Systems and methods for computer and voice conference audio transmission during conference call via VoIP device

• US 8,977,684 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2009
• Issued: 03/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOTO Group Incorporated (LogMeIn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Alexandrov, Albert, Winterstein, Florian
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US12/423,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20100262656A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,156 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204, 709/205
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 9/082 using echo cancellers echo cancellers per se H04B3/23

Abstract

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support canceling audio streams leaked from a speaker to a microphone so that a clean audio stream of a presenter or viewer speaking at a conference call is transmitted. Here, the audio streams being canceled includes the computer audio stream of an application being run or a material being presented online during a web conference and/or the audio stream received from the rest of the group of participants at the conference call. The computer audio stream is then transmitted in addition to the presenter or viewer audio stream, and separate from any other audio stream captured by the hosting device during the conference call.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a first host computer system associated with a presenter, which in operation, runs an application or a presentation material that outputs audio;

a first computer audio engine executing on the first host, which in operation, transmits a clean outgoing audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

a first voice audio engine running on the first host, which in operation, enables the presenter to listen to an audio stream from a viewer microphone and to speak an audio stream into a presenter microphone at a conference call and transmits a clean outgoing presenter audio stream to a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, using a sound mixing component, from the outgoing presenter audio stream the audio stream from the viewer and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream, the sound mixing component combining, using application programming interfaces for processing voice audio streams, the outgoing presenter audio stream, the audio stream from the viewer, and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream in order to generate the clean outgoing presenter audio stream;

a second host computer system associated with the viewer;

a second computer audio engine executing on the second host, which in operation, accepts the incoming audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

a second voice audio engine running on the second host, which in operation, enables the viewer to listen to the presenter audio stream and to speak an audio stream into the viewer microphone at the conference call and transmits a clean outgoing viewer audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling from the outgoing viewer audio stream the presenter audio stream and the application or the presentation materials outgoing audio stream; and

the voice conference bridge, which in operation, accepts and transmits the audio streams between the presenter and the viewer at the conference call, wherein the first voice audio engine communicates with the second voice audio engine via the voice conference bridge, and wherein the first computer audio engine communicates with the second computer audio engine without accessing the voice conference bridge.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a first display component of the first host, which in operation enables the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material;

a second display component of the second host, which in operation receives and displays the application or the presentation material originated by the presenter to the viewer at the conference call.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the first and the second host is a computing device, a communication device, a storage device, or any electronic device capable of running a software component.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

each of the first and the second voice audio engines enable each of the presenter and the viewer to listen to the conference call via a speaker.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions which, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to implement a method, the method comprising:

running, at a first host computer system associated with a presenter, an application or a presentation material that outputs audio;

transmitting, from a first computer audio engine executing on the first host, a clean outgoing audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

enabling, via a first voice audio engine running on the first host, the presenter to listen to an audio stream from a viewer microphone and to speak an audio stream into a presenter microphone at a conference call and transmits a clean outgoing presenter audio stream to a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, using a sound mixing component, from the outgoing presenter audio stream the audio stream from the viewer and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream, the sound mixing component combining, using application programming interfaces for processing voice audio streams, the outgoing presenter audio stream, the audio stream from the viewer, and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream in order to generate the clean outgoing presenter audio stream;

accepting, at a second computer audio engine executing on a second host computer system associated with the viewer, the incoming audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

enabling, via a second voice audio engine running on the second host, the viewer to listen to the presenter audio stream and to speak an audio stream into the viewer microphone at the conference call and transmits a clean outgoing viewer audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling from the outgoing viewer audio stream the presenter audio stream and the application or the presentation materials outgoing audio stream; and

accepting and transmitting, via the voice conference bridge, the audio streams between the presenter and the viewer at the conference call, wherein the first voice audio engine communicates with the second voice audio engine via the voice conference bridge, and wherein the first computer audio engine communicates with the second computer audio engine without accessing the voice conference bridge.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, the method further comprising:

enabling, via a first display component of the first host, the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material;

receiving and displaying, at a second display component of the second host, the application or the presentation material originated by the presenter to the viewer at the conference call.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5, wherein:

each of the first and the second host is a computing device, a communication device, a storage device, or any electronic device capable of running a software component.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 5,

wherein:

each of the first and the second voice audio engines enable each of the presenter and the viewer to listen to the conference call via a speaker.

9. A computer-implemented method comprising:

running, at a first host computer system associated with a presenter, an application or a presentation material that outputs audio;

transmitting, from a first computer audio engine executing on the first host, a clean outgoing audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

enabling, via a first voice audio engine running on the first host, the presenter to listen to an audio stream from a viewer microphone and to speak an audio stream into a presenter microphone at a conference call and transmits a clean outgoing presenter audio stream to a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, using a sound mixing component, from the outgoing presenter audio stream the audio stream from the viewer and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream, the sound mixing component combining, using application programming interfaces for processing voice audio streams, the outgoing presenter audio stream, the audio stream from the viewer, and the application or the presentation material outgoing audio stream in order to generate the clean outgoing presenter audio stream;

accepting, at a second computer audio engine executing on a second host computer system associated with the viewer, the incoming audio stream generated by the application or the presentation material running on the first host computer system;

enabling, via a second voice audio engine running on the second host, the viewer to listen to the presenter audio stream and to speak an audio stream into the viewer microphone at the conference call and transmits a clean outgoing viewer audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling from the outgoing viewer audio stream the presenter audio stream and the application or the presentation materials outgoing audio stream; and

accepting and transmitting, via the voice conference bridge, the audio streams between the presenter and the viewer at the conference call, wherein the first voice audio engine communicates with the second voice audio engine via the voice conference bridge, and wherein the first computer audio engine communicates with the second computer audio engine without accessing the voice conference bridge.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

enabling, via a first display component of the first host, the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material;

receiving and displaying, at a second display component of the second host, the application or the presentation material originated by the presenter to the viewer at the conference call.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein:

each of the first and the second host is a computing device, a communication device, a storage device, or any electronic device capable of running a software component.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein:

each of the first and the second voice audio engines enable each of the presenter and the viewer to listen to the conference call via a speaker.