NETWORK-ATTACHED DISPLAY DEVICE AS AN ATTENDEE IN AN ONLINE COLLABORATIVE COMPUTING SESSION

• US 20110271129A1
• Filed: 04/29/2010
• Published: 11/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Skipper, Chad R., Flannagan, Michael E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,909,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/323
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15

Abstract

In one embodiment, a network-attached display device (e.g., projector) may join an online collaborative computing session as an attendee. The display device may then receive data for the online collaborative computing session as an attendee over the computer network. As such, the display device may render images associated with being an attendee of the online collaborative computing session from the received data, and then visually display the images associated with the online collaborative computing session.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

obtaining information to allow a computer network-attached display device to receive data for an online collaborative computing session as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session;

signing the display device into the online collaborative computing session as an attendee using the obtained information;

receiving data for the online collaborative computing session at the display device as an attendee over the computer network;

rendering images associated with the online collaborative computing session from the received data at the display device; and

visually displaying the images associated with the online collaborative computing session by the display device as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein obtaining comprises:

receiving the information over the computer network from a server configured to push the information to the display device.

3. The method as in claim 2, further comprising:

receiving, at the server, a request to include the display device as an attendee in the online collaborative computing session.

4. The method as in claim 1, wherein obtaining comprises:

receiving, at the display device, manually entered information.

5. The method as in claim 1, wherein obtaining comprises:

obtaining information to allow the display device to receive data for a plurality of online collaborative computing sessions as an attendee of each online collaborative computing session; and

prompting, at the display device, for selection of a particular online collaborative computing session into which the display device is to sign in as an attendee.

6. The method as in claim 1, wherein signing in comprises:

obtaining the information at the display device; and

signing in from the display device.

7. The method as in claim 1, wherein signing in comprises:

obtaining the information at a server in the computer network; and

signing in the display device from the server.

8. The method as in claim 1, wherein there is no user intervention at the display device to obtain the information or sign the display device into the online collaborative computing session.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein signing in comprises:

prompting for user acceptance of signing the display device into the online collaborative computing session.

10. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

scheduling the display device as an attendee for the online collaborative computing session in advance of the online collaborative computing session.

11. The method as in claim 10, further comprising, prior to receiving the data:

transitioning the display device to a power on and ready state in response to an impending online collaborative computing session in which the display device is scheduled to be an attendee.

12. The method as in claim 10, wherein scheduling comprises:

receiving, by a scheduling application, a user request to include the display device as an attendee in the online collaborative computing session.

13. The method as in claim 1, wherein the data received at the display device comprises the same data received by all attendees of the online collaborative computing session.

14. The method as in claim 1, further comprising:

rendering audio associated with the online collaborative computing session from the received data at the display device; and

playing the audio associated with the online collaborative computing by speakers associated with the display device.

15. The method as in claim 1, wherein all attendees of the online collaborative computing session are physically located within a same room.

16. The method as in claim 1, wherein a presenter computer of the online collaborative computing session is physically located within a same room as the display device, and wherein the presenter computer transmits the data for the online collaborative computing session over the computer network via the online collaborative computing session to the display device as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session.

17. The method as in claim 1, wherein the display device is a projector.

18. An apparatus, comprising:

a visual display generator configured to visually display rendered images;

a network interface adapted to receive data over a computer network;

a processor coupled to the network interface and visual display generator and adapted to execute one or more processes; and

a memory adapted to store a process executable by the processor, the process when executed operable to;

join the apparatus into an online collaborative computing session as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session;

receive data for the online collaborative computing session as an attendee over the computer network;

render images associated with the online collaborative computing session from the received data; and

visually display the images associated with the online collaborative computing session via the visual display generator.

19. The apparatus as in claim 18, wherein the process when executed is operable to join the online collaborative computing session by obtaining information over the computer network from a server configured to push the information to the apparatus and by signing into the online collaborative computing session as an attendee using the obtained information.

20. The apparatus as in claim 18, further comprising:

a user interface, wherein the process when executed is operable to join the online collaborative computing session by obtaining manually entered information and by signing into the online collaborative computing session as an attendee using the obtained information.

21. The apparatus as in claim 18, further comprising:

a user interface, wherein the process when executed is operable to determine an ability to join a plurality of online collaborative computing sessions as an attendee, the process further operable to prompt, via the user interface, for selection of a particular online collaborative computing session the apparatus is to join as an attendee.

22. The apparatus as in claim 18, further comprising:

a user interface, wherein the process when executed is operable to prompt for user acceptance of joining into the online collaborative computing session.

23. The apparatus as in claim 18, wherein the apparatus is a projector.

24. A system, comprising:

a computer;

a server; and

a network-attached display device;

the computer configured to receive a user request to include a network-attached display device as an attendee in an online collaborative computing session, and transmit the request to the server;

the server configured to receive the request, and push corresponding information to the display device, the information to allow the display device to receive data for the online collaborative computing session as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session; and

the network-attached display device configured to;

join the online collaborative computing session as an attendee of the online collaborative computing session using the pushed information,

receive data for the online collaborative computing session as an attendee over a computer network,

render images associated with the online collaborative computing session from the received data, and

visually display the images associated with the online collaborative computing session.