Unified Messaging System for Automated Video Source Collaboration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current instant messaging systems are user-centric and do not provide a clean methodology for automated data sources to share video sources, limiting collaboration among users.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that maintain a list of contacts for users, including both video source devices and interactive message sources, allowing users to communicate and collaborate around an automatically shared video source, with features like synchronized video feeds and event monitoring.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If current instant messaging systems are used, then user-to-user communication is enabled, but automated data sources cannot easily share video sources for collaboration
Solution Approach 1:
The instant messaging system is extended to support multiple types of participants (human users and automated data sources) and multiple types of content (text messages and video sources). The system allows automated data sources to publish video sources and enables human users to access and collaborate around these sources, making the system universally applicable to both traditional messaging and automated data sharing scenarios
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary between automated data sources and human users. The server receives video sources from automated data sources, manages the video source information, and distributes it to authorized users. This intermediary role enables seamless integration of automated sources into the user-centric messaging framework without requiring direct user-to-source interaction
2Adaptability or versatility
If prior art video conferencing systems are used, then person-to-person video communication is enabled, but automated video source sharing for collaboration is not supported
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments participants into different types (human users and automated data sources) and handles their interactions differently. Automated data sources primarily publish video sources through the server, while human users consume and collaborate around these sources. This segmentation allows the system to support automated sources without requiring full bidirectional video conferencing capabilities for all participants
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of having human users initiate and control video conferencing sessions, the system inverts the model by allowing automated data sources to publish video sources that are then consumed by human users. The control flow reverses from user-initiated to source-initiated, enabling automated sources to drive collaboration sessions
3Extent of automation
If users manually initiate video conferencing, then video communication is established, but automated collaboration around shared video sources is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Automated data sources publish video sources to the server in advance, making them available for collaboration before any user initiates interaction. Users can then access these pre-published sources and immediately begin collaborating without needing to manually initiate video conferencing or configure video settings
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables automated data sources to self-publish their video sources to the server without requiring manual intervention from users. The server automatically manages the published sources, making them accessible to authorized users, thereby eliminating the need for users to manually set up or configure video sharing
Data Source
AI summary
Improved methods and apparatus for sharing and collaborating around a video source by maintaining and providing to users a list of a plurality of contacts containing both video source device contacts and interactive message source contacts. This allows for collaboration among users by permitting them to communicate with each other around an automatically-shared video source, to interact with automatically shared video sources, and to make decisions based on these shared video sources.