초록 ▼

A multimedia collaboration system that integrates separate real-time and asynchronous networks--the former for real-time audio and video, and the latter for control signals and textual, graphical and other data--in a manner that is interoperable across different computer and network operating system

A multimedia collaboration system that integrates separate real-time and asynchronous networks--the former for real-time audio and video, and the latter for control signals and textual, graphical and other data--in a manner that is interoperable across different computer and network operating system platforms and which closely approximates the experience of face-to-face collaboration, while liberating the participants from the limitations of time and distance. These capabilities are achieved by exploiting a variety of hardware, software and networking technologies in a manner that preserves the quality and integrity of audio/video/data and other multimedia information, even after wide area transmission, and at a significantly reduced networking cost as compared to what would be required by presently known approaches. The system architecture is readily scalable to the largest enterprise network environments. It accommodates differing levels of collaborative capabilities available to individual users and permits high-quality audio and video capabilities to be readily superimposed onto existing personal computers and workstations and their interconnecting LANs and WANs. In a particular preferred embodiment, a plurality of geographically dispersed multimedia LANs are interconnected by a WAN. The demands made on the WAN are significantly reduced by employing multi-hopping techniques, including dynamically avoiding the unnecessary decompression of data at intermediate hops, and exploiting video mosaicing, cut-and-paste and audio mixing technologies so that significantly fewer wide area transmission paths are required while maintaining the high quality of the transmitted audio/video.

대표청구항 ▼

[ We claim:] [6.] A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants, the system comprising:(a) a workstation associated with each of at least three participants, each workstation having at least one origination and at least one reproduction capability, each

[ We claim:] [6.] A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants, the system comprising:(a) a workstation associated with each of at least three participants, each workstation having at least one origination and at least one reproduction capability, each selected from the group consisting of audio, video and data origination/reproduction capabilities;(b) a first network providing a data path for carrying digital data signals among the workstations;(c) an AV path for carrying AV signals, representing video images and spoken audio of the participants;(d) a plurality of AV devices each having capabilities for providing audio and/or video signals to a workstation; and(e) a directory of each AV device and its associated capabilities, wherein the system is configured to:(i) manage a data conference during which images, based on digital data carried among the workstations, are displayed at the workstations of a plurality of the participants;(ii) manage reproduction of video images and audio at the workstation of a participant by addressing a workstation request for provision of audio or video signals, to cause an appropriate AV device to provide the requested signals to the workstation,(iii) track the audio and video origination and reproduction capabilities associated with each workstation, and(iv) to process a call, from a second to a first participant, based on which capabilities are associated with the workstation associated with first participant, such that(1) if any capability of the set of capabilities consisting of audio capture, audio reproduction, video capture, video reproduction, and the capability of connecting to the first network, is not available to at least one of the participants, each participant can participate in the teleconference to the extent of the capabilities available to the participant.