System, method, apparatus, and product for resource sharing

• US 8,838,795 B2
• Filed: 12/03/2004
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Friedman, Lee G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Najjar, Saleh
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pan, Peiliang
• Application Number:
  US11/004,367
• Publication Number:
  US 20060123113A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,574 Days
• Field of Search: 709217-219, 709/249, 709/248, 709/206, 709/204, 709/205, 709/227, 709/226, 709/229, 455/412.2, 455/414.1
• US Class Current: 709/226
• 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 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata

Abstract

In a resource-sharing system comprising a host element, a shareable resource associated with the host element, and a presence server that is communicatively coupled to the host element, presence information of the shareable resource is provided. Resource data from the host element is provided to a guest element via a resource proxy server.

Claims

1. A resource sharing system comprising:

a host element;

a shareable resource associated with the host element, the shareable resource comprising a video camera; and

a presence server communicatively coupled to the host element, the presence server to operate in an instant messaging environment, the presence server comprising;

a memory having machine readable instructions stored thereon; and

a processor to execute the instruction to perform operations comprising;

providing instant messaging presence information of the video camera, the instant messaging presence information providing availability status information of the video camera to a first guest element, the instant messaging presence information being determined based on an authorization procedure performed at the host element to authorize the first guest element to access the video camera and to not authorize a second guest element to access the video camera; and

receiving, via the instant messaging environment, an access request from the first guest element requesting access to the video camera associated with the host element, the host element to send resource data comprising streaming video data provided by the video camera to the first guest element via an out-of-band transportation of the streaming video data from the host element to the first guest element occurring outside the instant messaging environment in response to the access request, the out-of-band transportation of the streaming video data to the first guest element occurring while the first guest element is concurrently sending further instant messaging.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a resource proxy server communicatively coupled to the presence server, the resource proxy server to receive a resource proxy request from the presence server.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the resource proxy server is to provide a resource proxy to carry out the out-of-band transportation of the resource data from the host element to the first guest element.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the resource proxy server assigns a uniform resource locator as the resource proxy, and wherein the host element uses the uniform resource locator to transmit the resource data from the host element to the resource proxy server, and the first guest element uses the uniform resource locator to receive the resource data from the resource proxy server.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second shareable resource capable of digital media storage and communication, the second shareable resource being different from the video camera, and the instant messaging presence information to provide second availability status information of the second shareable resource.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the second shareable resource comprises at least one of a file, a digital camera, a digital camcorder, a digital telephone, a personal digital assistant, a printer, a digital video recorder/player, or a scanner;

and the file comprises at least one of an image, an audio recording, or a video recording.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the first guest element is to indicate an authorization to access the shareable resource, wherein the shareable resource is identified by presence information of the shareable resource in a contact list displayed in the first guest element.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the authorization comprises a display of a shareable resource name subtended to a contact name in the contact list of at least one of a plurality of users of the resource sharing system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the presence server also provides information indicating availability of users of the resource sharing system.

10. An apparatus to share resources in a communication network, the apparatus comprising:

a data storage component containing data pertaining to providing instant messaging services to a first user of the communication network;

a first communication link to receive information indicating instant messaging presence of a shareable resource comprising a video camera associated with a host element, the instant messaging presence information being received in response to an authorization procedure performed at the host element to authorize the first user to access the video camera and to not authorize a second user to access the video camera based on a representation of the video camera having been moved under a contact name of the first user, but not under a contact name of the second user, included in a contact list presented by the host element;

a second communication link to the first user of the communication network to provide instant messaging presence information including availability status information of the video camera to the first user of the communication network; and

a third communication link to a resource proxy server to request a resource proxy to perform an out-of-band transportation of resource data comprising streaming video data associated with the video camera from the host element to the first user of the communication network, the out-of-band transportation of the streaming video data occurring outside an instant messaging system providing the instant messaging presence information, but in response to an access request requesting access to the video camera associated with the host element and received via the instant messaging system, the out-of-band transportation of the streaming video data comprising sending the streaming video data to the proxy server via a uniform resource locator associated with the proxy server in response to the access request and then using the same uniform resource locator to retrieve the streaming video data from the proxy server for the first user.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the second communication link is to provide, to the first user of the communication network, an authorization to access the shareable resource.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the messaging services are instant messaging services.

13. A tangible computer-readable storage medium excluding propagating signals and storing computer readable instructions for operating a presence server in a communication network, the computer readable instructions, when executed, to cause the presence server to perform operations comprising:

receiving information indicating instant messaging presence of a video camera associated with a host element, the instant messaging presence information being received in response to an authorization procedure performed at the host element to authorize a first guest user to access the video camera and to not authorize a second guest user to access the video camera based on a representation of the video camera having been moved under a contact name of a first guest user, but not under a contact name of the second user, included in a contact list presented by the host element;

providing instant messaging presence information, wherein the presence information provides availability status information of the video camera to a guest element associated with the first guest user; and

providing a uniform resource locator as a resource proxy for out-of-band data transmission to be performed in response to an access request requesting access to the video camera and received from the guest element via an instant messaging system, the uniform resource locator included with the instant messaging presence information provided to the guest element by the presence server, the uniform resource locator to be used to perform out-of-band transmission of resource data comprising streaming video data associated with the video camera from the host element to a resource proxy server in response to the access request and the uniform resource locator to be used to perform out-of-band transmission of the streaming video data associated with the video camera from the resource proxy server to the guest element, the out-of-band transmission of the streaming video data from the host element to the resource proxy server and from the resource proxy server to the guest element to occur outside the instant messaging system conveying the access request.

14. The tangible computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

providing an authorization comprising a display of a shareable resource name subtended to a contact name in a contact list presented by the guest element.

15. A method of providing a connection between a guest element and a shareable resource communicatively coupled to a host element to remotely control the shareable resource, the method comprising:

providing instant messaging presence information indicating availability of a shareable resource comprising a video camera associated with the host element, the presence information being determined based on an authorization procedure performed at the host element to authorize a first guest user associated with the guest element to access the video camera and to not authorize a second guest user to access the video camera;

receiving via an instant messaging system an instant messaging connection request from the guest element at a resource proxy server;

sending the instant messaging connection request from the resource proxy server to the shareable resource; and

in response to the instant messaging connection request, providing the guest element with a connection to the video camera via the host element to send data to the video camera to instruct the video camera to execute a command to remotely control the video camera, the connection to the video camera to be provided using out-of-band communication occurring outside the instant messaging system used to convey the instant messaging connection request.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising a second shareable resource capable of digital media storage and communication, the second shareable resource being different from the video camera.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein to remotely control the shareable resource, the method further comprises requesting and receiving data from the shareable resource.