Patent Issued for Systems and methods for the secure synchronization of user interface state amongst computing devices (USPTO 11294616): Blueowl LLC

2022 APR 27 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent by the inventors Oksendahl, Hans (San Francisco, CA, US), Schwabacher, Charles O. (Oakland, CA, US), filed on November 4, 2020, was published online on April 5, 2022, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 11294616 is assigned to Blueowl LLC (San Francisco, California, United States).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.

“Screen sharing, also known as desktop sharing, is a technique that allows for multiple users to simultaneously view the same user-interface(s) across different devices. In some embodiments, the multiple users may simultaneously view the same state, or data, as rendered within the same user-interface(s). Over the last few years screen sharing has quickly increased in popularity because it is useful in many different scenarios. For example, screen sharing can be useful for group collaborations, computer troubleshooting, customer service in e-commerce, etc.

“However, the rise in the popularity of screen sharing has not been accompanied by adequate privacy controls for preventing the dissemination of sensitive information and/or personally identifiable information (defined herein to include personal information, banking information, protected health information under federal statutes such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, etc.). There is therefore a need for methods and systems for facilitating screen sharing which include built-in capabilities for receiving information, analyzing the information to determine whether the information includes sensitive information, and transmitting only that information which does not include sensitive information, of that information from which sensitive information has been removed.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present disclosure generally relates to systems and methods for synchronizing application state between computing devices. Embodiments of exemplary systems and computer-implemented methods are summarized below. The methods and systems summarized below may include additional, fewer, or alternate components, functionality, and/or actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“In one aspect, a method for providing secured screen sharing may include receiving an indication to initiate a screen sharing session with a second client device, wherein the first client device and second client device are remote of one another and independent of one another. The method may include receiving state information comprising at least one state value corresponding to a respective user interface input, analyzing one or both of (i) the at least one state value, and (ii) the respective user interface input to locate sensitive information included in the at least one state value, and masking the sensitive information included in the at least one state value. The method may further include generating a replica client interface, the replica client interface including at least one replica user interface input corresponding to the respective user interface input, and the at least one replica user interface input including the masked sensitive information, and displaying the replica client interface in a display device of the second client device.

“In another aspect, a system for providing secured screen sharing may include a server including one or more processors, a replica client device including a user interface, and a primary client device including a user interface and one or more processors and one or more memories. The memories may include computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to receive an indication to initiate a screen sharing session with the replica client device, wherein the replica client device and the primary client device are remote and independent of one another. The instructions may further cause the one or more processors to receive state information comprising at least one state value corresponding to a respective user interface input, and analyze one or both of (i) the at least one state value, and (ii) the respective user interface input to locate sensitive information included in the at least one state value. The instructions may further cause the one or more processors to mask the sensitive information included in the at least one state value and to generate a replica client interface, the replica client interface including at least one replica user interface input corresponding to the respective user interface input, and the at least one replica user interface input including the masked sensitive information. The instructions may further cause the one or more processors to display the replica client interface in a display device of the replica client device.

“The figures depict embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternate embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method for secured screen sharing, the method comprising: receiving, by a server, an indication to initiate a screen sharing session between a first client device and a second client device; receiving, by the server, information associated with a primary client interface of a first client device including a user interface element in the primary client interface; analyzing, by the server, the user interface element to determine a particular portion of the user interface element that includes sensitive information; masking, by the server, the particular portion of the user interface element that includes the sensitive information; generating, by the server, a replica client interface of the primary client interface including a replica user interface element corresponding to the user interface element, the replica user interface element including the masked sensitive information; transmitting, by the server, the replica client interface to the second client device; receiving, by the server, an indication of one or more primary user inputs from the first client device and an indication of one or more secondary user inputs from the second client device; determining, by the server, a chronological order of operations of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs; determining, by the server, a ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs; and creating, by the server, an order of operations based upon the chronological order of operations and the ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: masking, by the server, a first user interface input in the primary client interface and a second user interface input in the replica client interface based upon the order of operations; transmitting, by the server, an indication of the masked primary client interface to the first client device; and transmitting, by the server, an indication of the masked replica client interface to the second client device.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the masked primary client interface and the masked replica client interface are identical except for the first and second user interface inputs, each of the first and second user interface inputs corresponding to the sensitive information.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the sensitive information includes personally identifiable information.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein masking the particular portion of the user interface element includes: replacing, by the server, the particular portion of the user interface element that includes the sensitive information with a graphic element of a same size and shape as the particular portion of the user interface element such that the graphic element obscures the sensitive information.

“6. A system for secured screen sharing, the system comprising: a first client device; a second client device; and a server including a memory and one or more processors, the memory including instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, cause the server to: receive an indication to initiate a screen sharing session between the first client device and the second client device; receive information associated with a primary client interface of the first client device including a user interface element in the primary client interface; analyze the user interface element to determine a particular portion of the user interface element that includes sensitive information; mask the particular portion of the user interface element that includes the sensitive information; generate a replica client interface of the primary client interface including a replica user interface element corresponding to the user interface element, the replica user interface element including the masked sensitive information; transmit the replica client interface to the second client device; determine a chronological order of operations of one or more primary user inputs from the first client device and one or more secondary user inputs from the second client device; determine a ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs; and create an order of operations based upon the chronological order of operations and the ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs.

“7. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the server to: receive an indication of the one or more primary user inputs from the first client device; and receive an indication of the one or more secondary user inputs from the second client device.

“8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instructions, that when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the server to: mask a first user interface input in the primary client interface and a second user interface input in the replica client interface based upon the order of operations; transmit an indication of the masked primary client interface to the first client device; and transmit an indication of the masked replica client interface to the second client device.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the masked primary client interface and the masked replica client interface are identical except for the first and second user interface inputs, each of the first and second user interface inputs corresponding to the sensitive information.

“10. The system of claim 6, wherein the sensitive information includes personally identifiable information.

“11. The system of claim 6, wherein the instructions that cause the server to mask the particular portion of the at least one user interface element further cause the server to: replace the particular portion of the user interface element that includes the sensitive information with a graphic element of a same size and shape as the particular portion of the user interface element such that the graphic element obscures the sensitive information.

“12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for secured screen sharing, the instructions when executed by one or more processors of a computing device cause the computing device to: receive an indication to initiate a screen sharing session between a first client device and a second client device; receive information associated with a primary client interface of the first client device including a user interface element in the primary client interface; analyze the user interface element to determine a particular portion of the user interface element that includes sensitive information; mask the particular portion of the user interface element that includes the sensitive information; generate a replica client interface of the primary client interface including a replica user interface element corresponding to the user interface element, the replica user interface element including the masked sensitive information; transmit the replica client interface to the second client device; determine a chronological order of operations of one or more primary user inputs from the first client device and one or more secondary user inputs from the second client device; determine a ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs; and create an order of operations based upon the chronological order of operations and the ranking of importance of the one or more primary user inputs and the one or more secondary user inputs.

“13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, further including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors of the computing device cause the computing device to: receive an indication of the one or more primary user inputs from the first client device; and receive an indication of the one or more secondary user inputs from the second client device.

“14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, further instructions that when executed by the one or more processors of the computing device cause the computing device to: mask a first user interface input in the primary client interface and a second user interface input in the replica client interface based upon the order of operations; transmit an indication of the masked primary client interface to the first client device; and transmit an indication of the masked replica client interface to the second client device.

“15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the masked primary client interface and the masked replica client interface are identical except for the first and second user interface inputs, each of the first and second user interface inputs corresponding to the sensitive information.

“16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the sensitive information includes personally identifiable information.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Oksendahl, Hans. Systems and methods for the secure synchronization of user interface state amongst computing devices. U.S. Patent Number 11294616, filed November 4, 2020, and published online on April 5, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11294616.PN.&OS=PN/11294616RS=PN/11294616

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