Cross-environment redirection

• US 8,683,496 B2
• Filed: 09/28/2011
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Original Assignee: Z124 LLC (Flexis)
• Inventors: Reeves, Brian, Reeves, Paul E., Teltz, Richard, Reeves, David, Sirpal, Sanjiv, Tyghe, Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Lechi
• Application Number:
  US13/247,166
• Publication Number:
  US 20120084798A1
• Time in Patent Office: 909 Days
• Field of Search: 719/319
• US Class Current: 719/319
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/545 Gui
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1423 controlling a plurality of local displays, e.g. CRT and flat panel display
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/544 Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/399 using two or more bit-mapped memories, the operations of which are switched in time, e.g. ping-pong buffers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/32 Architecture of open systems interconnection [OSI] 7-layer type protocol stacks, e.g. the interfaces between the data link level and the physical level
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

Cross-environment rendering and user interaction support provide a seamless computing experience in a multi-operating system computing environment. The multi-operating system computing environment may include a mobile operating system and a desktop operating system running concurrently and independently on a mobile computing device. Full user interaction support is provided for redirected and/or mirrored applications that are rendered using an extended graphics context. An extended input queue handles input events from virtual input devices for remotely displayed applications. Remotely displayed applications are mapped to separate motion spaces within the input queue. The mobile computing device may be a smartphone running the Android mobile operating system and a full desktop Linux distribution on a modified Android kernel.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

querying, by a second operating system having a second execution environment, a first operating system for a list of applications compiled for the first operating system and loaded within a first execution environment of the first operating system, the first and second operating systems running concurrently on a shared kernel;

receiving, in the second operating system, a list of application objects, each application object including an application package;

instantiating, in a menu of the second operating system, a first menu item corresponding to an application object of the list of application objects;

associating the first menu item with a console application of the second operating system such that the first menu item, when selected, executes the console application of the second operating system; and

associating a parameter with the first menu item that indicates the application package in the first operating system corresponding to the application object;

wherein a graphics server of the second operating system is an X-windows type graphics server and wherein an application of the first operating system that corresponds to the application object uses a graphics library that is incompatible with the X-windows type graphics server of the second operating system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a first graphics server of the first operating system is incompatible with a second graphics server of the second operating system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first graphics server comprises an Android graphics server and the second graphics server comprises an X-windows type graphics server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the application object includes an application name, application package name, and application icon.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first menu item, when selected, passes the application package name to the console application as an execution parameter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the menu of the second operating system includes a second menu item corresponding to a second application, the second application compiled for and loaded within the second execution environment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first operating system comprises a mobile operating system and the second operating system comprises a desktop operating system.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, by a first operating system, a request from a second operating system to launch, in the first operating system, a first application compiled for the first operating system and loaded within a first execution environment of the first operating system, the first and second operating systems running concurrently on a shared kernel;

allocating, by the first operating system, a virtual display;

launching the first application in a process within the first operating system;

associating refresh notifications for the first application with the virtual display; and

maintaining application graphics for the first application by iteratively performing steps including;

monitoring application graphics information of the first application by the first operating system; and

notifying a console application of the second operating system when the application graphics information is updated, wherein the notifying of the console application of the second operating system includes passing a file descriptor to the console application, the file descriptor indicating that the application graphics information is available at a shared memory location, the shared memory location accessible by the first operating system and the second operating system.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the file descriptor is passed through an inter-process communication channel.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the inter-process communication channel comprises a local socket.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the inter-process communication channel comprises a Unix domain socket.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the inter-process communication channel comprises a Binder interface.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the application graphics information comprises surface information of the first application.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the application graphics information comprises rendered graphics information of the first application.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the second operating system initiates the request to launch the first application in response to a user selection of a menu item of a menu of the second operating system.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions, which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method, the instructions comprising:

instructions to receive, by a first operating system, a request from a second operating system to launch, in the first operating system, a first application compiled for the first operating system and loaded within a first execution environment of the first operating system, the first and second operating systems running concurrently on a shared kernel;

instructions to allocate, by the first operating system, a virtual display;

instructions to launch the first application in a process within the first operating system;

instructions to associate refresh notifications for the first application with the virtual display; and

instructions to maintain application graphics for the first application by iteratively performing steps including;

instructions to monitor application graphics information of the first application by the first operating system; and

instructions to notify a console application of the second operating system when the application graphics information is updated, wherein the notifying of the console application of the second operating system includes passing a file descriptor to the console application, the file descriptor indicating that the application graphics information is available at a shared memory location, the shared memory location accessible by the first operating system and the second operating system.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium as defined in claim 16, wherein at least one of:

the file descriptor is passed through an inter-process communication channel;

the inter-process communication channel comprises a local socket;

the inter-process communication channel comprises a Unix domain socket;

the inter-process communication channel comprises a Binder interface;

the application graphics information comprises surface information of the first application;

the application graphics information comprises rendered graphics information of the first application; and

the second operating system initiates the request to launch the first application in response to a user selection of a menu item of a menu of the second operating system.