Bi-directional communication system

• US 8,451,314 B1
• Filed: 11/19/2010
• Issued: 05/28/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Cerner Innovation, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Cline, Chris, Monroe, James, Bechtel, Todd, Jeffress, Jerry
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US12/950,744
• Time in Patent Office: 921 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 600/300
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 10/60 for patient-specific data, e.g. for electronic patient records
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/67 for remote operation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/695 Control of camera direction for changing a field of view, e.g. pan, tilt or based on tracking of objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Methods, computer systems, and computer readable media for one way and two way video and audio communications between a clinician at a remote location and a patient located in a patient room that is in a location different from the clinician are provided.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, executes driver commands for a camera hardware device in a patient'"'"'s room, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a clinician to establish contact with a patient at a separate patient location, wherein the request is received from an electronic medical record for the patient while the clinician is accessing the electronic medical record;

receiving identification of a patient location having a camera hardware device;

determining a driver for the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location;

connecting with the camera hardware device;

receiving one or more script requests to execute one or more scripts that are camera hardware device agnostic and are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the camera hardware device, wherein the one or more scripts which are camera hardware agnostic is not committed to a particular camera hardware device and are utilized to manipulate or view video received from any type of camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location;

executing the one or more scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the camera hardware device;

converting the one or more scripts to driver commands for the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location using the driver determined for the camera hardware device;

communicating the driver commands to the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location; and

executing the driver commands for the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location to cause the camera hardware device to perform one or more functions.

2. The media of claim 1, wherein the functions comprise one or more of panning the camera hardware device left, panning the camera hardware device right, tilting the camera hardware device up, tilting the camera hardware device down, tilting the camera diagonally up and left, tilting the camera hardware device up and right, tilting the camera hardware device down and left tilting the camera hardware device down and right, zooming the camera hardware device in, zooming the camera hardware device out, muting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, unmuting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, muting a speaker of the camera hardware device, unmuting a speaker of the camera hardware device and setting microphone volumes of the camera hardware device.

3. The media of claim 1, wherein the functions comprise one or more of enabling night vision of the camera hardware device, disabling night vision of the camera hardware device, performing manual focusing of the camera hardware device, changing brightness of the camera hardware and selecting one camera device over another when there are more than one camera hardware devices at the patient'"'"'s location.

4. The media of claim 1, further comprising

receiving a request to execute one or more scripts to shut down the remote connection from a clinician;

executing one or more shut down scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the camera hardware device;

converting the one or more shut down scripts to shut down driver commands for the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location;

communicating the shut down driver commands to the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location; and

executing the shut down driver commands for the camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location to cause the camera hardware device to perform one or more shut down functions.

5. The media of claim 1, wherein the shut down functions includes facing the camera hardware device away from the patient, turning off speakers and microphones of the camera hardware device and turning off the hardware camera device.

6. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computer device, directly feeds video from a patient location such that it is displayed at a remote clinician location and directly feeds video from the remote clinician location such that it is displayed at a patient location substantially simultaneously, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a clinician to establish contact with a patient at a separate patient location, wherein the request is received from an electronic medical record for the patient while the clinician is accessing the electronic medical record;

receiving identification of a patient location having a first camera hardware device and a first display device;

determining a driver for the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location;

receiving identification of the clinician location that is remote from the patient'"'"'s location having a second camera hardware device and a second display device;

determining the driver for the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location;

connecting with the first and second camera hardware devices and first and second display devices;

receiving one or more script requests to execute one or more scripts that are camera hardware device agnostic and are applicable to any camera hardware device to control at least one of the first and second camera hardware device, wherein the one or more scripts which are camera hardware agnostic is not committed to a particular camera hardware device and are utilized to manipulate or view video received from any type of camera hardware device at one or more of the patient'"'"'s or clinician'"'"'s location;

executing at least one of the one or more scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the first camera hardware device;

executing at least one of the one or more scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the second camera hardware device;

directly feeding video from the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location to the second display device at the clinician'"'"'s location; and

directly feeding video from the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location to the first display device at the patient'"'"'s location.

7. The media of claim 6, further comprising:

converting the at least one of the one or more scripts to first driver commands for the first camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location;

communicating the first driver commands to the first camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location; and

executing the first driver commands for the first camera hardware device in the patient'"'"'s location to cause the first camera hardware device to perform a function.

8. The media of claim 7, further comprising:

converting the at least one of the one or more scripts to second driver commands for the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location;

communicating the second driver commands to the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location; and

executing the second driver commands for the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location to cause the second camera hardware device to perform a function.

9. The media of claim 8, wherein the functions comprise one or more of enabling night vision of the camera hardware device, disabling night vision of the camera hardware device, performing manual focusing of the camera hardware device, changing brightness of the camera hardware and selecting one camera device over another when there are more than one camera hardware devices at the patient'"'"'s location.

10. The media of claim 8, wherein the functions comprise one or more of panning the camera hardware device left, panning the camera hardware device right, tilting the camera hardware device up, tilting the camera hardware device down, tilting the camera diagonally up and left, tilting the camera hardware device up and right, tilting the camera hardware device down and left tilting the camera hardware device down and right, zooming the camera hardware device in, zooming the camera hardware device out, muting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, unmuting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, muting a speaker of the camera hardware device, unmuting a speaker of the camera hardware device and setting microphone volumes of the camera hardware device.

11. The media of claim 6, further comprising:

directly feeding audio from the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location to the second display device at the clinician'"'"'s location; and

directly feeding audio from the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location to the first display device at the patient'"'"'s location.

12. The media of claim 11, wherein the video and audio from the first and second camera hardware device is streamed directly from the patient'"'"'s location to the clinician'"'"'s location and from the clinician'"'"'s location to the patient'"'"'s location without the use of codec or other encoding of the audio and video streams from the first and second camera hardware devices.

13. One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, executes driver commands for a first camera hardware device at a patient'"'"'s location and a second camera hardware device a clinician'"'"'s location, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a clinician to establish contact with a patient at a separate patient location, wherein the request is received from an electronic medical record for the patient while the clinician is accessing the electronic medical record;

receiving identification of a patient location having a first camera hardware device and clinician location that is remote from the patient location having a second camera hardware device;

determining a first driver for the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location and a second driver for the second hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location;

connecting with the first and second camera hardware devices;

receiving one or more requests to execute one or more scripts that are camera hardware device agnostic and are applicable to any camera hardware device to control at least one of the first and second camera hardware device, wherein the one or more scripts which are camera hardware agnostic is not committed to a particular camera hardware device and are utilized to manipulate or view video received from any type of camera hardware device at one or more of the patient'"'"'s or clinician'"'"'s location;

executing the one or more scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the first and second camera hardware devices;

converting the one or more scripts to first driver commands for the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location and to second driver commands for the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location;

communicating the first driver commands to the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location and the second driver commands to the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location; and

executing the first driver commands for the first camera hardware device at the patient'"'"'s location to cause the second camera hardware device to perform one or more functions and the second driver commands for the second camera hardware device at the clinician'"'"'s location to cause the second camera hardware device to perform one or more functions.

14. The media of claim 13, wherein the functions comprise one or more of panning the camera hardware device left, panning the camera hardware device right, tilting the camera hardware device up, tilting the camera hardware device down, tilting the camera diagonally up and left, tilting the camera hardware device up and right, tilting the camera hardware device down and left tilting the camera hardware device down and right, zooming the camera hardware device in, zooming the camera hardware device out, muting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, unmuting a local microphone of the camera hardware device, muting a speaker of the camera hardware device, unmuting a speaker of the camera hardware device and setting microphone volumes of the camera hardware device.

15. The media of claim 13, wherein the functions comprise one or more of enabling night vision of the camera hardware device, disabling night vision of the camera hardware device, performing manual focusing of the camera hardware device, changing brightness of the camera hardware and selecting one camera device over another when there are more than one camera hardware devices at the patient'"'"'s location.

16. The media of claim 13, further comprising

receiving a request to shut down the remote connection from a clinician;

executing shut down scripts that are applicable to any camera hardware device to control the first and second camera hardware devices;

converting the shut down scripts to shut down driver commands for the first and second camera hardware devices at the patient'"'"'s location and clinician location;

communicating the shut down driver commands to the first and second camera hardware devices at the patient'"'"'s location and clinician'"'"'s location; and

executing the shut down driver commands for the first and second camera hardware devices to cause the first and second camera hardware devices to perform one or more shut down functions.