Internet Video Conferencing On A Home Television

• US 20080278568A1
• Filed: 07/24/2008
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: AbiEzzi, Salim S., Jaff, Kosar
• Granted Patent: US 8,230,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/142 Constructional details of the terminal equipment, e.g. arrangements of the camera and the display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Techniques for auto provisioning and publication of applications are described. The auto provisioning process enables automatic installation of applications having their respective file packages pre-stored in the server. Subsequently, publication of these applications is conducted automatically. By employing such an automatic process, the latency involved in provisioning and publication of remote applications is reduced, thereby making the process more efficient.

Claims

1. In a home networking environment, a method for a thin client connected to a computing device that has connectivity to the Internet to provide video conferencing, the method comprising:

sending a request to the computing device to conduct an Internet video conference, wherein the thin client is connected to a television and controls display of images on the television, the thin client having inadequate resources to communicate over a wide area network and conduct video conferencing by itself;

providing instructions to the computing device, setting up an Internet video conference with a conferencing party on the Internet at the computing device according to the request;

receiving incoming conferencing user interface data from the computing device representing the incoming video conferencing data, wherein the computing device packages the conferencing user interface data using a remote desktop protocol (RDP) over the home network; and

passing outgoing video conferencing data to the computing device via the home network as data included in Internet protocol (IP) packets.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving data and instructions from the computing device to display on the television interactive user interface screens for setting up an Internet video conference, and sending user inputs to the computing device for parameters for the Internet video conference.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the receiving comprises converting at the computing device, the incoming video conferencing data into the conferencing user interface data for display on the television by the thin client.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the RDP is Windows Remote Desktop Protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an alert regarding an incoming call that is received by the computing device for Internet video conference from the conferencing party.

6. In a home networking environment with a computing device with connectivity to the Internet, a method performed at a thin client in conjunction with the computing device to provide video conferencing, the method comprising:

connecting to a television and displaying a user-selectable option to conduct an Internet video conference on the television;

receiving an input signal selecting to conduct an Internet video conference from a user at the television;

transmitting a request for Internet video conferencing to the computing device over the home network, offloading aspects of wide area network communication and higher level video conferencing services unavailable on the thin client to the computing device;

receiving from the computing device over the home network, conferencing user interface data representing incoming video conferencing data received by the computing device from the Internet, wherein the conferencing user interface data is packaged according to a remote desktop protocol (RDP);

providing outgoing video conferencing data from a video camera connected to the thin client;

wrapping the outgoing video conferencing data into Internet protocol (IP) packets; and

sending packets of the outgoing video conferencing data over the home network to the computing device for forwarding to a conferencing party on the Internet.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the providing outgoing video conferencing includes Universal Serial Bus (USB) data, wherein the video camera is a USB video camera and connection to the computing device is via a USB link.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising discovering the computing device on the home network as providing Internet video conferencing functionality.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising receiving a call alert from the computing device over the home network regarding an incoming call for Internet video conferencing;

and displaying an alert on the television regarding the incoming call.