Method for providing an auction service using a tightly coupled multimedia conference in terminals and apparatus thereof

• US 20060112004A1
• Filed: 11/09/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Yong-Chul
• Application Number:
  US11/270,288
• Publication Number:
  US 20060112004A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for providing an auction service to terminals using a tightly coupled multimedia conference and an apparatus thereof. The method includes determining participants who use the terminals and auction service session, deciding an auction policy composed of a membership policy and a media policy related to the auction service, re-inviting only participants who are in accord with the auction policy among participants who take part in the multiconference using mass invitation, multicasting auction information and article information of the auction service to the auction service participants, and receiving prices offered for an auction article from the participants who have obtained floors and if a bid price of the auction article is decided among the offered prices, notifying the participants of the bid price.

Claims

1. An apparatus in a system for providing an auction service to participants who intend to take part in the auction service through terminals using a tightly coupled multimedia conference, the apparatus comprising:

an auction conference server for providing the auction service of tangible and intangible articles;

a notification server for announcing information related to the auction service;

a conference policy unit for deciding an auction policy related to the auction service;

a conference policy server for processing all rules that exercise jurisdiction over the auction service according to the decided auction policy;

a focus for controlling the provided auction service by re-inviting session for participants that satisfies the auction policy using a mass invitation function;

a mixer for multicasting transmitted media stream to the participants; and

a floor chair for managing floors of the whole auction service.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the auction service information includes the opening and closing of the auction, a type of auction item, a successful bid on the auction article and an opening bid price.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the auction policy includes a membership policy and a media policy.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the membership policy is a policy toward the participants corresponding to an age limit and a gender restriction of the participants, performs a screening of the participants and provides an anonymous processing function, as needed.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the media policy is a policy toward media information and data to be mutually exchanged between the focus and the all participants before the focus re-invites the session for the participants.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the focus receives a notification whether the re-invited participants take part in the auction service, notifies only the participants who have decided to take part in the auction service of a start of the auction service and provides the auction service.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the floor chair, in order or at his discretion designates the participants from a list of the participants who have requested the floors, and provides the floors to designated participants.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the floor is an authority to temporarily access specified common resources, and the participant offers a bid for the auction article through the auction service by obtaining the floor.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the mixer receives and processes data which is one of video, audio, text and application program.

10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the participants are classified into normal participants who can receive the auction service, participants who form the focus and session but cannot receive the auction service, anonymous users who announce their attendance but conceal their identities, and hidden users whose attendance and identities are all concealed.

11. A method for providing an auction service to terminals using a tightly coupled multimedia conference, the method comprising the steps of:

deciding an auction policy related to the auction service;

re-inviting only participants who are in accord with the auction policy among participants who take part in the multimedia conference using a mass invitation;

multicasting auction information and article information of the auction service to the auction service participants; and

receiving prices offered for an auction article from the participants who have obtained floors, and if a bid price of the auction article is decided among the offered prices, notifying the participants of the bid price.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the auction policy includes of a membership policy and a media policy.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the membership policy is a policy toward the participants corresponding to an age limit and a gender restriction of the participants, performs a screening of the participants and provides an anonymous processing function as needed.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the media policy is a policy toward media information and data to be mutually exchanged between the focus and the whole participants before the focus re-invites the session for the participants.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising notifying a scheduled start of the auction service to the multimedia conference participants.

16. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising receiving a decision as to whether the re-invited participants take part in the auction service from the re-invited participants.

17. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the floor chair designates the participants from a list of the participants who have requested the floors in order or using discretion, and provides the floors to the designated participants.

18. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the participants are classified into normal participants who can receive the auction service, participants who form the focus and session but cannot receive the auction service, anonymous users who notify their attendance but conceal their identities, and hidden users whose attendance and identities are all concealed.