Systems and methods for managing multimedia operations in remote sessions

• US 8,433,812 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2008
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Mahajan, Rajneesh, Stoyanov, Vladimir
• Primary Examiner(s): Backer, Firmin
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Michael A
• Application Number:
  US12/060,620
• Publication Number:
  US 20090248802A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,855 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/246, 709/203, 709/229, 705/30, 705/1.1
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/544 Remote
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• 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 9/541 via adapters, e.g. between incompatible applications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/363 Graphics controllers
• 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 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal

Abstract

Techniques relating to managing multimedia transmissions in terminal services scenarios are described. In an example, a method sends a user-interface component from a server to a remote client. The exemplary method further streams a media component for presentation on the remote client in combination with the user-interface component and the media presentation is tracked but not displayed by the server.

Claims

1. A method executed on a computing device, comprising:

providing a collaboration session with a client having a client-side media platform specific to the client, the collaboration session including a first communication channel in which media data for a media component is communicated, and a second communication channel in which a user-interface component is communicated to the client;

receiving, from the client, server-side media-playback-commands of a server-side media platform specific to a server;

translating the server-side media-playback-commands of the server-side media platform specific to the server into platform generic media-playback-commands for transmission to a client; and

transmitting the platform generic media-playback-commands to the client, wherein the client translates the platform generic media-playback-commands into client-side media-playback-commands of the client-side media platform specific to the client.

2. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising presenting a user interface at the client, in a media presentation window, and tracking changes to the media presentation window.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein a media application is instantiated as the media presentation window on a user-interface component and wherein said tracking comprises assigning a unique identifier to the media presentation window and wherein changes to the media presentation window are relayed to the client to allow the media presentation window to be oriented relative to the user-interface component.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the second channel is established by the collaboration session.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

determining a format of the media;

evaluating a capacity of the client to decode and render the media in the format.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, in an event that the client lacks a capacity to decode and render the media in the existing format, further comprising decoding the media and re-encoding the media in a second different format which the client is configured to handle.

7. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

establishing a virtual channel connection with the client,

negotiating formats which are supported by both a source of media communicated to the client and the client; and

,

setting up a distributed topology with the client.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the setting-up a distributed topology comprises inserting a network transmitter at the source and a network receiver at the client.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, the translating the platform specific media-playback-commands into generic media-playback-commands for transmission to a client comprises:

employing a mapping table that maps the platform specific media-playback-commands into generic media-playback-commands.

9. A server comprising:

a user-interface-component that includes graphics and images that compose a user-interface, the user-interface-component in communication with a client via a first communication channel; and

a media component that includes media presentation data to be played through the user-interface-component, the media component configured to translate platform specific media-playback-commands of a first media platform supported by the server to platform generic media-playback-commands as a result of the client being unable to process the platform specific media-playback-commands for the first media platform or to platform specific media-playback-commands for a second media platform supported on a remote terminal session client, wherein the platform specific media-playback-commands of the first media platform are received from the client, and wherein the client translates generic media-playback-commands to platform specific media-playback-commands for the second media platform.

10. The server as recited in claim 9, wherein the user-interface component comprises a media application window.

11. The server as recited in claim 10, wherein the media component is configured to be presented in a media presentation target window within the media application window.

12. The server as recited in claim 11, wherein the media presentation data is tracked by tracking the media presentation target window relative to the media application window.

13. The server as recited in claim 12, wherein the tracking comprises relaying the relative position of the media presentation target window relative to the media application window to the remote client.

14. The server as recited in claim 12, wherein the tracking comprises inserting a placeholder on the server desktop which represents the media presentation target window and tracking any changes affecting the placeholder.

15. The server as recited in claim 9 wherein the media component is configured to determine what media formats are supported by the remote client.

16. The server as recited in claim 9 wherein the media component is configured to establish a distributed topology with the remote client.

17. The server as recited in claim 9 wherein the media component is configured to send and stream the media presentation data in a terminal services session.

18. A system, comprising:

a mechanism for providing a client that supports a first media player, a media component over a first communication channel and for providing a user-interface component over a second communication channel;

a mechanism for receiving, from the client, platform specific media-playback-commands for a second media player that is supported by a server and that are generated responsive to a user-input provided during a collaboration session; and

a mechanism for determining whether the client is able to process platform specific media-playback-commands for the second media platform and translating the platform specific media-playback-commands for the second media platform into platform generic media-playback-commands as a result of the client being unable to process the platform specific media-playback-commands for the second media platform, wherein the client translates the platform generic media-playback-commands into platform specific media-playback-commands for the first media platform supported by the client.