Methods and systems for use in providing a remote user interface

Abstract

The present embodiments provide systems, methods and apparatuses for use in providing the playback of content. Some of these embodiments provide methods of playing back multimedia content, comprising: implementing, on a multimedia rendering client device coupled with a LAN, a simplified Internet browser that establishes a browser environment; establishing a network connection over the LAN between the client device and a remote server; operating, within the browser environment, a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application that is operated with a JavaScript based graphics application program interface to a graphics protocol stack of the client device; receiving graphics commands; implementing, through the RUI protocol client application in cooperation with the JavaScript based graphics application program interface, the graphics commands and generating graphics in accordance with the graphics commands; and displaying on the client device the graphics consistent with the graphics commands.

1 . A method of playing back multimedia content, the method comprising:
 implementing, on a multimedia rendering client device coupled with a distributed local area network (LAN), a simplified Internet browser, where the browser establishes a browser environment;   establishing a network connection over the distributed LAN between the client device and a remote server on the LAN;   operating, within the browser environment and on the client device, a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application that is operated with a JavaScript based graphics application program interface to a graphics protocol stack of the client device;   receiving, through the RUI protocol client application and from the server over the LAN, graphics commands;   implementing, through the RUI protocol client application in cooperation with the JavaScript based graphics application program interface, the graphics commands and generating graphics in accordance with the graphics commands; and   displaying on the client device the graphics consistent with the graphics commands.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the establishing the network connection over the distributed LAN comprises establishing persistent full-duplex communications channel over a single Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) socket over the distributed LAN between the client device and the remote server on the LAN. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the receiving the graphics commands comprises receiving streamed graphics commands streamed over the persistent full-duplex communications channel; and
 wherein the implementing the graphics commands comprises translating, through the RUI protocol client application, the streamed graphics commands from a streaming format to a JavaScript based graphics application program interface compatible format.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein translating the streamed graphics commands comprises translating the streamed graphics commands from the streaming format to a text based formatted protocol based on the JavaScript based graphics application program interface compatible format. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 preventing a refresh of a display screen of the client device until graphics are available to generate a full screen of graphics.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 distinguishes, at the RUI protocol client application, between synchronous and asynchronous commands; and   buffering asynchronous commands until a full display screen is available.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising interrupting the buffering in response to detecting a synchronous command; and
 taking immediate action in response to receiving the synchronous command while maintaining the buffering of the asynchronous commands.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the graphics commands received are in text based format. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 activating a command protocol at the client device;   processing, through the command protocol, one or more control commands and packaging the one or more commands; and   communicating the packaged one or more commands via the network connection to the server, where the control of the playback of the multimedia content is implemented at the remote server.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the RUI protocol client application is natively complied on the client device. 
     
     
         11 . A method of controlling playback of graphics content, the method comprising:
 establishing, through a server, a bidirectional persistent Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) network connection over a distributed local area network (LAN) between the server and a remote client device coupled with the LAN;   initiating local processing of multimedia content at the server, where the initiating the local processing comprises generating graphics commands intended to be utilized locally at the server to generate graphics intended to be locally displayed;   implementing a protocol adaptor inserted within a protocol stack of the server at a graphics driver level of the protocol stack;   intercepting, within the protocol adaptor, the graphics commands; and   communicating the intercepted graphics commands over the persistent network connection to the client device on the LAN.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the communicating the graphics commands comprises streaming the graphics commands to a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application implemented on the client device, where the lightweight RUI client operates within an Internet browser environment on the client device and with an application programming interface that provides advanced three-dimensional (3D) graphics. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 formatting the graphics commands from a JavaScript format to a text base formatting prior to the communicating the graphics commands such that communicating the graphics commands comprises communicating the text based formatted graphics commands to the client device.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 formatting the text based formatted graphics commands to prevent a screen refresh at the client device until a full screen is available to be displayed at the client device.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the formatting the text based formatted commands comprises distinguishing asynchronous commands to be implemented by a remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application on the remote client device from synchronous commands to be implemented by the RUI client application. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the formatting the graphics commands from the JavaScript format to the text base formatting further comprises:
 incorporating a numeric key as a table entry look-up for an application programming interface (API) call, and incorporating relative to the numeric key an array containing a sequence of data elements based on the API call; and   incorporating image function calls in place of text arrays of image data such that the image data is asynchronously pulled by the client device in response to the function calls based on the function calls.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 managing a local buffer level of the graphics commands to be communicated to the client device, comprising maintaining the local buffer in a full state when streaming asynchronous graphics commands, and flushing the local buffer in response to detecting a synchronous command to be communicated to the client device.   
     
     
         18 . A computer program product comprising a medium for embodying a computer program for input to a processor based system and a computer program embodied in the medium for causing the processor based system to perform steps comprising:
 implementing, on a multimedia rendering client device coupled with a distributed local area network (LAN), a simplified Internet browser, where the browser establishes a browser environment;   establishing a persistent network connection over the distributed LAN between the client device and a remote server on the LAN;   operating, within the browser environment and on the client device, a lightweight remote user interface (RUI) protocol client application that is operated with a JavaScript based graphics application program interface to a graphics protocol stack of the client device;   receiving, through the RUI protocol client application and from the server over the LAN, graphics commands;   implementing, through the RUI protocol client application in cooperation with the JavaScript based graphics application program interface, the graphics commands and generating graphics in accordance with the graphics commands; and   displaying on the client device the graphics consistent with the graphics commands.   
     
     
         19 . The computer program product in accordance with  claim 18 , wherein
 the JavaScript based graphics application program interface is configured to extend the capabilities of JavaScript programming language to generate interactive graphics within the browser environment.   
     
     
         20 . The computer program product in accordance with  claim 19 , wherein the receiving the graphics commands comprises receiving streamed graphics commands streamed over the persistent full-duplex communications channel; and
 wherein the implementing the graphics commands comprises translating, through the RUI protocol client application, the streamed graphics commands from a streaming format to a JavaScript based graphics application program interface compatible format.