Other

Raymond R Metzger

David A Monroe

John M Baird

Floyd H McDougall

Ray Hollida

Rene DeBacker

Mark Oerkfitz

Adrian Alvarado

Bryan Albert

A camera system comprises a camera that produces a video signal, a video compressor that compresses the video signal, a system control processor that passes the compressed video signal, and a network interface that receives the compressed video signal, wherein the video compressor comprises configurable parameters that affect a bandwidth of the compressed video signal.

Bandwidth management and control

Continuous streaming video is conditioned for display at a remote monitor adapted for receiving and playing a streaming video file of a discrete length. The continuous streaming video has no known beginning of data signal and no known end of data signal, and an arbitrary beginning of data signal is assigned to the streaming video in mid-stream and an arbitrary end of data signal is assigned to the streaming video for identifying the length of the video stream and for making it compatible with the display platform. The continuous streaming video may be time stamped, and the beginning of data signal may be arbitrarily assigned a zero value for identifying an artificial beginning of the file. Specifically, the each time stamp received may be calculated by resetting each time stamp received time stamp with a value of the current time stamp minus first time stamp received, whereby the first time stamp received is set to zero and additional time stamps are counted from the first time stamp received. The encoded video signal may be viewed by more than one user, wherein the streaming video signal is sent to a multicast group address for forwarding the stream identified recipients, with a multicast routing technique used for determining that multiple recipients are located on one specific network path or path segment, wherein only one copy of the video signal is sent along that path.

Method and apparatus for distributing digitized streaming video over a network

A plurality of cameras are adapted to utilize Ethernet network protocol for the physical layer and UDP/IP for the network and transport layers permitting multiple compressed signals representing different degrees of image resolution, compression type of compressed bit rate to be simultaneously transmitted. These multiple video streams may be combined into one composite stream for network transmission or may be maintained as separate and distinct video or still frame streams throughout the network. The digitizer, compressor and network interface can be integral to a camera or can be a separate unit. Video or images networked in this manner may be selective viewed on an operator console or may be received by a network server for storage, analysis and subsequent retrieval.

System for a plurality of video cameras disposed on a common network

A system and method is provided to allow a video conference participant to establish and direct a video conference through a control network separate from the conference network that sustains the conference. A video conference switching system host machine responds to control signals conveyed by a control network to the switching system from a participant-accessible control system. The host machine generates adaptor conference signals that are interpreted to appropriately configure a crosspoint switch in correspondence with the control signals. The switching system may operate in continuous presence or video follows audio modes. In continuous presence mode, the host machine generates adaptor conference signals that are interpreted to convey to the participants a combination video signal composed from the individual video signals. In the video follows audio mode, detected voice signals result in a switch configuration according to a video follows audio protocol or rule set. The control system is available, preferably, on a participant desktop PC or workstation and may be preferably accessed through a graphical user interface. In a preferred embodiment, signals from the participant-directed control system are conveyed by TCP/IP protocol to the host machine on the control network which may be as simple as a POTS network or more sophisticated such as an INTRANET or the INTERNET. The control signals are captured from the control network by a modem or other terminal device appropriate for the control network technology. An ISDN network or other digital network may provide the conference network for maintenance of the video conference.

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San Antonio, TX, United States of America

Raymond R Metzger