Using login-based addressing to communicate with listed users

• US 20060064461A1
• Filed: 11/01/2005
• Published: 03/23/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/1993
• Status: Abandoned Application

• 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.
• Application Number:
  US11/265,059
• Publication Number:
  US 20060064461A1
• 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 real-time communication between a plurality of users each with respective communication devices having associated displays, the method comprising:

providing each of the plurality of users with collaboration initiation software at their communication devices;

allowing at least first and second users to log in to their respective communication devices;

registering the communication devices of at least the first and second users with at least one communication network;

in response to the users logging in, enabling the system to maintain service records for at least the first and second users, the service records including user identification information and an associated location information identifying the user'"'"'s location no matter where that user is located;

causing display of a user identifier for at least the second user in a list of users;

allowing the first user to request communications with the second user by selecting the displayed second user'"'"'s identifier;

in response to the selection, retrieving necessary location information of the second user from at least one service record;

using the retrieved information to establish a connection between the first and second users, thereby enabling real-time communication, including at least audio, between the first and second users.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one user identifier comprises an icon representing a user.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising indicating to the first user if another user is not logged in.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein indicating to the first user whether another user is not logged in occurs if no service record is found for the other user.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the service record further includes information as to the capabilities of at least one of the communication devices.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the location information includes address information.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising creating at least first and second call handles, respectively associated with the first and second users'"'"' communication devices, each call handle defining at least a call state for its respective device.

9. The method of claim 2, further comprising allowing at least one of the first and second users to send messages to the other.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the communication includes video.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the first and second users establish communications using respective first and second communications networks.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the networks is a wireless network.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one of the first and second communications networks is a wide area network.

14. The method of claim 4, 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.

15. The method of claim 14, 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.

16. The method of claim 4, 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 respective first and second users upon the second user'"'"'s acceptance of the request.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieved location information is provided to the communications device of the first user.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the service record is maintained by at least one communications network.

19. The method of claim 11, 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.

20. The method of claim 4, wherein the audio communication includes digital audio.

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

22. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

detecting an attempt by a first user to initiate 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.

7. The method of claim 7, wherein information in at least one service record is usable to associate a user with ports associated with the communication device into which that user is logged in.

23. A system for real-time, communication between a plurality of separated users, comprising:

(a) at least one communication device for use by each of the plurality of users and having an associated display;

(b) communication initiation software associated with the communication devices;

(c) at least one communication network to which at least first and second users can connect by using the collaboration initiation software at their respective communication devices;

(d) at least one service record for each of the first and second logged in users, the at least one service record including user identification information and an associated location where each user is logged in no matter where that user is located and being maintained in response to the respective user logging in; and

(e) computer software for

(i) causing display of a user identifier for at least the second user in a list of users and;

(ii) generating a signal in response to a first user selecting the displayed second user'"'"'s identifier; and

wherein the system is configured to

cause the retrieving of necessary location information of the second user;

use the retrieval location information to cause the establishing of a connection between the first and second users; and

thereby enable real-time communication, including at least audio, between the first and second users.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein at least one user identifier comprises an icon representing a user.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the system is configured to indicate to the first user if another user is not logged in.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein indicating to the first user whether another user is not logged in occurs if no service record is found for the other user.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the service record further includes information as to the capabilities of at least one of the communication devices.

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

29. The system of claim 23, wherein information in at least one service record is used to associate a user with the ports associated with the communication device into which that user is logged in.

30. The system of claim 29, further configured to create at least first and second call handles, respectively associated with the first and second users'"'"' communication devices, each call handle defining at least a call sate for its respective device.

31. The system of claim 24, further configured to allow at least one of the first and second users to send messages to the other.

32. The system of claim 25, wherein the communication includes video.

33. The system of claim 25, wherein the first and second users establish communications using respective first and second communications networks.

34. The system of claim 25, wherein at least one of the networks is a wireless network.

35. The system of claim 25, wherein at least one of the first and second communications networks is a wide area network.

36. The system of claim 25, during the audio communication between the first and second users, 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.

37. The system of claim 36, upon third user'"'"'s acceptance of the request, further configured to allow the first user to add the third user into the audio communication involving the first and second users.

38. The system of claim 25, during the audio communication between the first and second users, further configured to:

notify the respective first or second user of a request by a third user to initiate an audio communication with the first 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 second user'"'"'s acceptance of the request.

39. The system of claim 23, wherein the retrieved location information is provided to the communications device of the first user.

40. The system of claim 23, wherein the service record is maintained by at least one communications network.

41. The system of claim 33, 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.

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

43. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of the service records is entered when the associated user logs in to the network.

44. 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.