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 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:(a) a plurality of video display devices each having associated(i) participant video capture capabilities, and(ii) participant audio(1) capture and(2) reproduction cap

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants comprising:(a) a plurality of video display devices each having associated(i) participant video capture capabilities, and(ii) participant audio(1) capture and(2) reproduction capabilities; and(b) at least one communication path(i) along which signals(1) representing participant audio and video(ii) can be transmitted, rein the system maintains(a) at least one directory, including(i) a list of potential participants; and(b) at least one database, including(i) addresses of video display devices, and(ii) audio and video capabilities of each video display device, and(c) an association(i) between the information in the directory and the database; and rein the system is configured to(a) display information from(i) at least the directory(ii) on at least one video display device; and(b) to initiate collaboration(i) upon a selecting participant selecting(1) one or more participantsi. from the displayed participant information and(ii) then establishing communication(1) with each selected participant(2) using information in the database(3) to define a teleconference.