Remote Desktop Alpha-Channel Video Streaming
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of personal computing devices face challenges in accessing processor-intensive or data-intensive applications, which often require high power desktops or servers, and existing cloud computing solutions do not effectively replicate the user experience of native applications on local devices.
Innovation Solution
A cloud computing service that encodes and transmits remote desktop images as video streams to local devices, incorporating transparency channels to overlay cloud-application windows on the local desktop, mimicking the appearance and behavior of native applications, allowing users to interact with cloud-hosted applications as if they were local.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If cloud computing services are used to access processor-intensive applications, then computing power and data processing capability are improved, but user experience and interface familiarity deteriorate compared to native applications
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a visual copy of the native application interface by rendering the cloud-hosted application window to match the appearance, layout, and behavior of local applications. This includes replicating window controls, title bars, and overall UI structure so users interact with cloud applications as if they were local, resolving the user experience deterioration while maintaining improved computing power from cloud resources
2Illumination intensity
If remote desktop is displayed as opaque overlay, then cloud application visibility is improved, but accessibility to underlying local desktop elements deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different transparency qualities to different regions of the remote desktop overlay. The cloud application window area remains opaque for full visibility, while the background regions are rendered transparent to allow users to see and access underlying local desktop elements. This spatial variation in transparency quality resolves both visibility and accessibility requirements simultaneously
3Adaptability or versatility
If cloud applications are integrated on local desktop, then application functionality is improved, but system complexity deteriorates due to overlay integration requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a transparency channel as an intermediary layer between the cloud application rendering and the local desktop display system. This alpha channel acts as a mediator that automatically manages the overlay integration, handling transparency calculations and compositing operations without requiring complex user configuration or manual system management, thus resolving the functionality improvement while minimizing perceived system complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes preparing images of a remote desktop including an open cloud-application window object corresponding to an instance of a network-hosted application executing on a network, encoding the images of the remote desktop as image frames in a video stream, and transmitting the video stream over the network to a computing device. The images the remote desktop are encoded such that when decoded, reconstructed, and displayed on a local desktop of the computing device, the open cloud-application window object corresponding to the instance of the network-hosted application executing on the network has the appearance and behavior of an open window corresponding to a natively-operating application on the local desktop of the computing device.