Input-device movement to cursor movement correlator

• US 8,319,728 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2005
• Issued: 11/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vertiv IT Systems, Inc. (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Original Assignee: Avocent Huntsville Corporation (Vertiv Holdings Co.)
• Inventors: Geffin, Steven, Siegman, Craig, Stewart, Brian, Reed, John
• Primary Examiner(s): CERULLO, LILIANA P
• Application Number:
  US11/250,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20070085825A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,598 Days
• Field of Search: 345856-862, 345156-184, 345 11- 34, 715733-747, 715856-862, 710 1- 74, 725 37- 61, 709/223, 709/203
• US Class Current: 345/157
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry

Abstract

A method and system to detect a correlation of movements of an input device, sent from a first location, with at least one configurable movement parameter set on a remote computer at a second location remote from the first location, wherein the method includes: (a) sending first movement information from the first location to the remote computer at the second location, the first movement information corresponding to a first movement of the input device; (b) tracking a resulting movement of a cursor of the remote computer at the second location in response to the remote computer having received the first movement information and utilized the at least one configurable movement parameter; (c) calculating predicted movements utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable movement parameter; and (d) determining which of the at least two possible values provides the predicted movement most closely matching the resulting movement of the cursor.

Claims

1. A method of detecting a correlation of input device movements, sent from a first location, with at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter set on a remote computer at a second location remote from the first location, the method comprising:

sending first movement information from the first location to the remote computer at the second location, the first movement information corresponding to a first movement of an input device;

tracking, in circuitry at the first location, in response to the remote computer having received the first movement information and utilized the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter, a resulting movement of a cursor of the remote computer at the second location from a first display location to a second display location;

calculating, in circuitry at the first location, predicted movements of the cursor of the remote computer utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter and the first movement information, wherein a first predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a first value, and a second predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a second value different than the first value; and

determining, in circuitry at the first location, which of the first and second predicted movements most closely matches the resulting movement of the cursor from the first display location to the second display location.

2. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is an acceleration parameter.

3. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 2, wherein the acceleration parameter comprises a registry entry.

4. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 3, wherein the registry entry is a mouse speed registry entry.

5. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps of sending, tracking, calculating and determining are repeated more than once to reduce errors based on unexpected changes in video output of the remote computer.

6. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, further comprising determining a shape of a cursor as displayed on the remote computer, wherein the step of tracking the resulting movement comprises tracking a resulting movement of the cursor having the determined shape.

7. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 6, wherein determining the shape of the cursor comprises performing a computer-based pattern matching operation.

8. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 6, wherein determining the shape of the cursor comprises requesting a user to select a cursor shape from a library of cursor shapes.

9. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, further comprising applying a compensation to subsequent movement information to cause a local cursor to remain synchronized with a remote cursor of the remote computer which is utilizing the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter.

10. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, wherein the calculating predicted movements utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter comprises displaying to a user cursor positions indicative of the predicted movements when utilizing the at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter.

11. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

sending second movement information from the first location to the remote computer at the second location, the second movement information corresponding to a second movement of the input device;

tracking a resulting second movement of the cursor of the remote computer at the second location in response to the remote computer having received the second movement information and utilized a second parameter of the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter;

calculating predicted movements utilizing at least two possible values for the second parameter of the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter; and

determining which of the at least two possible values for the second parameter of the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter provides the predicted movement most closely matching the resulting second movement of the cursor.

12. A method of detecting a correlation of input device movements, sent from a first location, with at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter set on a remote computer at a second location remote from the first location, the method comprising:

sending first movement information from a keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) switch at the first location to the remote computer at the second location, the first movement information corresponding to a first movement of an input device;

tracking, in the KVM switch at the first location, in response to the remote computer having received the first movement information and utilized the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter, a resulting movement of a cursor of the remote computer at the second location from a first display location to a second display location;

calculating, in the KVM switch at the first location, predicted movements of the cursor of the remote computer utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter and the first movement information, wherein a first predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a first value, and a second predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a second value different than the first value; and

determining, in the KVM switch at the first location, which of the first and second predicted movements most closely matches the resulting movement of the cursor from the first display location to the second display location.

13. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 12, wherein the step of sending the first movement information comprises:

generating the first movement information internally to the KVM switch without requiring physical movement of the input device.

14. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a command from at least one of a keyboard and a mouse local to a user; and

triggering the KVM switch to perform the sending, tracking, calculating and determining steps in response to the received command.

15. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 14, wherein the command comprises a hot-key.

16. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 14, wherein the command is triggered by the selection of a menu item.

17. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 14, wherein the command comprises a predetermined input device movement.

18. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 12, wherein the KVM switch performs the determining step while displaying to a user the video output of a computer other than the remote computer.

19. The method of detecting as claimed in claim 12, wherein the KVM switch performs the determining step while displaying to a user a frozen video image of the remote computer so that movements of the cursor on the remote computer are not seen.

20. A non-transitory computer program product including a computer readable medium with instructions embedded therein for causing a processor to perform the steps of:

sending movement information from circuitry in a first location to a remote computer at a second location, the movement information corresponding to a movement of an input device;

tracking, in the circuitry at the first location, in response to the remote computer having received the movement information and utilized at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter, a resulting movement of a cursor of the remote computer at the second location from a first display location to a second display location;

calculating, in the circuitry at the first location, predicted movements of the cursor of the remote computer utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter and the first movement information, wherein a first predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a first value, and a second predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a second value different than the first value; and

determining, in the circuitry at the first location, which of the first and second predicted movements most closely matches the resulting movement of the cursor from the first display location to the second display location.

21. A keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) switch comprising:

a movement generator for internally generating in circuitry in the KVM switch at a first location first movement information corresponding to a movement of an input device without requiring movement of the input device;

a transmitter, at the first location, for transmitting the first movement information from the first location to the remote computer at the second location;

a memory, at the first location, for storing a resulting movement of a cursor of the remote computer at the second location from a first display location to a second display location in response to the remote computer having received the first movement information and utilized at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter; and

a controller, at the first location, for (1) calculating predicted movements of the cursor of the remote computer utilizing at least two possible values for the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter and the first movement information, wherein a first predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a first value, and a second predicted movement corresponds to an amount of movement of the cursor in response to the first movement information when the at least one configurable position-independent movement parameter is set to a second value different than the first value, and (2) determining which of the first and second predicted movements most closely matches the resulting movement of the cursor from the first display location to the second display location.