System, method and computer program for operating a plurality of computing devices

• US 9,916,020 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2010
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips N.V.
• Inventors: Ludwig, Alf, Beck, Roland Claus
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Xiao M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ELBINGER, STEVEN Z
• Application Number:
  US13/383,725
• Publication Number:
  US 20120105479A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,812 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/0383 Remote input, i.e. interface arrangements in which the signals generated by a pointing device are transmitted to a PC at a remote location, e.g. to a PC in a LAN
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1446 display composed of modules, e.g. video walls
• 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: G09G 2340/10 Mixing of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of an operation, e.g. adding, on the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/06 Use of more than one graphics processor to process data before displaying to one or more screens
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2360/08 Power processing, i.e. workload management for processors involved in display operations, such as CPUs or GPUs
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/12 Synchronisation between the display unit and other units, e.g. other display units, video-disc players
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports

Abstract

A computing system includes a computing device and an image composing unit for generating a common video signal for a display device. The computing device is adapted to partition a display area of the display device into a plurality of sections. One of the sections is related to another computing device. The computing device is further adapted to receive an input signal from an input device. The input signal is relatable to a position within the display area. The computing device is further adapted to provide the other computing device with the input signal depending on the position being in one of the sections related to the other computing device.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer readable medium for use in a computing system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the computing system comprising one of the computing devices and an image composing unit for generating a common video signal for a display device, wherein said non-transitory computer readable medium carries computer instructions that, when executed by at least one processor or computer, controls the at least one processor or computer for:

partitioning a display area of the display device into a plurality of display area sections corresponding to source signals of the computing devices by painting the display area sections on a display of the one computing device with key information identifying corresponding source signals, wherein at least one of the display area sections is related to at least one other computing device, wherein the display is output as a first source signal of the source signals, and wherein a composite display area section of the display area sections is painted with key information designating a weighted average of two source signals;

determining key information from the first source signal of the one computing device;

determining a weighted average of the two source signals according to the determined key information;

switching between the source signals of the computing devices and the weighted average based on the determined key information to create the common video signal;

receiving an input signal from at least one input device, wherein the input signal corresponds to a position within the display area, the position being in a display area section corresponding to a target computing device of the computing devices;

providing the input signal to the target computing device;

synchronizing the two source signals; and

when one of the at least one other computing device fails, capturing the source signals of all of the computing devices with;

(i) a frame buffer; and

(ii) an independent clock.

2. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the computer instructions further control the at least one processor or computer for:

receiving a request for a new display image component from another computing device;

in response to receiving the request, painting a new display area section on the display of the one computing device with key information corresponding to the new display image component;

receiving a move request to move an existing image component from another computing device; and

in response to the move request, reposition a display area section corresponding to the existing image component on the display.

3. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the computer instructions further control the at least one processor or computer for:

synchronizing the first source signal of the one computing device to the other of the two source signals.

4. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the computer instructions further control the at least one processor or computer for:

synchronizing the other of the two source signals to the first source signal of the one computing device.

5. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 1, wherein the computer instructions further control the at least one processor or computer for:

verifying the synchronization of the source signals.

6. A system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the system comprising:

one of the computing devices and an image composing unit configured to generate a common video signal for a display device;

the one computing device configured to;

receive requests for displaying the image components of the computing devices;

partition a display area of the display device into a plurality of display area sections by painting the display area sections on an individual display of the one computing device with corresponding key information, the individual display being output by the one computing device as a first source signal, wherein at least one of the display area sections is related to at least one other computing device;

receive an input signal from at least one input device, wherein the input signal is relatable to a position within the display area; and

provide the at least one other computing device with the input signal depending on the position being in one of the display area sections related to said other computing device;

wherein the image composing unit is an image compositing unit configured to combine image components for displaying on the display device; and

wherein the image components are related to;

the one computing device and the at least one other computing device;

or

a plurality of other computing devices;

wherein the image compositing unit is configured to;

receive a set of source signals, including the first source signal, wherein each source signal is related to a corresponding computing device;

determine a key information from the first source signal of the one computing device;

based on the determined key information, determine a weighted average of two source signals of the set of source signals; and

switch between the source signals and the weighted average based on the determined key information to create the common video signal; and

wherein the one computing device is further configured to;

paint a weighted section on the individual display of the one computing device with key information designating the weighted average of the two source signals;

receive a move request from an another computing device to move an existing image component to a desired position;

determine that the desired position is not approved; and

in response to the desired position not being approved, inform the another computing device that the existing image component will not be visible.

7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the one computing device is configured to:

receive requests for displaying the image components of the computing devices and to partition the display area into the display area sections according to said image components by painting the display area sections on a display of the one computing device with corresponding key information, the display is output by the one computing device as the first source signal;

receive a request for a new display image component from another computing device;

in response to receiving the request, paint a new display area section on the display of the one computing device with key information corresponding to the new display image component;

receive a second move request to move a second existing image component from another computing device; and

in response to the second move request, reposition a display area section corresponding to the second existing image component on the display.

8. The system according to claim 6, wherein the one computing device is further configured to control whether its own at least one image component is visible on the display device, wherein any image component related to another computing device cannot hide the image component of the one computing device.

9. The system according to claim 6, wherein the image compositing unit is further configured to:

determine the key information from the first source signal;

switch between the different source signals to create the common video output signal; and

control the switching in dependence of the determined key information.

10. The system according to claim 6, wherein the image compositing unit is further configured to verify synchronization of the source signals.

11. The system according to claim 6, wherein the image compositing unit further comprises an image scaling unit and/or a picture-in-picture display data generating unit.

12. The system according to claim 6, wherein the image compositing unit is further configured to synchronize at least one other source signal of the set of source signals to the first source signal by synchronizing pixel clocks of the computing devices.

13. The system according to claim 6, wherein said one computing device is further configured to control a priority of overlapping display area sections.

14. The system according to claim 6, wherein said one computing device is further configured to synchronize mouse pointer locations corresponding to the computing devices.

15. The system according to claim 6, wherein the one computing device is further configured to:

if the desired position is approved, paint an area for the image component on the display device with a chroma key which makes the image component visible on the display device.

20. The system according to claim 6, wherein the computing devices are each configured to visualize focus of corresponding display area sections, wherein said one computing device is further configured to:

remove active focus of a display area section related to another computing device when transitioning to another display area section by sending a signal to the other computing device to remove focus.

16. A method for operating a computing system for operating a plurality of computing devices, the computing system comprising the computing devices and an image composing unit, said method comprising:

with the image composing unit;

receiving a set of source signals, each source signal representing a display of one of the computing devices;

determining key information from a first source signal of the set of source signals corresponding to a first computing device;

based on the determined key information, determining a weighted average of the two source signals;

switching between the source signals and the weighted average based on the determined key information to create a common video signal representing a display of the image composing unit; and

outputting the common video signal to a display device; and

with the first computing device;

partitioning the display of the imaging composing unit into a plurality of sections by painting the sections on the display of the first computing device with corresponding key information;

receiving a request for a new display image component from another computing device;

in response to receiving the request from the other computing device, painting a new section on the display of the first computing device with key information corresponding to the new display image component;

receiving an input signal from an input device designating a position on the display of the display device corresponding to the new section;

providing the other computing device with the input signal;

painting a weighted section on the display of the first computing device with key information designating the weighted average of the two source signals;

receiving a move request from the another computing device to move an existing image component to a desired position;

determine that the desired position is not approved; and

in response to the desired position not being approved, inform the another computing device that the existing image component will not be visible.

17. The method according to claim 16, further including:

receiving a second move request to move a second existing image component from another computing device; and

repositioning a display area section corresponding to the second existing image component on the display based on the second move request.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein display area sections are individually focused by corresponding computing devices, and wherein the method further includes:

removing active focus of a display area section when transitioning to another display area section by sending a signal to the corresponding computing device of the display area section.

19. The method according to claim 16, further comprising, with the first computing device:

using absolute positioning of a pointer, synchronizing, across each computing device of the computing devices, mouse pointer locations of the computing devices.

21. The method according to claim 16, further comprising:

synchronizing the two source signals; and

stopping the synchronization when a pixel clock of the another computing device fails.