Livespaces
Screen Forwarding

The current screen forwarding capability works via hardware video forwarding using an AVX switch.

The next generation software screen forwarding capability will integrate the VNC-based screen forwarding developed by Martin Wanicki at DSTC and trialled very successfully at the Pozieres Development 2005 exercise.

The intention is to develop the current Ignite screen forwarding interface to transparently support both hardware (e.g. AVX) based screen forwarding and software screen forwarding using VNC.

The new interface will also allow screen forwarding to be managed across multiple rooms. Some basic initial mockups have been developed, these will be developed further following a workshop to be conducted in the near future.

Related Technologies

TiffanyScreens: A new technology that has a similar idea is TiffanyScreens (the Windows zip is located in the TiffanyScreens directory of \\ics-winserver\shared). It allows the screen of one computer to be viewed by other computers connected to the same 'venue'. It is closed source/commercial and the display isn't as good as VNC. It's in early release form, so it may get better.

Apple's Remote Desktop: Another similar technology is here.

Mockups

The mockups below are rendered for a 1024x768 screen, the size used by most of the laptops in the ICS. This is to test whether the ideas, such as showing screen thumbnails, will scale to the amount of display space available.

Note the user-centered view for the local user rather than the schematic approach. Note also how only the key screens and computers are shown.

1. Screen forwarding within a single room.

   

2. Screen forwarding between multiple rooms.

   

Notes and ideas on the combined screen forwarding/screen requesting system can be found at Screen Forwarding: Development Notes. Screen Sharing may be a new name for it.

2006-11-14: latest gui mockups available at \ics-winserver\shared\documents\screen_sharing\scrsh-uis.vsd (a Visio document). Link here.

2007-08-06: version 2.0 mockups

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  Forward a screen
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  Forward my screen
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  Watch a screen
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  Connect screens
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  Systray icon for 'my screen is being watched' with binoculars
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  Systray icon for 'my screen is being watched' with eyeball

Killer App

Forward my screen from one Livespace to a display in another Livespace.