Patent ID: 8738699

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a collaboration server, a session request addressed to a user ID of a user from a first multimedia endpoint; determining at least a handheld device and an endpoint associated with the user ID in a user database; attempting to establish a first session with the endpoint associated with the user ID, and upon failing to establish the first session with the endpoint associated with the user ID, establishing the first session between said first multimedia endpoint and the handheld device associated with said user ID in the user database; providing session data associated with the first session to a second multimedia endpoint by encoding the session data into a barcode image, displaying the barcode image on a display of the handheld device, and retrieving and decoding the barcode image at the second multimedia endpoint using a camera associated with the second multimedia endpoint, wherein the session data includes the user ID; receiving, at the collaboration server, a barcode image detection message from the second multimedia endpoint, wherein the barcode image detection message includes the user ID encoded in the barcode image, a transfer instruction, and an address of the second multimedia endpoint; and in response to said receiving of the barcode image detection message, transferring the first session to the second multimedia endpoint, based on the user ID, the transfer function, and the address of the second multimedia endpoint included in the barcode image detection message, by identifying the first session between the first multimedia endpoint and the handheld device based on the user ID, transferring the first session from the handheld device to the second multimedia endpoint, and terminating the a connection for the first session with the handheld device.