Patent ID: 8108569

Claim:
A computer system for transferring the active data flow of a requesting end device to a selected end device, the system comprising: a network examining module for identifying one or more end devices having an active data flow and the attributes of the data flows, the one or more end devices being members of a user-designated end device group, and the data flow attributes comprising at least the type of active data flow; a data session populating module for populating a data store for the end device group with the identification of the one or more end devices having active data flows and their corresponding data flow attributes; a managing module for receiving a request of a requesting end device to display the one or more end devices of the end device group having active data flows, the requesting end device being a member of the end device group, accessing the data store for the end device group to determine the one or more end devices that have active data flows, and displaying the one or more end devices having an active data flow and that are compatible with the requesting end device on the requesting end device; and a data flow transferring module executed by a computing device having a processor and a memory, for receiving a user's selection of a first end device of the one or more end devices via the requesting end device and transferring the active data flow from the first end device to the requesting end device, the active data flow comprising a streaming video signal, wherein transferring the active data flow from the first end device to the requesting end device terminates streaming of the video signal to the first end device such that the streaming video signal is no longer viewable via the first end device, or continues to stream the video signal to the first end device while the streaming video signal is also being sent to the requesting end device such that the video signal is being viewed via both the first and second end devices, and wherein the computing device that executes the data flow transferring module is separate and distinct from the requesting end device and the first end device.