Apparatus and method for multi-station conferencing
US6332153A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 31, 1996 |
| Grant date | Dec 18, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 31, 2016 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04M3/566
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method for multi-media half-duplex conferencing in a computer network comprising a plurality of stations and a control server. The method and system include, respectively, means for and the steps of receiving a packet at the server from one station of the plurality of stations including a digital representation of information of at least one information type selected from audio information and video information, identifying the station as a transmitting station, blocking packets transmitted from the plurality of stations at the server except from the first transmitting station, distributing packets from the transmitting station, thereby providing audio information generated by a user of the transmitting stations to users of the other stations of the plurality of stations and repeating the steps of receiving, identifying, blocking and transmitting for a different one of the plurality of station, thereby replacing the transmitting station with a different transmitting station, thereby providing the half-duplex multi-station conference.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.