Videoconferencing hardware
AssigneeCollaboration Properties, Inc.
InventorsLESTER F. LUDWIG, J. CHRIS LAUWERS, KEITH A. LANTZ, GERALD J. BURNETT, EMMETT R. BURNS
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Abstract
In accordance with the present invention, computer hardware, software and communications technologies are combined in novel ways to produce a multimedia collaboration system that greatly facilitates distributed collaboration, in part by replicating the benefits of face-to-face collaboration. The system tightly integrates a carefully selected set of multimedia and collaborative capabilities, principal among which are desktop teleconferencing and multimedia mail.
Claims15
A teleconferencing apparatus comprising a unitary housing including:
- (a) AV capture and reproduction capabilities for capturing video images and spoken audio of a participant in a videoconference;
- (b) a monitor for displaying visual images associated with at least one participant;
- (c) audio reproduction capabilities;
- and
- (d) an echo canceler to reduce echo during the reproduction of the audio.
A teleconferencing system for conducting a teleconference among a plurality of participants, comprising:
- (a) a plurality of workstations each including a unitary housing having a first monitor for displaying visual images, and AV capture and reproduction capabilities for capturing and reproducing video images and spoken audio of the participants, and
- (b) a first network providing a data path along which data can be shared among a plurality of the participants and displayed on at least one of the first monitors;
- (c) a second network providing an AV path, for carrying AV signals representing video images and spoken audio of the participants, among the workstations for reproduction at least one monitor associated with the workstation of participant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.