Remote data viewer

Abstract

A medical image and data application service provider system provides a way of remotely viewing and manipulating medical images and data for diagnostic and visualization purposes by users unconstrained by geography. Medical images and data are stored on one or more servers running application service provider software along with meta-data such as access control information, origin of information and references to related data. A set of medical data consisting of related information is sent as an encrypted stream to a viewing station running client software in a secure execution environment that is logically independent of the viewing station's operating system.

Claims

1. A method of providing data to a recipient, comprising: streaming data to a media player that is comprised of a virtual machine that is processing the data independently of an operating system of a remote receiving electronic device, the virtual machine processing the data inside a service selected from a group consisting of a sandbox and a browser, the service acting as a buffer within the remote receiving electronic device; and providing user controls on the media player that allow a user to display and manipulate the display of the streamed data without requiring the streamed data to first be completely downloaded to the persistent memory of the remote receiving electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is image data, and the media player is application service software.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is audio data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is the audio data of a video.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the service is within the operating system, and the virtual machine within the service operates independently of the operating system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein streaming data to the media player includes pushing the data to the virtual machine.

7. A system for sending data over a wide area network to a remote secure execution environment, the system comprising: a first non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing a first computer program configured to, when executed on a first processing unit: push the data to the remote secure execution environment of a remote electronic device running a virtual machine that processes the data independently of an operating system of the remote electronic device, operates inside the remote secure execution environment within the remote electronic device, and provides media player user controls that allow a user to display and manipulate the display of the data without requiring the data to be completely downloaded to the persistent memory of the remote electronic device.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the data is image data.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the data is audio data.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the first non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing the computer program is further configured to, when executed on the processing unit: stream the data to the remote electronic device upon a request from the remote electric device.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the remote secure execution environment is logically independent of the operating system.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the sent data includes both media data and origin of information data related to the media data.

13. The electronic device of claim 7 wherein the remote secure execution environment is a service selected from a group consisting of a sandbox and a browser, the service acting as a buffer.

14. The system of claim 7 further comprising: a second non-transitory computer-readable medium for storing a second computer program configured to, when executed on a second processing unit: provide non-streamed website data to the remote electronic device for providing a website running the virtual machine.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) The drawings shown are two flowcharts, which are

(2) FIG. 1, representing the present invention and showing the steps of image data acquisition, compression and transmission of the image files for remote viewing. The second drawing,

(3) FIG. 2 represents the preferred embodiment of the present invention showing the steps of sending streams of encoded data to be reconstructed for viewing in a remote secure executing environment.

REFERENCE NUMERALS IN DRAWINGS: FIGS. 1-2

(4) 1. capture device or server

(5) 2. compression of medical image files

(6) 3. transmitting compressed medical image files

(7) 4. the Internet or a network

(8) 5. downloading medical image files to a hard drive

(9) 6. uncompressing medical image files

(10) 7. view medical image files

(11) 8. image storing medical application service provider servers

(12) 9. streaming an encrypted medical image file in a Boolean code

(13) 10. the streamed medical image data is accessed and unencrypted in the secure execution environment running on the remote viewing computer

(14) 11. matrix transformation is applied to the reconstructed image files to allow for remote manipulation of the reconstructed medical images

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(15) The present invention describes an apparatus for capturing and transmitting the image file for remote viewing interactively. The invention will be described in FIG. 1, which is a block diagram schematic of one preferred embodiment of the present invention. Medical image files are captured (1) and then compressed (2) transmitted (3) over a network or the Internet (4) which are downloaded on a users computer (5) and uncompressed (6) and viewed remotely (7).

(16) FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the preferred operation of the present invention, and will be explained with reference to the apparatus of FIG. 1, although other appropriate apparatus may be substituted in performing the inventive method. In this method for viewing a file remotely, the medical image files are first captured (1) transmitted (3) over a network or the Internet (4) to one or more servers running application service provider software (8) which are stored with meta data including access control information, origin of the data, and references to related data. This data is encrypted and streamed (9) out on a network or the Internet (4). The encrypted medical image data streams are decrypted by software running in a secure execution environment (10), and can be remotely manipulated by real time matrix transformation of the reconstructed medical image files (11) viewed and analyzed remotely (7).

(17) This preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 2 is thusly shown to be an improved method over the present invention offering a simpler and less costly secure method for remote viewing and analysis of large medical imaging files.