Multimedia coordination system

Details Multimedia coordination system Multimedia coordination system

1996-01-12

2003-05-06

Barrón, Gilberto (Department: 2134)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: support

Multiple computer communication using cryptography

Having particular address related cryptography

C713S171000, C380S033000, C380S257000, C380S281000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06560707

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates to a system for providing secure multimedia communication between a plurality of network users, and in particular to a central multimedia coordination system that supports different levels of secure communications between the plurality of network clients.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As network connectivity increases, network users will gain productivity by using collaborative applications or workspaces that exchange audio and video transmissions. Network protocols that integrate devices such as printers, scanners, and workstations over a network are well known. Operational transparency across physical networks and different device platforms provides users with increasingly integrated and transparent system environments for increased collaboration. Physical networks include telephone lines, twisted pair wires, coaxial cables, microwaves, infrared, and/or other data links. Device platforms include centralized computer systems or distributed client-server computer systems.
By way of background, system user interfaces operating on device platforms are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,072,412 and 5,107,443. Specifically, these patents relate to workspaces having an object-based user interface that appears to share windows and other display objects. Also of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,853 disclosing shared structured data by multiple users across a network. In such systems, a display system object can be linked to several workspaces giving workspaces the appearance of shared windows. These workspaces can be navigated through using metaphors such as moving from one room to another through doors. Additionally, these workspaces can be shared by groups of users over a network. Groupware systems that provide toolkits for building specific shared applications such as text editors or drawing editors are disclosed by Hill et al. in “The Rendezvous Language and Architecture,” Communications of the ACM, January, 1993, Vol. 36, No. 1.
An example of a collaborative system is a game known as “Multi-User Dungeons” (MUDs) which is disclosed by Curtis et al. in “Mudding: Social Phenomena in Text-Based Virtual Realities,” Proceedings of the 1992 Conference on Directions and Implications of Advanced Computing, Berkeley, May 1992, and by Curtis et al. in “MUDs Grow Up: Social Virtual Reality in the Real World,” Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE Computer Conference, pp. 193-200, January 1994, the background of which is incorporated herein by reference. MUDs are programs that accept network connections from multiple users simultaneously while providing access to a shared text-based database of virtual “rooms”, “exits”, and other objects. Network users browse and manipulate the database from inside the rooms, seeing only those objects that are in the same rooms or moving between rooms via exits that connect them. MUDs, therefore, provide a virtual reality of electronically-represented “places” or “network places” that users can visit. The popularity of MUDs is believed to exist because of the social quality of the system and the richness of the metaphor the system employs. In effect, the system makes use of the company of other people while using intuitive and appealing real life metaphors.
Collaborative systems integrating audio and video data are known. A manner in which a phone system can be connected to a virtual system on a network is disclosed by Zellweger et al. in “An Overview of the Etherphone System and its Applications,” Proceedings of the 2nd IEEE Conference on Computer Workstations, March 1988. Specifically, Zellweger et al. discloses the concept of using encryption keys that are administered by a server. The concept of a server managing the connection state is disclosed by the Bellcore Information Networking Research Laboratory in “The Touring Machine System,” Communications of the ACM, January 1993, Vol. 36, No. 1. The AT&T Globalyst™ 630 Vistium™ shared software and personal video software permits up to six people in different locations to collaborate on the same document at the same time while video conferencing. A system that integrates text at different levels is known as “Internet Relay Chat” (IRC), as disclosed by Pioch et al. in “A Short IRC Primer”, Feb. 28, 1993 (available by FTP at cs.bu.edu/irc/support). IRC is a text-based multi-user, multi-channel, client-server program that enables both public and private text-based conversations over a network.
The aforementioned systems, however, do not provide facilities for controlling the distribution and recording of real-time audio and video streams while simultaneously providing users with an understanding and control over the destination of their audio and video streams. Accordingly it would be desirable to provide a collaborative environment that integrates shared and persistent objects over long periods of time through the use of “network places”. Each “network place” provides users with the flexibility to control the extent of their participation with other users. It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an integrated system with audio and video data that supports long-term collaboration between network users. It is another object of the present invention that the audio and video data shared between users is secure. It is yet another object of the invention to provide different levels of communication between users.
In addition, the collaborative environment embodying the present invention, similar to the rooms environment in MUDs, is not grounded in the physical world. The present invention uses metaphors such as virtual rooms to offer clues about the kind of behavior that is appropriate in a particular room. Specifically, different virtual rooms define different social protocols. For example, discussions in a conference room are more formal than discussions taking place in a lounge. In addition, the present invention expands the room metaphor to include virtual fax machines, tape recorders, and messaging systems. The present invention is also directed at a collaborative environment in which users are not able to access each other at will. For example, each user provides information to other users to indicate whether each user can be interrupted. In effect, communication using audio and video data is advantageously used in the collaborative environment to increase productivity between network users in the collaborative environment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for dynamically controlling multiple channels of data in a multi-user collaborative system having a central server connected to a plurality of client workstations over a network. The method includes the steps of: displaying at each client workstation a view on a room object stored in an object database on the central server, the room object being associated with a first channel stored in the object database; providing, at each client workstation, visual identification of each user object located in a virtual room, each pair of user objects located in the virtual room having associated therewith a whisper channel: initiating, at a first client workstation, broadcast of data to each user object located in the virtual room by selecting a first interface element displayed at the first client workstation, the first interface element being associated with the room object and directing data to the first channel; and interrupting, at the first client workstation, broadcast of data transmitted over the first channel by selecting a second interface element displayed at the first client workstation, the second interface element being associated with a user object at a second client workstation, the interrupting step initiating broadcast of data at the first client workstation to the whisper channel associated with the user object at the second client workstation.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, there is provided in a network interconnecting a central server and a plurality of client workstations adapted to sending and receiving data, a method for

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