System and method for providing a virtual environment with shared video on demand

• US 8,112,490 B2
• Filed: 05/14/2009
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RPX Corporation
• Original Assignee: NxtGen TV LLC
• Inventors: Tata, Christopher, Wiener, Brian, Upton, Kevin S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ali, Farhad
• Application Number:
  US12/466,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287790A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 709/208
• US Class Current: 709/208
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/8082 Virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/10 Multimedia information
• 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 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system and methodology for creating, compiling, managing and distributing works of multimedia within a virtual space (environment) or virtual meeting space. The system consists of a server and client architecture. Within this architecture, the server or controller plays a “master” role, pulling, storing, and delivering media content from a plurality of client sources. The master server or controller manipulates the storage and delivery of these streams through an intelligent database and programming architecture. These streams are encoded to a specific format and delivered through a server to single or multiple recipients as a vital component of a complete virtual meeting experience. The result is a complete and organized virtual meeting room experience from attendee invitation though follow-up and record meeting dispersal.

Claims

1. A system for providing a centralized peer-to-peer virtual environment in which a plurality of participants may view video, comprising:

a media server serving and providing access to media file;

a master remote client device capable of receiving input from a first participant to initiate creation of a transient shared object corresponding to the media file served by the media server;

a plurality of secondary remote client devices, each coupled to the master remote client device and to other secondary remote client devices, and capable of receiving input from a corresponding one of a plurality of secondary participants and also capable of creating a corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices in response to the master remote client device creating the shared object, the plurality of transient shared objects being stored in a random access memory of the remote client devices and being deleted after a communication between the master remote client and the plurality of secondary remote client devices has ended;

an operations server networked to the media server, the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices, the operations server capable of managing communications between the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and the corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices,

wherein the operations server is capable of receiving input from the master remote client device to update the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and transmitting instructions to update the corresponding transient shared objects for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions transmitted from the operations server updates a first transient shared object of a first secondary remote client device and the first secondary remote client device sends instructions to a second secondary remote client device to update a second transient shared object of the second secondary remote client device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein one of the secondary remote client devices becomes a master secondary remote client device in the peer-to-peer virtual environment and transmits instructions to update its transient shared object and in response the operations server transmits instructions to update the corresponding shared transient objects for the remaining plurality of secondary remote client devices and the master remote client device.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the media file is stored on the media server.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the media file is a live video stream, and the media server is configured to buffer the live video stream prior to playing back the video stream through the transient shared object.

6. The system of claim 1, the operations server further being configured to provide a video chat feature viewable at the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices.

7. The system of claim 1, the operations server further being configured to provide a text chat feature viewable at the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices.

8. The system of claim 1, the operations server further being configured to provide a white board feature viewable at the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices, the white board function overlying the video on the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices.

9. A system for providing a centralize peer-to-peer virtual environment in which a plurality of participants may view video, comprising:

a media server serving and providing access to media file;

a master remote client device capable of receiving input from a first participant to initiate creation of a transient shared object corresponding to the media file served by the media server;

a plurality of secondary remote client devices, each coupled to the master remote client device and to other secondary remote client devices, and capable of receiving input from a corresponding one of a plurality of secondary participants and also capable of creating a corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices in response to the master remote client device creating the transient shared object, the plurality of transient shared objects being stored in a random access memory of the remote client devices and being deleted after a communication between the master remote client and the plurality of secondary remote client devices has ended; and

an operations server networked to the media server, the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices, the operations server capable of managing communications between the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and the corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices,

wherein the operations server is capable of receiving input from the master remote client device to update the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and transmitting instructions to update the corresponding transient shared objects for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices, and

wherein the operations server is configured to provide first and second video conferencing windows, the first video conferencing window being associated with the master remote client device and displaying a live video stream associated with the master remote client device and the second video conferencing window being associated with one of the plurality of secondary remote client devices and displaying a live video stream associated with the one of the plurality of secondary remote client devices.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the operations server is configured to provide a plurality of video conferencing windows, the plurality of video conferencing window being associated with the remaining plurality of secondary remote client devices and displaying a plurality of live video streams associated with the remaining plurality of secondary remote client devices.

11. The system of claim 9, the operations server being configured for selecting a subset of video conferencing windows to display based on input from the remote client devices.

12. The system of claim 9, the operations server being configured for selecting a subset of video conferencing windows to display.

13. The system of claim 9, the operations server being configured to provide a text chat feature viewable of the master remote client device and one of the secondary remote client devices.

14. The system of claim 9, the operations server being configured to provide a whiteboard function in the master remote client device and one of the secondary remote client devices, the white board function overlying the video on the master remote client device and one of the secondary remote client devices.

15. A system for providing a centralized peer-to-peer virtual environment in which a plurality of participants may view video, comprising:

a media server serving and providing access to media file;

a master remote client device capable of receiving input from a first participant to initiate creation of a transient shared object corresponding to the media file served by the media server;

a plurality of secondary remote client devices, each coupled to the master remote client device and to other secondary remote client devices, and capable of receiving input from a corresponding one of a plurality of secondary participants and also capable of creating a corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices in response to the master remote client device creating the transient shared object, the plurality of transient shared objects being stored in a random access memory of the remote client devices and being deleted after a communication between the master remote client and the plurality of secondary remote client devices has ended; and

an operations server networked to the media server, the master remote client device and the plurality of secondary remote client devices, the operations server capable of managing communications between the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and the corresponding transient shared object for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices,

wherein the operations server is capable of receiving input from the master remote client device to update the transient shared object created by the master remote client device and transmitting instructions to update the corresponding transient shared objects for each of the plurality of secondary remote client devices, and

wherein the operations server is configured to provide first and second video conferencing windows, the first video conferencing window being associated with the master remote client device and displaying a live video stream associated with the master remote client device and the second video conferencing window being associated with one of the plurality of secondary remote client devices and displaying a live video stream associated with the one of the plurality of secondary remote client devices and the operations sever also being configured to provide at least one of a video chat feature, a text chat feature and a white board feature to the master remote client device and at least one of the plurality of secondary remote client devices.