Application sharing with occlusion removal

• US 8,898,577 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2010
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Schmieder, Wilhelm R., Chen, Alicia A., Neerudu, Srinivasa R.
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, THANH T
• Application Number:
  US12/720,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20110225542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,722 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/753, 715/794
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• 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: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2358/00 Arrangements for display data security
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for window sharing with occlusion removal. In an embodiment, the techniques begin with a blank composition image, to which shared windows are added. For each window of a desktop from which at least one window is shared, traversing the windows from greatest z-depth to least z-depth, the window is processed based on whether it is shared and is occluded. Shared windows are copied to the composition image. Where a part of a shared window is occluded and cannot be retrieved, an indication of this occlusion is added to the composition image. When the windows have been processed, the composition image is encoded and sent to a client computer where it is displayed to produce the window sharing between computers.

Claims

1. A method for sharing a computer window of a plurality of computer windows of a computer desktop, comprising:

determining the position of a first window of the plurality of computer windows on the computer desktop;

in response to determining that the first window is shared and is stored in a memory area separate from a memory area where the computer desktop is stored, disabling a setting for the first window, the setting when enabled indicating that the first window is drawn in a window buffer without a border regardless of whether the first window is shared;

after disabling the setting, copying the first window from a window buffer to a composition image based on the position of the first window; and

sending the composition image to a client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

encoding the composition image before sending it to the client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the composition image comprises a bitmap image.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a second window of the plurality of computer windows is shared and not layered;

setting the second window to be layered so that the second window is stored in a memory area separate from the computer desktop before copying the first or second windows to the composition image; and

copying the second window to the composition image before sending the composition image to the client.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a z-order of the plurality of windows; and

wherein the first window has a largest z-distance of the plurality of windows.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the composition image has dimensions equal to dimensions of the computer desktop.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the position of a second window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop;

determining that the second window is shared and is not layered; and

copying the second window from the computer desktop to the composition image based on the position of the second window.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the position of a second window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop;

determining that the second window is not shared and intersects an occluded shared area of the composition image; and

adding an indication of the second window to the composition image based on the position of the second window.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the indication of the second window comprises a pseudo window.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the pseudo window comprises a blank window.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the indication of the second window has the same dimensions of the second window and the same position relative to the first window as the position of the second window relative to the first window.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining the position of a second window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop;

determining that the second window is not shared, that the second window intersects a shared area of the composition image, and that the second window does not intersect an occluded shared area of the composition image; and

adding an indication of the intersection of the second window and the shared area of the composition image to the composition image.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the position of the first window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop comprises:

determining the position of the first window based on a shared window position of the first window relative to the computer desktop.

14. A system for sharing a computer window of a plurality of computer windows on a computer desktop, comprising:

a processor;

a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, bearing computer-readable instructions that, upon execution on the processor, cause the system at least to;

determine the position of a first window of the plurality of computer windows on the computer desktop;

in response to determining determine that the first window is shared and is stored in a memory area separate from a memory area where the computer desktop is stored, disable a setting for the first window, the setting when enabled indicating that the first window is drawn in a window buffer without a border;

after disabling the setting, copy the first window from a window buffer to a composition image based on the position of the first window; and

send the composition image to a client.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory further bears computer-readable instructions that, upon execution on the processor, cause the processor to system at least to:

determine the position of a second window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop;

determine that the second window is shared and is not layered;

set the second window to be layered so that the second window is stored in a memory area separate from the computer desktop before copying the first or second windows to the composition image; and

copy the second window from the computer desktop to the composition image based on the position of the second window.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the memory further bears computer-readable instructions that, upon execution on the processor, cause the system at least to:

determine the position of a second window of the plurality of computer windows on the desktop;

determine that the second window is not shared and intersects an occluded shared area of the composition image; and

add an indication of the second window to the composition image based on the position of the second window.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the indication of the second window has the same dimensions of the second window and the same position relative to the first window as the position of the second window relative to the first window.

18. A computer-readable storage device for sharing a computer window of a plurality of computer windows on a computer desktop, bearing computer-readable instructions that upon execution on a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

determining the position of a first window of the plurality of computer windows on the computer desktop;

in response to determining that the first window is shared and is stored in a memory area separate from a memory area where the computer desktop is stored, disabling a setting for the first window, the setting when enabled indicating that the first window is drawn in a window buffer without a border regardless of whether the first window is shared;

after disabling the setting, copying the first window from a window buffer to a composition image based on the position of the first window;

sending the composition image to a client computer.

19. The computer-readable storage device of claim 18, wherein the first window is occluded by a second window on the desktop.