Abstract: A communications method and system and more particularly, to systems, methods and apparatuses for universal user-to-user communications. A communication system is described which uses a Universal Identification Number (UIN) that identifies each user on the system, encapsulating data that represent the user him or herself. Such data may include, the user's current physical geolocation on the globe; current status (busy, reachable, not reachable); current active endpoint to reach at and preferred method of reach; and an aggregation of all endpoints at which the user can be reached, and their geolocation. The described method and network system thereby can dynamically introduce, adapt, and communicate services (in essence personalize) to each user based on their current location and status. Thus, a user may communicate with another user efficiently without the need to know all of their endpoints or without the need to have multiple communication attempts on multiple devices.

Abstract: A method of self-discovery and self-calibration is provided for allowing arbitrary placement of audio and video components in a multimedia conferencing system. In particular, one or more markers are provided on the audio components (e.g. microphone arrays, etc.) that are detectable by the video components (e.g. cameras). A unique signature (e.g. flashing sequence, color, etc.) characterizes each marker so that its exact location relative to the camera may be calculated. A self-calibration operation is then performed to relate, regulate and standardize dimensions and locations in the conferencing environment to the video system.

Abstract: A method of self-discovery and self-calibration is provided for allowing arbitrary placement of audio and video components in a multimedia conferencing system. In particular, one or more markers are provided on the audio components (e.g. microphone arrays, etc.) that are detectable by the video components (e.g. cameras). A unique signature (e.g. flashing sequence, color, etc.) characterizes each marker so that its exact location relative to the camera may be calculated. A self-calibration operation is then performed to relate, regulate and standardize dimensions and locations in the conferencing environment to the video system.