Connected classroom

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10691398-B2
Application number	US-201514838135-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 27, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 23, 2020
Grant date	Jun 23, 2020

Abstract

A connected classroom system provides for local and remote control and display of media streams. An instructor may, for instance, direct audio/video streams of the instructor to any number of displays and speakers located within a classroom. The system may send and receive control instructions to and from remote classrooms as well, through a network interface. The control instructions may configure any set of presentation devices in any classroom to reproduce any content originating from any source within any classroom. Accordingly, multiple classrooms located in disparate locations may participate in media exchanges arising from any source, including instructors and individual student seating locations within the classrooms.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system for providing a collaborative teaching experience in a classroom environment having a defined layout, the system comprising:
presenter interface circuitry;
participant interface circuitry of a participant media device; and
a controller coupled between the presenter interface circuitry and the participant interface circuitry, the controller configured to operate according to a plurality of presentation modes, each presentation mode defining an operating configuration for coordinated control of one or more input devices and one or more output devices, wherein the one or more input devices includes a plurality of cameras and a plurality of microphones, where the controller is configured to:
receive, from an input mechanism coupled to the participant interface circuitry, a first control input and a second control input, wherein the first control input and the second control input respectively comprise one of a plurality of different interactive control values;
receive a first media stream including audio data captured by a first microphone from the plurality of microphones and video data captured by a first camera from the plurality of cameras;
activate, based on a first interactive control value of the first control input, a second camera with a field of view covering the input mechanism;
control, based on the first interactive control value of the first control input, operation of a second microphone to activate;
receive a second media stream including a second audio data captured by the second microphone and a second video data captured by the second camera;
modify at least one of a resolution or frame rate of the second media stream based on a network attribute of a network connecting the one or more output devices including at least one of a network bandwidth or network latency;
control transmission of the second media stream to a respective output device;
switch between a first presentation mode of the plurality of presentation modes to a second presentation mode of the plurality of presentation modes based on a second interactive control value of the second control input, wherein the second presentation mode pushes media content from the participant media device coupled to the input mechanism to a remote participant media device, wherein the remote participant media device is included in the one or more output devices; and
control a camera pan and a camera zoom of the second camera to adjust to a preprogrammed camera pan setting and a preprogrammed camera zoom setting according to the second presentation mode that captures the participant media device coupled to the input mechanism.

2. The system of claim 1 , where the operating configuration for each presentation mode further provides for coordinated control of the remote participant media device.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising:
the remote participant media device configured to provide presentation mode inputs to the controller and render the second media stream received from the controller; and
enterprise messaging circuitry operable to provide an enterprise messaging platform that enables real-time communication between a plurality of remote participant media devices, where the controller is coupled to the enterprise messaging circuitry and is operable to provide enhanced interaction via an interactive display of the remote participant media device.

4. The system of claim 1 where the controller through the presenter interface circuitry is configured to adjust the first camera to capture a presentation staging area and the second camera to capture a participant viewing area.

5. The system of claim 1 where the presenter interface circuitry comprises a tablet control interface, and the input mechanism is a button coupled to the tablet control interface.

6. The system of claim 5 where the controller, responsive to presentation mode inputs received via the tablet control interface, selectively enables or disables the one or more input devices and output devices.

7. The system of claim 1 where the controller is operable to provide real-time notifications regarding the one or more input devices.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and the second control inputs comprises a button and one of the first and second interactive control values from the at least one of the first and second control inputs comprises values corresponding to a short press of the button, a long press of the button, or multiple presses of the button.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein an action by the system in response to the at least one of the first and second control inputs requires validation by receiving a subsequent input from the other of the at least one of the first and second control inputs.

10. A method for providing a collaborative teaching experience in a classroom environment having a defined layout; the method comprising:
receiving presentation mode inputs from one or more input devices at a controller via a presenter interface circuitry, wherein the one or more input devices includes a plurality of cameras and a plurality of microphones;
receiving a first media stream including audio data captured by a first microphone and video data captured by a first camera;
receiving, from an input mechanism coupled to a participant interface circuitry, a first control input and a second control input, wherein the first control input and the second control input respectively comprise one of a plurality of different interactive control values;
activating, based on a first interactive control value of the first control input, a second camera with a field of view covering the input mechanism;
controlling, based on the first interactive control value of the first control input, operation of a second microphone to activate;
receiving a second media stream including a second audio data captured by the second microphone and a second video data captured by the second camera;
modifying, by the controller, at least one of a resolution or frame rate of the second media stream based on a network attribute of a network connecting one or more output devices including at least one of a network bandwidth or network latency;
controlling, by the controller, transmission of the second media stream to a respective output device;
switching operation of the controller from a first presentation mode to a second presentation mode based on a second interactive control value of the second control input, wherein the second presentation mode pushes media content from a participant media device coupled to the input mechanism to a remote participant media device, wherein the remote participant media device is included in the one or more output devices; and
controlling a camera pan and a camera zoom of the second camera to adjust to a preprogrammed camera pan setting and a preprogrammed camera zoom setting according to the second presentation mode that captures the participant media device coupled to the input mechanism.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein an operating configuration of each presentation mode provides coordinated control of the remote participant device.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
adjusting the first camera having a first field of view to capture a presentation staging area; and
adjusting the second camera having a second field of view to capture a participant viewing area.

13. The method of claim 10 where the input mechanism is a button coupled to a tablet control interface.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising:
providing real-time notifications regarding the one or more input devices to a tablet

Assignees

• Accenture Global Services Ltd

Inventors

• Demik Lisa Kay
• Desai Samir
• Durg Kishore Prabhakar
• Govindaiah Srinivas
• Glore James Allen
• Gupta Niraj
• Jindrich Jr William Alfred
• Mccart Bryan Michael
• Pande Parag
• Panketh Damien X
• Petricca David
• Rajan Nobby
• Sibgathulla Syed
• Sheshagiri Surendra
• Trujillo Gordon
• Zorba Alex
• Woodier James

Classifications

• G09B5/10 Primary

  all student stations being capable of presenting the same information simultaneously (G09B5/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04L65/401

  wherein the services involve a main real-time session and one or more additional parallel real-time or time sensitive sessions, e.g. white board sharing or spawning of a subconference · CPC title

• G09B5/12

  different stations being capable of presenting different information simultaneously (G09B5/14 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F3/1462

  with means for detecting differences between the image stored in the host and the images displayed on the remote displays · CPC title

• G06F3/1431

  using a single graphics controller · CPC title