Conference Bridge Application Instance Synchronization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conference participants often face challenges such as incompatible application versions, lack of necessary software, and firewalls restricting screen sharing, which hinder collaboration and productivity during multi-participant conferences.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for concurrently initiating an application on multiple participant user devices in a conference, allowing for multiple application instances and enabling increased collaboration and productivity by establishing a conference, receiving a request to assign an application, and initiating it on each participant device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If screen sharing is used to share an application instance, then one participant can present the application to other users, but other participants cannot collaboratively manipulate the application and firewalls may restrict communication
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the single shared application instance into multiple independent application instances, with each participant having their own instance on their device. This allows each participant to independently manipulate their instance while maintaining synchronization with others, resolving the contradiction between ease of sharing and collaborative manipulation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a conference bridge as an intermediary that coordinates multiple application instances across different participant devices. The conference bridge manages instance creation, synchronization, and communication, enabling collaborative manipulation while bypassing firewall restrictions that would otherwise block direct peer-to-peer communication.
2Productivity
If application is installed on personal computers before conference, then participants can use the application, but there may be insufficient notice for IT department to install and different versions may be incompatible
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring the conference bridge with application information and automatically initiating application instances on participant devices during the conference, rather than requiring advance installation. This eliminates the need for IT department preparation time while ensuring application availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables self-service by allowing the conference system itself to automatically distribute and initialize applications on participant devices during the conference, without requiring external IT intervention. Participants receive applications automatically through the conference bridge, eliminating installation delays.
3Use of energy by moving object
If single application instance is shared, then memory and processing resources are conserved, but collaboration and productivity are limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple independent application instances into a coordinated system managed by the conference bridge. Each participant has their own instance that consumes local resources, but the instances are synchronized and coordinated through the conference bridge, achieving both resource efficiency and enhanced collaboration capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a single-dimensional shared instance model to a multi-dimensional distributed instance model. Instead of one instance served to all participants, multiple instances run simultaneously on different devices, adding the dimension of distributed parallel execution while maintaining coordination through the conference bridge.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods, apparatuses, and computer-readable media for initiating an application for participants of a conference are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method is provided for concurrently initiating an application for participants of a conference. A conference may be established including a plurality of participant user devices. A request may be received from a participant user device in the conference to assign an application to the conference after the conference has been established. The application may be assigned to the conference. In response to the assigning the application to the conference, initiation of the application for use on each of the plurality of participant user devices in the conference may be concurrently requested. Apparatuses and computer-readable media having instructions for providing the method are also disclosed. These may provide multiple application instances for different participants of the conference, and may result in increased collaboration and/or productivity for participants of a conference.