METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR COLLABORATIVE REMOTE APPLICATION SHARING AND CONFERENCING

• US 20130132485A1
• Filed: 11/20/2012
• Published: 05/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/23/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Resolutionmd Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Calgary Scientific Inc.
• Inventors: Thomas, Monroe Milas, Stephure, Matthew James, Leitch, Sam Anthony, Pigat, Daniel Angelo
• Granted Patent: US 9,648,057 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/205
• 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 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

Systems and method for providing a collaborative conferencing capability to an application remotely-accessed by client computing devices. A client media sharing application is provided in a client tier, and the client media sharing application allows at least one of the client computing devices to share media with the client computing devices. A conferencing manager application that receives the shared media is provided to the server tier. The conferencing manager application makes the shared media available to the client computing devices.

Claims

1. A method of providing a collaborative conferencing capability to a remotely accessed application, comprising:

providing a tiered remote access framework comprising an application tier, a server tier and a client tier, the tiered remote access framework communicating first information regarding the remotely-accessed application between client computing devices accessing the remotely-accessed application within a state model that is used to display the remotely-accessed application at the client computing devices;

providing a server remote access application in the server tier, the server remote application being capable of modifying the state model;

providing a client remote access application in either the client tier or the application tier;

providing a client media sharing application in the client tier, the client media sharing application allowing at least one of the client computing devices to share media accessible by the at least one of the client computing devices;

providing a conferencing manager application to the server tier, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media; and

modifying the state model to further include the shared media such that the shared media is provided in at least one of the client computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a conferencing stub application in the server tier for each of the client computing devices, each conferencing stub application interfacing with the server remote access application to modify the state model.

3. The method of claim 1, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media directly from the client media sharing application.

4. The method of claim 2, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media indirectly from the client remote access application via the conferencing stub application.

5. The method of claim 1, the shared media being audio, video, images, desktop screen scrapes or text messages.

6. The method of claim 1, the shared media being simultaneously shared by at least two of the client computing devices, the shared media originating from both of the at least two of the client computing devices.

7. The method of claim 2, the conferencing manager application acting as a multiplexer by making the shared media from the at least one client computing device available to the each of the conferencing stub applications.

8. A method of providing a collaborative conferencing capability, comprising:

providing a tiered remote access framework comprising a server tier and a client tier, the tiered remote access framework communicating information regarding shared media between client computing devices accessing the shared media within a state model that is used to display the shared media at the client computing devices;

providing a server remote access application in the server tier, the server remote application being capable of modifying the state model;

providing a client media sharing application in the client tier, the client media sharing application allowing at least one of the client computing devices to share the shared media with the client computing devices;

providing a conferencing manager application to the server tier, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media; and

modifying the state model to further include the shared media such that the shared media is provided in at least one of the client computing devices.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

providing a conferencing stub application in the server tier for each of the client computing devices, each conferencing stub application interfacing with the server remote access application to modify the state model.

10. The method of claim 8, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media directly from the client media sharing application.

11. The method of claim 9, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media indirectly from a client remote access application via the conferencing stub application, the client remote access application being provided in the client tier.

12. The method of claim 8, the shared media being audio, video, images, desktop screen scrapes or text messages.

13. The method of claim 8, the shared media being simultaneously shared by at least two of the client computing devices, the shared media originating from both of the at least two of the client computing devices.

14. The method of claim 9, the conferencing manager application acting as a multiplexer by making the shared media from the at least one client computing device available to the each of the conferencing stub applications.

15. A tangible computer readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon for providing a collaborative conferencing capability to a remotely accessed application in a tiered remote access framework comprising an application tier, a server tier and a client tier, the tiered remote access framework being configured to communicate first information regarding the remotely-accessed application between client computing devices accessing the remotely-accessed application within a state model that is used to display the remotely-accessed application at the client computing devices, that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

provide a server remote access application in the server tier, the server remote application being capable of modifying the state model;

provide a conferencing manager application to the server tier, the conferencing manager application being capable of receiving shared media that is accessible to at least one of the client computing devices from a client media sharing application; and

modify the state model to further include the shared media such that the shared media is provided in at least one of the client computing devices.

16. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15, having further computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the computing device, cause the computing device to:

provide a conferencing stub application in the server tier for each of the client computing devices, each conferencing stub application being capable of interfacing with the server remote access application to modify the state model.

17. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media directly from the client media sharing application.

18. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 16, the conferencing manager application receiving the shared media indirectly from a client remote access application via the conferencing stub application, the client remote access application being provided in either the client tier or the application tier.

19. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 15, the shared media being simultaneously shared by at least two of the client computing devices, the shared media originating from both of the at least two of the client computing devices.

20. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 16, the conferencing manager application acting as a multiplexer by making the shared media from the at least one client computing device available to the each of the conferencing stub applications.