Patent ID: 7447740

Claim:
A system comprising: (a) a personal computer including: a connection to the Internet; a first connection to a home network; all resources required to facilitate wide area network (WAN) communication over the Internet with a video conferencing party; and all resources required to conduct video conferencing over the Internet with the video conferencing party; wherein the personal computer is configured to receive incoming video conferencing data from a video conferencing party via the Internet, generate conferencing user interface data representing the incoming video conferencing data, package the conferencing user interface data into RDP packets using a remote desktop protocol (RDP), and transfer the RDP packets to the thin client over the home network; and further wherein the personal computer is configured to receive outgoing video conferencing data as Universal Serial Bus (USB) data included in IP packets from the thin client over the home network, convert the USB data into outgoing video conferencing data, and transmit the outgoing video conferencing data to the video conferencing party over the Internet; (b) a non internet enabled thin client including: a second connection to the home network via which the thin client can communicate with the computing device; a connection to a television via which the thin client can control display of images on the television; a subset of the resources required to conduct video conferencing; and a connection to a USB camera over which the thin client can receive one or more of: audio data; video data; wherein the thin client is configured to receive the RDP packets from the personal computer over the home network and render the RDP packets on the television; and further wherein the thin client is configured to transmit the audio data and video data to the personal computer in IP packets over the home network; wherein the personal computer and the thin client cooperate to allow a user at the television to video conference with the video conferencing party over the Internet.