Patent ID: 8224885

Claim:
A method of communicating a display image, the method comprising: (a) compressing, by a first application running on a first processor, initial updates to the display image to generate compressed initial updates; (b) determining, by the first application running on the first processor, an availability of a second processor to compress future updates to the display image, the second processor comprising image compression hardware not present in the first processor; (c) determining, by a second application on the first processor, a requirement to compress, by the second processor, the future updates; (d) compressing, by the second processor, in response to the availability of the second processor and the requirement to compress by the second processor, a first update of the future updates to generate a compressed first update; (e) initiating, by the first application running on the first processor or a third processor, compressing by the second processor of a second update of the future updates; (f) determining, by the first application, an unavailability of the second processor to compress subsequent updates of the future updates, the subsequent updates comprising the second update; (g) compressing, by the first application, in response to the unavailability of the second processor, the subsequent updates to generate compressed updates; and (h) transmitting the compressed initial updates, the compressed first update, and the compressed updates to a remote computer.