ARBITRARY PARTICIPATION RELAYING APPARATUS, ARBITRARY PARTICIPATION VIDEO CONFERENCE SYSTEM, AND ARBITRARY PARTICIPATION RELAYING METHOD

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus and a system that can hold an arbitrary participation video conference in response to requests from many unspecified terminals. SOLUTION: An arbitrary participation relaying apparatus includes: an in-session conference information acquisition section 14 for obtaining video conference information in session from a plurality of multi-point control units; and a transfer processing section 16 that receives a participation application to a video conference selected by a telephone terminal with an image transmission function on the basis of the video conference information obtained from the in-session conference information acquisition section and transfers information for image communication between the telephone terminal with the image transmission function and a multi-point control unit holding the selected video conference to the multi-point control unit. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI