Internet video conferencing on a home television

摘要

A home network integrates a television to enable a user to use the television to conduct an Internet video conference by leveraging the Internet video conferencing functionality provided by a home computer connected to the Internet. The television is connected to the home network via a TV client module, and a video camera co-located with the television is also connected to the TV client. The TV client presents on the television an Internet conferencing option selectable by a user to invoke the video conferencing functionality of the personal computer. During the video conference, video and audio data captured by the video camera are transmitted by the TV client over the home network to the personal computer for forwarding onto the conferencing parties on the Internet, and user interface data representing video/audio streams received from the Internet are transmitted by the personal computer to the TV client for display on the television.