passing the shared commands and the obscured commands to the mirror driver;

the driver interface passing filtering instructions comprising a notation indicating that certain data is not shared data;

the mirror driver rendering the one or more shared drawing commands in a sender-side bitmap;

based on the filtering instructions, the mirror driver rendering a replacement image in the bitmap, such that the replacement image can be sent in place of the one or more obscured drawing commands to the receiving computer system;

the sending computer system preparing images in the sender-side bitmap as graphics commands in accordance with a protocol;

the sending computer system preparing network packets comprising the graphics commands and the rendered replacement image; and

sending the network packets to a remote display device.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more shared drawing commands are also intended to be displayed at the sending computer.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more obscured drawing commands are also intended to be displayed at the sending computer, but not at the receiving computer system display.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the mirror driver receiving the replacement image and replacing at least one obscured drawing command with the replacement image.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the driver interface and the mirror driver operate in kernel mode.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the display driver on the sending computer system rendering each of the shared commands and each of the obscured commands at a local display.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the replacement image to the mirror driver with the one or more obscured drawing commands, the replacement image being provided to the driver interface from an obscured application that generates the one or more obscured drawing commands.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving an indication at the mirror driver that the one or more shared drawing commands are now associated with an obscured application.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising substituting the rendered one or more shared drawing commands in the bitmap with the replacement image.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the mirror driver is a remote desktop protocol driver, the method further comprising an act of sending the rendered data to the receiving computer system as network packets over a remote desktop protocol.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising, at the receiving computer system:

receiving the network packets from the sending computer system; and

rendering the network packets for display, such that the one or more shared drawing commands are displayed, and the one or more obscured drawing commands are represented by the replacement image.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising the acts of:

receiving pause instructions from an application that generated any of the one or more shared drawing commands or the one or more obscured drawing commands; and

substituting at least a portion of any of the one or more shared drawing commands and the one or more obscured drawing commands with a pause image file.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the mirror driver receives the pause command from the application, and wherein the mirror driver renders the pause image file in place of the any of the shared or obscured drawing commands in the bitmap.

14. At a sending in a computerized system in which the network server is configured to share a desktop view with a receiving computer system over a network connection, a computer program product comprising computer readable storage media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause one or more processors at the sending computer system to perform the method of claim 1.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the driver interface sending the one or more shared drawing commands to both the display driver for local display and the mirror driver; and

wherein the filtering instructions comprise geometric data.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising the driver interface determining shared drawing commands pertaining to a particular region and sending the shared drawing commands to the mirror driver only if the commands pertain to the particular region of a shared display screen.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising the mirror driver creating corresponding drawings in sender-side bitmap.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising the mirror driver drawing an image in sender-side bitmap and, based on instructions sent by the driver interface with the drawing commands, preparing an alternative replacement image in sender-side bitmap.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising the mirror driver, when receiving an indication that application data is not to be shared, immediately replacing content to be obscured with a default image in sender-side bitmap.

20. The method of claim 15, further comprising

the driver interface passing application data from applications to the mirror driver;

and

the driver interface passing instructions to the mirror driver.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the instructions identify the borders of a display image and instructions to replace at least a portion within the borders with a pause image.