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Graphical user interface for video teleconferencing    
United States Patent5594859   
Link to this pagehttp://www.wikipatents.com/5594859.html
Inventor(s)Palmer; Larry G. (Nashua, NH); Palmer; Ricky S. (Nashua, NH)
AbstractA video teleconferencing workstation includes a video teleconference session window displayed on the workstation display. The session window includes a video image area for displaying video information associated with the video teleconferencing session, and a control area for displaying one or more selectable video teleconferencing functions represented as graphical pushbuttons. The user selectable video teleconferencing functions include a connection function, a control function and a monitor function. Selection of the connection function causes a call list window to be displayed on the workstation monitor for establishing video teleconferencing connections. Selection of the control function causes a control window to be displayed on the workstation display for adjusting parameters of the video teleconference. Selection of the monitor function causes a monitor window to be displayed on the workstation display for monitoring the parameters of the video teleconference.
   














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Drawing from US Patent 5594859
Graphical user interface for video teleconferencing - US Patent 5594859 Drawing
Graphical user interface for video teleconferencing
Inventor     Palmer; Larry G. (Nashua, NH); Palmer; Ricky S. (Nashua, NH)
Owner/Assignee     Digital Equipment Corporation (Maynard, MA)
Patent assignment
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Publication Date     January 14, 1997
Application Number     08/391,086
PAIR File History     Application Data   Transaction History
Image File Wrapper   Patent Term   Fees
Litigation
Filing Date     February 21, 1995
US Classification     715/756 715/500.1 715/753 715/781
Int'l Classification     G06F 015/00 G09G 005/00
Examiner     Bayerl; Raymond J.
Assistant Examiner     Ba; Huynh
Attorney/Law Firm     Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C.
Address
Parent Case     This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 07/893,234 filed on Jun. 3, 1992, abandoned, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Priority Data    
USPTO Field of Search     395/153 395/154 395/155 395/157 395/159 395/161 345/2
Patent Tags     graphical user interface video teleconferencing
   
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Maruo

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Market Share
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75% - 100%
50% - 74.99%
25% - 49.99%
10 - 24.99%
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2 - 4.99%
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< 1%
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Reasonable Royalty
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75% - 100%
50% - 74.99%
25% - 49.99%
10 - 24.99%
5 - 9.99%
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 Technical Review Submit all comments and votes
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We claim:

1. A graphical user interface, comprising:

a video teleconference application window displayed on a display of the workstation, the video teleconference application window comprising:

a video image area for displaying live video images associated with a video teleconferencing session, and

a control area for displaying one or more selectable video teleconferencing functions selectable by a user of the workstation and represented as graphical push buttons including a connection function which when selected causes a call list window to be displayed on the display, the call list window for establishing video teleconferencing connections with other video teleconferencing workstations and comprising:

a host workstation field for indicating an identification of a target host workstation to be connected to for a video teleconference,

a connect function graphical push button corresponding to the host workstation field, wherein activation of the connect function graphical push button by the user causes a video teleconference call to be placed to the target host workstation identified in the host workstation field,

an audio function graphical push button corresponding to the host workstation field, wherein by selecting the audio function graphical push button the user changes whether audio data is sent to the target host workstation identified in the field host workstation during a video teleconference, and

a video function graphical push button corresponding to the host workstation field, wherein by selecting the video function graphical push button the user changes whether video data is sent to the target host workstation identified in the host workstation field during a video teleconference.

2. The graphical user interface of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of host workstation fields for indicating identifications of a plurality of target host workstations to be connected to for a plurality of simultaneous video teleconferences, and

a plurality of connect function graphical push buttons each corresponding to a host workstation field for establishing a video teleconference connection between the workstation and each of the target host workstations identified in the host workstation fields.

3. The user interface of claim 2, further comprising a join function graphical push button, an activation of which joins in a video teleconference each of the target host workstations identified as connected to the workstation with each of other ones of the target host workstations identified as also being connected to the workstation.

4. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the call list window comprises

an output file field for indicating an identification of an output file for receiving audio and video data streams from the workstation, and

a connect function graphical push button corresponding to the output file field, an activation of which causes data to be stored to the identified output file.

5. The graphical user interface of claim 4, further comprising an audio function graphical push button corresponding to the output file field for selecting whether or not audio data will be stored to the output file.

6. The graphical user interface of claim 4, further comprising a video function graphical push button corresponding to the output file field for selecting whether or not video data will be stored to the output file.

7. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the call list window comprises

an input file field for indicating an identification of an input file for providing audio and video data streams to the workstation, and

a connect function graphical push button corresponding to the input file field, an activation of which causes local playback of the audio and video data streams stored in the input file.

8. The graphical user interface of claim 7, wherein activation of the connect function graphical push button corresponding to the input file causes the audio and video data streams stored in the input file to be sent to target host workstations currently identified as connected to the workstation in a video teleconference.

9. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the user selectable video teleconferencing functions comprise a control function graphical pushbutton which when activated causes a control window to be displayed on the display for adjusting parameters of the video teleconferencing session.

10. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the control window comprises a plurality of graphic controls each for setting a value of a different video teleconferencing parameter.

11. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the parameters comprise a maximum frame rate of video data generated by the workstation.

12. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the parameters comprise video brightness and contrast of video data generated by the workstation.

13. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the parameters comprise video color hue and saturation of video data generated by the workstation.

14. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the parameters comprise a video teleconference audio level and microphone gain of the workstation.

15. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the control window further comprises a graphical pushbutton control for enabling video compression of video data generated by the workstation.

16. The graphical user interface of claim 9, wherein the control window further comprises a graphical pushbutton control for selecting either black and white or color video data to be generated by the workstation.

17. The graphical user interface of claim 1, wherein the user selectable video teleconferencing functions comprises a monitor function which when selected causes a monitor window to be displayed on the display for monitoring parameters of the video teleconference session.

18. The graphical user interface of claim 17, wherein the monitor window comprises an indicator for indicating a number of horizontal and vertical video pixels in each video frame generated by the workstation.

19. The graphical user interface of claim 17, wherein the monitor window comprises an indicator for indicating a frame rate of video data generated by the workstation.

20. The graphical user interface of claim 17, wherein the monitor window comprises an indicator for indicating the network resource usage during a video teleconference.

21. The graphical user interface of claim 17, wherein the monitor window comprises

an indicator for indicating a total number of workstations connected to the workstation during a video teleconference;

an indicator for indicating the total number of workstations receiving audio data from the workstation during a video teleconference; and

an indicator for indicating the total number of workstations receiving video data from the workstation during a video teleconference.

22. The graphical user interface of claim 1