Transmission system, information processing apparatus, computer program product, and method of information processing

• US 10,469,550 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2016
• Issued: 11/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Gyobu, Yoshikazu
• Primary Examiner(s): Dailey, Thomas J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Duong, Lam H
• Application Number:
  US15/063,934
• Publication Number:
  US 20160266732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• 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 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/22 Synchronisation circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/554 Data synchronization
• 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: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A transmission system includes a first information processing apparatus and a second information processing apparatus. The first information processing apparatus includes: a material transmitter that uploads material data to a third information processing apparatus; an operation acquiring unit that acquires an operation by a user and outputs operation information indicating the acquired operation; and a transmission side controller that causes a transmission side display unit to display the material data and changes how the material data is displayed in accordance with the operation by the user. The second information processing apparatus includes: a material receiver that downloads the material data from the third information processing apparatus; and a reception side controller that causes a reception side display unit to display the downloaded material data and changes how the material data is displayed in accordance with the operation information acquired by the first information processing apparatus.

Claims

1. A transmission system comprising:

a first information processing apparatus; and

a second information processing apparatus, wherein

the first information processing apparatus comprises circuitry configured to

before starting communication with the second information processing apparatus, upload material data to a third information processing apparatus;

acquire an operation by a user and output operation information indicating the acquired operation;

cause a transmission side display to display the material data and change how the material data is displayed in accordance with the operation by the user;

acquire attribute information of the material data displayed by the transmission side display; and

transmit control data including the operation information and the attribute information to the second information processing apparatus, and

the second information processing apparatus comprises circuitry configured to

before starting communication with the first information processing apparatus, download the material data from the third information processing apparatus; and

after starting communication with the first information processing apparatus;

cause a reception side display to display the downloaded material data,

in response to receiving the control data including the operation information and the attribute information, determine whether attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, and

in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, change how the material data is displayed by the reception side display in accordance with the operation information included in the received control data.

2. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein

the first information processing apparatus is operated by a transmission side user, and

the second information processing apparatus is operated by a reception side user.

3. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus is further configured to

generate the control data containing the operation information;

and

transmit the control data to the second information processing apparatus via a network, and

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus is further configured to

receive the control data from the first information processing apparatus via the network; and

display the operation information contained in the control data on the reception side display.

4. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus is further configured to acquire a voice and output voice data indicating the acquired voice,

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus further transmits the voice data to the second information processing apparatus via the network,

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus further receives the voice data from the first information processing apparatus via the network, and

the second information processing apparatus further comprises a voice output speaker that reproduces the received voice data to output the voice.

5. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus is further configured to acquire an image and output image data indicating the acquired image,

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus further transmits the image data to the second information processing apparatus via the network,

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus further receives the image data from the first information processing apparatus via the network, and

the second information processing apparatus further comprises an image output display that reproduces the received image data to output the image.

6. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus changes how the downloaded material data is displayed in accordance with an operation by the user.

7. The transmission system according to claim 6, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus incorporates a reset instruction to reset how the material data is displayed so that the material data is displayed in a preset manner, into the control data,

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus resets how the material data is displayed so that the material data is displayed in the preset manner when the reset instruction is given.

8. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus incorporates an end instruction into the control data when communication with the second information processing apparatus is ended,

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus deletes the downloaded material data when the end instruction is given.

9. The transmission system according to claim 8, wherein

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus incorporates reference permission information into the control data when the material data is made referable even after the communication is ended,

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus does not execute deletion of the downloaded material data when the reference permission information is given.

10. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein

the second information processing apparatus further comprises a reception side storage that stores therein the operation information contained in the control data transmitted from the first information processing apparatus, and

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus changes how the material data is displayed on the reception side display such that the material data is displayed on the reception side display in the same manner as how the material data is displayed on the transmission side display at the present time based on the operation information stored in the reception side storage when a synchronization instruction is received from the user.

11. The transmission system according to claim 3, wherein

the second information processing apparatus further comprises a reception side storage that stores therein the operation information contained in the control data transmitted from the first information processing apparatus,

the circuitry of the first information processing apparatus incorporates a synchronization instruction into the control data when a periodic or certain event occurs, and

the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus changes how the material data is displayed on the reception side display such that the material data is displayed on the reception side display in the same manner as how the material data is displayed on the transmission side display at the present time based on the operation information stored in the reception side storage when the synchronization instruction is received from the first information processing apparatus.

14. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the attribute information includes at least one of a file name, an update date, and a hash value of the material data.

15. The transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the circuitry of the second information processing apparatus is further configured to, in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display does not match the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, maintain without change how the material data is displayed by the reception side display.

12. A method of information processing in a transmission system that comprises a first information processing apparatus and a second information processing apparatus and transmits information provided from a user of the first information processing apparatus to a user of the second information processing apparatus via a network, the method comprising:

before starting communication with the second information processing apparatus, uploading, by the first information processing apparatus, material data to a third information processing apparatus;

causing, by the first information processing apparatus, a transmission side display to display the material data and changing, by the first information processing apparatus, how the material data is displayed in accordance with an operation by the user;

acquiring, by the first information processing apparatus, the operation by the user on the material data displayed on the transmission side display and outputting, by the first information processing apparatus, operation information indicating the acquired operation;

acquiring attribute information of the material data displayed by the transmission side display;

transmitting control data including the operation information and the attribute information to the second information processing apparatus;

before starting communication with the first information processing apparatus, downloading, by the second information processing apparatus, the material data from the third information processing apparatus;

opening, by the second information processing apparatus, the downloaded material data to cause a reception side display to display the material data;

in response to receiving the control data including the operation information and the attribute information in the second information processing apparatus, determining, by the second information processing apparatus, whether attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data; and

in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, changing, by the second information processing apparatus, how the material data is displayed by the reception side display in accordance with the operation information included in the received control data.

16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising, in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display does not match the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, maintaining without change how the material data is displayed by the reception side display.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a transmission system that comprises a first information processing apparatus and a second information processing apparatus and transmits information provided from a user of the first information processing apparatus to a user of the second information processing apparatus via a network, causes the transmission system to perform a method comprising:

before starting communication with the second information processing apparatus, uploading, by the first information processing apparatus, material data to a third information processing apparatus;

causing, by the first information processing apparatus, a transmission side display to display the material data and changing, by the first information processing apparatus, how the material data is displayed in accordance with an operation by the user;

acquiring, by the first information processing apparatus, the operation by the user on the material data displayed on the transmission side display and outputting, by the first information processing apparatus, operation information indicating the acquired operation;

acquiring attribute information of the material data displayed by the transmission side display;

transmitting control data including the operation information and the attribute information to the second information processing apparatus;

before starting communication with the first information processing apparatus, downloading, by the second information processing apparatus, the material data from the third information processing apparatus;

opening, by the second information processing apparatus, the downloaded material data to cause a reception side display to display the material data;

in response to receiving the control data including the operation information and the attribute information in the second information processing apparatus, determining, by the second information processing apparatus, whether attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data; and

in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display matches the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, changing, v the second information processing apparatus, how the material data is displayed by the reception side display in accordance with the operation information included in the received control data.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 13, further comprising, in response to a determination that the attribute information of the material data displayed by the reception side display does not match the attribute information transmitted from the first information processing apparatus in the control data, maintaining without change how the material data is displayed by the reception side display.