Presenting information in a conference

• US 8,965,975 B2
• Filed: 02/28/2013
• Issued: 02/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Pixion Incorporated
• Inventors: Salesky, Joseph, Madams, Peter, Flower, John, Kaul, Clint, Wells, Benjamin, Janne, Edward Arthur Ho-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): JEAN, FRANTZ B
• Application Number:
  US13/780,858
• Publication Number:
  US 20130246529A1
• Time in Patent Office: 726 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205, 709/206, 709/227, 709/231, 715/751, 715/752, 715/753, 370/260, 370/261, 348/14.01, 348/14.08, 348/14.09, 348/14.11
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1415 with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the displays
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1813 for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms instant messaging H04L51/04; protocols for multimedia communication H04L65/1101; arrangements for multi-party communication H04L65/403; telephonic conference arrangements H04M3/56; television conference systems H04N7/15
• 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 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

One conferencing system allows conference participants to share all or a portion of the display seen on their computer screens. The conferees may be at sites removed from each other, or may view a recorded presentation or archived conference at different times. Conference participants are either “presenters” who can modify the display or “attendees” who cannot modify the display. A pointer icon, which can be labeled to identify the conferee, is displayed on the shared image area. Each conferee can modify the position of his or her own pointer, even when not presenting, so that every participant can see what each conferee is pointing to, should a conferee choose to point to an element of the display. These and other features apply to other data streams shared in the conference or in meetings where there is no shared-image data stream.

Claims

1. A system for presenting information in a conference, the system comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a server including the processor and memory, the server receiving a command from an attendee in the conference indicating a desire to present information to the conference, the server receiving the information to be presented in the conference, the information received from the attendee in a first form; and

a program stored in memory and executed by the processor, the program when executed;

transcodes the information from the first form into a device-independent form,

matches the form of the information to other attendee clients in the conference,

transcodes the information from the device-independent form into at least one device-dependent form based on the matching, and

transmits the information in the device-dependent form to the other attendee clients in the conference.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the information is presented as a bitmap of device-dependent pixels.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein matching the form of the information to the other attendee clients in the conference includes transcoding the information subsequent to receipt and prior to transmission.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein matching the form of the information to the other attendee clients in the conference includes fitting the information to CPU capability of a particular attendee.

5. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to:

send a message to a current presenter in the conference, the message indicating that an attendee desires to present information to the conference;

receive approval from the current presenter to allow the attendee to assume a presenter role; and

exchange attendee-presenter roles between the current presenter and the attendee desiring to present information to the conference.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein exchanging attendee-presenter roles includes assignment of one or more privileges from the current presenter to the attendee desiring to present information in the conference, the one or more privileges not otherwise extended to a non-presenting attendee in the conference.

7. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to transmit the information in the device-dependent form to a second attendee client in the conference in accordance with privileges of the second attendee client.

8. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to transmit the information in the device-dependent form to the second attendee client in the conference in accordance with capabilities of the second attendee client.

9. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to store the information for retrieval by other attendee clients in the conference.

10. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to:

receive a command from a current presenter in the conference indicating a desire to transfer the presenter role to another attendee in the conference; and

exchange attendee-presenter roles between the current presenter and the attendee.

11. The system of claim 1, the program further executable to:

send a message to the attendee, the message indicating that the current presenter desires to transfer the presenter role to the attendee;

receive approval from the attendee to allow the attendee to assume the presenter role.