Patent · US Expired

Method and system for selectively viewing participants of a multimedia network conference

US7668907B1 · kind B1 · utility

14Cited by
28References
20Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 16, 2001
Grant dateFeb 23, 2010
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 31, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04L65/403
  • WIPO fieldDigital communication
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

In a network multimedia conference, a bridge service that functions as a proxy for a client to join the conference dynamically selects a video stream from multiple video streams originating from the other participants of the conference and sends the selected video stream to the client for viewing. The bridge service monitors conferencing events of each participant and updates conferencing activity state variables of the participant, such as whether the participant is being shown to the client, whether the participant is talking, how long the participant has been shown or not shown, etc. Periodically, a weight assigned to each of the participants is computed based on the state variables, and the video stream of the participant with the highest weight is then selected for viewing by the client.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.