Unified communications bridging architecture

Abstract

A method, system, and apparatus for bridging communications between unified communications (UC) clients. Included herein is a UC client driver module with a set of UC client drivers configured to translate UC client specific human interface device (HID) commands to a common format. Also included is a UC audio assistant module configured to receive the HID commands in the common format and translate the HID commands from the common format into a device specific format. A device specific driver module with a set of device specific drivers is configured to pass the HID commands in the device specific format to an output device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An apparatus for bridging communications between unified communications (UC) clients, the apparatus comprising:
 a UC client driver module comprising a set of UC client drivers configured to translate UC client specific human interface device (HID) commands to a common format; and   a UC audio assistant module configured to receive the HID commands in the common format and translate the HID commands from the common format into a device specific format; and   a device specific driver module comprising a set of device specific drivers configured to pass the HID commands in the device specific format to an output device.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the UC audio assistant module is further configured to perform a mix-minus methodology on a UC client audio stream. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the set of UC client drivers comprise virtual audio device drivers. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the set of UC client drivers is configured to translate UC client specific human interface device (HID) commands from a plurality of types of UC clients. 
     
     
         5 . A method for bridging communications between unified communications (UC) clients, the method comprising:
 receiving a set of HID commands from a UC client;   translating the set of HID commands to a common format;   translating the set of HID commands from the common format to an output device specific format;   passing the set of HID commands in the output device specific format to a corresponding output device driver.