Pre-Grant Publication Number: 20070162860
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Discussion (15)
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7
Scott Hadfield (11 months ago)
Novel and Redhat are currently being sued for patent infringement on a very similar patent to this one (http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9796868-39.html). The patent in question was filed by Xerox in 1987 "User interface with multiple workspaces for sharing display system objects":

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN%2F5072412

I think this covers most of the claims in this particular patent.
Mark Peters (11 months ago)
Scott,

You should submit that as Prior Art.

M
6
Olof Johnson (about 1 year ago)
searches for these terms will find much prior art from many sources
"remote control software"
"vnc"
"console redirection"
"kvm software"
"remote windows"
5
Olof Johnson (about 1 year ago)
All of these functions can be performed with both commercial software
1) PC Anywhere
2) Timbuktu
3) GoToMyPC
etc
Plus KVM software from many companies
as well as open source solutions like X windows

A version of a common technology customized specifically for medical imaging is not novel and will just increase healthcare costs
4
Tobin Davis (about 1 year ago)
I remember having a utility that did this in OS/9, back in 1985. I was in high school at the time, and we had a couple of mini-computers (about the size of a dorm fridge) with 64K memory and 12 terminals. There was a gang of us that would hack into the admin account to use this to see what the others were doing.

I can't remember the name of the program, but I think it was "tsmon".
3
Paul Henley (about 1 year ago)
I'm having a hard time finding the documentation, but I remember doing this via Macintosh Manager and its associated utilities in 2000.
2
Robert Conley (about 1 year ago)
PC Anywhere has done this for a number of years. Since the late 90's

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=pf&pvid=pca121

If you run multiple instances of PC Anywhere then you can easily switch between different remote computers.
Robert Conley (about 1 year ago)
Also PC Anywhere runs under Windows and the frames they talk about in the patent are functionally equivalent to a window. Use can use the cascade windows, tile windows, and manual drag features of MS Windows to achieve all the effect of the claims.
1
Brian Lee (about 1 year ago)
I'm sorry but this idea is neither novel nor unique. It's pretty obvious and I'm almost sure that there is prior art.
Patrick Mulvany (about 1 year ago)
Lets see what comes to mind off the opt of my head.
VNC server on each workstaion and Java VNC client using frames to give multiple screens
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VNC
SourceForge alone returns 109 projects related to VNC
- http://sourceforge.net/search/?type_of_search=soft&words=vnc
Bryan Aupperle (about 1 year ago)
Many remote desktop systems used by support teams allow multiple clients to be controlled at once.
Patrick Mulvany (about 1 year ago)
Just added LanSchool to prior art as it appears to be almost 100% match even down to the rollover thumbnails etc
http://www.itsltduk.co.uk/lanschool.asp
G. R. Konrad Roeder (11 months ago)
Patrick,
I've seen this kind of a thing in call centers as an alternative to electronic KVM switches where a supervisor can see the current sessions on 16 or so phone operator consoles. If they wish to look at one screen in particular, they can click on it. The supervisor can focus on one screen in large, and the other screens get minimized like Icons. You can even take over sessions for people while talking to them. Once the supervisor is done, the display can be brought up as a set of 16 sessions again.

I am sure this would not be hard to implement using something like tightVNC.

But here's one already off the shelf:

QQSoft Multi-RemoteDesktop Spy 2.2
screenshot: http://www.download25.com/media/screenshots/66700.jpg
download: http://www.download25.com/qqsoft-multi-remotedesktop-spy-download.html


G. R. Konrad Roeder (11 months ago)
HB Multi Remote Control 2.2
http://www.daolnwod.com/hb-multi-remote-control.html

Multi-Screen Remote Desktop
http://www.digitalbeijing.net/screen/index.htm

Richard Kairis (about 1 year ago)
I've seen this on many control stations at self-checkout systems where the one station monitors the state/screens of the others