Method, apparatus, and system for implementing videoconferencing application

• US 8,842,157 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2012
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DRNC Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Device Company Limited (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Xie, Gengsheng, Wang, Zhifu
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US13/720,561
• Publication Number:
  US 20130106987A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 370260-261
• US Class Current: 348/14.08
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42348 Location-based services which utilize the location information of a target
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

The present invention provides a method, an apparatus, and a system for implementing a videoconferencing application and relates to the field of communications technologies. The videoconferencing system can provide an application related to the geographic location of each participant, including: obtaining an address of at least one conference site by performing resolving; acquiring information related to the address of the conference site according to the address of the conference site; and sending the related information to one or more of the conference sites, where the related information is used to provide a reference for a user to attend a conference. When a conference is held by using the videoconferencing system, the videoconferencing system can provide an application related to the geographic location of each participant, enriching service functions that the videoconferencing system can provide and improving the user satisfaction.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a videoconferencing application, comprising:

obtaining an address of at least one conference site by performing a resolving process;

acquiring information related to the address of the conference site according to the address of the conference site;

sending the related information to one or more of conference sites, where the related information is used to provide a reference for a user to attend a conference;

determining a location of a mobile phone of a participant as a location of the participant by using at least one of a base station of a wireless network and a satellite positioning system, wherein a mobile phone number of the participant is pre-stored on a server and the mobile phone number of the participant corresponds to an identification (ID) of a conference site that the participant is to access; and

sending a preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site.

2. The method for implementing the videoconferencing application according to claim 1, wherein the obtaining the address of the at least one conference site by performing the resolving process comprises one step of the group consisting of:

resolving an access Internet Protocol (IP) address of a videoconferencing terminal of the conference site to obtain the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through a public IP network;

resolving an access number of the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site and a location of a wireless base station closest to the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site to obtain the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through a wireless network;

resolving geographic coordinates of the conference site sent by a satellite positioning device to obtain the address of the conference site when the satellite positioning device is installed in the conference site; and

acquiring a pre-stored address corresponding to a dedicated network or a private IP network as the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through the dedicated network or the private IP network.

3. The method for implementing the videoconferencing system application according to claim 1, wherein the sending the related information to one or more of conference sites comprises one step of the group consisting of:

carrying the related information and a conference site identification (ID) corresponding to the related information in control information delivered by a server to each conference site, so that the related information is sent to the one or more of the conference sites;

adding the related information to a conference site list and sending, by the server, the conference site list to which the related information has been added to the one or more of the conference sites, where the related information associates with the conference site ID corresponding to the related information;

overlaying, by the server, the related information onto a conference video transmitted by a corresponding conference site and sending, by the server, the conference video overlaid with the related information to other conference sites; and

overlaying, by the server, the related information and the conference site ID corresponding to the related information onto the conference video transmitted by a corresponding conference site and sending, by the server, the conference video overlaid with the related information and the conference site ID to other conference sites.

4. The method for implementing the videoconferencing application according to claim 1, wherein:

the address of the conference site comprises one or more combinations of a country, a region, and geographic coordinates; and

the related information comprises one or more combinations of a time zone, current time, and current weather corresponding to the address of the conference site.

5. The method for implementing the videoconferencing system application according to claim 1, further comprising one step of the group consisting of:

saving, on the server, at least one of the address of the conference site and the related information, receiving the at least one of address of the conference site and the related information edited by the user through the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site, and updating the at least one of address of the conference site and the related information saved on the server according to the information edited by the user;

reminding the user of a conference at a scheduled time point or time segment;

determining, according to time zones corresponding to an address of each conference site, working time of each conference site when a time standard of a same time zone is used, and using the time segment in which working time ranges of the conference sites coincide as the best conference holding time, when the time standard of the same time zone is used;

determining, according to time zones corresponding to the address of each conference site and preset available conference time of each conference site, available conference time of each conference site, when the time standard of the same time zone is used, and using the time segment in which available conference time ranges of conference sites coincide as the best conference holding time when the time standard of the same time zone is used;

calculating a distance between any two conference sites according to their respective geographic coordinates of the any two conference sites; and

querying a navigation database and acquiring traffic information between any two conference sites according to their respective addresses of the any two conference sites.

6. The method for implementing the videoconferencing application according to claim 1, wherein the sending the preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site comprises:

sending at least one of the following notification information;

(a) an address of the conference site that the participant is to access,

(b) a start time of the conference,

(c) weather of the conference site that the participant is to access, and

(d) traffic information for arriving at the conference site that the participant is to access,

to the mobile phone of the participant, when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site in a preset time range before the conference starts.

7. The method for implementing the videoconferencing application according to claim 1, wherein the sending a preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site comprises:

regarding the participant as an absentee for taking statistics and informing, by using the mobile phone of the participant, the participant to feed back a reason for failing to attend the conference site when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site in a preset time range after the conference starts.

8. The method for implementing the videoconferencing application according to claim 1, wherein the sending the preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site comprises:

adding the participant to the conference by making a call to the mobile phone of the participant if the location of the participant meets a specific security requirement, when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site after the conference starts.

9. A videoconferencing apparatus, comprising:

a resolving unit, configured to obtain an address of at least one conference site by performing a resolving process;

a first processing unit, configured to acquire information related to the address of the conference site according to the address of the conference site;

a sending unit, configured to send the related information to one or more of conference sites, where the related information is used to provide a reference for a user to attend a conference;

an acquiring unit, configured to determine a location of a mobile phone of a participant as a location of the participant through at least one of a base station of a wireless network and a satellite positioning system, wherein a mobile phone number of the participant is pre-stored in the videoconferencing apparatus and the mobile phone number of the participant corresponds to an identification (ID) of a conference site that the participant is to access; and

a second processing unit, configured to send a preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when it is determined that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site.

10. The videoconferencing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the resolving unit comprises at least one of the following modules:

a first resolving module, configured to resolve an access Internet Protocol (IP) address of a videoconferencing terminal of the conference site to obtain the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through a public IP network;

a second resolving module, configured to resolve an access number of the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site and a location of a wireless base station closest to the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site to obtain the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through a wireless network;

a third resolving module, configured to resolve geographic coordinates of the conference site sent by a satellite positioning device to obtain the address of the conference site when the satellite positioning device is installed in the conference site; and

a fourth resolving module, configured to acquire a pre-stored address corresponding to a dedicated network or a private IP network as the address of the conference site when the videoconferencing terminal of the conference site is accessed through the dedicated network or the private IP network.

11. The videoconferencing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the sending unit comprises at least one of the following modules:

a first processing module, configured to carry the related information and a conference site identification (ID) corresponding to the related information in control information delivered to each conference site by the videoconferencing apparatus, so that the related information is sent to the one or more of the conference sites;

a second processing module, configured to add the related information to a conference site list and send the conference site list to which the related information has been added to one or more of the conference sites, where the related information associates with the conference site ID corresponding to the related information;

a third processing module, configured to overlay the related information onto a conference video transmitted by a corresponding conference site and send the conference video overlaid with the related information to other conference sites; and

a fourth processing module, configured to overlay the related information and the conference site ID corresponding to the related information onto the conference video transmitted by a corresponding conference site and send the conference video overlaid with the related information and the conference site ID to other conference sites.

12. The videoconferencing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising at least one of the following units:

an editing processing unit, configured to save at least one of the address of the conference site and the related information, receive at least one of the address of the conference site and the related information edited by the user through a videoconferencing terminal of the conference site, and update at least one of the address of the conference site and the related information saved on the server according to the information edited by the user;

a reminding unit, configured to remind the user of a conference at a scheduled time point or time segment;

an automatic searching unit, configured to determine, according to time zones corresponding to an address of each conference site, working time of each conference site when a time standard of a same time zone is used, and use the time segment in which working time ranges of conference sites coincide as the best conference holding time, when the time standard of the same time zone is used;

wherein the automatic searching unit is further configured to determine, according to time zones corresponding to the address of each conference site and preset available conference time of each conference site, available conference time of each conference site, when the time standard of the same time zone is used, and use the time segment in which available conference time ranges of conference sites coincide as the best conference holding time when the time standard of the same time zone is used;

a calculating unit, configured to calculate a distance between any two conference sites according to their respective geographic coordinates of the any two conference sites; and

a travel reminding unit, configured to query a navigation database to acquire the traffic information between any two conference sites according to their respective addresses of the any two conference sites.

13. The videoconferencing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the second processing unit comprises at least one of the following modules:

a conference reminding module, configured to send at least one of the following notification information;

(a) the address of the conference site that the participant is to access,

(b) a start time of the conference,

(c) weather of the conference site that the participant is to access, and

(d) traffic information for arriving at the conference site that the participant is to access,

to the mobile phone of the participant when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site in a preset time range before the conference starts;

an attendance check module, configured to regard the participant as an absentee for taking statistics and inform, by using the mobile phone of the participant, the participant to feed back a reason for failing to attend the conference site when it is determined that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site in a preset time range after the conference starts; and

a supplementary conference access processing module, configured to, when determining that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site after the conference starts, add the participant to the conference by making a call to the mobile phone of the participant if the location of the participant meets a specific security requirement.

14. A videoconferencing system, comprising:

a videoconferencing apparatus, comprising;

a resolving unit, configured to obtain an address of at least one conference site by performing a resolving process;

a first processing unit, configured to acquire information related to the address of the conference site according to the address of the conference site;

a sending unit configured to send the related information to one or more of conference sites, where the related information is used to provide a reference for a user to attend a conference;

an acquiring unit, configured to determine a location of a mobile phone of a participant as a location of the participant through at least one of a base station of a wireless network and a satellite positioning system, wherein a mobile phone number of the participant is pre-stored in the videoconferencing apparatus and the mobile phone number of the participant corresponds to an identification (ID) of a conference site that the participant is to access; and

a second processing unit, configured to send a preset notification to the mobile phone of the participant when it is determined that the location of the participant is inconsistent with any address of each conference site in the at least one conference site;

the conference site accesses the videoconferencing apparatus using a videoconferencing terminal; and

the videoconferencing terminal, configured to receive the related information sent by the videoconferencing apparatus and provide the related information for the user who attends the conference.