Patent ID: 8743022

Claim:
A screen sharing system, comprising: a plurality of information processing apparatuses connected to each other via a data communication channel and configured to display a same content on their respective screens as a shared screen, wherein each of the information processing apparatuses includes an operation right switching unit configured to acquire an operation right for performing an input operation on the shared screen in response to an operation right request entered by a user, a transmission data generating unit configured to generate transmission data including operational information of the input operation, and a drawing unit configured to draw a display object on the screen; wherein one of the information processing apparatuses that has acquired the operation right functions as a transmitting information processing apparatus and each of the other information processing apparatuses without the operation right functions as a receiving information processing apparatus; wherein at the transmitting information processing apparatus, the drawing unit draws the display object according to the operational information of the input operation performed by the user, and the transmission data generating unit generates the transmission data including the operational information and sends the transmission data to the receiving information processing apparatus; wherein at the receiving information processing apparatus, the drawing unit draws the display object on the screen according to the operational information in the transmission data received from the transmitting information processing apparatus; and wherein in response to the operation right request, the operation right switching unit of the information processing apparatus enables receipt of the input operation on the information processing apparatus and reports the acquisition of the operation right to the other information processing apparatuses to request the other information processing apparatuses disable receipt of subsequent input operations on the other information processing apparatuses.