Patent ID: 7953795
Filing Date: 2011-05-31
Classification: H04L,H04M

Abstract:
1. A method of conducting a data communication conference session, over a data communications network, among multiple participants using computing devices, comprising: designating at least one server that serves as a managing apparatus for the data communication conference session, the at least one server being adapted to bridge among the multiple participants participating in the data communication conference session; installing a dedicated software application on at least one computing device corresponding to at least one participant that enables the at least one participant to participate in the data communication conference session as both a presenter and a viewer; providing a thin client server that serves as an interface that transfers data and that enables the multiple participants to participate as viewers without participating as presenters using a standard browser without installing the dedicated software application on the computing devices corresponding to the multiple participants participating as the viewers and not presenters, wherein the dedicated software application includes software applications which are dedicated to enable the participants to participate in the conference session and which allow continuous sharing of the data of the conference session; initiating the data communication conference session by a first participant that serves as the presenter and that shares the data with the multiple participants participating as the viewers; establishing communications between the presenter and the thin client server; establishing communications between the viewers using the standard browser, and the thin client server; and updating the viewers using the thin client server with the data shared by the presenter by communicating through the thin client server, wherein the thin client server processes the data into a format accessible by the standard browser using asynchronous javascript and extensible markup language (AJAX) and transfers the data for presentation to the viewers using the standard browser, wherein data viewable by the viewers includes a combination of the data from the presenter and data obtained from at least one of the viewers, wherein the data obtained from at least one of the viewers is superimposed and displayed on a dynamically allocated area on a screen of a presenter's conference session corresponding to the data from the presenter such that a single screen is sent to the viewers, wherein screens corresponding to the viewers are subdivided into a matrix such that updated data is sent to the viewers based on subdivided units of the matrix, wherein sizes and shapes of the subdivided units are determined according to an availability of resources that affect presentation of the updated data to the viewers, wherein the sizes and shapes of the subdivided units define areas of the screens corresponding to the viewers which will be updated, and wherein the thin client server is implemented on the at least one server that serves as the managing apparatus.