8x8 provider of Packet8 broadband VoIP and videophone communications services announce it has been awarded a new U.S. Patent for video communication involving monitoring and security applications over communication networks.

The new patent, U.S. Patent No. 7,202,884, issued April 10, 2007 and is titled "Surveillance Method and System." Amongst the 37 allowed claims is claim #1 which reads:

1. A surveillance system comprising:

• a first communications system communicatively coupled and adapted to deliver a request for image data;
• a second communications system communicatively coupled and adapted to transmit image data;
• a programmable surveillance system including a first computer arrangement for processing data including image data, and including a camera configured and arranged to capture images, wherein the captured images are processed as data by the first computer arrangement, and wherein the programmable system is configured and arranged to receive the request for image data from the first communications system, and, in response to the request, to automatically access and deliver image data to the second communications system;
• and a second computer arrangement for communicatively coupling with the second communications system, and for processing data including image data, and configured and arranged to retrieve image data delivered by the first computer arrangement.

Since its establishment in 1987, 8x8 has been awarded sixty-seven United States patents covering a variety of voice and video communications technologies.