IP Library › Granted Patent US 9,282,288
Granted Patent B2
US 9,282,288 · App. 14/518,949 · Granted Mar 8, 2016

System for distributing video conference resources among connected parties and methods thereof

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,282,288
App. No.
14/518,949
Filed
Oct 20, 2014
Granted
Mar 8, 2016
Kind
B2
Art Unit
2656
USPC
348/14.08
Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a system for distributing video conference resources among connected parties and methods thereof. In an illustrative embodiment, an ad-hoc network providing conferencing resources is presented. The network can include a master device and a number of slave devices. Each of the slave devices can present their bandwidth capabilities to the master device. End devices can be connected to the master device. When no additional connections can be made to the master device, slave devices can be used to add the end devices into the conference. The slave device can thus share its resources to the conference. In one embodiment, individual slave devices can handle different types of codecs.

Claims (11)

1. A method for distributing conference resources comprising:

linking with a slave device;

receiving a request from a device to connect into a conference;

providing said request to said slave device; and

connecting said device to said conference through said slave device; and

downgrading video and audio connections to only audio connections when insufficient video ports are available.

2. The method for distributing conference resources of claim 1 , comprising directly connecting at least one device to said conference.

3. The method for distributing conference resources of claim 2 , wherein directly connecting said at least one device to said conference comprises determining whether communication ports for said at least one device are available.

4. The method for distributing conference resources of claim 3 , comprising reserving a communication port for linking said slave device.

5. The method for distributing conference resources of claim 1 , wherein linking with said slave device comprises receiving bandwidth capabilities of said slave device.

6. The method for distributing conference resources of claim 1 , comprising linking with at least one additional slave device, receiving requests from devices to connect into said conference and connecting said devices to said conference through said at least one additional slave device.