WO2006084963A1

WO2006084963A1 - Interactive teleconference method

Info

Publication number: WO2006084963A1
Application number: PCT/FR2005/050082
Authority: WO
Inventors: Samuel Folliard; Eric Poubeau
Original assignee: Aduno
Priority date: 2005-02-09
Filing date: 2005-02-09
Publication date: 2006-08-17

Abstract

The invention concerns an interactive teleconference method wherein a participant is connected as conference controller via at least remote personal teleconference management means and initiates at least one conference involving at least one participant; the conference controller uses a browser of the interactive type to command browsing through data, processed through said teleconference management means and transmitted to said conference controller and/or to said participant; the browsing commands of said conference controller are passed on via said remote teleconference management means and executed thereon; the results of the execution of the commands are transmitted to said conference controller and/or said participant and are displayed via a browser.

Description

INTERACTIVE TELECONFERENCE METHOD

The present invention relates to an interactive teleconferencing method in which a participant connects as a lecturer via remote teleconference management means and initiates at least one conference grouping at least one participant, the lecturer uses a browser to controlling a navigation through data, interactive type, processed through said teleconference management means and transmitted to said conference master and / or said participant, the navigation commands of said master of conference are passed through said remote means of management and executed on them, the results of the execution of the commands are transmitted to said master conference and / or said participant which are displayed through a browser. The present invention is in the field of teleconferencing, particularly teleconferencing through a computer network, such as Web Conferencing. Teleconferencing brings together several people in different locations through conventional telephone communication so that they can participate in a single conference. With the evolution of technology and the growth of computer networks, teleconferencing has brought people together through other means of communication, such as mobile telephony or computers connected to these networks. To date, Web Conferencing offers the possibility of connecting several people all over the world through an interactive multimedia communication platform.

In a known manner, Web Conferencing allows a user to create a conference as a master of conference and invite the people of his choice through software designed for this purpose and installed on a computer connected to a computer. computer network. Each guest must install this adapted software in order to connect or create a conference. A first drawback is the requirement to install on each computer the conferencing software that will serve as an interface between the lecturer and each guest. The large-scale deployment on many stations, which can be, as we have seen previously, geographically distant of several thousand kilometers, is costly in time and money without counting the many compatibility problems that such an operation implies. . In addition, updating software once deployed often requires new workstation intervention and additional loss of time and money. During a conference call, participants exchange information under the direction of a conference leader, usually the initiator of the conference. These data are transmitted to the participants who can view them. The lecturer manages the data that is viewed by all or some of the participants. In known manner, the computer architecture required for the Web Conferencing requires the connection of several stations, computers or workstations, to a server. The latter is usually a Web server or business. Each user must have a software adapted to the teleconference having its own connection to said server, this connection is of the peer-to-peer type using a conventional connection protocol of known type.

In this regard, the software dedicated to teleconferencing is additional software that is added and executed in the browser.

In this architecture, the data transmitted to users during the conference is downloaded from the server. The applications needed to display this data are then launched at the level of the posts of each of the users. Another disadvantage is the often lengthy download time of the data, depending on their size, from a station to or from the server, and the fact that the applications are run locally on each station of each participant, thus using the local resources of each participant. In another type of teleconference architecture, the connection to the server is made through the connection established for the download of the software, including HTTPS type, bypassing the security devices, especially firewalls, which can open a fault. in the security of the network used.

In this regard, the aforementioned applications require prior to another local deployment operation whose drawbacks intersect those previously mentioned. The interactivity of Web Conferencing appears through these applications. These generally allow the viewing or modification of downloaded data from the server. In the event of modification by one of the participants and so that each of the others can take note of these modifications, the data must be transmitted to the server and then downloaded again to each of the user stations, thus limiting the interactivity between them.

In this regard, in the case of interactive data visualization, such as an Internet site, the teleconferencing software uses the local resources of each participant to transmit the navigation information of the master of conference through said interactive data, the others participants being passive. In addition, the execution of interactive data locally opens up a security flaw at the participant level, for example through the execution of ActiveX plugins or JAVA type applets. The interactivity and security of existing conferences therefore depends solely on software dedicated for this purpose that has the aforementioned disadvantages. The aim of the invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the state of the art by proposing a Web architecture. Conferencing that provides increased security, and does not require a software deployment operation. In particular, this architecture does not require the installation or downloading of a software module dedicated to Web Conferencing on the local stations of the users.

To do this, the present invention relates to an interactive teleconferencing method in which a participant connects as a lecturer through remote means of teleconference management and initiates at least one conference grouping at least one participant, the master of the conference uses a browser to control a navigation through data, interactive type, processed through said teleconference management means and transmitted to said master conference and / or said participant, the navigation commands of said master of conference are reflected in through said remote teleconference management means and executed on them, the result of the execution of the commands is transmitted to said master conference and / or said participant which are displayed through a browser. According to other advantages of the method according to the invention, the processing of said interactive data through said teleconference management means consists in executing the data through an application controlled by the teleconference management means, in particular on a local terminal. or remote comprising at least one graphic display means, capturing the graphic content resulting from the execution of said application, notably in the form of at least one image or data in HTML, optimizing the graphic content for the transmission and displaying on the browser of the master of conference and / or participant, including compressing said image.

Preferably, passing on and executing the navigation commands through said remote teleconference management means consists in transmitting the actions performed on the browser of said lecturer to the remote teleconference management means, in particular the coordinates and the actions of the mouse pointer or keyboard input, executing said actions on said application driven by the teleconference management means, processing the result of the execution through said teleconference management means.

Advantageously, the graphic content is refreshed periodically and transmitted wholly or partly to the browser of the lecturer and / or participant. In a particular case, the lecturer selects the interactive data, in particular of the site-accessible type on a network, through which he wishes to browse and transmits to said teleconference management means the access path of said data for processing the latter. Advantageously, the transmission to or from the browser of the master of conference and / or the participant, the data processing, the optimization of the graphic content and the control of the application are carried out through a data transfer server. and / or an application server interconnected, at least partially forming said teleconference management means.

In particular, the application is selected according to the type of data to be executed, in particular a browser for data of the Internet site type, an editor or a word processing software for text type data. Advantageously, a participant, in particular the lecturer, visually marks all or part of the processed data displayed on his browser, in particular by highlighting an area displayed on the browser by highlighting and / or highlighting part of the data, this marking being echoed and displayed on the browser of at least one other participant.

Preferably, a participant, in particular the master of conference, modifies the processed data, in particular of the text type, and displayed on his browser through an editor, this modification being reflected and displayed on the browser of at least one other participant. In addition, the participant, in particular the master of conference, saves the changes made through the teleconference management means, especially in storage means, in replacement or in addition to the data, and in their original format.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following detailed description of non-limiting embodiments of the invention. The present invention relates to an interactive teleconferencing method. The interactive teleconference principle according to the present invention resides, first of all, in the fact of avoiding the obligation of deployment or installation, locally, of software dedicated to teleconferencing. To do this, it has been imagined to use a browser connected to remote teleconference management means through a computer network and / or communication, the browser having essentially a display and display role while the management means are dealing with processing, equivalent to state-of-the-art software deployed locally. The browser can then act as a client while the management means act as a server within the teleconference architecture according to the invention. The teleconference management means enables a user to connect through a remote browser to initiate a conference and open it to at least one participant. This user is then called master user or master of conference.

In this regard, the master of conference or any participant uses a terminal connected to a computer network and / or communication, especially to the Internet, this terminal may be of mobile type or not, a desktop or laptop, a station working or similar. This terminal being connected to a network, a browser is generally installed by default for access to said network and navigation. The lecturer uses this browser to display and navigate through data, including interactive type, for example a site accessible online on a computer network and / or communication. The navigation is controlled by the lecturer through the actions of the latter through the data displayed on the browser. In a known manner, these actions can be the movements of the pointer of a mouse resulting in the change of coordinates of this pointer, the click on the buttons of the mouse, a keyboard entry or the like. The lecturer selects the type of data that he wishes to display and through which he navigates. These data can be of different types (text, image, presentation, spreadsheet, etc.). In particular, this data may be of the interactive type such as a site accessible over a network, preferably the Internet network or an intranet network, for example a so-called Web site. In this case, before navigation, the lecturer transmits through his browser the path of this site to said teleconference management means. The management means are responsible for processing the data for display on the browser of the lecturer and / or participants. To do this, the data are executed through an application controlled by said management means, in particular an application server directing a local or remote terminal, this machine, distinct or otherwise from said application server, comprising at least one means of graphical display. The execution of the data is done according to their type, an application being adapted to one or more types of data. For example, a publisher or a word processing software for text type data, a browser for remote site type interactive data accessed over a network or any other application. The result of executing said application according to said data is, for interactive type data, displayed on. the display means and stored on storage means of said management means. This graphic content, for interactive type data, in the form of at least one image and / or a content of the HTML type, preferably an image divided into several smaller size images, is: captured and then converted into image data and / or data in HTML and / or XML language and stored on the means storage. The graphic content is then optimized for transmission and display on the browser of the master of conference and / or participant (s), including compressing said images. The data is thus displayed on the browser of the lecturer and / or participants in the form of images, in the case of interactive type data, and / or simple HTML / XML data combined with images, for example in the case of text type data. One advantage lies in the safety of such a process. Indeed, the data displayed at the level of the users are not likely to host a dangerous, heavy, uncontrollable or potentially harmful content that would be contained in said data. In addition, if this is the case, the security tools that can be deployed at a central server provide greater security and lower cost than software to deploy locally on a large scale.

In the same way, the management means are in charge of executing the application necessary for the interpretation of the data according to the type of the latter, thus avoiding the use of the participants' local resources as well as the deployment of the software dedicated to the execution of the data given in the state of the art.

Finally, complex data, calling for several applications, nested or not in one another, are displayed in a simple manner without soliciting the local terminals of the participants. Security levels can thus prevent or allow the execution of additional software modules (ActiveX, Java Applet, etc.) that can be found in the processed data, only display part of the data according to the parameterization of the master of conference or the administrator of the teleconference management facilities. The lecturer thus visualizes the data thus processed on his browser that he uses to control the navigation through said processed data. The commands of the navigation of the master of conference are then passed through the teleconference management means and executed on them.

In this respect, particularly for the interactive type of data, echoing the commands of the navigation consists in transmitting the actions performed on the browser of said lecturer to the remote teleconference management means. These actions are of the type previously mentioned, in particular actions relating to the mouse pointer or typing. The transmitted actions are then executed on the application controlled by the teleconference management means. The results of these actions are processed through the application in the same manner as previously mentioned, namely that the graphic content resulting from the execution of the action is captured and optimized. The execution of the commands, once processed, is then transmitted to said master conference and / or said participant and is displayed through the browser of each of these. The repercussion of the actions thus appears to be a remote simulation of the navigation of the lecturer whose only results are transmitted. Another advantage of this repercussion is to renew only a part of the graphic content, according to the changes of the latter. For example, the actions of the lecturer on the data, such as an image, displayed on his browser are reflected on a remote-controlled application on the application server. The result image of the execution of each action is captured and then optimized remotely, on the management means, in particular the application server and / or the terminal controlled by the latter. The optimized image is finally passed on to the participants, including the master of conference until the next action of the latter. The graphic content resulting from the execution of the application is refreshed periodically, at regular intervals, and transmitted in whole or in part to the browser of the lecturer and / or participant.

The management means therefore control at least one application for the interpretation of the data through their execution. This application is selected according to the type of data to be executed. The application will consist of a browser for a remotely accessible site, in particular a website, an editor or a word processing software for text type data, or any other software adapted to the type and / or format Datas . Among the possible actions, the lecturer can interact on all or parts of the data, by highlighting or modifying them.

Highlighting consists of visually marking all or part of the processed data displayed on its browser. This marking targets an area displayed on the browser by highlighting and / or highlighting part of the data overprinting the document. This marking is reflected and displayed, in real time, on the browser of at least one other participant. For example, this marking may be a red dot, like a laser used in presentations. The lecturer can modify the processed data displayed on his browser. This modification preferably relates to text type data. It is done through editing means in the form of an interface in the browser allowing, furthermore, the input of characters, especially in text format. The characters entered are sent through the management means where they are stored in HTML form on the storage means. The characters can then be published and thus integrated with the other data of the text being interpreted. In a particular embodiment, the modifications made in the form of data in HTML language are also retranslated in the format: original data via a conversion application driven by the management means. This change is reflected and displayed on the browser of at least one other participant during a publication step. This modification may be saved on storage means, in particular in the form of files, connected and / or included in the teleconference management means. In particular, any modified data can be saved in its original format, before processing, by replacing the existing file. Likewise, the modified data may be saved in an additional version, without replacing or altering the original data.

In the end, a participant will be able to modify the data that he displays on his browser, publish them directly on his browser and those of the other participants and, if he wishes, save them.

The lecturer may manage, through the means of teleconference management, the right to a participant to modify the data, thus preventing writing and / or backup conflicts, since only one participant at a time can modify the data.

The architecture required for the interactive teleconference method according to the invention further comprises a terminal connected to a computer and / or communication network. This terminal, like a computer, on which a browser is installed, is a client connected via said network to a data transfer server, for example of the web server type, which takes care of receiving and transmitting the data from (or towards) the browser to (or from) an application server, for example of the business server type. The latter drives one or more applications running on the same server or preferentially on a separate machine, like another computer. The machine may include separate display means for viewing and capturing the graphics content resulting from the execution of the applications. The data, to be executed or executed, can be saved on storage means, such as database or hard disk.

The data transfer server manages at least the presentation of said processed data for display on the browser of at least one participant, in particular for the simultaneous display on the browsers of all the participants, including the lecturer.

The present invention therefore relates to the aforementioned teleconferencing method. Its benefits lie in improved interactivity and does not require any local software deployment. Of course, the invention is not limited to the examples illustrated and described above which may have variants and modifications without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A method of interactive tele-conferencing in which

- a participant connects as a senior lecturer through remote management means of

- teleconference and initiates at least one conference gathering at least one participant;

- The lecturer uses a browser to control a navigation through data, interactive type, processed through said teleconference management means and transmitted to said master conference and / or said participant; the commands of the navigation of said master of conference are passed through said remote means of teleconference management and executed on them; the results of the execution of the commands are transmitted to said master of conference and / or said participant and are displayed through a browser.

The teleconferencing method according to claim 1, wherein the processing of said interactive data through said teleconferencing management means comprises:

execute the data through an application controlled by the teleconference management means, in particular on a local or remote terminal comprising at least one graphic display means;

capturing the graphic content resulting from the execution of said application, notably in the form of at least one image or data in HTML language;

optimizing the graphic content for the transmission and display on the browser of the master of the conference and / or the participant, in particular by compressing said image.

The teleconferencing method according to claim 2, wherein echoing and executing navigation commands through said remote teleconference management means comprises: transmitting the actions performed on the browser of said conference master to the remote teleconference management means, in particular the coordinates and the actions of the pointer of a mouse or keyboard input; performing said actions on said application controlled by the teleconference management means;

processing the result of the execution through said teleconference management means.

A teleconferencing method according to any one of claims 2 or 3, wherein the graphic content is refreshed periodically and transmitted in whole or in part to the browser of the lecturer and / or participant.

A teleconferencing method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the master of conference chooses the interactive data, in particular of the type accessible on a network, through which he wishes to browse and transmits to said teleconference management means the path accessing said data to process the data.

The teleconferencing method according to any one of claims 2 to 5, wherein the transmission to or from the browser of the master of conference and / or the participant, the data processing, the optimization of the graphic content and the control of The application is carried out via a data transfer server and / or an application server interconnected, forming at least part of the teleconferencing management means.

7. Teleconferencing method according to any one of claims 2 to 6, wherein the application is selected according to the type of data to be executed, including a browser for data type Internet site, a publisher or a processing software text for text data.

A teleconferencing method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein a participant, in particular the lecturer, visually marks all or part of the processed data displayed on its browser, in particular by highlighting an area displayed on the browser by highlighting part of the data, this marking being reflected and displayed on the browser of at least one other participant.

The teleconferencing method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, in which a participant, in particular the assistant professor or any other participant, modifies the processed data, in particular of the text type, and displayed on his browser through a editor, this modification being reflected and displayed on the browser of at least one other participant.

The teleconferencing method according to claim 9, wherein the participant, in particular the master of conference, saves the changes made through the teleconference management means, in particular in storage means, in replacement or in addition to the data in their original format.