Patent ID: 6928087

Claim:
A method for communicating information, comprising the steps of: determining the ability of a first and second terminal to reproduce information in a plurality of media formats; producing a list of media formats which can be reproduced by both the first and second terminals; utilizing the list of media formats, the performance of the first terminal, and the bandwidth of the first terminal's connection to the second terminal to establish a first channel mode for the first terminal to communicate information to the second terminal, wherein the first channel mode is established based upon one or more media which provide a user of the first terminal with a greatest level of understanding of the information to be transmitted, and wherein the greatest level of understanding of the information to be transmitted is determined by determining the media or combination of media which has the largest entropy per second taking into account the performance of the first terminal and the bandwidth of the first terminal's connection to the second terminal; utilizing the list of media formats, the performance of the second terminal, and the bandwidth of the second terminal's connection to the first terminal to establish a second channel mode for the second terminal to communicate information to the first terminal; and communicating between the first and second terminal in accordance with their respective channel modes.