Telephonic communications – Special services – Conferencing
Reexamination Certificate
1997-12-24
2001-01-23
Zele, Krista (Department: 2742)
Telephonic communications
Special services
Conferencing
C379S203010, C379S204010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178237
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to teleconferencing. More specifically, this invention relates to a method and a system that afford users more control over a teleconferencing setup.
BACKGROUND
Teleconferencing permits more than two participants separated in time and space to communicate over telephone facilities using terminal equipment and/or bridging devices or services, such as the AT&T Alliance® Service. Typically, bridging services offer either a so-called “meet-me” service to which participants dial in to join a teleconference or a dial-out service in which, an operator/originator calls the participants of a teleconference. Bridging services connect each participant on a point-to-point basis to a bridging device which links the multiple parties into a teleconference. In spite of the multiple social and economic benefits of teleconferencing, its use, however, has been hampered by the paucity of features of the bridging devices and users' lack of control over transmission and reception of audio signals to, and from particular participants, respectively.
Aiming to provide a solution to that problem, Horn, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,431, issued May 12, 1992, disclosed a system that allows a teleconferencing user to select on a dynamic basis, particular participants to whom the user can listen or talk during a teleconference. The Horn system affords users some degree of control of the teleconference set-up. The Horn system does not provide a comprehensive solution to control the amplitude of audio signals generated by the participants of the teleconference.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a teleconferencing bridging arrangement in which at least one participant (or user) in a teleconference is allowed to control at least one characteristic of input signals coupled through the bridge, such that the output signals received by that participant in a teleconference is a selected combination of the input signals, including the changed input signals, from all the participants.
In an embodiment of the invention, a communications bridge is comprised of N input paths and M output paths that define a logical matrix, in which signal inputs of all participants in a conference are added to form composite output signals delivered to each participant. To avoid feedback and instability, the input signals from a participant of the teleconference are suppressed in the composite output signals delivered to that participant. Therefore, each participant in the teleconference receives a different sum of input signals. In the architecture of the bridge, a gain element (G) is associated with each crosspoint of the n input paths and m output paths such that the composite output signals (O) delivered to a user i, can be represented by the equation:
O
i
=
∑
j
=
1
j
=
n
I
j
G
ij
,
where I is the input signal from a participant. In other words, each output from the bridge consists of a mix of all input signals with each input multiplied by a participant-selected parameter (i.e., gain element). Thus, by allowing each participant to vary that parameter for the input signals associated with one or more participants, a rich set of audio bridging features can be provided. These features include subconferencing, whispering, muting, monitoring, complex gain control, and pseudo stereo.
Advantageously, the audio bridging features of the invention can be used in a multimedia conferencing environment.
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D.N. Horn, et al., “A Versatile Audio Bridge for Multimedia Conferencing,” Supercom ICC 94, May 1-5, 1994, New Orleans, pp. 1754-1762.
Deane, Jr. William J.
Lucent Technologies - Inc.
Zele Krista
LandOfFree
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