System and method for distribution of child care training materials and remote monitoring of child care centers
First Claim
1. A system for increasing access to child care training materials and services, including demonstrations and lectures, by child care service providers and parents, as part of an integrated child care network which also provides for increased parental involvement with child care personnel, including the ability of parents to observe classroom activities in real-time during the workday, comprising:
- at least one video camera located in a child care facility and capable of generating a live video feed;
means for supplying said live video feed from said child care facility to a regional broadcast server, said regional broadcast server including means for splitting the live video feed into a plurality of live video feeds for transfer over the Internet to subscriber client nodes, a number of said live video feeds equaling a number of client nodes authorized to receive said live video feeds; and
means connected to said client nodes for displaying one of said live video feeds upon authorization to receive said one of said live video feeds, wherein said means connected to said client nodes for displaying one of said live video feeds includes web browser software capable of receiving streaming video feeds, and of enabling said parents to communicate directly over the Internet with personnel at said child care center from any location with Internet access, and wherein said regional broadcast server further includes means for connecting said client nodes to a server arranged to provide child care information to said subscribers and to said child care facility on demand.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A child care monitoring network integrates a centralized information dissemination system with live streaming video to increase parental involvement with child care workers and improve child care worker training, including provision for enabling parents to monitor their children during the workday over the Internet and for providing live training demonstrations during off-hours. A local area network connects video cameras to a multi-media computer for digitizing and compressing the video feed and supplying it to a regional broadcast server capable of delivering multiple broadcast video streams to parent subscribers either through direct Internet connections, or over a secured network connected to the Internet via a firewall. A pre-recorded video library and server may be provided in addition to the live video broadcast server for providing information and instruction to both parents seeking child care and to child care providers.
-
Citations
24 Claims
-
1. A system for increasing access to child care training materials and services, including demonstrations and lectures, by child care service providers and parents, as part of an integrated child care network which also provides for increased parental involvement with child care personnel, including the ability of parents to observe classroom activities in real-time during the workday, comprising:
-
at least one video camera located in a child care facility and capable of generating a live video feed;
means for supplying said live video feed from said child care facility to a regional broadcast server, said regional broadcast server including means for splitting the live video feed into a plurality of live video feeds for transfer over the Internet to subscriber client nodes, a number of said live video feeds equaling a number of client nodes authorized to receive said live video feeds; and
means connected to said client nodes for displaying one of said live video feeds upon authorization to receive said one of said live video feeds, wherein said means connected to said client nodes for displaying one of said live video feeds includes web browser software capable of receiving streaming video feeds, and of enabling said parents to communicate directly over the Internet with personnel at said child care center from any location with Internet access, and wherein said regional broadcast server further includes means for connecting said client nodes to a server arranged to provide child care information to said subscribers and to said child care facility on demand. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
-
-
13. A method of increasing access to child care training materials and services, including demonstrations and lectures, by child care service providers and parents, as part of an integrated child care network which also provides for increased parental involvement with child care personnel, including the ability of parents to observe classroom activities in real-time during the workday, comprising the steps of:
-
generating a live video feed from video captured by a video camera at a location in a child care facility from which video of the children can be captured;
supplying said live video feed to a regional broadcast server remote from said child care center;
splitting said live video feed into multiple video feeds and supplying said multiple video feeds over the Internet to a plurality of client nodes authorized to receive said live video feeds;
displaying said one of said live video feeds on a subscriber computer connected to said one of said client nodes upon authorization to receive said one of said live video feeds; and
connecting said subscriber computer and said childcare facility via the Internet to a server arranged to provide child care information to said parents and to personnel at said child care facility on demand, wherein said step of displaying said one of said live video feeds is carried out by using web browser software capable not only of receiving streaming video feeds, but also of enabling said parents to communicate directly over the Internet with personnel at said child care center from any location having Internet access. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
-
-
23. A method of limiting access to video broadcasts from a child care center, comprising the steps of:
-
posting a daily password, which changes each day that video broadcasts are available, in such a manner that the posting is only visible by persons delivering children to the child care center;
limiting access to broadcasts from the child care center to persons whose identity has been verified through the use of digital certificates. - View Dependent Claims (24)
-
Specification