SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MULTIMEDIA MULTIPOINT REAL-TIME CONFERENCING

• US 20110072366A1
• Filed: 09/18/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Salesforce.com, Inc.
• Inventors: Egenberger, Jeremy, Spencer, Barry
• Granted Patent: US 9,367,876 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/757
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• 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 51/046 Interoperability with other network applications or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• 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 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/157 defining a virtual conference space and using avatars or agents computer conference optimisation or adaptation H04L12/1827

Abstract

A system is disclosed for multimedia multipoint real-time conferencing that includes a communication module to receive via a transport protocol, from a client embedded in a host website (such as a social networking website, a blog, or a dating website), a request to share media content in a real-time group conference associated with users of a virtual room. The content may include an audio, a video, a text, or a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code referencing a third-party resource. The request may be associated with routing requirements and transport characteristics. The system may further include a content encoder at the host website to create a data packet encapsulating the transport characteristics and the routing requirements. The system may further include a multipoint router to share the content via the transport protocol in the real-time group conference associated with the users of the virtual room. The shared content may include implicit and explicit recommendations.

Claims

1. A method for multimedia multipoint real-time conferencing, the method comprising:

receiving, from a client embedded in a host website, a request to share content in a real-time group conference associated with users of a virtual room within the host website, the request being encapsulated in a data packet with tags associated with the content and routing requirements describing one or more recipients of the content; and

based on the tags and the routing requirements, sharing the content in the real-time group conference with the one or more recipients of the content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the host website includes one or more instructions stored in memory to facilitate the embedded client, the one or more instructions being specific to the host website.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the host website is one or more of the following:

a social networking website, a blog, and a dating website.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein transport characteristics include one or more of the following:

a prioritization, a media scaling, a caching, an addressing, a synchronization, a sequencing, and a redundancy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the content includes one or more of the following:

an audio, a video, a text, and a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the HTML code references a third-party resource.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising creating a response HTML code, wherein the response HTML code is shared via a transport protocol in the real-time group conference to enable viewing of media associated with the third-party resource.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a response data packet includes implicit and explicit recommendations associated with the content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual room within the host website is based on a fan room, the virtual room being automatically customized based on settings associated with the fan room.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to share the content in the real-time group conference is facilitated by dragging and dropping the content on a share panel of the client embedded in the host website.

11. A system for multimedia multipoint real-time conferencing, the system comprising:

a communication module to receive, via a transport protocol, from a client embedded in a host website, a request to share content in a real-time group conference associated with users of a virtual room within the host website, wherein a client software creates a packet encapsulating tags describing the content and routing requirements and transport characteristics; and

a multipoint router to share the content via the transport protocol in the real-time group conference associated with the users of the virtual room.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the host website includes one or more instructions stored in memory to facilitate the embedded client, the one or more instructions being specific to the host website.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the host website is one or more of the following:

a social networking website, a blog, and a dating website.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein transport characteristics include one or more of the following:

prioritization, media scaling, caching, addressing, synchronization, sequencing, and redundancy.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the content includes one or more of the following:

an audio, a video, a text, and a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) code.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the HTML code references a third-party resource.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising creating an HTML creator to create response HTML code, wherein the response HTML code is shared as a part of the content via the transport protocol in the real-time group conference to enable viewing of media associated with the third-party resource.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein a response data packet includes implicit and explicit recommendations associated with the content.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the virtual room within the host website is based on a fan room, the virtual room being automatically customized based on settings associated with the fan room.

20. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a program embodied thereon, the program executable by a processor in a computing device to perform a multimedia multipoint real-time conferencing method, the method comprising:

receiving, via a transport protocol, from a client embedded in a host website, a request to share content in a real-time group conference associated with users of a virtual room within the host website, the request being associated with routing requirements and transport characteristics;

creating a data packet encapsulating the routing requirements and the transport characteristics; and

sharing the content via the transport protocol in the real-time group conference associated with the users of the virtual room.