Patent ID: 8126968
Filing Date: 2012-02-28
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04N,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A conference endpoint comprising: a CPU; a telephone line interface for coupling said conference endpoint to a telephone line; a network interface for coupling said conference endpoint to a computer network; a microphone for generating near speech signals for transmission over said telephone line, said near speech signals being representative of speech of a near conference participant; a speaker for converting to sound remote speech signals received from a remote device over said telephone line, said remote speech signals being representative of speech of at least one remote conference participant; a data conference initiation module, coupled to said network interface and to said telephone line interface for transmitting a data conference initiation request to a conference server over said computer network, for receiving a data conference code generated by said conference server, wherein said data conference code, when presented to said conference server by said remote device, authorizes said remote device to join said data conference, and for responsively transmitting over said telephone line a data conference invitation to said remote device, said conference invitation including information representative of said data conference code; and a memory for storing one or more files containing conference data distributed by said conference server via said computer network during a data conference, wherein said CPU is coupled to said telephone line interface, said network interface, said data conference initiation module, and said memory.