Method and apparatus for participating in a conference session over a data communication network

• US 7,953,795 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2007
• Issued: 05/31/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Interwise Ltd. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Interwise Ltd. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Keren, Ori
• Primary Examiner(s): Divecha; Kamal B
• Application Number:
  US11/648,978
• Publication Number:
  US 20080162635A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,609 Days
• Field of Search: 709/204
• US Class Current: 709/204
• 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: H04M 2203/5054 Meet-me conference, i.e. participants dial-in
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5081 Inform conference party of participants, e.g. of change of participants conducting a computer conference, e.g. admission detection, H04L12/1822
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

A method and apparatus for participating in a conference session over a data communication network, the method comprising the steps of initiating a data communication conference session by a presenter with the an at least one viewer; establishing communication between the presenter and a thin server, wherein the thin server comprises an application for acting behind the scenes and enabling to transfer data.

Claims

1. A method of conducting a data communication conference session, over a data communications network, among multiple participants using computing devices, comprising:

designating at least one server that serves as a managing apparatus for the data communication conference session, the at least one server being adapted to bridge among the multiple participants participating in the data communication conference session;

installing a dedicated software application on at least one computing device corresponding to at least one participant that enables the at least one participant to participate in the data communication conference session as both a presenter and a viewer;

providing a thin client server that serves as an interface that transfers data and that enables the multiple participants to participate as viewers without participating as presenters using a standard browser without installing the dedicated software application on the computing devices corresponding to the multiple participants participating as the viewers and not presenters, wherein the dedicated software application includes software applications which are dedicated to enable the participants to participate in the conference session and which allow continuous sharing of the data of the conference session;

initiating the data communication conference session by a first participant that serves as the presenter and that shares the data with the multiple participants participating as the viewers;

establishing communications between the presenter and the thin client server;

establishing communications between the viewers using the standard browser, and the thin client server; and

updating the viewers using the thin client server with the data shared by the presenter by communicating through the thin client server,

wherein the thin client server processes the data into a format accessible by the standard browser using asynchronous javascript and extensible markup language (AJAX) and transfers the data for presentation to the viewers using the standard browser,

wherein data viewable by the viewers includes a combination of the data from the presenter and data obtained from at least one of the viewers,

wherein the data obtained from at least one of the viewers is superimposed and displayed on a dynamically allocated area on a screen of a presenter'"'"'s conference session corresponding to the data from the presenter such that a single screen is sent to the viewers,

wherein screens corresponding to the viewers are subdivided into a matrix such that updated data is sent to the viewers based on subdivided units of the matrix,

wherein sizes and shapes of the subdivided units are determined according to an availability of resources that affect presentation of the updated data to the viewers,

wherein the sizes and shapes of the subdivided units define areas of the screens corresponding to the viewers which will be updated, and

wherein the thin client server is implemented on the at least one server that serves as the managing apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the thin client server updates the viewers on a substantially continuous basis during the data communication conference session.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein establishing communications by the viewers using the standard browser is performed periodically.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein a bridge is implemented on the at least one server as a software application.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein a computing device corresponding to a first participant that serves as the presenter swaps roles with a computing device corresponding to a different participant during the data communication conference session.

6. A system for conducting a data communication conference over a data communications network, comprising:

a server that serves as a managing apparatus for the data communication conference, the server bridging among multiple participants participating in the data communication conference;

at least one computing device, corresponding to at least one participant, having a dedicated software application installed, that enables the at least one participant to participate in the data communication conference as both a presenters and a viewer;

a thin client server that serves as an interface for transferring data to enable a first set of the multiple participants to serve as viewers without serving as presenters using a standard browser without installing the dedicated application software on computing devices corresponding to each of the first set of the multiple participants serving as viewers and not presenters, wherein the dedicated software application includes software applications which are dedicated to enable the participants to participate in the conference session and which allow continuous sharing of the data of the conference session; and

a second set of computing devices corresponding to a second set of the multiple participants with a standard browser installed on each of the second set of computing devices such that each of the second set of the multiple participants is enabled to serve as the viewers in the data communication conference by communicating through the thin client server,

wherein during the data communication conference, the at least one computing device with the dedicated software application installed serves as a presenter providing data to the viewers,

wherein the thin client server transfers the data provided by the presenter to each of the second set of computing devices with the standard browser installed,

wherein the thin client server processes the data into a format accessible by the standard browser using asynchronous javascript and extensible markup language (AJAX) and transfers the data for presentation to the viewers using the standard browser,

wherein data viewable by the viewers includes a combination of the data from the presenter and data obtained from at least one of the viewers,

wherein the data obtained from at least one of the viewers is superimposed and displayed on a dynamically allocated area on a screen of a presenter'"'"'s conference session corresponding to the data from the presenter such that a single screen is sent to the viewer,

wherein screens corresponding to the viewers are subdivided into a matrix such that updated data is sent to the viewers based on subdivided units of the matrix,

wherein sizes and shapes of the subdivided units are determined according to an availability of resources that affect presentation of the updated data to the viewers,

wherein the sizes and shapes of the subdivided units define areas of the screens corresponding to the viewers which will be updated, and

wherein the thin client is implemented on the at least one server that serves as the managing apparatus.