System for teleconferencing in which collaboration types and participants by names or icons are selected by a participant of the teleconference
DCFirst Claim
1. A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:
- (a) a plurality of video display devices each having associated(i) participant video capture capabilities, and(ii) participant audio(1) capture and(2) reproduction capabilities; and
(b) at least one communication path(i) along which signals(1) representing participant audio and video(ii) can be transmitted;
wherein the system is configured to display,(i) a first and a second set of potential participants in which(1) the first set includes names of potential participants and(2) the second set includes icons representing potential participants, and(ii) a set of collaboration types;
wherein the system is further configured to allow a selecting participant(i) to initiate(1) collaboration(ii) by selecting(1) one or more participantsi. from the displayed sets of potential participants, and(2) at least one collaboration typei. from the displayed set of collaboration types, and thereby(iii) establish communication(1) of the selected type,(2) with each selected participant.
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Abstract
A multimedia collaboration system that integrates separate real-time and asynchronous networks--the former for real-time audio and video, and the latter for control signals and textual, graphical and other data--in a manner that is interoperable across different computer and network operating system platforms and which closely approximates the experience of face-to-face collaboration, while liberating the participants from the limitations of time and distance. These capabilities are achieved by exploiting a variety of hardware, software and networking technologies in a manner that preserves the quality and integrity of audio/video/data and other multimedia information, even after wide area transmission, and at a significantly reduced networking cost as compared to what would be required by presently known approaches. The system architecture is readily scalable to the largest enterprise network environments. It accommodates differing levels of collaborative capabilities available to individual users and permits high-quality audio and video capabilities to be readily superimposed onto existing personal computers and workstations and their interconnecting LANs and WANs. In a particular preferred embodiment, a plurality of geographically dispersed multimedia LANs are interconnected by a WAN. The demands made on the WAN are significantly reduced by employing multi-hopping techniques, including dynamically avoiding the unnecessary decompression of data at intermediate hops, and exploiting video mosaicing, cut-and-paste and audio mixing technologies so that significantly fewer wide area transmission paths are required while maintaining the high quality of the transmitted audio/video.
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Citations
24 Claims
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1. A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:
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(a) a plurality of video display devices each having associated (i) participant video capture capabilities, and (ii) participant audio (1) capture and (2) reproduction capabilities; and (b) at least one communication path (i) along which signals (1) representing participant audio and video (ii) can be transmitted;
wherein the system is configured to display,(i) a first and a second set of potential participants in which (1) the first set includes names of potential participants and (2) the second set includes icons representing potential participants, and (ii) a set of collaboration types;
wherein the system is further configured to allow a selecting participant(i) to initiate (1) collaboration (ii) by selecting (1) one or more participants i. from the displayed sets of potential participants, and (2) at least one collaboration type i. from the displayed set of collaboration types, and thereby (iii) establish communication (1) of the selected type, (2) with each selected participant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants, each having an associated video capture and display and audio capture and reproduction capabilities, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) displaying (i) a first and a second set of potential participants in which (1) the first set includes names of potential participants and (2) the second set includes icons representing potential participants, and (ii) a set of collaboration types; (b) selecting (i) one or more participants (ii) from among a plurality of the displayed sets of potential participants; (c) selecting (i) a desired collaboration type (ii) from among a plurality of the displayed collaboration types; and (d) establishing communication (i) of the selected type, (ii) with the selected participant to define a teleconference call. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:
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(a) a plurality of video display devices each having associated (i) participant video capture capabilities, and (ii) participant audio (1) capture and (2) reproduction capabilities; (b) at least one communication path (i) along which signals (1) representing participant audio and video (ii) can be transmitted; (c) an A/V switching circuitry (i) to provide port-to-port connections for (1) signals transmitted (2) between the participants; and
wherein the system is configured to allow a selecting participant(i) to initiate (1) any of a plurality of types of collaboration (ii) by selecting (1) one or more desired participants from among a plurality of potential participants; and (2) desired collaboration type from among a set of collaboration types, including, at least one of, data conferencing, videoconferencing, telephone conferencing, the sending of faxes and the sending of multimedia mail messages; and (iii) establishing communication (1) of the selected type, (2) with the selected participant(s).
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24. A method for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants, each having an associated video capture and display and audio and video AV capture and reproduction capabilities, the method comprising the steps of:
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(a) selecting (i) one or more desired participants (ii) from among a plurality of potential participants; (b) selecting (i) desired collaboration type (ii) from among a plurality of collaboration types, (1) including data conferencing, videoconferencing, telephone conferencing, the sending of faxes and the sending of multimedia mail messages; and (c) producing signals (i) representative of the selected collaboration type; and (d) switching produced signals by an A/V switching circuitry to provide port-to-port connections (i) between the participants (ii) to establish communication (1) of the selected type, (2) with the selected participant(s).
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Specification