Abstract: The visual condition of a patient is monitored by defining a an authorized patient zone, placing a video camera in a location to capture a visual image of the patient zone, defining a base visual image of the patient zone, monitoring the visual image at a remote location, identifying any change in the captured image from the base visual image, and generating an alert in the event a change is detected. Certain changes in the zone may occur without generating an alert. Authorized personnel may enter and leave the zone without generating an alert. In a typical application the system for practicing the method is networked based for providing medical appliance data directly to key personnel at a standard computer station. The system also includes video monitoring in real-time or near real-time, providing visual as well as technical monitoring of the patient wherever he is located. In one aspect of the invention, the system is IP based, permitting access to the information anywhere on the World Wide Web.

Abstract: A video call distribution and method provides the user of a video station with access to a video network conferencing station without human operator assistance, even if the communication protocols of the user video station are incompatible with those of the video network conferencing system. Access is provided by remote user transmitted DTMF (or voice) signals, which signals are converted into compatible protocols in real time.