Remote access to an application program

• US 10,693,940 B2
• Filed: 05/24/2018
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Calgary Scientific Inc.
• Original Assignee: Calgary Scientific Inc.
• Inventors: Thomas, Monroe M., Lehmann, Glen, Stephure, Matt, McFadzean, David B., Lemire, Pierre, Taerum, Torin Arni
• Primary Examiner(s): Keller, Michael A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lin, Jsing Forng
• Application Number:
  US15/988,139
• Publication Number:
  US 20180375916A1
• Time in Patent Office: 761 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

Systems and methods for providing remote access to an application program. A server remote access program may cooperate with display data interception application to provide display data to a client computing device. The client computing device may connect to the application at a Uniform Resourced Locator (URL) using a client remote access application to receive the display data. The client remote access application may provide user inputs, received at the client computing device, to the application to affect the state of the application.

Claims

1. A method of providing remote access to at least one application program running on the server computing device to connected client computing devices over a network, comprising:

executing a server remote access program at the server computing device, the server remote access program enumerating a unique Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that is uniquely associated with the at least one application program, wherein the unique URL represents a network location where the at least one application program is accessed by a client computing device;

generating, with the at least one application program, a display interface on the server computing device;

monitoring the display interface generated by the application program for events that cause pixels in a display to change, by reading changed regions of the display from a frame buffer in response to the events;

sending screen image data from the frame buffer to the server remote access program;

generating, by the server remote access program, presentation data from the screen image data; and

communicating the presentation data from the server computing device to the client computing device using the server remote access program.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting, in a user interface, a link, a menu time, or an icon that represent the unique URL of each application program.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving plural requests at plural URLs from the client computing device, each of the plural URLs unique identifying a specific one of plural applications;

monitoring respective display interfaces generated by the plural application programs for events that cause pixels in a display to change,

reading changed regions of the display from a frame buffer in response to the events;

sending screen image data from the frame buffer to the server remote access program;

generating presentation data from the screen image data; and

communicating the presentation data to the client computing device,

wherein the presentation data is generated from scraped screen data and is generated in accordance with a selection of a region of the display interface received from one of the plural requests.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising enabling, using the server remote access program, collaboration among the plural client computing devices, and displaying the same information, based on the presentation data generated from the screen data, among the plural client computing devices.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising updating a state model to contain a corresponding state of the application program;

and

communicating the presentation data and the state model to the client computing device using the server remote access program.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising updating the state model in accordance with interactions at the client computing device.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving information about display characteristics of the client computing device.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the display characteristics of the client computing device include one of processing capacity, memory size, type of graphical display, and type of user interface associated with the client computing device.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving information regarding a screen size of the client computing device; and

generating the presentation data by scaling or resizing the screen data in accordance with the screen size.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising scaling or cropping the screen data in accordance with the characteristics.

11. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving a second communication at the server computing device from the client computing device to access a second application program;

monitoring a second display interface generated by the second application program for second events that cause pixels in a display to change by reading changed regions of the display from a second frame buffer in response to the second events,

sending second screen image data from the second frame buffer to the server remote access program;

generating second presentation data from the second screen image data;

updating the state model to contain a corresponding state of the second application program; and

communicating the second presentation data and the state model to the client computing device using the server remote access program.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising combining the presentation data and the second presentation data into a single user interface at the client computing device.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising

receiving a communication at the server computing device from plural client computing devices to access an application;

and

communicating the presentation data and the state model to the plural client computing devices.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising enabling collaboration among the plural client computing devices through the state model.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising compressing the display information at the server computing device prior to communicating to the client computing device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the server computing device, user input data from the client computing device at the unique URL.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating the presentation data in accordance with a selection of a region of the display interface of the at least one application program that is received from the client computing device.