Method and system for delivering data from a server object to a client object using a non-proprietary data transfer protocol

#1. Field of the Invention

#The present invention relates generally to the computerized delivery of data from a server object to a client object, and more specifically to a method and system for sequentially delivering video data to network clients while adhering to the hypertext transfer protocol.

#2. Related Art

#The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention that will enable those skilled in the art to make and utilize the invention. In fact, these drawings, when considered with the written disclosure, will enable those skilled in the art to modify these embodiments in a manner that does not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.

#FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art server computer connected to a client computer via the Internet.

#FIG. 2 depicts a server computer that delivers data to two client computers in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

#Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is understood that the invention is not limited to these embodiments, as the teachings contained herein will enable others to modify these embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention encompasses all such modifications that are described by the appended claims and their equivalents.

#One embodiment of the present invention is a method and system for delivering data from a server object to a client object. In FIG. 2, an embodiment is shown where the server object is a servlet 200 that delivers a series of video images 201 from a server computer 202 to two client computers 204, 206.

#A servlet 200 is a dynamically loadable object that extends the functionality of the server computer 202. The client computers 204, 206 access the servlet 200 in related, but different ways. The first client computer 204 accesses the servlet 200 via an applet 207 that is embedded in a web page, which is viewed by a web browser 208. The applet 207 is a program that is run within the browser 208. Thus, the applet 207 is similar to the servlet 200 in that both extend the functionality of their host computers. The second client computer 206 also accesses the servlet 200 via a web browser 210, but does so by pointing the browser 210 to a uniform resource locator that is aliased to the servlet 200. Although the client computers 204, 206 depicted here utilize web browsers, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention could be deployed with any browsing technology objects, such as dynamically linked libraries that contain browsing like functions.