Audio communications using devices with different capabilities

• US 20060041616A1
• Filed: 11/01/2005
• Published: 02/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/1993
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pragmatus AV LLC (Pragmatus, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Collaboration Properties Incorporated
• Inventors: Lantz, Keith A., Lauwers, J. Chris, Burns, Emmett R., Burnett, Gerald J., Ludwig, Lester F.
• Granted Patent: US 7,908,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A multimedia collaboration system that integrates separate real-time and asynchronous networks—the former for real-time audio and video, and the latter for control signals and textual, graphical and other data—in a manner that is interoperable across different computer and network operating system platforms and which closely approximates the experience of face-to-face collaboration, while liberating the participants from the limitations of time and distance. These capabilities are achieved by exploiting a variety of hardware, software and networking technologies in a manner that preserves the quality and integrity of audio/video/data and other multimedia information, even after wide area transmission, and at a significantly reduced networking cost as compared to what would be required by presently known approaches. The system architecture is readily scalable to the largest enterprise network environments. It accommodates differing levels of collaborative capabilities available to individual users and permits high-quality audio and video capabilities to be readily superimposed onto existing personal computers and workstations and their interconnecting LANs and WANs. In a particular preferred embodiment, a plurality of geographically dispersed multimedia LANs are interconnected by a WAN. The demands made on the WAN are significantly reduced by employing multi-hopping techniques, including dynamically avoiding the unnecessary decompression of data at intermediate hops, and exploiting video mosaicing, cut-and-paste and audio mixing technologies so that significantly fewer wide area transmission paths are required while maintaining the high quality of the transmitted audio/video.

Claims

1. A method of communication between a plurality of users, comprising:

allowing at least first and second users to establish communication with at least one communications network by using their respective communication devices to register with at least one of the networks;

maintaining at least one service record, for at least the second user, each service record including at least the second user'"'"'s location information;

maintaining information about the capabilities of the second user'"'"'s communication device;

allowing the first user to request communication with the second user;

causing retrieval of the location information of the second user in response to the request by the first user; and

initiating a communication, including at least audio, between the first and second users, using at least one communications network and the retrieved location information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one service record includes location information for the second user identifying that user'"'"'s location no matter where that user is located.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the location information includes information usable to associate a user with ports associated with that user'"'"'s communication device.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the location information includes addressing information.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the maintaining information about the capabilities of the second user'"'"'s communication device is done in the service record.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the first user requests communication with the second user by selecting an identifier for the second user from a list of displayed user identifiers.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising indicating to the first user whether another user'"'"'s device is not registered with at least one of the networks.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein indicating to the first user whether another user'"'"'s device is not registered occurs if no service record is found for the other user.

9. The method of claim 2, wherein the first and second users establish communications using respective first and second communications networks.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the networks is a wireless network.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein at least one of the networks is a wide area network.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the service record for the second user is maintained by an entity other than the network the second user uses to establish the communications.

13. The method of claim 6, during the audio communication between the first and second users, further comprising:

notifying a third user of a request by the first user to initiate an audio communication with the third user;

allowing the third user to decide whether to accept the request; and

notifying the first user of the decision by the third user.

14. The method of claim 13, upon third user'"'"'s acceptance of the request, further comprising:

allowing the first user to add the third user into the audio communication involving the first and second users.

15. The method of claim 6, during the audio communication between the first and second users, further comprising:

notifying the first or second user of a request by a third user to initiate an audio communication with the respective first or second user;

allowing the respective first or second user to decide whether to accept the request; and

allowing the respective first or second user to add the third user into the audio communication involving the first and second users upon the respective first or second user'"'"'s acceptance of the request.

16. The method of claim 6, wherein the retrieved location information is provided to the communications device of the first user.

17. The method of claim 6, wherein the service record is maintained by at least one communications network.

18. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one user registers with a network by logging in to a communication device.

19. The method of claim 2, wherein the audio communication includes digital audio.

20. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting an attempt by a first user to imitate a communication with a second user;

causing an indication of the attempt to initiate communications to appear automatically on second user'"'"'s display; and

allowing the second user to accept or reject the communication.

21. The method of claim 2, wherein at least one of the service records is entered when the associated user logs in to the network.

22. The method of claim 2, wherein the information about the capabilities includes information about the types of communications in which a device can participate.

23. A system for communication between a plurality of users, comprising:

(a) at least one communication device associated with each user and including at least one display;

(b) at least one communications network with which at least first and second users can register to establish communication with each other using their respective communication devices;

(c) at least one service record, for at least the second user, including at least the second user'"'"'s location information; and

(d) a record of the capabilities of the second user'"'"'s communication device;

wherein the system is configured to;

allow the first user to request communication with the second user;

cause retrieval of the location information of the second user in response to the request by the first user; and

initiate a communication, including at least audio, between the first and second users using the at least one of the communications networks and the retrieved location information.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein at least one service record includes location information for the second user identifying that user'"'"'s is location in no matter where that user is located.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the record about the capabilities of the second user'"'"'s communication device is in the service record.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is further configured to allow the first user to request communication with the second user by selecting an identifier for the second user from a list of displayed user identifiers.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein the first and second users establish communications using respective first and second communications networks.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the networks is a wireless network.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein at least one of the networks is a wide area network.

30. The system of claim 27, wherein the service record for the second user is maintained by an entity other than the network the second user uses to establish the communications.

31. The system of claim 26, during the audio communication between the first and second users, wherein the system is further configured to:

notify a third user of a request by the first user to initiate an audio communication with the third user;

allow the third user to decide whether to accept the request; and

notify the first user of the decision by the third user.

32. The system of claim 31, upon third user'"'"'s acceptance of the request, wherein the system is further configured to:

allow the first user to add the third user into the audio communication involving the first and second users.

33. The system of claim 26, during the audio communication between the first and second users, wherein the system is further configured to:

notify the first or second user of a request by a third user to initiate an audio communication with the respective first or second user;

allow the respective first or second user to decide whether to accept the request; and

allow the respective first or second user to add the third user into the audio communication involving the first and second users upon the respective first or second user'"'"'s acceptance of the request.

34. The system of claim 26, wherein the retrieved location information is provided to the communications device of the first user.

35. The system of claim 26, wherein the service record is maintained by at least one communications network.

36. The system of claim 24, wherein at least one user registers with a network by logging in to a communication device.

37. The system of claim 24, wherein the location information includes information usable to associate a user with ports associated with that user'"'"'s communication device.

38. The system of claim 24, wherein the audio communication includes digital audio.

39. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is configured to:

(a) detect an attempt by a second user to initiate a communication with the first user;

(b) cause an indication of the attempt to initiate communications to appear automatically on the first user'"'"'s display; and

(c) allow the first user to accept or reject the communication.

40. The system of claim 24, wherein at least one of the service records is entered when the associated user logs in to the network.

41. The system of claim 24, wherein the information about the capabilities includes information about the types of communications in which a device can participate.

42. The system of claim 24, further configured to notify the first user if another user'"'"'s device is not registered with at least one of the networks.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein notifying the first user that another user'"'"'s device is not registered occurs if no service record is found for the other user.

44. The system of claim 26, wherein the location information includes addressing information.