FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
[39 OF 1970]
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[SEE SECTION 10 & RULE 13]
1 TITLE
MONTAGE OF SECURED, REAL TIME, SCALABLE, MULTI-MEDIA BASED INFORMATION FROM GEOGRAPHICALLY DISTINCTLY MAPPED, MULTIPLE REMOTE LOCATIONS, THROUGH A TELECOM NETWORK, FOR EFFECTIVE DUPLEX COMMUNICATION TO SIMULTANEOUSLY CUSTOMIZE AND ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF DELIVERY OF THE ONLINE TEACHING INSTRUCTIONS BASED UPON INTERPRETATION OF THE NEAR REAL TIME FACIAL/VERBAL GRASPING IMPACT OF THE REMOTE STUDENT THROUGH VIDEO MOSAIC LAYOUT
2 APPLICANT
NAME VALUABLE INNOVATIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
ADDRESS VALUABLE TECHNO PARK,
53/l, ROAD N0 7,MIDC, ANDHERI( E), MUMBAI 400 093.
NATIONALITY INDIA
The following specification particularly describes the nature of the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:

Title of invention
Montage of secured, real time, scalable, multi-media based information from geographically distinctly mapped, multiple remote locations, through a telecom network, for effective duplex communication to simultaneously customize and enhance the quality of delivery of the online teaching instructions based upon interpretation of the near real time facial/verbal grasping impact of the remote student through video mosaic layout.
Field of invention
The present invention relates to the Communication, Networking, Video processing between a Teacher in the studios and students at geographically distant multiple schools presenting a virtual classroom atmosphere where the interaction is live.
Background of invention with Prior Art
The present method of video communication utilizes video conferencing systems. The clients in such systems connect with a central server or other clients for sending and receiving video data. Each client may be on different type of network, but individual client connects using one network. In networks with low reverse bandwidth (like VSAT), only few clients can transmit video to the server. In such a deployment (for example Virtual Classrooms) it is not possible for the presenter (or teacher) to view all/many the classrooms simultaneously.
The Mosaic technique presented here aims to overcome this problem by using alternate network in conjunction with primary network.
The present focus of solutions and techniques is on improving the delivery or content/lecture to students with little or no attention on increasing the comfort of teacher by improving feedback from students to teacher.
The present invention attempts to focus on this aspect of problem and provide a solution for the same.
There are existing technologies in respect of remote learning or teaching abilities such as
US6775518B2: This patent talks about stored content based system, whereas inventors patent targets student response (facial and body expression, like hand raise, nodding and audio expressions) to the teacher in a live set up.
US6813474B2: This patent is about creation of educational content and its sharing.
US7031651B2: This is a patent for matching student to teachers.
US7500256B1: Tests if student is actually viewing an educational program.

Most of the patents and technology focuses on access to online stored content to student or a virtual learning online from a prerecorded lecture or a lecture where there is inability for any interaction.
Statement of Problem
In a conferencing or teaching environment it is essential for key-presenter/teacher to be able to see the reaction of other participants/students to tune his address. This becomes a challenge in case of large scale video collaboration deployment scenarios, for example, when one teacher is addressing multiple classrooms (say 20 classrooms) through a VSAT or any other network. To provide viable feedback to the teacher, it is essential to have some visual cue of distant classrooms. This problem is addressed by video/image mosaic application.
Object of invention
The video/image mosaic application aims to achieve real-time, lively feedback of the classrooms/students/attendees for the teachers/presenters using multiple networks at client end in virtual classroom deployments.
Summary of invention
In virtual classroom set-up, the video mosaic application allows teachers to see all/multiple classrooms in a panel in front of him/her. This live video provides the requisite feedback to teachers to tune their lecture for better understanding by students. With video mosaic enabling this in low reverse bandwidth networks using Images or video using same or alternate network, this helps achieve better learning environment for students.
In a virtual classroom setup multiple classrooms are part of one session. They receive teacher's video feed using forward bandwidth while send their own feed using reverse bandwidth. In any deployment if networks like VSAT are primary communication network, the available reverse bandwidth is insufficient for all the clients to transmit their video feed to the teacher. In such a scenario, client application uses alternate network (secondary network) to send continuous video feed to the teacher. So the same feed may be transmitted using two different networks at any time. A client in conference with teacher uses primary network for communication (and secondary network for video mosaic) consuming available reverse bandwidth on primary network. The feed of all the clients reach teacher using the secondary network.
In case secondary network is not available at any site, client uses primary network to send Images at regular intervals.
Topology of Studio-Remote School Network
The video/image mosaic application brings the distant classrooms to the teacher. While teaching in front of a camera, teacher is presented with a mosaic-display showing the video (or images) of the distant classrooms. The display gives teacher the feel of classrooms, student reactions and allows him to adapt accordingly. This greatly enhances the teacher comfort, resulting in better overall teaching results. There are two flavors of the solution:

1) Image Mosaic
In case of image mosaic, classrooms images are regularly updated on the mosaic-display. Image mosaic is useful in bandwidth constrained networks, where reverse channels cannot support simultaneous video streams.
2) Video Mosaic
In this case mosaic-display shows the videos of distant classrooms. This can be used in instances where classrooms have sufficient network bandwidth using primary or secondary


Figure - A: Topology of remote classroom & studio connectivity generating video mosaic Methodology
The technical solution in both the flavors operates as below.
1) Image Mosaic
Images are captured by remote classroom clients at regular intervals.
On receiving instructions, the remote classroom clients send these images to
the mosaic-display at teacher end. These instructions are automatically generated by the application. Mosaic-display renders the images. On receiving stop instruction, remote classroom clients stop sending images.

2) Video Mosaic
On receiving instruction, the remote classroom client starts sending the video to the mosaic-display at teacher end.
The mosaic-display renders the classroom videos. On receiving stop instruction, remote classroom clients stop sending the video.
The image/video mosaic application can also send the audio along with image/video of remote classrooms to teacher end. This is useful in case teacher needs verbal confirmations during his lecture.
This invention relates to an online teaching system by which the teacher and students can observe each other by means of mosaic display showing the video or images of the teacher and classroom for formulating an almost direct teaching means where the reaction of the students are gauged by the teacher and the presentation by the teacher is appreciatively recognizable and feedback obtainable online lends a better prospect than by reading or accessing a taped version provided by some systems.
In general there are two ways presently available for learning. One by directly attending the schools or colleges or tuition centres i.e. the class room teaching where physical learning and teaching take place and another by accessing the teachings either uploaded online or available on recorded media stored online or at libraries.
The former as envisaged requires presence at the centers and the latter is a monotonous reproduction with barely any possibility of instant feedback.
The present invention takes into account the shortcomings in the above and is intended for usage in rural education program or learning by working people having no direct access to physical learning or teaching of multiple classrooms through a network.
In the present invention the video/image mosaic application brings the distant class rooms to the teacher.
While teaching in front of a camera, the teacher is presented with all aids that need to be depicted in the subject of teaching which can be conveyed to the students in distant class rooms.
Similarly the teacher is also presented with mosaic display showing the video or images of the distant classrooms so as to have a feel of the class rooms and the reaction of the students to what is being taught.
Thus there is a great enhancement of comfort at both the ends the observation of the teacher and the aids and presentation of the teacher by the students and the observance of the students and their reactions by the teacher.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG 1 is a flow c hart illustrating the invention
FIG 2 is a flow chart illustrating the detailed steps involved in working of Controller (100)
FIG 3 is a flow chart illustrating the detailed steps involved in working of Client (110)
FIG 4 is a flow chart illustrating the detailed steps involved in working of Mosaic Client (120)
Structural Functions of the Invention with reference to drawings
The Controller 100 is an application running on any computing device capable (PC/Handheld/Smart phone etc.) of Internet Protocol (EP) based communication. Controller establishes a communication link 140 with the server 130 and receives list of client(s) 110 from the server 130. This list contains information about client 110 capability to send/receive video or image data. To achieve this communication Controller 100 includes necessary h/w and s/w components.
Based on the capabilities of CHent(s) 110, Controller 100 sends either play video or image command to Client 110 and Mosaic Client 120 via communication link 140 with server 130 in between.
The Client 110 establishes a communication link 150 with the server and sends its video/image capability information to server 130. After receiving play command from server 130, Client 110 starts sending video/image data to server 130. If client 110 has communication link 170 it send video data else it send image data. The client 110 has necessary h/w and s/w to capture, process video/images and send them over network to Server 130. The client 110 can be a any capable computing device like desktop computer, smart phone or any other handheld device.
The Server 130 can be a single server or a group of servers handling different aspects of communication. Also there could be multiple servers to handle different clients so that the system is load balanced. The server may include database of Client 110 and other system level information required to configure and run the system. The server has all the required h/w and s/w necessary for establishing communication links, computation and storage.
The Mosaic client 120 establishes a communication link 160 with the Server 130. After receiving command from server 130, Mosaic client 120 starts playing video/image data on a screen. Mosaic client consists of necessary h/w and s/w for establishing communication link 160, decoding video/image of client 110 and displaying it on a screen in from of teacher.
The communication links 140, 150, 160, 170 can be wired/wireless links and may include or interface to internet, LAN, WAN, MAN, SAN
The controller 100, Client 110 and Mosaic Client 120 can be any device or personal computer running on Miscrosoft Windows, Unix, Linux, Sun Solaris, Apple OSX or any other operating system or platform.

Communication link 150 is the primary network like VSAT with low bandwidth capacity in Client 110 to Server 130 direction. This is used by the usual virtual classroom system and for Image mosaic part of the video mosaic application.
Communication link 170 is secondary network like 3G network with high bandwidth capacity in both directions. This is used for video mosaic part of the mosaic application.
Communication link 170 (like 3G) is secondary because it is not as widely available as Communication link 150 (like VSAT). If Communication link 170 is available at all locations then it can also act as primary link.
With communication link 150 being VSAT, special configuration is required to run video mosaic application using control channel of VSAT for carrying image data. By configuring control channel it can be used to send image data along with other control information required to run the VSAT network.
This unique usage of control channel frees up data channels of VSAT to be better utilized by audio video data for normal interactivity.
A system has of uniquely designed configuration in VSAT network. It enables simultaneous running of image mosaic application along with auto scanning feature. Concurrently, it intelligently bifurcates the hybridized data from reverse (backward) path into video image and auto scanning category. Subsequently, it routes it independently on control channel and in-route data channel respectively. This circumvents the need of otherwise taxing separate network.
Data Communication
As discussed above, client application uses two different networks for communication. As the primary network is constrained for reverse communication (like VSAT network which has limited reverse bandwidth), where-ever possible, client uses secondary network like 3G for sending video data to Mosaic server. The Mosaic Client (panel in front of teacher) receives the data from Mosaic server and presents it in front of the teacher.
The audio, image and/or video mosaic are transmitted using available primary or secondary network.
Network Monitoring Tool
Inventors system has a built in smart network monitoring tool. It is activated at remote locations. It provides the real time status and information about the precise packet drop in either audio or video or both the streams for the remotes as well as for the studio end.
It rapidly diagnoses the problem associated with different components of the application as well as network. Further, it facilitates to improve uptime of the system by alarming the corresponding problem addressing resources.

We Claim:
[I ] A method to provide simultaneous educational content from a studio end to at least
one or geographically apart multiple classrooms by means of a wireless communications network such as VSAT, where said method comprises of installation of teacher component software on teacher's computer coupled with a display devices located in studio end and installation of a school component software on one or more remote school's display unit coupled with computer(s), whereby the teacher component software along with its specific hardware and school component software beside with its customized hardware permits secured, bi-directional communication between the said teacher computer display comprising of video mosaic and said one or more remote school display to improve real time interaction with optimum bandwidth resources.
[2] A system comprising of a computer with specific hardware configuration, display device with desired pixel such as LCD screen/TV, smart board, white board, 2D and/or 3D camera at the teacher's end, wherein a pictorial representation of the layout of various remote schools is displayed on the said teacher display device at the studio i.e. broadcasting end. The layout i.e. image/video mosaic is arranged in category such as first cum first serve incoming feed, or alphabetical order or pre allotted serial number based ID of remote schools. As said in claim I, the return data from remote student end to teacher in studio end is crunched and received in real time by studio end in image/video mosaic format to give a look and feel of face to face interaction among geographically apart teacher and student through same wireless network.
[3] A system as cited in Claim 1, comprises of uniquely designed configuration in
VSAT network, which enables simultaneous running of image mosaic application along with auto scanning feature. Concurrently, it intelligently bifurcates the hybridized data from reverse (backward) path into video image and auto scanning category. Subsequently, it routes it independently on control channel and in-route data channel respectively. This circumvents the need of otherwise provisioning a separate network for image mosaic.
[4] A system as said in claim 1, has a built in network monitoring tool activated at
remote locations which provides the real time status and information about the precise packet drop in either audio or video or both the streams for the remotes as well as for the studio end. It rapidly diagnoses the problem associated with different components of the application as well as network. Further, it facilitates to improve uptime of the system by alarming the corresponding problem addressing resources.
[5] A system according to claim 2, the pictorial representation i.e. video mosaic at studio end being voluminous, is displayed in enumerated scrolling format permitting teacher to review and select remote school with predefined property functions such as shift, attendance, sub-locality/region wise to have a further interaction for question answer session in coordination with local teacher of remote school and its students.
[6] A system according to claim 2 to 5, enables teacher to interact with all the remote students and more specifically; those school where student have difficulty or failed to understand instructions, by responding to their gesture or facial expression from zooming plurality of mosaic of images and/or videos.

As per claim I to 3, uniike run of the mill virtual classroom techniques, inventors Video Mosaic application allows teachers to observe flicks of all the remote classrooms embedded in a single front panel. It facilitates him/her to customize his/her pace & depth of the delivery of instructions to improve grasping of topics by the remote students.
Further, unlike the established conventional model where, a teacher is exclusively, either virtually or physically linked with only one classroom, here due to video mosaic application generating a unification effect, the system stimulates an integrated classroom experience to teacher where, he has scalable flexibility to simultaneously demonstrate his effective teaching skills to regionally separated classroom comprising of multiple students in variable number, gender, socio-economy-Iinguistic background & grasping level.
[7] A system according to claim 2 to 6 facilitates teacher at multicasting/broadcasting end to illustrate to remote audience, an educational content by either writing on white board, or beaming a pre-recorder copyrighted multimedia content through smart board, and can perform demonstration of tools, instruments to conduct practical laboratory training besides theoretical
subjects.
[8] A system as cited in claim 2 to 7, integrates output from microphone, smart board output, white board output and analogue/digital shoot from various laboratory devices into a composite media that is securely, wirelessly transmitted in encrypted and encoded format which upon its receipt at multiple remote ends is decrypted and decoded by bandwidth and resource saving technique.
[9] A system as stated in claim 2, which comprises means for remote student to raise
their doubts to teacher in studio either by texting, audio or video mode under monitored environment with local teacher. Similarly system permits teacher to responds to enquiries raised by remote student in compatible language text, speech, image or video mode or integration of all of them in secured manner.
[10] A system as in claims 2 to 9, unlike the prevailing virtual classroom or video
conferencing solutions, enables multicast/broadcast multi-lingual text, noise free/cancelled audio, multi-dimensional video e.g. 3D, high definition educational multi-media content with optimal usage of bandwidth over secured wireless network. It also permits remote locations to receive the same in real time without compromise on fidelity. Unlike popularly used public domain/internet based connectivity & associated demerits; it uses secured control channel of VSAT linkage to carry images along with controlling signals to operate it.
[11] A system as in claim I to 10, permits administrator at studio end to real time monitor the interaction among studio based domain expert and students from distant school to sustain their interest, enhance grasping level and one to one interactivity with cost to bandwidth benefits. It enables administrator or any auditor at studio end to monitor the student behavior, responses and presence.
[12] It enables large institution managers who offer education through their
geographically distinct multiple branches operating at different hours of the day and impart instructions in more than one languages etc. to record, store and copyright the live lectures delivered by their own faculties and re-transmit/re-use them in real time in case of emergency/short fall of faculties thereby avoiding chaos.

[13] A system as highlighted in claims 1 to 12, authorizes remote schools to organize
their local time table to synchronize the centralized broadcasted schedule of various subjects offered in multiple languages to widen the benefits of education to students from different strata and bottom of the pyramidal society.
[14] A system as mentioned in all the aforesaid claims helps the school management to deploy their human knowledge capital in effective manner there by improving the student attendance, facilitating remote teacher management, optimizing laboratory consumables, quality education in remote and otherwise unreachable terrain, conserving overall academic hours thereby enabling morning, noon shifts, centralized monitoring of basic administration of remote schools. Specifically, medical fraternity will find the system as boon to learn rare surgical skills from specialized surgeon, sportsmen to learn strategic thinking, tactics, moves and other intricacies of games, rescue operation team can smartly manage disasters.
[15] A system cited in claim 1 to 14, allows usage of its specific hardware and software
components with networked infrastructure at either end to deliver social, vocational contents beyond school hours there by enhancing employability of remote student, run adult, women, minority, socio-weaker section education, create awareness about various government policies for masses etc. Basically it can serve as an effective tool to interact between citizens and government representative to address local issues in cost effective manner in real time.