System and method for tracking events and providing feedback in a virtual conference

• US 10,110,645 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2017
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/05/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Minerva Project, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Minerva Project, Inc.
• Inventors: Bader-Natal, Ari, Tilley, Brandon, Kosslyn, Stephen Michael, Katzman, Jonathan Scott, Regan, Matthew Michael, Nelson, Ben
• Primary Examiner(s): Anwah, Olisa
• Application Number:
  US15/613,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20170279862A1
• Time in Patent Office: 505 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

A virtual conferencing system is described which tracks events during a virtual conference, provides a user interface for reviewing the events, and allows a moderator and/or other participant to provide feedback related to the events. For example, one embodiment of a virtual conferencing system comprises: a plurality of clients operated by participants and at least one moderator of a virtual conference, each of the clients comprising state management logic to maintain a current state of the virtual conference; a virtual conferencing service to establish audio and/or video connections between the plurality of clients during the virtual conference, the virtual conferencing service further including a state synchronization service communicatively coupled to the state management logic on each client to ensure that the current state of the virtual conference is consistent on each client; a virtual conferencing graphical user interface (GUI) to be rendered on the plurality of clients, the virtual conferencing GUI configured, via signals sent from the state synchronization service, to display a video stream of one or more current speakers during the virtual conference utilizing the established video connections; and a contribution identification module to identify events related to actions of participants during the virtual conference; an event log to store the events identified by the contribution identification module; and an event filter to provide options for searching for specific types of events within the event log based on input from the moderator and/or participants when reviewing a recording of the virtual conference, the event filter to generate a filtered set of events based on the input from the moderator and/or participants.

Claims

1. A system for tracking events and providing feedback in a virtual conference, the system comprising:

a plurality of clients operated by participants and at least one moderator of the virtual conference;

a virtual conferencing service to establish audio and/or video connections between the plurality of clients during the virtual conference;

a contribution identification module to identify events related to actions of participants during the virtual conference;

an event log to store the events identified by the contribution identification module;

an event filter to search for specific types of events within the event log based on input from a moderator and/or the participants when reviewing a recording of the virtual conference, the event filter comprising options selectable by the moderator and/or the participants for filtering events by participant and by different event types, wherein the event filter is to generate a filtered set of events based on the input from the moderator and/or participants;

an event list to visually display the filtered set of events within a graphical user interface (GUI); and

a contribution assessment module to provide an option to enter feedback related to one or more events selected within the event list.

2. The system as in claim 1, further comprising:

a media player to play back recorded portions of video and/or audio from the virtual conference corresponding to an event selected from within the event list.

3. The system as in claim 2, wherein the media player includes a graphical element to allow the user to jump ahead or jump back to different portions of the video and/or audio, wherein upon jumping ahead or back, an event is highlighted from within the event list corresponding to the point to which the jump was performed within the video and/or audio.

4. The system as in claim 1, wherein the different types of events include speaking events comprising periods during which one or more of the participants speak during the virtual conference, typed comments submitted by participants during the virtual conference, and bookmark events indicating points in time at which the moderator entered bookmarks during the virtual conference.

5. The system as in claim 1, wherein the event filter further includes options for performing additional filtering within a particular type of event.

6. The system as in claim 5, wherein the event filter provides options for filtering speaking events based on the duration of the speaking events and further provides options for filtering typed comments based on length of the typed comments.

7. The system as in claim 1, wherein the contribution assessment module is to generate a feedback region with the GUI into which a moderator and/or participant may enter the feedback.

8. The system as in claim 7, wherein the contribution assessment module is to provide a list of options from which the moderator and/or participant may select to provide the feedback for each selected event.

9. The system as in claim 8, wherein the contribution assessment module is to provide a field into which moderator and/or participant may provide comments related to each selected event.

10. The system as in claim 9, wherein a participant is provided with access to the comments and other feedback related to an event by selecting the event from within the event list.

11. The system as in claim 10, wherein the event filter further includes an option to filter events based on whether the events have been assessed.

12. A method for tracking events and providing feedback in a virtual conference, the method comprising:

establishing audio and/or video connections between a plurality of clients with a virtual conferencing service;

rendering a virtual conferencing graphical user interface (GUI) on each client;

identifying events related to actions of participants during the virtual conference;

storing the events within an event log;

providing options for searching for specific types of events within the event log based on input from a moderator and/or participants when reviewing a recording of the virtual conference, the options being selectable by the moderator and/or the participants for filtering events by participant and by different event types;

generating a filtered set of events based on the input from the moderator and/or participants;

visually displaying the filtered set of events within an event list of a graphical user interface (GUI); and

providing an option to enter feedback related to one or more events selected within the event list.

13. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

playing back recorded portions of video and/or audio from the virtual conference within a media player, the recorded portions of video and/or audio corresponding to an event selected from within the event list.

14. The method as in claim 13, wherein the media player includes a graphical element to allow the user to jump ahead or jump back to different portions of the video and/or audio, wherein upon jumping ahead or back, an event is highlighted from within the event list corresponding to the point to which the jump was performed within the video and/or audio.

15. The method as in claim 12, wherein the different types of events include speaking events comprising periods during which one or more of the participants speak during the virtual conference, typed comments submitted by participants during the virtual conference, and bookmark events indicating points in time at which the moderator entered bookmarks during the virtual conference.

16. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

providing options for performing additional filtering within a particular type of event.

17. The method as in claim 16, wherein the options include options for filtering speaking events based on the duration of the speaking events and further include options for filtering typed comments based on a length of the typed comments.