Technique for video conferencing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016255308-A1
Application number	US-201615151849-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 11, 2016
Priority date	Aug 19, 2011
Publication date	Sep 1, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A video conference client device comprises a communication unit configured to receive a first media stream representing a recorded video conference and further configured to receive meta data related to the first media stream, the meta data representing events in the video conference, a processing unit connected to the communication unit and configured to carry out a concatenation process during which at least a part of the first media stream and at least a part of the meta data are concatenated into a video signal, and a man machine interface unit connected to the processing unit. The man machine interface unit comprises a display unit configured to display the video conference and an input unit configured to generate a video conference navigation signal. The use of the video conference navigation signal and the meta data enables a user to easily navigate through the history of the video conference.

First claim

1 . A video conference client device, comprising:
a communication unit configured to receive a first media stream representing a recorded video conference and further configured to receive meta data related to the first media stream, the meta data representing chronological events in the video conference, a processing unit connected to the communication unit and configured to carry out a concatenation process during which at least a part of the first media stream and at least a part of the meta data are concatenated into a video signal, and a man machine interface unit connected to the processing unit, the man machine interface unit comprising: a display unit configured to display the video conference on the basis of the video signal, wherein the meta data are presented on the display unit to a user together with data of the recorded video conference, and an input unit configured to generate, based on an input, a video conference navigation signal, wherein the processing unit is configured to control play out of the video signal in dependence on the video conference navigation signal, so as to enable the user's event-related browsing for data of the recorded video conference.

2 . The video conference client device of claim 1 , wherein the communication unit is further configured to receive a second media stream and wherein the processing unit is further configured to selectively generate the video signal from at least one of the first media stream and the second media stream based on the video conference navigation signal.

3 . The video conference client device according to claim 2 , wherein data of the first media stream received latest by the communication unit represents a first point of time of the video conference, and wherein data of the second media stream received latest by the communication unit represents a second point of time of the video conference, wherein the first point of time is older than the second point of time.

4 . The video conference client device according to claim 3 , wherein the second point of time represents the present moment or a point of time close to the present moment of the video conference.

5 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the man machine interface unit comprises one or more video conference navigation tools including at least one of a time bar, a time slider, a play button, a forward browsing button, a backward browsing button, a skip button, a stop button, a pause button, or an event button, and wherein the man machine interface unit is configured to generate, upon actuation of one of the at least one video conference navigation tool based on an input of the input unit, the video conference navigation signal.

6 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the man machine interface unit is configured to display a time bar on the display unit which represents the chronological events of the video conference, wherein the input unit is configured to select a point of time on the time bar, and to generate, in response to such a selection, the video conference navigation signal, wherein the processing unit is configured to generate, in response to the video conference navigation signal, the video signal such that the point of time of the video conference displayed on the display unit corresponds to the selected point of time on the time bar.

7 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the man machine interface unit is configured to display a time slider element on the display unit, and to slide the time slider element along the time bar based on an input of the input unit in order to select a point of time of the time bar, and to generate the video conference navigation signal reflecting the selected point of time on the time bar.

8 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the communication unit is configured to request the transmission or to stop the transmission of one or both of the first media stream and the second media stream.

9 . The video conference client device according to claim 2 , wherein the communication unit is configured to request, in case that the communication unit currently only receives the first media stream, and in case that the video conference navigation signal generated by the input unit implies that the video conference is browsed towards the present moment, the transmission of the second media stream from the media stream server or from a media stream data source different from the media stream server while still receiving the first media stream from the media stream server.

10 . The video conference client device according to claim 2 , wherein the communication unit is configured to request, in case that the communication unit currently receives the first media stream and the second media stream, and in case that the video conference navigation signal generated by the input unit implies that the video conference is browsed towards the present moment, a stop of transmission of the first media stream from the media stream server to the communication unit while still receiving the second media stream from the media stream server or from a media stream data source different from the media stream server, if a temporal distance between the present moment and a current browsing position falls below a threshold value.

11 . The video conference client device according to claim 2 , wherein the processing unit is configured to replace a play out of the first media stream with a play out of the second media stream in case that the video conference has been browsed to the present moment.

12 . The video conference client device according to claim 2 , wherein the display unit comprises a first display area configured to visualize the first media stream, and a second display area configured to visualize the second media stream.

13 . The video conference client device according to claim 12 , wherein the processing unit is configured to generate the video signal so as to visualize the first media stream and the second media simultaneously.

14 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the meta data comprises video conference event information including at least one of a start or end of the video conference, joining times or departing times of one or more participants of the video conference, one or more slides that were presented during the video conference, the volume of the participants of the video conference, and names of the participants of the video conference.

15 . The video conference client device according to claim 1 , wherein the man machine interface is configured to display on the display unit, based on the meta data, the chronological events as icons or letters along a time bar in correspondence with their time of occurrence.

16 . A method of operating a video conference, comprising:
receiving a first media stream representing a recorded video conference and meta data related to the first media stream, the meta data representing chronological events in the video conference, carrying out a concatenation process during which at least a part of the first media stream and at least a part of the meta data are concatenated into a video signal, generating, based on an input, a video conference navigation signal, and displaying the video conference on the basis of the video signal and the video conference navigation signal, wherein the meta data are displayed together with data of the recorded video conference, so as to enable the user's event-related browsing for data of the recorded video conference.

Assignees

• ERICSSON TELEFON AB L M (publ)

Inventors

• Willig Johannes
• Hamm Laurits
• Schreiber Matthias

Classifications

• H04L65/608

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04N7/155 Primary

  involving storage of or access to video conference sessions (tracking arrangements for later retrieval of a computer conference content or participants activities H04L12/1831) · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04N7/15 Primary

  Conference systems · CPC title