Method for connecting a man-machine interface to a video conferencing system

• US 9,398,204 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2014
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Unify GmbH & Co. KG (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Oertel, Norbert
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Khai N
• Application Number:
  US14/563,221
• Publication Number:
  US 20150103132A1
• Time in Patent Office: 589 Days
• Field of Search: 348/14.01, 348/14.02, 348/14.03, 348/14.04, 348/14.05, 348/14.06, 348/14.07, 348/14.08, 348/14.09, 348/14.1, 348/14.11, 348/14.12, 348/14.13, 348/14.14, 348/15.15, 348/14.16, 379/265.03, 455/414.1, 455/566, 704/270
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for connecting at least one man-machine interface for manipulating, particularly remotely manipulating, at least one data source connected to a video conferencing system within the scope of video conferences, wherein signals generated by the man-machine interface are transmitted to the video conferencing system via a transmission channel provided for controlling a video camera. The invention further relates to an arrangement comprising means for carrying out the method.

Claims

1. A method of connecting at least one man-machine interface for manipulation of at least one data source connected to a video conference system for a video conference, the data source is not a video camera, the method comprising:

generating first signals by a man-machine interface, the first signals generated to manipulate application data stored in the data source for joint processing of at least one document stored in the data source by conference participants during the video conference;

transmitting the first signals as at least one command generated in accordance with far end camera control (FECC) protocol to the video conference system via a transmission channel provided to control a video camera during the video conference, the transmission channel being operated according to FECC protocol; and

in response to the received first signals, communicating a message by a terminal to query a user of the terminal whether the application data is to be controlled by the terminal via the received first signals,

the terminal manipulating the application data based on the received first signals when a response to the message indicates the control of the application data based on the received first signals is permitted, and

the terminal not adjusting the application data in accordance with instructions provided by the first signals when the response to the message indicates the control based on the received first signals is not permitted.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising sending second signals via the transmission channel from a first terminal to a second terminal to indicate availability for application data control to be effected by the first signals.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first terminal is a laptop computer and the second terminal is a laptop computer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the man-machine interface is a man-machine interface associated with the video conference system.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving the first signals by a video conferencing device of the video conference system and the video conferencing device forwarding the first signals to at least one terminal.

6. The method of claim 5, comprising decoding the first signals received via the transmission channel by a decoding device associated with the at least one terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating first signals by the man-machine interface comprises manipulating a first pointer device connected to a first terminal such that changes in a position of a pointer controlled via manipulation of the first pointer device results in generation of first signals that instruct a second terminal to cause an adjustment to positioning of a pointer being displayed by the second terminal to occur that corresponds with the movement of the pointer controlled via manipulation of the first pointer device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the man-machine interface is comprised of at least one of a keyboard connected to a first terminal and a mouse connected to the first terminal.

9. A system for connecting at least one man-machine interface for remote manipulation of at least one data source during a video conference, the system comprising:

a first terminal communicatively connectable to first non-transitory memory having application data;

a second terminal communicatively connectable to a man-machine interface; and

at least one of the first memory and the first terminal being communicatively connectable to the second terminal via a channel of communication provided to control a video camera; and

wherein the man-machine interface is configured to generate first signals to manipulate the application data to jointly process at least one document of the application data by conference participants of a video conference in response to manipulation of an input device connected to the second terminal, the first signals being generated for transmission along the channel of communication to effect manipulation of the application data such that application data manipulated by the man-machine interface is displayed analogously by the first terminal and the second terminal such that a changing of a position of a displayed pointer that is to occur based on manipulation of the input device is effected by the first terminal in response to the first signals sent along the channel of communication and is also effected by the second terminal, the channel of communication being operated according to a far end camera control (FECC) protocol.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the input device is comprised of at least one of a pointer device and a keyboard;

and

wherein the second terminal is configured such that manipulation of the pointer device results in generation of the first signals to be transmitted to the first terminal via the channel of communication to instruct the first terminal to cause an adjustment to positioning of a pointer being displayed by the first terminal to occur that corresponds with the movement of the pointer device of the man-machine interface.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the application data is not related to functioning of the video camera and wherein data relating to a presentation stream for an ongoing video conference is transmittable between the first and second terminals via the channel of communication.

12. The system of claim 9,

wherein the first terminal is configured to send a message to query a user of the first terminal whether control of the application data by the first terminal via the received first signals is permissible,

the first terminal is configured to manipulate the application data based on the received first signals when a response to the message indicates the control of the application data based on the received first signals is permitted, and

the first terminal is configured to not manipulate the application data in accordance with instructions provided by the first signals when the response to the message indicates the control based on the received first signals is not permitted.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the first terminal is a laptop computer and the second terminal is a laptop computer.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the first terminal is configured to decode the first signals to reconstruct FECC data included within the first signals and is configured to implement an inverse channel protocol using FECC protocol to confirm receipt of the FECC data within the first signals.

15. A method for connecting at least one man-machine interface for manipulating a data source connected to a video conferencing system, the data source comprising data for an application conference participants are to process together during a video conference, the method comprising:

generating first signals by a first man-machine interface for manipulation of application data stored in the data source for joint processing of at least one document of the application data by conference participants of the video conference, wherein the first man-machine interface is comprised of a pointer device connected to a first terminal, the data source is not a video camera, and manipulation of the pointer device generates the first signals;

transmitting the first signals to the video conferencing system via a transmission channel allocated for control of a video camera, the channel being operated according to a far end camera control (FECC) protocol; and

changing a position of a displayed pointer by a second terminal in response to the second terminal receiving the first signals transmitted by the first terminal via the transmission channel allocated for control of the video camera, the changed position of the pointer being displayed based on the first signals such that movement of the displayed pointer corresponds with movement of a pointer displayed via the first terminal that occurs as a result of the manipulation of the pointer device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the first terminal is a laptop computer and the second terminal is a laptop computer and wherein the first signals are transmitted as at least one command generated in accordance with FECC protocol.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmission channel provided to control the video camera is a single transmission channel and the first signals are generated to manipulate presentation stream data of the video conference.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the transmission channel is a single transmission channel.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the FECC protocol is operated using a protocol selected from the group consisting of H.281 protocol and H.224 protocol.