A signature comprised of a plurality of data blocks formatted in accordance with a multicast communications protocol is received from a target appliance. When it is determined that one or more of the plurality of data blocks has been populated with user data, a representation of at least a portion of signature is provided to an analytics engine for processing whereby the user data within the one or more of the plurality of data blocks is replaced with a predicted, original data. The predicted, original data is then usable to provision a controlling device with a command code set for use in communicating commands to the target appliance.

A signature comprised of a plurality of data blocks formatted in accordance with a multicast communications protocol is received from a target appliance. When it is determined that one or more of the plurality of data blocks has been populated with user data, a representation of at least a portion of signature is provided to an analytics engine for processing whereby the user data within the one or more of the plurality of data blocks is replaced with a predicted, original data. The predicted, original data is then usable to provision a controlling device with a command code set for use in communicating commands to the target appliance.

Methods and apparatus for receiving user meeting control for network conferences. In an embodiment, a method for receiving user meeting controls includes transmitting a request to participate in a network conference. The request includes an identifier. The method also includes receiving meeting controls for use during the network conference. The meeting controls are determined from a policy database based on the identifier.

A method and system for facilitating collaboration between two groups without impairing or affecting the structure of the two groups is provided.

A real-world object-based method and system of performing an authentication of a person in order to permit access to a secured resource is disclosed. The system and method are configured to collect image data from an end-user in real-time that includes objects in their environment. At least one object is selected and its image data stored for subsequent authentication sessions, when the system can determine whether there is a match between the new image data and image data previously collected and stored in a database. If there is a match, the system verifies an identity of the person and can further be configured to automatically grant the person access to one or more services, features, or information for which he or she is authorized.

A method and apparatus are disclosed herein for controlling transmit power in a station (STA) of a wireless local area network (WLAN). A STA may transmit, to another STA, transmit power step size information that indicates a maximum transmission power for an operational bandwidth that the STA supports. The STA may receive, from another STA, a signal in one of the plurality of operational bandwidths that the STA supports. The received signal may include a transmission power based on the transmitted adjustment step size setting.

A hierarchical wireless network is provided with a mesh backbone network portion and a switching tree network portion, The mesh backbone network portion includes first tier nodes each having at least one wireless link to another first tier node, The first tier nodes execute a link-state protocol for routing packets, The switching tree network portion includes second tier nodes each having a single wireless link to one first tier node and at least one wireless link to one third tier node, and third tier nodes each having a single wireless link to one second tier node. The second tier and the third tier nodes execute switching rules for switching packets,

A method and notification system for notifying broadcast streams to multiple users. A notifier receives, from a broadcaster, a request to notify a broadcast stream to the multiple users. The notifier receives preferences from a subset of users of two or more social networking systems. The preferences identify: (i) some but not all social networking systems of the two or more social networking systems which should send notifications about the broadcast stream to the subset of users; and (ii) times during which the notifications about the broadcast stream should be sent to the subset of users. The notifier instructs an agent representing a broadcaster in each social networking system of only the some social networking systems to send notifications about the broadcast stream to the subset of users at the times identified in the preferences.

A transmission terminal transmits video data and display data of a screen shared with another transmission terminal to the other transmission terminal via a predetermined relay apparatus. The transmission terminal includes a storage unit that stores relay apparatus information of the relay apparatus to which the transmission terminal transmits the video data; a receive unit that receives the display data from an external input apparatus connected to the transmission terminal; and a transmitting unit that transmits the display data received by the receive unit to the relay apparatus indicated by the relay apparatus information stored in the storage unit.

A conference system is provided with enhanced settings capabilities. A controller can poll for settings at each endpoint in a conference system and be able via the video stream to selectively display and compare settings among the endpoints. One location can push its settings to one or more locations to overcome failures or degradation in the conference. The settings between different controllers may be rationalized via a common denominator method or tabular method to build a knowledge of how to configure conferences and to automate responses to problems.