Conference system, information transmission method, and storage medium

• US 10,778,455 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2018
• Issued: 09/15/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Soneda, Takuya, Umehara, Naoki, Miyamoto, Atsushi, Horiuchi, Takeshi, Hinohara, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Salad, Abdullahi E
• Application Number:
  US16/129,962
• Publication Number:
  US 20190013956A1
• Time in Patent Office: 733 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/00 Interconnection of, or transfer of information or other signals between, memories, input/output devices or central processing units interface circuits for specific input/output devices G06F3/00 ; multiprogram control therefor G06F9/46; multiprocessor systems G06F15/16
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• 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 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0807 using tickets, e.g. Kerberos cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication using tickets or tokens H04L9/3213
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/06 Authentication

Abstract

A conference system includes a management system connected via a network to a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal. The management system includes a processing circuitry configured to implement a generation unit configured to generate a topic in response to a conference topic issuance request made by a first user to hold a conference between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal; and an authorization unit configured to authorize the first user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user, and to authorize a second user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to an invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference, the invitation request including a topic name indicating a message for the second user.

Claims

1. A conference system, comprising:

a management system connected via a network to a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal,

wherein the management system includes a processing circuitry configured to

generate a topic in response to a conference topic issuance request made by a first user to hold a conference between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal,

authorize the first user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user,

authorize a second user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to an invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference, the invitation request including a topic name indicating a message for the second user,

manage destination information indicating one or more destination candidates associated with the first user, and

authorize the one or more destination candidates indicated by the destination information to transmit information in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user.

2. The conference system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to

manage destination information indicating one or more destination candidates associated with the second user;

and

authorize the one or more destination candidates indicated by the destination information and associated with the second user to transmit information in response to the invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference.

3. The conference system as claimed in claim 2, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to

manage, in association with the topic indicating the first user, identification information of the second user authorized to perform publication for the topic;

and

transmit, to the first user, the identification information of the second user.

4. The conference system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the processing circuitry

is configured to

receive a request to add the second user as a destination candidate;

and

add, in response to the request to add the second user, the identification information of the second user to a management table in association with the topic indicating the first user.

5. The conference system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the processing circuitry is configured to

receive a request to delete the second user from the one or more destination candidates associated with the first user;

and

delete, in response to the request to delete the second user, the identification information of the second user from the management table.

6. The conference system as claimed in claim 1, wherein

in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user to hold the conference, the processing circuitry authorizes the first user to publish a message for the topic and to receive a message published for the topic;

and

in response to the invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference, the processing circuitry authorizes the second user to publish a message for the topic and to receive a message published for the topic.

7. A method performed by a conference system including a management system connected via a network to a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal, the method comprising:

generating a topic in response to a conference topic issuance request made by a first user to hold a conference between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal;

authorizing the first user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user;

authorizing a second user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to an invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference, the invitation request including a topic name indicating a message for the second user;

managing destination information indicating one or more destination candidates associated with the first user; and

authorizing the one or more destination candidates indicated by the destination information to transmit information in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a conference system to execute a process, the conference system including a management system connected via a network to a first communication terminal and a second communication terminal, the process comprising:

generating a topic in response to a conference topic issuance request made by a first user to hold a conference between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal;

authorizing the first user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user;

authorizing a second user to perform publication and subscription for the topic in response to an invitation request made by the first user to invite the second user to the conference, the invitation request including a topic name indicating a message for the second user;

managing destination information indicating one or more destination candidates associated with the first user; and

authorizing the one or more destination candidates indicated by the destination information to transmit information in response to the conference topic issuance request made by the first user.