Systems and processes for scheduling and conducting audio/video communications
13 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed herein are methods of scheduling and conducting video visits, as well as computer architecture for providing such scheduling and conducting, where the participants in the visit are not required or able to interact with the audio/video equipment for the initial connection to start the video visit. In some embodiments, participants are also not able to interact with the equipment during the actual visit, and thus the equipment employed during the video visit may be isolated from physical contact by the participants. To initiate or terminate a video visit, a data center establishes a data connection with each participant, and thus the flow of data between the participants moves across a computer network and via the data center. The visit may be monitored in virtually real-time by splitting the data transmitted between the participants and sending it to a monitoring terminal, rather than establishing a separate connection for the monitoring.
96 Citations
66 Claims
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12. A method of monitoring a video visit between at least a first participant and a second participant located at distinct endpoints, the method comprising:
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establishing a first data connection from a data center and the first participant at a scheduled time;
establishing a second data connection from the data center and the second participant at the scheduled time, the first and second participants visiting via the first and second data connections;
capturing video and audio as communications data from the first and second participants;
transmitting the communications data to and from the first and second participants across a computer network via the data center;
splitting the communications data transmitted from one of the first and second participants to the data center, or splitting the communications data transmitted to the one of the first and second participants from the data center; and
monitoring the video visit by receiving the split communications data at a monitoring station substantially simultaneously with the transmitting of the communications data to and from the one of the first and second participants. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A system for monitoring a video visit between at least a first participant and a second participant located at distinct endpoints, the system comprising:
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a data center connected to a computer network;
a first terminal associated with the first participant and configured to capture video and audio as communications data from the first participant during the video visit;
a second terminal associated with the second participant and configured to capture video and audio as communications data from the second participant during the video visit;
a first data connection between the data center and the first terminal established by the data center at a scheduled time;
a second data connection between the data center and the second terminal established by the data center at the scheduled time;
transmitting means configured to transmit the communications data to and from the first and second participants across the computer network and via the data center;
multiplexing means configured to split the communications data transmitted from one of the first or second participants to the data center, or the communications data transmitted to the one of the first or second participants from the data center; and
a third terminal connected to the multiplexing means and configured to receive the split communications data substantially simultaneously with the transmitting of the communications data to and from the one of the first and second participants for use in monitoring the video visit. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66)
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Specification