Method and Apparatus Providing Synchronization and Control for Server-Based Multi-Screen Videoconferencing

• US 20140028784A1
• Filed: 07/26/2012
• Published: 01/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: DEYERLE, James, SAVAGE, Alan, CHEN, Xiaohui, LANE, Christopher, PETRUZZIELLO, Antonio, SHIELDS, William
• Granted Patent: US 8,937,637 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A videoconferencing system in which multiple browsers are utilized to present content and control functions for a server based videoconference. The content of the videoconference (e.g., video and audio streams) is presented on a display device driven by a local computer running a browser. The local computer also runs a separate browser that presents control functions on a different display device (e.g., a touch screen). The system can be scaled to include additional monitors and browsers running on the local computer. A local server is provided on the local computer for facilitating communications among the locally running browsers. In this manner, the browsers can communicate with each other via the local server executing on the local computer. The need to send traffic to a remote server to effectuate the browser-to-browser communication is eliminated. This provides for reduced latency and lowers the demands on the remote server.

Claims

1. A video conferencing system, comprising:

a content display device coupled to a local computer and displaying streaming images provided by a remote server, the streaming images being displayed by a first browser executing on the local computer and communicatively coupled to the remote server;

a control display device coupled to the local computer and displaying a control interface, the control interface being displayed by a second browser executing on the local computer, such second browser receiving a command through the control interface of the control display device for controlling presentation of the streaming images provided by the remote server; and

,

a local communication server executing on the local computer and communicatively coupled to the first browser and the second browser, the local communication server receiving such command from the second browser and transmitting such command to the first browser displaying the streaming images so that the command is capable of being executed by the first browser independently of communications with the remote server.

2. The video conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein the control display device includes a touch-sensitive surface, and the control interface is displayed on the touch-sensitive surface.

3. The video conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein the streaming images provided by the remote server also include audio associated therewith.

4. The video conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein the local communication server comprises a WebSocket server and the commands received by the WebSocket server from the first browser and the commands transmitted by the WebSocket server to the second browser comprise WebSocket commands.

5. The video conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein the first browser displayed by the content display device and the second browser displayed by the control display device are displayed in full screen mode.

21. The video conferencing system according to claim 1, wherein the first browser and the second browser comprise two browser tabs within a single browser instance.

6. A method for updating one or more browsers executing on a computer system, the method comprising:

receiving an update from a first browser executing on the computer system at a local communication server executing on the computer system;

identifying, with the local communication server, one or more other browsers executing on the computer system that should receive such update, wherein at least one of the one or more other browsers is configured to present data received from a remote server external to the computer system, and the update is associated with changing how the data received from the remote server external to the computer system is presented; and

transmitting from the local communication server such update to the one or more other browsers without requiring the remote server to receive and retransmit such update.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein the update corresponds to a command received by the first browser.

8. The method according to claim 6, wherein the image received from the remote server corresponds to a video conference session.

10. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

determining a number of display devices coupled to the computer system;

identifying at least one of the display devices to be a content display device;

identifying at least one of the display devices to be a control display device.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

for each display device coupled to the computer system, determining a serial number of the display device; and

identifying the at least one content display device and the at least one control display device based on the serial numbers of the display devices.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the local communication server comprises a WebSocket server.

9. (canceled)

13. A system for updating one or more browsers executing on a computer, such system comprising:

a remote server; and

a local computer device coupled to the remote server and executing two or more browsers, wherein the computer device further executes a local communication server configured to;

receive an update from a first browser executing on the local computer device at the local communication server;

identify, with the local communication server, one or more other browsers executing on the local computer device that should receive such update, wherein at least one of the one or more other browsers is configured to present data received from the remote server, and the update is associated with changing how the data received from the remote server is presented; and

transmit from the local communication server such update to the one or more other browsers without requiring the remote server to receive and retransmit such update.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the local communication server comprises a WebSocket server and the update received by the WebSocket server from the first browser and the update transmitted by the WebSocket server to the at least one of the one or more other browsers comprise WebSocket commands.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein at least one of the one or more other browsers is configured to display an image received from the remote server corresponding to a video conference session.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the update corresponds to a remote mute command.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the image is received from the remote server via a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) packet or UDP (User Datagram Protocol) packet.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein the first browser and the at least one of the one or more other browsers are each coupled to the remote server via an HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) connection.

19. The system according to claim 13, wherein the first browser is configured to download a script from the remote server, wherein the update is transmitted from the first browser to local communication server when the first browser executes the script.

20. The system according to claim 13, wherein each of the one or more browsers comprises a separate browser window executing within a separate execution environment on the local computer device.