Patent ID: 8069206

Claim:
A teleconferencing system having a network interface including facilities for providing connections to client computing devices, comprising: a processor; at least one audio input device; at least one audio output device; network facilities providing network communication between said processor and network devices; facilities for connecting to and communicating over a bi-directional audio channel, said facilities providing for transmission of audio signals through the audio channel received at said audio input devices, said facilities further providing for audible sound production at said audio output devices for signals received from the audio channel; at least one storage device; and computer executable instructions stored to said storage devices, said instructions executable by said processor and by through said network facilities to perform the functions of: (i) operating a network service; (ii) receiving requests from client computing devices for a connection to the teleconferencing system through the network service; (iii) providing to a client computing device a client executable object, the client executable object executable by the client computing device to access teleconferencing functions through the network service of the teleconferencing system; (iv) connecting to provided client executable objects through the network service; (v) receiving from a connected client executable object a set of information types selected from a group of information types available on the teleconferencing system to be monitored; (vi) providing to a connected client executable object the state of a selected set of information types; (vii) repeatedly providing to a connected client executable object changes to the state of a monitored set of information types; (viii) through said network facilities, receiving control commands generated from a connected client executable object for directing control of the teleconferencing system; (ix) interpreting received control commands received from the connected client executable object; and (x) performing actions to the teleconferencing system in accordance with interpreted control commands.