Intel Corporation

Peter Tung

Mojtaba Mirashrafi

Benjamin Vrvilo

Reed J Sloss

Mike Gutmann

Ben Vrvilo

Krishnan Rajamani

Rune A Skarbo

Michael J Gutmann

Taymoor Arshi

Katherine Cox

The audio manager provides an interface between one or more upper-level conferencing drivers of the conferencing system and one or more lower-level audio drivers of the conferencing system to isolate the conferencing drivers from the audio drivers. The audio manager is adapted to perform a plurality of functions called by the conferencing drivers. The audio manager comprises a local audio stream state machine and a remote audio stream state machine.

Conference system having an audio manager using local and remote audio

Conferencing nodes transmit messages back and forth to negotiate characteristics for their conferencing session. The messages identify different sets of conferencing capabilities supported by the conferencing nodes. A first node transmits a request to a second node, wherein the request identifies a first set of conferencing capabilities of the first node. The second node transmits a response to the first node, wherein the response identifies a second set of conferencing capabilities of the second node and the second set is a subset of the first set. The first node and second node conduct conferencing based on the second set.

System for negotiating conferencing capabilities by selecting a subset

Two sequences of signal packets are played. Each signal packet of a first type of signals has been stamped with a sequence number corresponding to the position of the signal packet in the first sequence. Each signal packet of a second type of signals has been stamped with a corresponding sequence number of the first sequence. The playing of the second sequence is synchronized with the playing of the first sequence by comparing the sequence numbers of the second sequence to the sequence numbers of the first sequence. In a preferred embodiment, the two types of signals are audio signals and video signals, and the video signal packets are stamped with sequence numbers for the audio signal packets. Each video signal packet of the video sequence is processed for display based on a comparison of the sequence number for the video signal packet and the sequence number for the current audio signal packet.

System and method for synchronizing data streams

A computer system for transmitting two or more types of signals. Each type of signal is assigned a priority level. Signals of a particular type are transmitted as they become ready for transmission, unless signals of a different type having a greater priority become ready for transmission. In that case, the transmission of the low-priority signals is interrupted to allow transmission of the high-priority signals. The transmission of the low-priority signals is resumed after the transmission of the high-priority signals is complete. In a preferred embodiment directed to conferencing systems, audio signals are assigned higher priorities than video, data, and control signals in order to provide a high-quality to the audio portion of a conferencing session.

Preemptive priority-based transmission of signals using virtual channels

A video subsystem resides partially on a host processor and partially on a video board. Audio and communications subsystems reside partially on the host processor and partially on a audio/communications board. The video subsystem generates and passes local compressed video signals corresponding to local analog video signals to the communications subsystem. The audio subsystem receives and generates local compressed audio signals corresponding to local analog audio signals to the communications subsystem. The communications subsystem transmits the local compressed video and audio signals over a communications link to a remote computer system. The communications subsystem also receives remote compressed video and audio signals over the communications link from the remote computer system, and passes the remote compressed video and audio signals to the video and audio subsystems, respectively. The video subsystem generates remote analog video signals corresponding to the remote compressed video signals for local playback. The audio subsystem generates remote analog audio signals corresponding to the remote compressed audio signals for local playback.

PC-based conferencing system

A video microcode resides on a video board of the computer conferencing system. A video capture driver, a video manager, and a video applications programming interface reside on a general-purpose host processor of the computer conferencing system. The video microcode receives local analog video signals, generates local compressed video signals corresponding to the local analog video signals, and passes the local compressed video signals to the video capture driver. The video capture driver controls the operations of the video microcode and passes the local compressed video signals to the video manager. The video manager passes the local compressed video signals to a communications subsystem of the computer conferencing system for transmission over a communications link to a remote computer conferencing system. The video manager receives remote compressed video signals from the communications subsystem and passes the compressed video signals to the video capture driver, the communications subsystem having received the remote compressed video signals over the communications link from the remote computer conferencing system. The video capture driver generates remote decompressed video signals corresponding to the remote compressed video signal for local playback.

Video subsystem for computer-based conferencing system

An audio task residing on an audio/communications board of an audio subsystem in a computer conferencing system. An audio manager and an audio applications programming interface reside on a host processor of the computer conferencing system. The audio task receives local analog audio signals, generates local compressed audio signals corresponding to the local analog audio signals, and passes the local compressed audio signals to a communications subsystem of the computer conferencing system for transmission over a communications link to a remote computer conferencing system. The audio task receives remote compressed audio signals from the communications subsystem and generates remote decompressed audio signals corresponding to the remote compressed audio signal for local playback.

Growing community of inventors

Beaverton, OR, United States of America

Peter Tung