Distributed real-time media composer

• US 9,462,228 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2014
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Johansen, Tom-Ivar, Sandbakken, Geir Arne
• Primary Examiner(s): Ramakrishnaiah, Melur
• Application Number:
  US14/297,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20140354766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 852 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 709/204, 370260-261
• 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: H04M 3/562 where the conference facilities are distributed
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/14 Systems for two-way working H04N7/12, H04N7/173 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

A system and a method allowing simultaneous exchange of audio, video or data information between a plurality of units over a communication network, supported by a central unit, wherein the central unit is, based on knowledge regarding one or more of the units, adapted to instruct said one or more units to generate multimedia data streams adjusted to fit into certain restrictions to be presented on other units participating in a same session.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

control circuitry configured to;

communicate over a network with first and one or more second devices;

control routing, as streams, of a plurality of partial frames of a multimedia data stream from the first device to the one or more second devices, by routing respective streams of the multimedia data stream to the one or more second devices based on one or more of respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the one or more second devices, wherein

the plurality of partial frames differ by one or more of a bit rate, resolution, a frame rate, and an aspect ratio.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to transmit a request to the first device that the first device transmit the multimedia data stream in the plurality of partial frames based on encoding capabilities of the first device and the respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the one or more second devices.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive the encoding capabilities of the first device from the first device via the network.

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive the respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the one or more second devices from the one or more second devices via the network.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the respective streams routed from the first device include a lower quality format that is of a lower quality than a quality of the plurality of partial frames of a request.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the multimedia data stream is formatted using a scalable compression technique.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the one or more second devices include a display resolution and/or an aspect ratio of respective displays of the one or more second devices to display one of the streams.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the one or more second devices include information of a size of a window in which a video component of the multimedia data stream is to be displayed by the one or more second devices.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to route the respective streams by receiving the respective streams and transmitting the respective streams to the one or more second devices without performing video processing on the respective streams.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the control circuitry is configured to route the respective streams by labeling the respective streams and then transmitting the respective streams to the one or more second devices without decoding the multimedia data stream.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to route the respective streams to the one or more second devices without decoding the multimedia data stream.

12. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is configured to route the respective streams to a plurality of the second devices contemporaneously.

13. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

communicate over the network with a third device, wherein one or more partial frames from the third device are combined with one or more partial frames from the first device into a composite frame.

14. A method, comprising:

communicating, by an apparatus, over a network with a first device and a second device;

receiving a first partial frame from the first device;

receiving a second partial frame from the second device;

routing, by the apparatus, the first partial frame from the first device to the second devices based on one or more of respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the second device; and

routing, by the apparatus, the second partial frame from the second device to the first device based on one or more of respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the first device;

wherein the first and second partial frames differ by one or more of a bit rate, a resolution, a frame rate, and an aspect ratio.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the respective streams routed from the first device include a lower quality format that is of a lower quality than a quality that is requested.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including executable instructions to be executed by a processor to cause the processor to perform:

communicating over a network with a first device, a second device, and a third device;

routing a first partial frame of a first resolution or a first aspect ratio of a multimedia data stream from the first device to the second device based on one or more of respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the second device, and

routing a second partial frame of a second resolution or a second aspect ratio of a multimedia data stream from the first device to the third device based on one or more of respective processing and bandwidth capacities of the third device.