Patent ID: 8230472

Claim:
An interactive control server system coupled to a communications network for receiving first image data from a remote device and transmitting second image data that corresponds to the first image data to a user device over the communications network, the interactive control server system comprising: a web application server to receive, from the user device, instructions for operating the remote device; a device server to receive an identifier message from the remote device; a tunnel server to establish, based on the identifier message, a communication tunnel with the remote device through a firewall associated with the remote device, the tunnel server configured to transmit the instructions to the remote device via the communication tunnel, the tunnel server configured to receive at least a portion of the first image data from the remote device through the communication tunnel based on the instructions; a memory to store the at least a portion of the first image data received from the remote device through the communication tunnel; and a video server to format the at least a portion of the first image data stored in the memory into the second image data and to transmit the second image data to the user device over the communications network.