Dynamic adjustment of user-received communications for a real-time multimedia communications event

• US 8,560,612 B2
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kilmer, Malcolm W., Ogle, David M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Park, Jeong S
• Application Number:
  US13/483,259
• Publication Number:
  US 20120239747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 503 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 348 1401- 141, 715753-758
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

A real time communication session can be defined in which more than two participants communicate with each other using at least two different types of bidirectional communication. In one embodiment, the different types of bidirectional communication can include audio and video. During communication session, demoting one of the participants can be demoted so that the demoted participant is still a participant of communication session but communicates using at least one less than the two different types. Responsive to the demoting, one of the participants can be promoted so that the promoted participant is permitted to participate in the communication session using at least two different types of bidirectional communication. The promoting would not be permitted due to a system constraint on the real time communication session in absence of the demoting.

Claims

1. A method for dynamically adjusting communication types within a communication session comprising:

defining a real time communication session having more than two communication participants, wherein the real time communication session comprises at least two distinct communication types that include audio and video, wherein said real time communication session has an upper audio threshold of N representing a maximum number of the communication session participants that receive a bidirectional audio channel of the communication session, wherein said real time communication session has an upper video threshold of M representing a maximum number of communication session participants that receive a bidirectional video channel, wherein N and M are integers greater than two, and wherein N is greater than M;

while the number of session participants utilizing the audio channel and the video channel is M, receiving a request to add at least one additional session participant to the communication session where the request is for an audio and a video channel;

responsive to the request, demoting at least one of the existing session participants from participating within the communication session via both the audio channel and the video channel so that the demoted session participant communicates within the communication session through the audio channel only; and

responsive to the demoting, permitting the additional session participant to join the communication session via both the audio and the video channels, which results in a total of M session participants receiving the video channel.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prioritizing the communication participants and the additional session participant relative to each other;

determining which of the session participants that communicates within the communication session utilizing a video channel and an audio channel having a lowest priority score, which is a score lower than that of the additional session participant; and

selecting session participant with the lowest priority score as the one session participant that is to be demoted responsive to the adding of the additional session participant.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the demoting and the permitting occur automatically without receiving manual user input.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving manual user input that selects the one session participant that is to be demoted and the additional session participant, wherein a determination of which session participant is demoted in the demoting step is based on the manual user input.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the real time communication session further comprises at least one additional communication type other than audio and video, wherein the at least one communication type comprises at least one of a data communication type, a graphics communication type, and a text exchange communication type, each of which are bidirectional channels of communication for the real time communication session.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the bidirectional audio channel and the bidirectional video channel are each distinct communication pathways utilizing different protocols, wherein the audio channel and the video channel are synchronized with each other.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the bidirectional audio channel and the bidirectional video channel are provided over the same communication pathway utilizing a single protocol that handles both audio and video data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining computing resources available for the real-time communication session;

automatically changing the values of N and M responsive to a determined change in the computing resources available; and

demoting at least one session participant responsive to the automatic change of the value of M.

9. A method for dynamically adjusting communication types within a communication session comprising:

defining a real time communication session in which more than two participants communicate with each other using at least two different types of bidirectional communication;

during said communication session, demoting one of the participants so that the demoted participant is still a participant of communication session but communicates using at least one less than the two different types; and

responsive to the demoting, promoting one of the participants so that the promoted participant is permitted to participate in the communication session using at least two different types of bidirectional communication, wherein the promoting would not be permitted due to a system constraint on the real time communication session in absence of the demoting, wherein responsive to dynamic detection of removal of system constraint, automatically promoting at least one other participant.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the real time communication session comprises at least two distinct communication types that include audio and video, wherein said real time communication session has an upper audio threshold of N representing a maximum number of the communication session participants that receive a bidirectional audio channel of the communication session, wherein said real time communication session has an upper video threshold of M representing a maximum number of communication session participants that receive a bidirectional video channel, wherein N and M are integers greater than two, and wherein N is greater than M.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

while the number of session participants utilizing the audio channel and the video channel is M, adding at least one additional session participant to the communication session; and

responsive to the adding, performing the demoting and the promoting, wherein the promoted communication session participant is the additional session participant.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

prioritizing the communication participants and the additional session participant relative to each other;

determining which of the session participants that communicates within the communication session utilizing a video channel and an audio channel having a lowest priority score, which is a score lower than that of the additional session participant; and

selecting session participant with the lowest priority score as the one session participant that is to be demoted responsive to the adding of the additional session participant.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the different types of bidirectional communication comprise one of audio, video, data, graphics, and text exchange.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the demoted participant participated within the real time communication session using audio and video before the demoting and participates within the real time communication session using audio without video after the demoting, wherein the promoted participant participates within the communication session using audio and video responsive to the promoting.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the demoting and the permitting occur automatically without receiving manual user input.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

receiving manual user input that selects the one session participant that is to be demoted and the additional session participant, wherein a determination of which session participant is demoted in the demoting step is based on the manual user input.

17. The method of claim 9, wherein the two different types of bidirectional communication are each distinct communication pathways utilizing different protocols, wherein the distinct communication pathways are synchronized with each other.

18. The method of claim 9, wherein the two different types of bidirectional communication are provided over the same communication pathway utilizing a single protocol that handles both of the two different types of bidirectional communication.

19. A method for dynamically adjusting communication types within a communication session comprising:

provide real-time communication session to more than two participants that are able to communicate with each other using at least two different types of bidirectional communication;

defining a threshold for a number of concurrent participants able to participate in the communication session, wherein threshold is defined for the participants to communicate through at least two different types of bidirectional communication; and

automatically demote at least a fraction of concurrent participants of the communication session participants when the number of participants increase above the threshold, wherein each demoted communication session participant is still a participant of communication session but communicates using at least one less than the two different types.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising automatically promoting one or more demoted participants of the communication session participants when the number of participants decrease below the threshold.