Signal routing for reduced power consumption in a conferencing system
Granted: January 9, 2007
Patent Number:
7162227
A technique is provided for reducing power consumption of an internally powered console in an audio system through frequency based signal routing. A system employing the technique includes a base unit having an interface for receiving a signal representative of acoustic information. The base unit includes a filter system for splitting the signal into low-frequency and high-frequency component signals. The low-frequency signal is routed to a first audio driver for reproduction. The…
System and method for dynamic perceptual coding of macroblocks in a video frame
Granted: January 9, 2007
Patent Number:
7162096
The present invention allows higher quality video images to be transmitted without a concomitant increase in a total number of video data bits transmitted per frame. Quantization parameters are applied to coefficients of macroblocks within a given video frame. A lower value of the quantization parameter is applied near a central region of a video frame. This central region is referred to as a prime video region. Applying the lower quantization parameter to the prime video region has the…
Global directory service with intelligent dialing
Granted: November 28, 2006
Patent Number:
7142663
A central directory system for a network of dial-up communication devices is described. In a preferred embodiment, the communication devices are videoconferencing devices. The system includes a directory management module coupled to the network and configured for importing and exporting directory information to and from a communication device. The directory information received by the management module can be grouped into address books by an access control module coupled to a database in…
Method and apparatus for mixing compressed video
Granted: November 21, 2006
Patent Number:
7139015
Disclosed herein is a method and apparatus for mixing compressed video useable in a videoconferencing environment having a plurality of endpoint users. Through the use of the method and apparatus, each endpoint can receive a unique layout displaying some subset of the users at the endpoints. Input streams from each endpoint are uncompressed, resized, and scaled to fit the segment in the layout for particular endpoints, and then encoded (or compressed) by a sub-encoder into a sub-encoded…
Media role management in a video conferencing network
Granted: November 21, 2006
Patent Number:
7139807
According to the principles of the invention, there is provided a system, apparatus, and method for managing media in a multimedia conferencing system according to media roles. Each media stream may be explicitly labeled with a role that describes the function or purpose of the stream, such as “people” or “content.” The labels may be hierarchical, and may include layers for media type, additional media source description, and the like, e.g., “people/presenter” or…
Low-delay video encoding method for concealing the effects of packet loss in multi-channel packet switched networks
Granted: November 14, 2006
Patent Number:
7136394
A method for encoding digital video with low delay for transport on a multi-channel QoS packet-switched network using multiple reference pictures with specially designated “key frames” to minimize the undesired effects of packet loss on video quality.
Graphical user interface for video feed on videoconference terminal
Granted: November 7, 2006
Patent Number:
7133062
The Graphical User Interface (GUI) of a videoconference terminal is provided with user-selectable icons which are associated by the user with various video signals. Textual labels for the various video signals may also be provided. This information may be exchanged with the “far end” participant in the video conference. During the videoconference participants may then simply select an icon to dynamically switch video feeds without having to remember by number the particular camera or…
Method and system for preparing video communication image for wide screen display
Granted: September 26, 2006
Patent Number:
7113200
A system and method is disclosed for preparing video conference images. An endpoint has a wide screen display. The disclosed system creates an image with an aspect ratio of about 16:9 for the endpoint. The image is altered or modified to change the aspect ratio to about 4:3. In one example, two portions can be added to the image to increase the overall height of the image. The wide screen display is set to a zoom mode and is capable of substantially displaying the image without the added…
Decomposition architecture for an MCU
Granted: September 26, 2006
Patent Number:
7113992
The present invention allows the resources of multiple multipoint control units (MCUS) in a multipoint multimedia communication system. A plurality of multimedia terminals support different multimedia conferencing protocols, and a multipoint control unit communicates with a multipoint processor unit and with the multimedia terminals for signaling and call control. At least one multipoint processor unit communicates with the plurality of multimedia terminals for media and optionally call…
Videoconferencing apparatus having integrated multi-point conference capabilities
Granted: August 8, 2006
Patent Number:
7089285
A videoconferencing apparatus includes a multi-point (MP) conference application that enables the apparatus to combine and distribute audio and video signals received from a plurality of remote conference endpoints, thereby obviating the need to provide a separate multi-point control unit having hardware-based inverse multiplexers (IMUXs). The MP conference application is configured to generate, for each remote conference endpoint participating in a conference, discrete instances of a…
System and method for providing reservationless conferencing
Granted: August 1, 2006
Patent Number:
7085243
A video teleconferencing method for providing reservationless conferencing. The method involves creating a conference profile identifying selected connection parameters; allocating a dial-in number; notifying participants of the dial-in number; detecting a call from a requesting participant; determining if sufficient resources for the participant are available; and connecting the requesting participant into the reservationless conference. Additionally, the video teleconferencing method…
Audio conferencing method using scalable architecture
Granted: May 30, 2006
Patent Number:
7054424
An audio conferencing apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a data bus, such as a TDM bus, a controller, and an interface circuit that receives audio signals from a plurality of conference participants and provides digitized audio signals in assigned time slots over the TDM bus. The audio conferencing platform also includes a plurality of digital signal processors (DSPs) adapted to communicate on the TDM bus with the interface circuit. At least one of the DSPs sums a plurality of…
Control unit for multipoint multimedia/audio conference
Granted: May 30, 2006
Patent Number:
7054820
A multipoint controller unit in which the audio signal processing is distributed among several audio ports. The control of the audio signal processing may be centrally or distributively managed by one or more audio controllers. The audio signal processing may include selecting audio streams from a common interface and/or mixing the signals from the common interface. Each audio port may enhance the audio signal and generate control information from the audio signal. The audio ports are…
Self-tuning statistical resource allocation for multipoint network events
Granted: May 30, 2006
Patent Number:
7054933
A method for dynamically allocating MCU resources during a multipoint network event such as a conference call. The method determines the number of MCU resources to allocate for the start of the multipoint network event and then at each of a plurality of modeling intervals during the multipoint event adjusts the number of allocated MCU resources based upon actual inbound users. Self-tuning of the allocation of MCU resources for multipoint events occurs in advance of use by providing a…
System and method for managing data flow in a conference
Granted: May 23, 2006
Patent Number:
7051125
A system for handling data representative of audio/video information in a conferencing device. The system comprises a set of modules and subsystems for processing the data. The system further comprises at least one channel for transferring processed data between selected ones of the modules and subsystems, the at least one channel having a first buffer list associated therewith. Additionally, a work routine called by the at least one channel is configured to remove a buffer from the…
System and method for rotatably positioning a camera or similar article about two orthogonal axes
Granted: May 16, 2006
Patent Number:
7046295
A positioning device is provided for rotatably positioning a camera or other article about orthogonal rotational axes. The positioning device includes a carriage supported for rotation about a horizontal axis by a yoke. The yoke is in turn rotatably coupled to a base assembly for rotation of the yoke about a vertical axis. Rotation of the camera about the horizontal and vertical axes is respectively effected by first and second voice coil actuators, each comprising a pair of magnets and…
Dynamic intra-coded macroblock refresh interval for video error concealment
Granted: March 28, 2006
Patent Number:
7020203
The present invention provides, in one embodiment, a system and method for concealing video errors. The system includes a coding engine for processing each frame of a video signal to generate macroblocks, selecting a refresh interval based upon network communication parameters, and encoding one or more of the macroblocks as refresh intra-coded macroblocks based upon the selected refresh interval. The refresh intra-coded macroblocks are placed into discrete data packets for transmission…
Conferencing network resource management for call connectivity
Granted: March 7, 2006
Patent Number:
7009943
A system and method that provides reliable connectivity of conference calls by ensuring that sufficient network resources are available at the time of the requested conference calls. The system includes multiple endpoints for requesting conference calls, and a gatekeeper bound to a resource scheduler such that requested conference calls are scheduled via the scheduler according to connectivity policies maintained by the gatekeeper.
System and method for providing video quality improvement
Granted: January 31, 2006
Patent Number:
6992692
A system and method for providing video quality improvement are afforded. A video stream is monitored. A quality of at least one data field associated with the video stream is determined. A command is generated in response to the determined quality of the at least one data field. A video frame is then displayed according to the command.
System and method for dynamic perceptual coding of macroblocks in a video frame
Granted: January 17, 2006
Patent Number:
6987889
The present invention allows higher quality video images to be transmitted without a concomitant increase in a total number of video data bits transmitted per frame. Quantization parameters are applied to coefficients of macroblocks within a given video frame. A lower value of the quantization parameter is applied near a central region of a video frame. This central region is referred to as a prime video region. Applying the lower quantization parameter to the prime video region has the…
