Method and system for coordinating data sharing in a network with at least one physical display device

• US 8,862,731 B2
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Smart Technologies ULC (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Leung, Andrew, Antonyuk, Viktor
• Primary Examiner(s): BIAGINI, CHRISTOPHER D
• Application Number:
  US12/110,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20090271848A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,363 Days
• Field of Search: 709/225
• US Class Current: 709/225
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/146 Markers for unambiguous identification of a particular session, e.g. session cookie or URL-encoding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

An apparatus for coordinating data sharing in a computer network with at least one physical display device is provided. The apparatus includes a code generator generating at least one unique temporary session connection code (SCC), and a storage device storing associations between each of the at least one SCC and one or more of the at least one physical display device. An interface receives requests from one or more source computers to establish communications sessions for sharing data, and a processor in response to a request establishes a communications session between the requesting source computer and at least one physical display device only in the event that at least one condition is met. The at least one condition includes that a valid SCC is received with the request. The establishing is based on the received SCC. Related methods and computer programs are disclosed.

Claims

1. An apparatus for coordinating data sharing in a computer network, comprising:

an interface for connecting to each of at least two physical display devices, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface;

a storage device storing associations between each of at least one unique temporary session connection code (SCC) and a respective at least one of the at least two physical display devices, the storage device also storing a respective future SCC activation date or time;

an interface receiving requests from one or more source computers to establish communications sessions for sharing data, each of the requests including a client SCC; and

a processor configured to

determine whether a request is valid by verifying that it is received on or after the respective SCC activation date or time, and that the client SCC is stored in the storage device;

choose fewer than all of the at least two physical display devices as at least one designated physical display device based on a stored association between the client SCC and the at least one designated physical display device;

establish a bidirectional communications session between the requesting source computer and the at least one designated physical display device based on the associations stored in the storage device only in the event that the request is determined to be valid; and

once the bidirectional communications session is established, transmit touch data received from the at least one designated physical display device to the requesting source computer and transmit video data received from the requesting source computer to the at least one designated physical display device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a network appliance.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus is a controller for controlling the at least two physical display devices.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a received SCC is considered to be invalid in the event that there is no association in the storage device between the received SCC and any of the at least two physical display devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage device stores at least one condition parameter.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter is an SCC expiry date.

7. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether an SCC is considered invalid after its first use for establishing a communications session.

8. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether or not a physical display device is permitted to share data with more than one source computer.

9. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether a request is to be queued in the event that a communications session with the respective one of the at least two physical display devices associated with the received SCC has already been established with another source computer.

10. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether, in the event that a communications session with the respective one of the at least two physical display devices associated with the received SCC has already been established with another source computer, a communications session is to be established with at least one available physical display device with which the received SCC is not associated.

11. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether a source computer is permitted to share data with more than one physical display device.

12. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the at least one condition parameter specifies whether receipt of a single valid SCC from different source computers permits establishing simultaneous sharing of data between multiple source computers and respective physical display devices.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the storage device stores associations between a single SCC and at least two physical display devices.

14. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the establishing is based on associations stored in the storage device between the received SCC and one or more physical display devices.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the establishing comprises:

determining the respective one of the at least two physical display devices associated with the received SCC in the storage device thereby to establish the communications session accordingly.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the at least two physical display devices is an interactive whiteboard.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the shared data includes electronic files.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the at least one SCC is a data sequence of at least one of letters, numbers, symbols, gestures, voice data, and light sequence data.

19. A method for coordinating data sharing in a network with at least two physical display devices, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface, the method comprising:

generating at least one temporary unique session connection code (SCC), the at least one SCC containing an identifier for a respective one of the at least two physical display devices;

forming associations by associating each of the at least one SCC with a respective at least one of the at least two physical display devices and a future SCC activation date or time;

storing at least one SCC and the associations in memory;

receiving requests from one or more source computers to establish a communications session for sharing data, each of the requests including a submitted SCC;

determining whether a request is valid by verifying that it is received on or after the SCC activation date or time, and that the submitted SCC is one of the at least one SCCs stored in memory;

choosing fewer than all of the at least two physical display devices as at least one designated physical display device based on a stored association between the submitted SCC and the at least one designated physical display device;

establishing a bidirectional communications session between the requesting source computer and the at least one designated physical display device based on the associations stored in memory only in the event that a the request is determined to be valid; and

once the bidirectional communications session is established, transmitting touch data received from the at least one designated physical display device to the requesting source computer and transmitting video data received from the requesting source computer to the at least one designated physical display device.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein each SCC has an expiry date.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein each SCC is automatically dissociated from any physical display devices after its expiry date.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein an SCC is deemed invalid after its first successful use to establish a communications session.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein the communications session is established with one physical display device.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein the communications session is established with at least two physical display devices.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein the communications session supports the sharing of data between an application on the source computer and a first of the at least two physical display devices, and another application on the source computer and a second of the at least two physical display devices.

26. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing one or more condition parameters, the one or more condition parameters including:

whether the respective one of the at least two physical display devices with which the received SCC is associated is permitted to share data with more than one source computer.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein in the event that the respective one of the at least two physical display devices with which the received SCC is associated is already sharing data with another source computer, refusing the request.

28. The method of claim 19, wherein in the event that the respective one of the at least two physical display devices with which the received SCC is associated is already sharing data with another source computer, instructing the respective one of the at least two physical display devices to also share data with the requesting source computer.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein in the event that the respective one of the at least two physical display devices with which the received SCC is associated is already sharing data with another source computer, queuing the request.

30. The method of claim 29, further comprising re-evaluating the queued request for establishing a new communications session, when the communications session with the other source computer has ended.

31. A method for establishing a communications session for sharing data, comprising:

generating a unique temporary session connection code (SCC) for a respective one of at least two physical display devices in a computer network, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface;

in a storage device, associating the SCC with the respective one of the at least two physical display devices and with a future SCC activation date or time, the SCC containing an identifier of the respective one of the at least two physical display devices;

receiving the SCC at a user interface of a source computer in the network;

transmitting the SCC in a request to establish a communications session for sharing data;

determining whether the request is valid by verifying that the SCC is stored in the storage device;

choosing the respective one of the at least two physical display devices as a designated physical display device based on a stored association between the SCC and the designated physical display device;

using the SCC, establishing a bidirectional communications session for directing video and touch data between the source computer and the designated physical display device via the network, only in the event that the SCC is valid and received at the user interface on or after the SCC activation date or time.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein establishing comprises:

establishing a communications session for sharing data via a controller, wherein the controller routes data from the source computer to the respective one of the at least two physical display devices, and vice versa.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein establishing comprises:

the source computer broadcasting the SCC in an SCC request on the network; and

the controller responding to the broadcasting to initiate the communications session.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein broadcasting and responding is conducted according to the UDP network protocol.

35. The method of claim 32, wherein the SCC comprises a base component and a payload component.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the payload component comprises data identifying the network address of the controller.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein establishing comprises:

the source computer using the network address of the controller to initiate the communications session with the controller.

38. The method of claim 36, wherein the payload component comprises a display device identifier that distinguishes the respective one of the at least two physical display devices from any other devices connected to the controller.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein establishing comprises:

the source computer using the network address of the controller to initiate the communications session with the controller; and

using the display device identifier to inform the controller that the data is for display by the respective one of the at least two physical display devices.

40. The method of claim 35, wherein the payload component comprises a display device identifier that distinguishes the respective one of the at least two physical display devices from any other devices connected to the controller.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein establishing comprises:

broadcasting the SCC by the source computer across the network;

responding to the broadcasting by the controller to initiate the communications session; and

the display device identifier being used to inform the controller that data being provided is for display by the respective one of the at least two physical display devices.

42. The method of claim 32, wherein the SCC distinguishes the respective one of the at least two physical display devices from any other devices connected to the controller.

43. The method of claim 42, wherein at least one other device connected to the controller is associated with respective unique SCC for establishing a communications session for providing data to the at least one other device via the network.

44. The method of claim 32, wherein the controller generates a unique SCC for each of the at least two physical display devices under control of the controller.

45. The method of claim 31, wherein the communications session is established via at least one additional device in the network.

46. The method of claim 31, wherein the SCC is randomly generated based on predetermined code parameters.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein the predetermined code parameters comprise at least one of code length, ineligible numbers, ineligible letters, and ineligible symbols.

48. The method of claim 31, wherein during the communications session only the source computer is permitted to share data with the respective one of the at least two physical display devices.

49. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

storing data from or based on the communication session in association with the SCC for subsequent access using the SCC.

50. The method of claim 31, wherein the SCC becomes unusable for establishing the communications session under predetermined conditions.

51. The method of claim 50, wherein the predetermined conditions comprise at least one of:

expiry of a predetermined time limit, and first use of the SCC for establishing a communications session.

52. A system for establishing a communications session for displaying video data, comprising:

at least two physical display devices in a computer network, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface;

a controller comprising a storage device storing a unique temporary session connection code (SCC) in association with a respective one of the at least two physical display devices and a future SCC activation date or time, the SCC containing an identifier for of the respective one of the at least two physical display devices; and

at least one source computer in the network having a user interface for receiving a SCC and in response executing a session establishing procedure with the controller to establish a bidirectional communications session for directing video and touch data between the source computer and the respective one of the at least two physical display devices associated with the received SCC, the session establishing procedure comprising;

transmitting the SCC in a request to establish the bidirectional communications session,

determining whether the request is valid by verifying that the SCC is received on or after the SCC activation date or time, and that the SCC is stored in the storage device,

choosing the respective one of the at least two physical display devices as a designated physical display device based on a stored association in between the SCC and the designated physical display device, and

establishing the bidirectional communications session between the source computer and the designated physical display device only in the event that the request is determined to be valid.

53. The system of claim 52, wherein the controller controls the at least two physical display devices and wherein the storage device stores a table associating each SCC with its respective physical display device.

54. The system of claim 52, wherein the controller comprises a non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program for generating SCCs.

55. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program for coordinating data sharing in a network with at least two physical display devices, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface, the computer program comprising program code for:

generating at least one temporary unique session connection code (SCC);

forming associations by associating each of the at least one SCC with a respective one of the at least two physical display devices, the at least one SCC containing an identifier for the respective one of the at least two physical display device;

storing the at least one SCC, the associations, and a respective future SCC activation date or time in memory;

receiving requests from one or more source computers to establish a communications session for sharing data, each of the requests including a submitted SCC;

determining whether a request is valid by verifying that it is received on or after the SCC activation date or time, and that the submitted SCC is one of the at least one SCCs stored in memory;

choosing the respective one of the at least two physical display devices as a designated physical display device based on a stored association between the client SCC and the designated physical display device;

establishing a bidirectional communications session between the requesting source computer and the designated physical display device based on the stored associations only in the event that the request is determined to be valid; and

once the bidirectional communications session is established, transmitting touch data received from the designated physical display device to the requesting source computer and transmitting video data received from the requesting source computer to the designated physical display device.

56. A non-transitory computer readable medium embodying a computer program for coordinating data sharing in a network with at least two physical display devices, each of the physical display devices including a touch surface, the computer program comprising program code for:

generating at least one temporary unique session connection code (SCC);

in a storage device, associating each of the at least one SCC with a respective one of the at least two physical display devices and a future SCC activation date or time, the at least one SCC containing an identifier for the respective one of the at least two physical display devices;

receiving requests from one or more source computers to establish a communications session for sharing data, each request comprising an SCC;

determining whether a request is valid by verifying that the SCC in the request is stored in the storage device;

choosing the respective one of the at least two physical display devices as a designated physical display device based on a stored association between the SCC and the designated physical display device;

in response to the request, establishing a bidirectional communications session for directing video and touch data between the requesting source computer and the designated physical display device only in the event that a valid SCC is received in connection with the request, and the request is received on or after the SCC activation date or time, and further wherein the establishing is based on the received SCC.