Telephonic communications – Special services – Conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-19
2003-12-23
Tieu, Benny (Department: 2642)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Conferencing
C370S260000, C709S204000, C348S014080
Reexamination Certificate
active
06668048
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
The present invention claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 11-010871 filed Jan. 19, 1999, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conference communication system for conducting conference communication with three or more terminal units by making connection to one MCU (Multipoint Control Unit) from a public network. Particularly, the present invention relates to a system in which the MCU is connected to a private branch exchange and connection to the MCU is made by gaining access to a dial-in number of this private branch exchange from the public network and the conference communication is set. The present invention is used in the conference communication conducted by ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network). The present invention is a system developed for an offer of conference communication service of communication carriers for providing value-added network service (hereinafter called “type II carriers”) other than communication carriers for providing public networks (hereinafter called “type I carriers”), but can be wide used in the conference communication via networks.
Generally, connection in which three or more telephone terminal units can call mutually simultaneously is referred to as “conference call”, but in this specification, communication including image and digital information other than voice call information is referred to as “conference communication” rather than “conference call”. That is, the present invention can be used in the conference communication including image and other information other than voice information. The present invention relates to a security system for identifying validation of the terminal units participating in the conference communication to prevent disadvantages that unexpected people participate in the conference communication or the contents of the conference communication are intercepted by other people without participators of the conference communication knowing about it.
2. Description of Related Art
In the past, a system in which a MCU for making conference communication connection mutually is arranged in a network and connection to terminals of the MCU from terminal units belonging to the network is made and thereby three or more terminal units mutually conduct conference communication has been known. That is, the MCU has many terminals and relays information incoming to one of the terminals to other plural terminals simultaneously. It is known that the MCU is configured so as to interconnect image and other information as well as voice signals.
Referring to the public MCU as one example, one MCU is provided with many terminals, and connection among the terminals can be set and modified by control software. Conference communication mode can be set among, for example, three terminals (A, B and C) of these many terminals. The conference communication mode is configured so that one common image is created by image information incoming to these three terminals and voice information incoming to one of the three terminals is relayed to the other two terminals while sending this common image to the three terminals as image information. For example, when face images of participators of a conference come to the terminals A and B and further an image signal indicating lists and graphs for conference material along with the face images comes to the terminal A, the two face images coming to the terminals A and B and the lists and graphs coming to the terminal A are superimposed on one computer screen. Then, voice information incoming to any of the three terminals (A, B and C) is relayed to the other terminals while sending an image of this computer screen to the three terminals (A, B and C).
When personal computers in which corresponding software is installed are connected to the three terminals, respectively, the conference communication can be conducted mutually among the personal computers. That is, while the screen formed of the face images of the terminals A and B and the lists and graphs of the terminal A as described above is displayed on the respective three computer screens as the common image, the conference communication can be carried out mutually among the three personal computers through the MCU.
By arranging the above MCU in ISDN and using three personal computers as terminal units, respectively, and making connection to the MCU through ISDN lines (two B channels of 64 kb/s), a television conference call can be formed mutually among the three personal computers located at remote sites. Then, the MCU can be arranged in a private branch exchange capable of connection by dial-in. It can become communication carriers (type II communication carriers) for providing conference communication service to customers at a charge by providing such private branch exchange and MCU.
A method in which after a user of conference communication once gain accesses to an access number in the above system having such configuration, conditions capable of conducting the conference communication are set and then an outgoing person is called back is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 45063 of 1991 or No. 284198 of 1994. Also, technique for setting the above system to ISDN or for making connection using sub-addresses of ISDN is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 245240 of 1994.
In the above-mentioned conventional system, a terminal unit unexpected by an organizer for conducting the conference communication (a delegate of users of one conference communication) or a provider of conference communication service (type II communication carrier) may participate in the conference communication. For example, in the case of going public the access number (telephone number for voice communication method) to the MCU as described above, if an intruder irrelative to a specific group certainly requests connection by the access number when the group secretly conducts the conference communication, the connection of the conference communication is set to the intruder. In this case, if the intruder does not say, the conference communication may possibly proceed with the conference communication intercepted by the intruder without valid participators of the conference communication knowing about it.
As described above, the connection to the access number may be made due to spite of the intruder conducting the conference communication or a number error or a connection error of an exchange even if the intruder is not deliberate. In the case of setting the number of use terminals of the MCU, namely, a maximum of the terminal units capable of participating in one conference, if the connection to such an unexpected intruder is made in error, the connection to valid conference participators may not be made subsequently.
In such conference communication service, technique for using a password to identify validation of the terminal units participating in the conference communication has been well known. This is to make users send a password known only by valid users and providers of communication service on the connection and validate the users by a manager for managing the conference communication. However, sending and check of the password require considerable equipment and connection operations, so that there are disadvantages that a procedure of connection answers on the connection becomes complicated and time necessary for connection becomes long.
Also, when the type II communication carrier provides such conference communication service, the communication carrier needs to exactly charge the terminal units using the conference communication for use rates, but it is possible to participate in the conference communication without payment of the use rates in the above-mentioned conventional system. For example, even for members of the specific group conducting the conference communication, payment of the rates can be avoided by participating in the conference communicat
Aizawa Shoji
Endo Shinji
Inoue Ichiro
Suga Susumu
Takizawa Kazuhiro
NEC Corporation
Tieu Benny
Young & Thompson
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