Abstract:
Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a remote desktop communication protocol that includes spatial and temporal compression techniques. Multimedia presentation data is generated at a server from a source. A compression facility modifies the presentation data by both spatially and temporally compressing the presentation data to transmittable data. In some embodiments, a check is performed to ensure that the least amount of data is selected prior to sending the transmittable data to a remote client. The remote client receives the transmittable data and re-constructs the original multimedia presentation data. In some embodiments that use lossy compression, the reconstruction may not exactly re-construct the original multimedia presentation data. Once re-created, the remote client presents the presentation data at the remote client. The presentation data could be audio, video, or other data or a combination of them.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
         [0001]    This disclosure relates to data transmission and, more particularly, to a data transmission system that uses data compression techniques in a communication link between a server and a thin computer client.  
         BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    Thin clients are computing devices that are connected to a server. In addition to having methods for input and output, thin clients include some limited microprocessor and operating system capability. They are called thin clients because they run “thin” operating systems on their microprocessors, and are not able to implement complex or intensive programs in a timely manner. They are thin compared to “fat” operating systems of a networked or stand-alone computer, which generally has much more processing capability in its microprocessor and operating system.  
           [0003]    Normally thin clients include an input device, such as a keyboard and/or mouse, and an output device, such as a display monitor. Depending on what function the thin client serves, these devices could be combined into a single device, such as a touch screen, or may all be separate. Thin clients are typically deployed when the processing power of a typical computer is not necessary, and/or when a less expensive solution will meet requirements of a particular installation.  
           [0004]    Functions of the thin client processor include, for example, sensing an input on the input device, communicating the input to the server, receiving codes and data that form an output display image from the server, and causing the output device that is connected to the thin client to display the desired image. Also, at least some memory is usually included in the thin client, for storing data and commands received by the server, for a de-compression work area, and for other uses. Additionally, some sort of long-term storage, such as a hard disk drive, may be present in the thin client.  
           [0005]    Thin clients differ from typical standalone or networked computers in that thin clients typically do not run application programs directly on their microprocessors, whereas standalone and networked computers generally do run them. Programs that appear to be running on a thin client actually run on the server to which the thin client is connected. The thin client simply acts as a pass-through, accepting input from the keyboard and/or mouse, passing the input through to the server, and displaying on its screen what the server sends it to display. Typical personal computers in a network setting, conversely, run application programs directly on their own processor.  
           [0006]    As an example of this difference between a thin client and a networked computer, consider a word processing application running on both machines. On the networked computer, little or none of the processing necessary to run the application is done on the network server. Keyboard input is detected and processed by the networked computer, data is stored in local memory and probably cached out to a local hard drive, and the display is also controlled locally.  
           [0007]    On a thin client, conversely, the actual word processing program runs on the server and the server&#39;s memory stores the necessary programs and data. Data that is input on the thin client keyboard is transferred to the server for any necessary operation. The server then decides what the thin client will show on its screen, and sends the exact data and/or commands to the thin client to cause it to show the desired image.  
           [0008]    Thin clients communicate with the server through a communication channel. Communication protocols used between thin clients and servers differ from those used between networked computers, in order to take advantage of the special function of the thin client. Communication protocols between the server and the thin client are commonly called remote desktop communication protocols. As used throughout this description, discussion of remote desktop communication protocols means a family of protocols used to communicate between servers and thin clients, or between more than one thin client, and not any one particular protocol. Because bandwidth is usually limited between a thin client and its server, the communication protocols include mechanisms for data compression.  
           [0009]    Newer applications require thin clients to display increasingly more complex image displays, such as audio and video applications. A video application can be thought of as a sequence of still pictures that are shown in rapid succession. Because the human eye briefly “retains” a copy of an image it perceives, a series of images is interpreted as a continuous video if the successive frames are shown quickly enough. Normally, humans fail to notice any discontinuity in the video if the successive frame images are shown more than 20 times per second. Typical applications try to show video images at a rate of 30 frames per second, so that no discontinuities are perceived, even if the framerate is somewhat slowed. As imagined, sending a series of pictures to a thin client in order to create a video sequence requires a large amount of data sent from the server.  
           [0010]    Although current remote desktop communication protocols include some data compression techniques, these techniques fail to reduce the amount of data sent from the server to a thin client to a level adequate to ensure that video playback on the thin client will operate correctly, given the low bandwidth requirements of the communication link. Adequate playback is achieved when a video is displayed on the thin client without slow screen updates, dropouts, artifacts or other problems that distract the viewer. Many thin client systems fail to achieve adequate playback due to the bandwidth constraints and the way in which that bandwidth is used.  
           [0011]    The present invention addresses this and other problems associated with the prior art.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0012]    Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a remote desktop communication protocol that includes spatial and temporal compression techniques, and a system using such protocol. Multimedia presentation data is generated at a server from a source. A compression facility modifies the presentation data by both spatially and temporally compressing the presentation data to transmittable data. In some embodiments, a check is performed to ensure that the least amount of data is selected prior to sending the transmittable data to a remote client. The remote client receives the transmittable data and re-constructs the original multimedia presentation data. In some embodiments that use lossy compression, the reconstruction may not exactly re-construct the original multimedia presentation data. Once re-created, the remote client presents the presentation data at the remote client. The presentation data could be audio, video, or other data or a combination of any or all of them.  
           [0013]    One embodiment of the invention includes a server running an application program for generating multimedia data. At the server is a data compressor that takes multimedia data and produces spatially and temporal compressed data. After the compressed data is sent to a thin client, it is decompressed and possibly locally stored, prior to outputting the decompressed data at the thin client. In some embodiments, outputting the data at the thin client includes showing a video clip on a display unit. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a thin client and a server.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing how a thin client and server can interact with a third system.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how bitmaps are used to create a frame for display on the thin client.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a cache system on a thin client.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIGS. 5A, 5B and  5 C are diagrams showing an example of caching operation.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIGS. 6A and 6B are block flow diagrams showing a temporal compression and decompression scheme according to an embodiment of the invention.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing steps used in one way to implement the compression scheme shown in FIG. 6A.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing steps used in one way to implement the decompression scheme shown in FIG. 6B.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 9A is a graph showing bandwidth consumed by transmitting a film clip using only spatial compression.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 9B is a graph showing a compression ratio achieved for the film clip of FIG. 9A by using spatial compression.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 9C is a graph showing a compression ratio achieved for the film clip of FIG. 9A by using spatial and temporal compression. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0025]    The invention is directed to a system that uses compression techniques in a remote desktop protocol environment, i.e., one in which a server provides display instructions to a thin client over a communication link that uses a remote desktop protocol. This invention operates in remote desktop protocol environments in a general sense, and is not limited to any one particular communication protocol.  
         [0026]    Although description is made of a terminal-server system, embodiments of the invention are equally operational in a peer-to-peer system, with each peer alternately or at the same time taking the role of the server and client as described herein. Therefore, although the terms “terminal” and “server” are used for clarification of what machine is doing what operation, and what functions are being performed, the terms do not necessarily describe the type of machines used for performing those functions.  
         [0027]    Embodiments of the invention could also be implemented in a multipoint application sharing environment, e.g. using a protocol such as T.128, which is in the family of T.120 protocols for multimedia teleconferencing over multiple thin client or desktop computers. The T.120 protocols, and others like them, are promulgated by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector Group (ITU-T) of the International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium, Inc. (IMTC).  
         [0028]    Embodiments of the invention include a server that communicates with a thin client over a communication link. Data sent over the communication link adheres to remote desktop data protocols so that the thin client and the server can communicate efficiently. Because the server may send a large amount of data to the thin client, such as when sending a video to be displayed on the thin client, the server compresses the data it generates prior to sending it over the communication link to the thin client.  
         [0029]    In some embodiments, the server compresses the data both spatially and temporally prior to sending it over the communication link. Spatial compression describes compressing a single image frame into a smaller amount of data than the raw data used to create the original image frame. Spatial compression techniques include searching the raw data for patterns, and then describing those patterns in a way that generates less data that the raw data used to create the original frames. If, for some reason, describing the patterns of the raw data requires more data than the raw data itself, then the raw data continues to be used instead of the spatially “compressed” data.  
         [0030]    Temporal compression describes using data found previously in time, for example, in previous image frames, to describe the data of a present or next image frame. Because large parts of a video remain static from one frame to the next, some temporal compression techniques send a signal that the data for that portion of the current frame is the same as in the prior frame. Also, because when a video changes from one frame to the next the changes are typically small, other temporal compression techniques involve sending to the thin client only the changes from the prior frame to the present frame. Coding of these changes can also be compressed prior to sending them to the thin client.  
         [0031]    Decompressing the spatially and/or temporally compressed data, after the thin client has received it, is straightforward. The rules that created the compressed data are applied to the compressed data in reverse form, and data that will create a next frame is thereby produced. When a series of frames is created, it can be shown on the thin client as a series of frames, and when the frames are updated quickly enough, the successive frames produce a video.  
         [0032]    Searching the raw data to create the patterns stored therein, i.e., compressing the data, nearly always requires more processing power and time than simply decompressing the data. Therefore, more processing power is required to compress and send the data than is required to receive and decompress it. This unevenness is well suited for a server/thin client relationship, in that the strong processing power of a server can be used to create the compressed datastream, while the thin client need only have a relatively low amount of processing power to decompress and display it.  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing components of an environment in which the invention operates. A thin client terminal  10  includes a microprocessor  12 , memory  14  and perhaps a local storage device  16 . The thin client  10  accepts input from a keyboard  18 , and a mouse  20 , and produces an image (or series of images) on a display  22 . A server  30  also includes a microprocessor  12 , memory  14 , and a local storage device  16 , although any or all of these devices may be different (typically larger or more capable) than the ones in the thin client  10 . The server  30  also has a keyboard  18  and a mouse  20  for input, and a display  32  for producing an output. The server  30  and the thin client  10  are coupled via a communication pipeline  24 . The thin client  10  includes a server connection  26 , and the server  30  includes one or more thin client connections  28 . The server  30  may be coupled to more than one thin client  10  through separate communication pipelines  24 , which are coupled to the same or different thin client connections  28 , as shown in FIG. 1.  
         [0034]    An example of an operation of the thin client  10  is shown in FIG. 2. In that figure, communication is established between the server  30  and the thin client  10 , over the communication pipeline  24 . The thin client  10  may include a startup program that initiates communication with the server  30  and then waits for further input, or, the thin client may wait for some input prior to establishing the communication with the server. Once communication is established over the communication pipeline  24 , any input sensed by the keyboard  18  or mouse  20  by the thin client  10  is sent to the server  30 , typically in encrypted form. The server  30  operates on this input, and generates output commands and data that are sent back to the thin client  10  for an image to be shown on its display  22 .  
         [0035]    The server  30 , in turn, can establish communication with another device, such as a video server  40  to complete the task requested by the thin client  10 . Assume, for example, that a user of the thin client  10  wishes to watch a news clip from a news agency such as CNN. Once the thin client  10  and the server  30  are communicating over the communication pipeline  24 , the thin client sends keyboard and/or mouse commands to the server indicating the particular video desired to be watched. The server  30  then establishes a connection  34 , if not already established, with the video server  40  to download or stream the video clip from the video server. Of course, if the desired video clip was already stored on the server  30  itself, it would not need to communicate with the other device.  
         [0036]    Once the video clip is available to the server  30 , a video display program, or other suitable process runs on the server. For example, the server  30  may run a standard or streaming video player, flash program, or other application that converts the desired data into a series of images to make frames of a video. Instead of displaying the image on the display  32  of the server  30 , however, the server codes the display data and sends it over the communication pipeline  24  with commands to show it on the display  22  of the thin client  10 . The display  32  of the server  30  may show an indication that a process is running, and the video that is shown on the display  22  of the thin client  10  may in fact also be shown on the display  32  of the server. But the central focus of the system is to show the desired video on the display  22  of the thin client  10 .  
         [0037]    Thus, different from a typical standalone or networked computer where the program creating the video runs directly on the device showing the video, in the example shown in FIG. 2, the program that creates the video images is actually running on the server  30 , and only the images of the video are shown on the display  22  of the thin client  10 .  
         [0038]    Returning back to FIG. 1, the server  30  may establish communication with any number of thin clients  10 . The thin clients  10  need not be running the same applications or programs as the other thin clients. They may all be running different programs, or may be running the same program in different states of operation. Each thin client  10  is uniquely addressed, so the data sent to and from the thin client can be specific to just that thin client. Or, data may be broadcast to any or all of the thin clients  10  simultaneously. For example, it would be very easy to show the video program in the example given with reference to FIG. 2 simultaneously on all of the thin clients  10  to which the server  30  is connected. In still another embodiment, the thin clients  10  can communicate directly between themselves, without passing through the server  30 , where one of the thin clients  10  will take the role of the “server”, and the other or others will operate as the clients.  
       Caching Data on the Thin Client  
       [0039]    Because much of the display data sent to the thin client  10  is reused from one frame to another, especially for video playback applications, one effort to reduce the amount of data sent on the communication pipeline  24  is to have the thin client locally store portions of data that make up the frames in the memory  14  of the thin client. As mentioned above, a frame of data is one image that is shown on the display  22  of the thin client  10 . A series of frames makes a moving video. Generally, frames have a horizontal size and a vertical size for displaying in a window, and, for a given application, these sizes do not change. Typically these sizes are given in pixels, such as a 176×144 pixel frame, or any other number. The pixel size of the frame may be the size of the entire display  22  of the thin client, or may appear in only a window of the display.  
         [0040]    A frame is generally made up of smaller pieces called bitmaps. Bitmaps can be any size, but a common size in remote desktop protocol environments is 64 pixels by 64 pixels. Pixels, in turn, are generally thought of to be the smallest data element in a frame, and are made up of any number of bytes of color data. The most common pixel size is one byte, (made of 8 bits), but pixel sizes of two or three bytes per pixel (16 or 24 bits) are also common.  
         [0041]    A frame, unless it is larger than the size of the bitmap, is made up of multiple bitmaps. And, if the frame did not easily break up into 64×64 bitmaps, bitmaps other than the standard size would be created. FIG. 3 shows an example of a frame  50 , broken into nine bitmaps, labeled A-I. Bitmaps A, B, D, and E are each 64 bits×64 bits. Bitmaps C and F are 48×64. Bitmaps G and H are 64×16, and bitmap I is 48×16. The total size of the frame  50  is 176 pixels by 144.  
         [0042]    Thin clients  10  can store data locally, either in the memory  14 , on the hard drive  16 , or a combination of the two. A particular location in the memory  14  oftentimes used for storing data is called a cache. A cache is a portion of memory set aside to temporarily store data that is frequently used. Retrieving data that was temporarily stored in the cache is much faster than having to retrieve the data from the server  30  over the transmission channel  24 , or from local storage such as the hard drive  16 . Both the thin client  10  and server  30  manage the cache on the thin client. Generally the server  30  instructs the thin client  10  as to what to put in and take out of the cache, and the server also tracks what is in the cache of the thin client.  
         [0043]    For example, if the server  30  needs to send a frame to the thin client  10 , and four of the nine bitmaps that make up that frame are already stored in the cache of the thin client, then the server would not re-send those four bitmaps to the thin client, but would instead send a signal that directs the thin client to use those bitmaps already stored in its cache.  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 4. shows an example of a cache system on a thin client  10 . In that figure there are two caches,  60 A and  60 B. Of course, there can be any number of caches, and they can be implemented in any configuration. In this example, the cache  60 A is used to store standard sized bitmaps, 64×64, while the cache  60 B stores non-standard sized bitmaps. A cache controller  62  performs the actual managing of the cache, such as determining where the bitmaps will be stored, and which bitmaps will be deleted from the cache when it is full. The cache controller  62  receives its instructions from the microprocessor  12  of the thin client  10 , but those instructions, or others that caused them, come from the server  30 . In this description, the caches will be generally referred to as “ 60 ”, unless distinction between the individual caches  60 A and  60 B is necessary. When the server  30  wishes to indicate to the thin client  10  that a particular bitmap is in its cache  60 , it sends a signal. The signal may be the bitmap name and its cache location, such as “bitmap B, cache  60 A”, or it could be the cache number and its memory location, such as “Cache  60 B, location 2”. These examples are just two of the many ways the server could indicate which bitmap was meant, and other methods of cache management are well known in the art.  
         [0045]    The bitmaps stored in the caches  60  are not necessarily earmarked for a particular location within a frame, and may in fact be used in any location in any frame if the data contained within the bitmap is desired.  
         [0046]    [0046]FIGS. 5A, 5B and  5 C show an example of how caching works in a system using a thin client  10 . Three frames are shown,  70 ,  72  and  74 , each of which will be shown on the display  22  of the thin client  10  in succession as three frames of a video. In the beginning of this example, the cache  60  is empty. As seen in FIG. 5A, the frame  70  is made of bitmaps A-I. Because no data is stored in the cache  60  of the thin client  10 , the server  30  must send all of the bitmaps A-I to the thin client through the communication pipeline  24  (FIG. 1). Once all of the data is received at the thin client  30 , it is shown on its display  22 , and all of the bitmaps A-I are stored in the cache  60 . Cache  60 A stores bitmaps A, B, D, and E, because they are the standard size 64×64, while cache  60 B stores bitmaps C, F, G, H, and I.  
         [0047]    [0047]FIG. 5B shows the second frame  72  to be shown. In that frame, the bitmaps A, B, C, D, and E have been replaced by bitmaps J, K, L, M, and N, (indicated by boxes) while the bitmaps F, G, H, and I are the same as in frame  70 . Therefore, the server  30  need only send the full bitmaps J, K, L, M and N, and only sends addresses to where the bitmaps F, G, H, and I are located in the cache  60 B in order to send the entire frame  72  of data. Sending the addresses of the bitmaps rather than the full bitmaps themselves greatly reduces the amount of bandwidth consumed on the connection pipeline  24  between the server  30  and the thin client  10 .  
         [0048]    [0048]FIG. 5C shows the third frame  74  to be shown. In that frame, the bitmaps J and K have been replaced by bitmaps O and P, while the other bitmaps in the third frame  74  (L, M, N, F, G, H, and I) can all be found in the caches  60 A and  60 B. Therefore, the server  30  need only send the full bitmaps O and P, and simply send the cache locations for the remaining bitmaps. It is important to note that the bitmaps need not be in the original locations that they were stored in the cache  60  to be used by another frame. For instance, if the bitmap A in frame  70  could later be used in frame  72  in a location other than where A was used in frame  70 , that is acceptable, and the server need not send the data for bitmap A again, but only its address.  
         [0049]    As can be appreciated, using a local caching strategy on the thin client  30  can greatly reduce the amount of data necessary to be sent by the server  30 , but only if the portions of the images created by the bitmaps do not change from frame to frame.  
       Compressing Data Spatially Prior to Sending it to the Thin Client  
       [0050]    Spatial compression, as described above, relates to compressing data based on other data in the same frame, bitmap, or other grouping. One way that some communication protocols for remote desktops (thin clients) use spatial compression is by compressing individual bitmaps. As noted in the preceding section, bitmaps are blocks of data that, when joined with other bitmaps, create a frame. Bitmaps can be any size, but typically a 64×64 block is used, if it will fit in the frame.  
         [0051]    One way to compress bitmaps is to further break up the bitmaps by row. Then, each row is spatially compressed, if possible. Some standard compression techniques are as follows:  
         [0052]    sending a special code if an entire row of a bitmap is white (i.e. all of the pixels in the row of the bitmap are white), or all black;  
         [0053]    sending a color code describing an entire row of a single color, other than black or white;  
         [0054]    sending codes describing an entire row made from only two colors; and  
         [0055]    comparing a current row with a previous row in the same bitmap and describing a current pixel in the current row by the corresponding pixel in the previous row, with or without using a binary mask; (note that this is not temporal compression (relating to time), because all of the pixels in the bitmap will be displayed at the same time in a frame. Rather, this method is still spatial compression because a current pixel is described by those around it.) Other methods of spatial compression are also known in the art.  
         [0056]    If, after performing the compression on the row according to one of these methods, or others, the “compressed” data is actually larger than the raw data of the row would have been, the raw data is sent to the thin client  10  instead of the “compressed” data. That way, the server  30  always sends the minimum possible amount of data to the thin client  10  using the above spatial compression rules.  
         [0057]    Sending the compressed data from the server  30  to the thin client  10  is similar to sending the non-compressed data, discussed above. As in the above section, data is sent in bitmap portions. When sending an uncompressed bitmap, the server  30  sends a signal to the thin client  10  that it is beginning a bitmap, sends the bitmap data, then sends a signal that it has reached the end of the bitmap. The thin client  10  then stores the bitmap data in its cache  60 . When sending a compressed bitmap, there is an extra step. The server  30  still sends a signal to the thin client  10  that it is beginning a bitmap, sends the compressed bitmap data, then sends a signal that it has reached the end of the bitmap. The extra step is performed by the thin client  10 , which decompresses the compressed bitmap data after the thin client received it, and prior to storing it in its cache  60 . When decompressing the compressed bitmap data it received, the thin client  10  simply applies the rules that created the compressed data in reverse, and forms the uncompressed bitmap data. Then, it stores the uncompressed bitmap data in its cache  60 , awaiting instructions from the server  30  to display the data.  
       Compressing Data Temporally Prior to Sending it to the Thin Client  
       [0058]    Unlike spatial compression, which only compresses data based on what is in the same bitmap or frame, temporal compression also adds a factor of time. One method of temporal compression involves, instead of sending two successive frames that are similar to one another, making a code that describes their differences to one another, and sending this “difference code” instead. Thus in one example, the server  30  sends the first frame, which is formed of bitmaps that have been spatially compressed, but not necessarily so, to the thin client  10 . Then the thin client  10  decompresses the bitmaps (if compressed) and stores them it its cache  60 . Next, the server  30  codes the differences between the frame already stored in the cache of the thin client  10  and the new frame and sends these coded differences to the thin client  10 . The thin client  10  decodes the differences into the second frame for display, and also may store the second frame in its cache, depending on whether it was directed by the server  30  to do so.  
       Lossless Encoding  
       [0059]    Embodiments of the invention can use lossless temporal encoding, such as by using techniques discussed below. Decompressing data that was encoded using a lossless encoding system makes an exact reproduction of what was encoded. In contrast, a lossy process of encoding—decoding cannot perfectly recreate the encrypted data, although the differences between the original and the recreated data may be unimportant, unperceivable, or acceptable. The lossy encoding process typically compresses the data more than a lossless process, but one tradeoff is that all of the original data cannot be exactly reproduced after decoding, no matter how powerful of a processor the receiver of the lossy data has. Lossy processes are sometimes used when the transmission channel is very limited, or when exact reproduction of the original data is not necessary.  
         [0060]    [0060]FIG. 6A shows an overview example of a temporal compression system in a remote data protocol environment. In that figure, an original bitmap  80  is present. The original bitmap  80  is compared to a second bitmap  82 , and a difference map  84  is created based on the differences between the two bitmaps  80 ,  82 . These differences are then encoded, or otherwise compressed into a difference table  86 , which is sent to the thin client  10  for processing.  
         [0061]    [0061]FIG. 6B shows an overview example of temporal decompression by the thin client  10  after it receives the difference table  86  from the server  30 . First, the thin client  10  creates the difference map  84  by decoding the difference table  86  according to the pre-set decompression rules, which are the compression rules run in reverse order. Next the difference map is applied to the original bitmap  80 , which was stored in the cache  60  of the thin client  10 . Applying the differences from the difference map  84  to the original bitmap  80  recreates the second bitmap  82 , which is ready to be stored in the cache  60 , or shown on the display  22  (FIG. 1), or both, according to the directions of the server  30 .  
         [0062]    Returning back to the lossless compression shown in FIG. 6A, the difference map  84  can be created in many different ways. One method is to perform a bit-wise XOR process between both of the pixels that have the same location in each of the two bitmaps  80 ,  82 . As shown in FIG. 6A, the original bitmap  80  and the second bitmap  82  have the exact same number of pixels. The bitmaps  80  and  82  may be the standard size of 64×64 pixels, or they may be some other size. Regardless of what size the bitmaps are, the two bitmaps  80 ,  82  will be the same size.  
         [0063]    A bit-wise XOR process examines each bit making up the pixel for each of the two bitmaps  80 ,  82 , and indicates whether the bit has changed from one bitmap to the next. The truth table for an XOR is reproduced in Table A.  
                             TABLE A                           XOR truth table            Input 1   Input 2   Output               0   0   0       0   1   1       1   0   1       1   1   0                  
 
         [0064]    Thus, it is apparent why the XOR function is helpful in creating a difference map, because when the old bit (input 1) and the new bit (input 2) are the same, the XOR function outputs 0 (indicating no change), while if the old and new bits are different, the XOR function outputs 1 (indicating that the bit has changed).  
         [0065]    For example, if the first pixel in the original bitmap  80  is a decimal “78” (hexidecimal “8E”, binary 0100 1110) and the first pixel in the second bitmap  82  is a decimal “73” (hexidecimal “89”, binary 0100 1001), then a bit-wise XOR would produce the following difference:  
         [0066]    0100 1110  
         [0067]    0100 1001  
         [0068]    XOR: 0000 0111  
         [0069]    Thus, a decimal “7” is stored as the first bit of the difference map  84 . Note that the bitwise XOR process is not a subtraction, but merely indicates which bits have charged from one bit to the next. If instead both of the pixels were exactly the same number in every bit, a decimal “0” would be stored in the difference map for the first pixel. Each pixel is examined one-by-one until all of the pixels in each of the original and second bitmaps  80 ,  82  has been examined, and the difference map  84  is created based on those differences.  
         [0070]    Once the difference map  84  is created, it can be coded into a difference table such as the difference table  86 . FIG. 7 is a flow diagram that shows how a process  100  encodes a difference map, such as the map  84  of FIGS. 6A and 6B into a difference table, such as the difference table  86  of the same figures. The process  100  begins at step  102  by examining the first row of the difference map  84  to count the number of successive 0&#39;s, beginning with the first column in the row. Any number could be chosen to count; for instance, the process  100  could count the number of successive 1s, or 2s or 3s, etc. in the row of the difference map  84 . But because typically the number that will appear most frequently in the difference map  84  will be 0s, the biggest space savings will be gained from encoding the number of 0s. The reason that most of the numbers in the difference map  84  are 0s is because successive bitmaps (one frame to the next) generally do not change much. Recall that a new frame typically appears 30 times per second. Analysis shows that approximately 70-80% of the bitmaps in a frame do not change, and their corresponding comparison in the difference map  84  will be 0s. Therefore the largest amount of compression is usually gained from encoding the number of 0s, and not some other number.  
         [0071]    Step  102  continues examining the row until it reaches a non-zero number, and then checks to see if it has reached the end of the row in step  104 . Or, if the first number in the current row is a non-zero number, the process  100  also moves to step  104 , which determines if the last column of the row has been reached. If not, step  106  generates a number pair.  
         [0072]    The first number of the number pair generated in step  106  indicates the number of successive 0&#39;s just found in step  102 , which may in fact be 0 if the row starts with a non-zero number, or if there are two non-zero numbers back to back in the row. The second number in the generated number pair is the actual, next, non-zero number. For example, if the first row begins with “0 0 0 4 . . . ”, the first generated pair would be (3,4), to indicate that there were three successive 0s, followed by the number 4. If instead the first row began with “5 7 . . . ”, the first two generated pairs would be (0,5) (0,7), indicating that there were no 0s, then there was a “5”, then there were no 0s again, then there was a “7.” In this second example, the process  100  would have looped through steps  102 - 106  twice, making a single number pair each time step  106  was reached. The process  100  continues looping through steps  102 - 106  and generating pairs until each column in the current row of the difference map  84  has been examined.  
         [0073]    Once the last column of data has been reached for the current row (i.e., when the process  100  exits decision block  104  with a YES), the process  100  generates the last pair for that row in step  108 . Step  108  is a special case because of the situation when the last column ends in a 0. When the last column does not end in a zero, the final pair is generated just as before, with a count of zeros as the first number, and the actual last number in the bitmap row as the final number in the number pair. When the last column does end in zero, however, the number pair generated in step  108  must be modified somewhat. Because the thin client  10  always expects pairs of data when receiving the difference table  86 , the process  100  must always ensure that the last pair has two numbers in it. Therefore, if the last number of the row is a zero, step  108  generates a pair of numbers where the first number is actually one less than the total amount of zeros in the run, and the second number contains a zero. For example, if the row ends with “. . . 0 0 0 0 3”, the last generated pair would be (4, 3), as normal, but if the row ends with “. . . 0 0 0 0 0”, the last generated pair would be (4,0), in order to ensure that the last pair always contains two numbers. As a further example, if the row ends with “. . . 0 0 0 3 3”, the last two generated pairs would be (3,3) (0,3), to indicate there were three 0&#39;s followed by a “3”, then there were no 0s, followed by another “3”. In this example, the penultimate number pair would have been generated in step  106 , and the last number pair would have been generated in step  108 .  
         [0074]    Once the number pairs for the current row are encoded in steps  102 - 108 , step  110  checks to see if the last row of the difference map  84  has been reached. If not, the process  100  moves to the next row of the difference map in step  112 , and the process is repeated for that row as above. When the last row of the difference map  84  is reached and the entire difference map has been encoded into the difference table  86 , step  114  performs a final check to ensure that the encoded difference table is in fact smaller than the raw bitmap data itself. If the encoded difference table  86  is smaller, step  116  sends the encoded difference table to the thin client  10  in step  116 . But if the raw data of the bitmap is smaller than the encoded difference table  86 , then the raw data is sent to the thin client in step  116 . This ensures that the smallest amount of data is sent over the communication pipeline  24 .  
         [0075]    [0075]FIG. 8 shows an example process  140  of the steps the thin client  10  takes to recreate the temporally compressed and encoded bitmap data that the server  30  sends to it. First, in step  142 , the thin client  10  determines if the data sent to it is the set of number pairs sent to it by step  116  in FIG. 7, or raw bitmap data sent to it in step  118  of FIG. 7. If the data is the raw bitmap data, step  144  simply stores the bitmap in the cache  60  of the thin client  10  and the thin client awaits further instructions. If instead the data is the set of number pairs, the pairs are reconstructed to recreate the difference map  84 , in step  150 . This step would include generating the strings of zeros that were encoded, and adding the other difference numbers that were used to create the number pairs.  
         [0076]    The original bitmap  80 , from which the difference map  84  was generated in the process  100  of FIG. 7, is retrieved from the cache  60  in step  152 . Step  154  applies the differences from the difference map  84  to the original bitmap  80  in order to re-create the new bitmap  82 . Once the new bitmap  82  is re-created, step  156  stores it in the cache  60  of the thin client  10 .  
         [0077]    The above example shown in FIGS. 6, 7 and  8  is only one of many ways to temporally compress frame data prior to sending it to the thin client  10 . For instance, frames need not be compressed along bitmap boundaries, but may be compressed based on other groupings of pixels. Further, the encoding of the difference map  84  does not have to be limited to row data, but may include data from multiple rows, where appropriate. Also, instead of only comparing pixels in the same position in two different bitmaps, as shown above, pixels can be compared to other bitmaps that make up the frames of image data. Additionally, the bitmaps may be compared to one another to determine if the entire bitmap has been shifted within the frame, such as a panning motion. This coding is similar to a motion vector scheme. If the bitmap has been shifted, then the system could, instead of transmitting the new bitmap data, simply transmitting to the thin client  10  the new coordinates of where the old bitmap should be placed within the frame, and any additional changes. Such a scheme may involve too much processing overhead on both a server  30  for performing the compression and on a thin client  10  for performing the decompression, however, and the best implementation methods may need to be determined empirically.  
         [0078]    Other methods of temporal compression could also be used in this system, such as one of the Lempel-Ziv (LZ) variants, such as LZ-77, or other methods, although typically these would require more computing power by the server  30  to compress the data and by the thin client  10  to decompress the data than the above-described methods.  
         [0079]    Also, because many remote data protocol systems already include the spatial compression systems discussed in the sections above, those spatial compression systems may be able to be used on the difference map  84  directly. Implementation details, such as which temporal compression to use and how to specifically encode the changing image data, and other details, are all within the inventive spirit of the described invention.  
       Lossy Encoding  
       [0080]    Instead of performing a lossless encoding of the difference map  84 , a lossy encoding could be performed by the server  30 . Lossy encoding is a scheme where data is encoded and compressed for transmission, but when the recipient of the encoded data decodes the encoded data, not all of the original data can be restored. One method to encode the difference map  84  using a lossy method is to make a transform, for instance a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) of the difference map, and then quantize the transformed map. The quantized map is then run-length encoded and transmitted to the thin client  10  over the communication channel  24 . The thin client  10  performs the inverse operations to decode the data, but the decoded data will not necessarily be (and probably will not be) the same as the data that was used to create the encoding.  
         [0081]    The quantization process controls the amount of how much data is lost in the lossy encoding, and can be structured to provide a reconstruction of the original data that is as close to the original data as is desired within the parameters of the system.  
       Compression Comparisons  
       [0082]    [0082]FIG. 9A is a graph of bandwidth consumed by sending frames of a video sequence from a short segment from the movie  Erin Brockovich  that was encoded using only spatial compression in a remote desktop protocol. Over the short time period for which data was collected, data is sent at a rate of between 4 and 5 Mbps, which is a large amount of data when sending over a network or other communication channel. FIG. 9B is a graph showing the instantaneous compression ratios using the spatial compression techniques. Using only the spatial compression techniques described above, the bitmaps were compressed to a ratio of 0.9319 of the raw video data, which would still require between 3.5 and 4.5 Mbps to transmit. User demand continues to drive the necessity for more video data, but existing communication channels cannot support the required demand, even when using spatially compressed techniques.  
         [0083]    [0083]FIG. 9C is a graph of compression ratios achieved by both spatially and temporally compressing bitmaps for the same movie as in FIGS. 9A and 9B. Using both the spatial compression techniques describe above for bitmaps and the temporal compression techniques described with reference to FIGS. 6, 7 and  8 , the video sequence can be compressed to a ratio of 0.4326 of its original, unencoded size. Additionally, unlike the compression as shown in FIG. 9B, the compression using both temporal and spatial techniques is much more evenly spaced. For instance, in FIG. 9B, compression ratios between the bitmap IDs  500  to  1300  often reach near 40%, but never reach that ratio after the bitmap ID  1500 . Compare this with FIG. 9C that oftentimes achieves ratios nearing 5% throughout the entire range of bitmap IDs. Although not indicated on the graph, combining even more techniques allows additional compression to be achieved. When, in addition to the spatial and temporal techniques described above, an additional spatial compression is performed on the difference map  84  of FIG. 6A, the video bitmaps can be compressed to a ratio of 0.3646 of the original size. Further, and also not shown in FIG. 9C, if the LZ-77 compression method is used on the difference map  84  for this movie clip, the bitmaps making this video can be compressed to a space of 0.3373 of their original uncompressed size. Thus three times the original amount of video data can be sent in the same space required to send the original non-compressed video data.  
         [0084]    The above-described system implementation can be implemented in a variety of ways, while keeping within the scope of the invention. For instance, the server  30  can use any compression technique and any method to create the compressed data to send to the thin clients  10 . These compressions can occur in hardware or software, or a mix of the two. The server  30  may have a dedicated compression system, or it can operate as functions or applications running on its main processor  12 . Compressed data may be locally stored on the server  30 , or other location, after it is created and before it is sent to the thin client.  
         [0085]    For the sake of convenience, the operations are described as various interconnected functional blocks or distinct operations. This is not necessary, however, and there may be cases where these functional blocks or modules are equivalently aggregated into a single logic device, program or operation with unclear boundaries. In any event, the functional blocks and software modules or described features can be implemented by themselves, or in combination with other operations in either hardware or software.  
         [0086]    Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention could be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. Claim is made to all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.