comDesk: communicable Desktop system

What is "comDesk"

comDesk is a group communication tool based on desktop screen image transferring. The mechanism is similar to VNC, but we have designed our tool especially for "group" and "ad-hoc" communication.
comDesk is fully written in Java.
(Limitation) comDesk only supports a same subnet (broadcast domain) for communication.
Detail info (in Japanese)

Usage

When you start comDesk, the following login window appears. You can input arbitrary password and user-name. If you want to join with several hosts, you should input the same pairs.

After the login, you will see the following window. This is a controller (called "comDesk Commander"). It represents hosts as icons.

When you click the icon, the thumbnail image of the corresponding host is shown.

How to transfer desktop images

Just simply drag & drop from source host to destination host.
There is no restriction about transferring directions.

comDesk Window

comDesk Commander

Controlling transferring image window and Re-transferring

comDesk Commander shows the information about transferring image window as icon (called window icon).
Dragging the window icon makes the corresponding window moves, resizing. Also from the menu, disconnection and zoomrate can be changed. Moreover, you can re-transfer the comDesk Window by dropping other hosticon.

Remote Operation

You can operate the remote host via comDesk Window

Open URL

You can open URL remotely by dropping URL into a hosticon.

File Transfer

You can transfer (copy) files by dropping File into a comDesk Window. The tranferred file is created in "temp" folder in the comDesk folder.

Easy Setting

Just start comDesk.
comDesk finds hosts which is running other comDesk process in the subnet

Download

• comDesk second edition comDesk-se.lzh
  
• Jimi Package (JimiProClasses.zip) is necessary.
  download from java.sun.com/products/jimi/

License

GPL

Related Works

• VNC
• SOLAR-CATS

Papers

1. Motoki Miura, Buntarou Shizuki, Jiro Tanaka: comDesk: A Cooperative Assistance Tool Based on P2P Techniques, Proceedings of 8th International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems (KES2004), LNAI 3214, Vol. II, pp. 883-890, October 2005. (pdf)
2. Motoki Miura, Susumu Kunifuji: Toward Constructing Group Knowledge: A Persistent Communication Tool based on Sharing Desktop Experience, The Sino-Japan Workshop on Meta-synthesis and Creativity Support System (MCSS 2005), Beijing, July 2005.
3. Henrry Rodriguez, Motoki Miura, Jiro Tanaka: ComDesk beyond Remote Assistance: A Survey of Desktop Image Sharing Function, Proceeding of the V AIPO conference, Interaccisn 2004, Lleida, Espana, pp. 156-163, May 2004.
4. Motoki Miura, Buntarou Shizuki, Jiro Tanaka: A Framework for Transferring Desktop Images and Remote Operations in Multiple Computer Environments, Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Human - Computer Interaction, Vol. 2, pp. 198-202, June 2003. (pdf)