Accessories providing a telephone conference application one or more capabilities independent of the teleconference application

• US 7,437,420 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2004
• Issued: 10/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Riddle, Guy
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US10/763,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20040153510A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,726 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/543 Local
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/545 where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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

A system and method providing capability expansion in a teleconferencing environment. One or more accessories are invoked and arranged in an accessory stack associated with an application. The accessory stack is positioned logically between a teleconferencing application and a conference component in both a local and a remote end point. Each accessory provides at least one additional capability to the system independent of the application and the conference component.

Claims

1. A method of providing access to a remotely stored file comprising:

displaying in a file sharing window on a local computer a representation of a file stored on a remote computer;

copying the file from the remote computer to the local computer to create a copied file when a user attempts to open the file from the file sharing window; and

changing the representation of the file in the file sharing window into an alias of the copied file to allow the copied file to be directly opened from the local computer via the alias in the file sharing window.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

opening the copied file on the local computer when the user acts upon the alias.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the copying comprises:

detecting the user attempting to open the file;

initiating copying of the file from the remote computer to the local computer; and

displaying a status indicator as the file is copied from the remote computer to the local computer.

4. A computer readable storage medium having computer instructions stored therein which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

displaying in a file sharing window on a local computer a representation of a file stored on a remote computer;

copying the file from the remote computer to the local computer to create a copied file when a user attempts to open the file from the file sharing window; and

changing the representation of the file in the file sharing window into an alias of the copied file to allow the copied file to be directly opened from the local computer via the alias in the file sharing window.

5. The computer readable storage mediums of claim 4 wherein the instructions cause the processor to perform further operations comprising:

opening the copied file on the local computer when the user acts upon the alias.

6. The computer readable storage mediums of claim 4 wherein the copying comprises:

detecting the user attempting to open the file;

initiating copying of the file from the remote computer to the local computer; and

displaying a status indicator as the file is copied from the remote computer to the local computer.

7. A method of providing a status of a file shared via a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application comprising:

displaying a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application;

displaying in the file sharing window a representation of a shared file and an indication of a number of users of a plurality of remote computers who have copied the shared file; and

updating the indication of the number of users who have copied the shared file responsive to the shared file being copied to one of the remote computers.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

updating the indication of the number of users who have copied the shared file responsive to the shared filed being deleted from one of the remote computers.

9. A computer readable storage medium having computer instructions stored therein which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations to provide a status of a file shared via a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application, the operations comprising:

displaying a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application;

displaying in the file sharing window a representation of a shared file and an indication of a number of users of a plurality of remote computers who have copied the shared file; and

updating the indication of the number of users who have copied the shared file responsive to the shared file being copied to one of the remote computers.

10. The computer readable storage medium of claim 9 wherein the instructions cause the processor to perform further operations comprising:

updating the indication of the number of users who have copied the shared file responsive to the shared filed being deleted from one of the remote computers.

11. A method of providing the status of a file shared via a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application comprising:

displaying on each of a plurality of computers a file sharing window for a teleconferencing application, the file sharing window including a representation of a shared file posted by a first user of a first computer of one of the plurality of computers;

deleting the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on each of the computers when the first user removes the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on the first computer; and

deleting the representation of the shared file only from the file sharing window on a second computer of the plurality of computers when a second user, who did not post the shared file, removes the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on the second computer.

12. A computer readable storage medium having computer instructions stored therein which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform operations to provide the status of a file shared via a file sharing window of a teleconferencing application, the operations comprising:

displaying on each of a plurality of computers a file sharing window for a teleconferencing application, the file sharing window including a representation of a shared file posted by a first user of a first computer of one of the plurality of computers;

deleting the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on each of the computers when the first user removes the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on the first computer; and

deleting the representation of the shared file only from the file sharing window on a second computer of the plurality of computers when a second user, who did not post the

shared file, removes the representation of the shared file from the file sharing window on the second computer.