Apparatus for controlling a shared screen

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling a shared screen for shared applications, which can be shared, in a network system of a plurality of connected communication terminals, with other communication terminals when running on the terminals. The communication terminals include a window information acquiring portion for acquiring window information of the application to be shared while running on the terminals. Window controlling portion controls how windows are displayed on the communication terminals. The window controlling portion displays a window of shared space for displaying windows of shared applications collectively on the communication terminals. The windows of the shared applications are displayed as sub-windows in the window of shared space. For the 'entire screen sharing type', the apparatus includes a conference managing device having a conference information managing portion for managing information about communication terminals participating in those conferences, and shared screen controlling portion. An unused terminal for providing a shared screen is dynamically selected and provided. With the 'application sharing method', it can be recognized easily, whether a displayed application window is shared or unshared, and with the “entire screen sharing method”, a terminal for providing a shared screen can be selected optimally, so that the system resource can be used efficiently.