Client Classification and Management
First Claim
1. A conferencing system comprising:
- at least one client;
a conference server;
network connections between the conference server and the at least one client, wherein each client maintains a version of a shared portion of a display which is updated at a rate dependent on the network connections and loads and client computing speeds and loads.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An improved networked computer communications system handles arbitrary streams of data, and transports at varying speeds those streams where intermediate updates can be dropped if they are obsoleted by later arriving data updates, optimizing the utilization of network and node resources. Complex buffering by system server software allows distributed, parallel, or redundant processing, transmission, and storage for performance, reliability and robustness. Various parameters of the system can be monitored, and the system can be reconfigured automatically based on the observations. Varied techniques reduce the perceived end-to-end latency and take advantage of software and hardware capabilities that assets connected to the system may possess. One conferencing system allows conference participants to share all or a portion of the display seen on their computer screens. The conferees may be at sites removed from each other, or may view a recorded presentation or archived conference at different times. Conference participants are either “presenters” who can modify the display or “attendees” who cannot modify the display. A pointer icon, which can be labeled to identify the conferee, is displayed on the shared image area. Each conferee can modify the position of his or her own pointer, even when not presenting, so that every participant can see what each conferee is pointing to, should a conferee choose to point to an element of the display. These and other features apply to other data streams shared in the conference or in meetings where there is no shared-image data stream.
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Citations
22 Claims
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1. A conferencing system comprising:
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at least one client; a conference server; network connections between the conference server and the at least one client, wherein each client maintains a version of a shared portion of a display which is updated at a rate dependent on the network connections and loads and client computing speeds and loads. - View Dependent Claims (12)
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2. A conferencing system comprising:
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at least one client; a conference server; network connections between the conference server and the at least one client, wherein each client maintains a version of a shared portion of a data set which is updated at a rate dependent on the network connections and loads and client computing speeds and loads.
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3. A computer network system for sending dynamic data to plurality of clients of differing capabilities, comprising:
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a server; a plurality of intermediate servers each connected to the server; and a plurality of clients connected to the plurality of intermediate servers, each client connected to an intermediate server, where each intermediate server includes a means for analyzing data streaming from the server and means for dropping elements of the data stream based on network load and speed and downstream client load and speed to maintain a substantially real-time data stream.
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4. A method of sharing dynamic data between multiple nodes on a network where the dynamic data is updated at a rate dependent on the network connection speed and load and the node computing speed and load, the method comprising the steps of:
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outputting data from a source node in an output data type selected from base uncompressed data, base compressed data, differenced uncompressed data and differenced compressed data, wherein the output data type is selected based on the network connection speed and load and the source node computing speed and load; inputting data to a destination node in an input data type selected from base uncompressed data, base compressed data, differenced uncompressed data and differenced compressed data, wherein the input data type is selected based on the network connection speed and load and the destination node computing speed and load; when the output data type is different from the input data type, transforming the output data from the output data type to the input data type; dropping intermediate data updates at a network connection between the source node and the destination node, when an intermediate update cannot be handled at the network connection speed and load; and dropping intermediate data updates at the client node when intermediate update cannot be handled at the client computing speed and load. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 22)
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8. The method of clam 4, further comprising a step of determining whether a transformation of a data element in the data stream is needed at a node to keep the steam matched to a client display parameter or to transform the data to keep the data being received by the destination node being received substantially in real-time.
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17. A conferencing client-server system for presenting conferences from a presenter client process to an attendee client process, comprising:
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a plurality of nodes, wherein each node comprises means for building a data structure for showing a conference; a network for connecting each of the plurality of nodes to others of the plurality of nodes; and means for adjusting a flow of conference data to each of the plurality of nodes, the flow being adjusted for each node to accommodate the computing resources available at the node and the bandwidth and resources available on the network portion connecting the node.
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18. A capture frame apparatus for capturing a frame image from a computer having a display, wherein the frame image is a subset of the an image to be displayed by the display, the capture frame apparatus comprising:
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means for accepting user input; means for slating user input to boundary positions for boundaries around the frame image, wherein the boundary positions are settable to positions independent of the boundaries of the display and independent of the boundaries of any window on the display; and means for displaying the frame boundary positions on the display. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A method for capturing frame image data comprising:
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copying image data from a frame buffer on a source computer, where the source computer is a computer of a first platform and the image data is in a first image form associated with the first platform; when a destination computer is a computer of a second platform different than the first platform and a second image data form associated with the second platform is different than the first image data form, transcoding the image data from the first image data form to the second image data form and transporting the image data to the destination computer for display in the second image data form. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification