Conference system and its participation method

• US 20030145052A1
• Filed: 01/28/2003
• Published: 07/31/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Mitsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,191,214 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/35 involving non-standard use of addresses for implementing network functionalities, e.g. coding subscription information within the address or functional addressing, i.e. assigning an address to a function
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/101 Access control lists [ACL]

Abstract

A conference apparatus has a memory to store information relating to devices and their owners, and determines a device owned by each participant based on the information stored in the memory. The conference apparatus notifies an interface apparatus the devices owned by each participant and the devices upon which the conference apparatus determines whether to allow participants to participate in a conference; the interface apparatus sends a permission to participate in the conference to a device owned by each participant and transfers to the conference apparatus a conference participation request received from each device upon which the conference apparatus determines whether to allow the corresponding participant to participate in the conference.

Claims

1. A conference apparatus comprising:

a memory unit that stores information relating to at least one device and an owner of the at least one device;

a designating unit that designates at least one participant in a conference; and

a judging unit that judges if a device owned by the at least one participant designated by the designating device corresponds to the information stored in the memory unit.

2. A conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the judging unit judges if the device of at least one participant and the participant both match with the at least one device and the owner of the at least one device stored in the memory unit, respectively.

3. A conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit stores information relating to at least one device that is not correlated to an owner, and the judging device determines whether or not the at least one device that is not correlated to the owner is permitted to participate in the conference.

4. A conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit stores a file corresponding to a previous conference, and the judging unit allows an access to the file only when the at least one participant in the conference participated in the previous conference.

5. A conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit stores a file corresponding to a previous conference and data of participants in the previous conference, and the judging unit compares the at least one participant in the conference with the participants in the previous conference stored in the memory unit, and permits an access to the file only when the at least one participant in the conference participated in the previous conference.

6. A conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory unit and the judging unit are implemented in a host computer, and the designating unit is implemented in a communication device owned by the at least one participant, wherein the host computer and the communication device are connected via a communication network.

7. A conference apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the communication device sends a participation request containing an ID of the at least one participant to the host computer, and the judging unit of the host computer compares the ID of the at least one participant with the information stored in the memory unit.

13. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network according to claim 6, further comprising the steps of storing a file corresponding to a previous conference and data of participants in the previous conference, comparing the at least one participant in the conference with the participants in the previous conference, and permitting an access to the file only when the at least one participant in the conference participated in the previous conference.

8. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network, the method comprising the steps of:

storing information relating to at least one device and an owner of the at least one device;

designating at least one participant in a conference; and

judging if a device owned by the at least one participant designated by the designating device corresponds to the information stored in the memory unit.

9. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network according to claim 8, wherein the step of judging includes judging if the device of at least one participant and the participant both match with the at least one device and the owner of the at least one device stored in the memory unit.

10. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network according to claim 8, further comprising the step of sending a participation request containing an ID of the at least one participant.

11. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of storing information relating to at least one device that is not correlated to an owner, and determining whether or not the at least one device that is not correlated to the owner is permitted to participate in the conference.

12. A method for participating in a conference via a communication network according to claim 8, further comprising the steps of storing a file corresponding to a previous conference, and permitting an access to the file only when the at least one participant in the conference participated in the previous conference.

14. A conference program comprising the steps of:

judging participants in a conference; and

determining devices owned by the participants based on information relating to devices and owners of the devices.

15. A conference program according to claim 14, further comprising the step of judging whether a device that is not correlated to an owner is allowed to participate in the conference based on a pass word.

16. A conference program according to claim 14, further comprising the step of permitting an access to a file corresponding to a previous conference depending on whether the participants participated in the previous conference.

19. A storing medium that sores the program according to claim 14 or claim 17.

17. A conference program comprising the steps of:

referring to information relating to at least one device and an owner of the at least one device stored in a memory;

judging if a device owned by at least one participant in a conference corresponds to the information stored in the memory; and

permitting the at least one participant in the conference if the device matches the information stored in the memory.

18. A conference program according to claim 17, wherein the step of judging includes judging if the device of at least one participant and the participant both match with the at least one device and the owner of the at least one device stored in the memory.

20. An interface apparatus that is connected to a conference apparatus, the interface apparatus comprising:

a first communication unit that communicates with the conference apparatus;

a second communication unit that communicates with devices; and

a response unit that is responsive to a conference participation request from each of the devices,

wherein the first communication device receives from the conference apparatus first device information representative of a first device that is permitted to participate in a conference and second device information representative of a second device whose participation to a conference is to be judged by the conference apparatus, and the response unit sends a participation permission to the first device, and transfers a conference participation request received from the second device to the conference apparatus.