Multi-point voice conferencing system over a wide area network

摘要

An interactive network system (100) communicates speech and associated information among a plurality of participants at different sites (104, 106). An example of the associated information is lip synch image information related to the speech. The system contains a speech server (110) for managing data streams set by the participants. Each participant uses a multimedia computer (114) and a modem (122) to connect to the network. Because many modems have a low bit rate, it is important to compress the speech and associated information. The server (110) receives the data streams from at least two participants and contains means (200) for combining these data streams into a single data stream having a bit rate that can be handled by the modem of the third participant. As a result, a plurality of participants can conduct speech and image communication using the network.