Transmission terminal, transmission system, transmission method, and recording medium storing transmission control program

• US 8,713,148 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2011
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Imai, Takuya, Kushimoto, Kei
• Primary Examiner(s): Swearingen, Jeffrey R
• Application Number:
  US13/160,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20110314099A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,049 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/223
• 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 41/06 Management of faults, events, alarms or notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/224 providing notification on incoming messages, e.g. pushed notifications of received messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1046 Call controllers; Call servers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• 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

A transmission terminal communicates contents data with a counterpart transmission terminal through a first session, and transmits management data to a management system through a second session. When a predetermined event that may prevent or interrupt communication with a user at the counterpart terminal is detected, the transmission terminal obtains countermeasure data, and transmits the countermeasure data to the management system through the second session.

Claims

1. A transmission terminal, comprising:

circuitry configured to;

communicate contents data, which includes at least voice data, with a counterpart transmission terminal through a first session,

transmit management data to a transmission management system through a second session, and to keep the second session active at least for a time period between the time when the first session starts and the time when the first session ends,

detect a predetermined event that may prevent or interrupt communication between a user at the transmission terminal and a user at the counterpart transmission terminal through the first session, and

obtain countermeasure data for the predetermined event and to cause the circuitry to transmit the countermeasure data to the counterpart transmission terminal via the transmission management system through the second session, the countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken by the user at the counterpart transmission terminal in response to the predetermined event; and

a storage device configured to store a plurality of event data in association with a plurality of countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken in response to a respective event, the countermeasure data for the predetermined event being obtained from the stored plurality of countermeasure data, and the stored plurality of countermeasure data including at least one action to be taken by the user that is based on a loss of voice data communication through the first session.

2. The transmission terminal of claim 1, further comprising:

a user interface configured to notify the user at the transmission terminal of the detected predetermined event.

3. The transmission terminal of claim 2, wherein

the circuitry receives event data when the predetermined event is detected, and obtains countermeasure data that is stored in the storage device with respect to the received event data as the countermeasure data to be transmitted.

4. The transmission terminal of claim 3, wherein:

when the action specified by the countermeasure data includes a plurality of different actions each of which can be taken by the user at the transmission terminal or the user at the counterpart transmission terminal,

the user interface requests the user at the transmission terminal to select at least one of the plurality of different actions specified by the countermeasure data, and

the circuitry obtains countermeasure data specifying the selected one of the plurality of different actions, as the countermeasure data to be transmitted to the transmission management system through the second session.

5. The transmission terminal of claim 1,

the circuitry being further configured to convert between voice data and text data, wherein

when the circuitry determines that the detected predetermined event may prevent or interrupt communication of voice data between the transmission terminal and the counterpart transmission terminal, the circuitry performs at least one of:

converting the voice data generated based on a voice of the user at the transmission terminal to text data, and generating the countermeasure data based on the converted text data; and

converting text data generated based on a user input received at the transmission terminal to voice, and generating the countermeasure data based on the converted voice data.

6. The transmission terminal of claim 1, wherein

the detected predetermined event that may prevent or interrupt communication between the user at the transmission terminal and the user at the counterpart transmission terminal includes:

an event that may prevent or interrupt communication of the contents data between the transmission terminal and the counterpart transmission terminal.

7. The transmission terminal of claim 1, wherein the contents data is videoconferencing data that further includes video data.

8. The transmission terminal of claim 1, wherein the plurality of event data includes at least a microphone error, a speaker error, and a connection error at the transmission terminal.

9. The transmission terminal of claim 8, wherein the stored countermeasure data corresponding to the microphone error, the speaker error, and the connection error, each includes transmitting a request to receive a phone call from the counterpart transmission terminal.

10. The transmission terminal of claim 1, wherein the plurality of event data in association with a plurality of countermeasure data specifies an action to be taken by the user at the transmission terminal in response to a respective event.

11. The transmission terminal of claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to communicate the contents data with the counterpart transmission terminal through the first session without transmitting the contents data to the transmission management system.

12. A transmission system, comprising:

a first transmission terminal; and

a second transmission terminal configured to communicate contents data with the first transmission terminal, wherein

the first transmission terminal includes;

means for communicating contents data, which includes at least voice data with the second transmission terminal through a first session;

means for transmitting management data to a transmission management system through a second session, while keeping the second session active at least for a time period between the time when the first session starts and the time when the first session ends;

means for detecting a predetermined event that may prevent or interrupt communication between a user at the first transmission terminal and a user at the second transmission terminal through the first session;

means for obtaining countermeasure data for the predetermined event from a plurality of stored countermeasure data, the stored countermeasure data including at least one action to be taken by the user that is based on a loss of voice data communication;

means for transmitting the countermeasure data to the counterpart transmission terminal via the transmission management system through the second session, the countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken by the user at the second transmission terminal in response to the predetermined event; and

means for storing a plurality of event data in association with a plurality of countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken in response to a respective event, the countermeasure data for the predetermined event being obtained from the stored plurality of countermeasure data, and the stored plurality of countermeasure data including at least one action to be taken by the user that is based on a loss of voice data communication through the first session, and

the second transmission terminal includes;

means for receiving the countermeasure data obtained by the first transmission terminal from the transmission management system through the second session, and

means for outputting information generated based on the countermeasure data to the user at the second transmission terminal.

13. The transmission system of claim 12, further comprising:

the transmission management system to manage a state of communication between the first transmission terminal and the second transmission terminal based on the management data, wherein

the transmission management system includes;

a storage device configured to store time information indicating the time when the first session is established between the first transmission terminal and the second transmission terminal, and to store time information indicating the time when the countermeasure data is received from the first transmission terminal.

14. The transmission system of claim 13, further comprising:

a first relay terminal to relay the contents data to be transmitted between the first transmission terminal and the second transmission terminal through the first session, and wherein

the transmission management system further includes;

circuitry configured to;

obtain information regarding a second relay terminal that is previously selected as a candidate relay terminal that is suitable for relaying contents data between the first transmission terminal and the second transmission terminal; and

obtain the information regarding the second relay terminal when the countermeasure data is received from the first transmission terminal, and to cause the second relay terminal to relay contents data between the first transmission terminal and the second transmission terminal in place of the first relay terminal.

15. A transmission management method, implemented by a transmission terminal, comprising:

communicating contents data, which includes at least voice data, with a counterpart transmission terminal through a first session;

transmitting management data to a transmission management system through a second session, while keeping the second session active at least for a time period between the time when the first session starts and the time when the first session ends;

detecting a predetermined event that may prevent or interrupt communication between a user at the transmission terminal and a user at the counterpart transmission terminal through the first session;

obtaining countermeasure data for the predetermined event;

transmitting the countermeasure data to the counterpart transmission terminal via the transmission management system through the second session, the countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken by the user at the counterpart transmission terminal in response to the predetermined event; and

storing a plurality of event data in association with a plurality of countermeasure data specifying an action to be taken in response to a respective event, the countermeasure data for the predetermined event being obtained from the stored plurality of countermeasure data, and the stored plurality of countermeasure data including at least one action to be taken by the user that is based on a loss of voice data communication through the first session.