Participant profiling in a conferencing system

• US 10,268,360 B2
• Filed: 04/30/2010
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: American Teleconferencing Services Limited (Premiere Global Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: American Teleconferencing Services Limited (Premiere Global Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Jones, Boland T., Guthrie, David Michael, Stewart, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip J
• Assistant Examiner(s): McAdams, Robert B
• Application Number:
  US12/771,920
• Publication Number:
  US 20110270921A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,280 Days
• Field of Search: 709204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0421 by interrupting or reflecting a light beam, e.g. optical touch-screen
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/043 using propagating acoustic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/044 by capacitive means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/045 using resistive elements, e.g. a single continuous surface or two parallel surfaces put in contact
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• 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 65/104 in the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1045 Proxies, e.g. for session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/42 Graphical user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/2038 Call context notifications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/655 Combination of telephone service and social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/562 where the conference facilities are distributed
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 : Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication

Abstract

A computer system comprises a conference system for providing an audio conference and an associated server having a participant profile module comprising: logic configured to presenting a conference user interface to the first and second computing devices, the conference user interface displaying a first object identifying the first participant in association with a first audio indicator and a second object identifying the second participant in association with a second audio indicator; logic configured to present, in the conference user interface, a participant profile control associated with the first participant for specifying one or more profile parameters associated with the first participant; and logic configured to receive, from the second participant via the second computing device and during the audio conference, a selection of the one or more or more profile parameters associated with the first participant.

Claims

1. A method for profiling participants in an online conference, the method comprising:

a conferencing system establishing an audio conference having an associated online conference between a plurality of identified participants having a stored participant profile and an unidentified participant who joins the audio conference via an incoming call from an originating telephone number without joining the associated online conference;

the conferencing system presenting a conference user interface to the plurality of identified participants, the conference user interface displaying a unique interactive participant object with an audio indicator for each of the identified participants and the unidentified participant, the audio indicator having a first visual display state identifying when the corresponding participant is not speaking during the audio conference and a second visual state identifying when the corresponding participant is speaking during the audio conference, the unique interactive participant objects corresponding to the identified participants displaying profile information from the associated stored participant profile, and the unique interactive participant object corresponding to the unidentified participant visually indicating that participant profile information is not available, each of the unique interactive participant objects comprising a participant profile control;

in response to the audio indicator in the unique interactive participant object associated with the unidentified participant being switched from the first visual display state to the second visual display state while the unidentified participant is speaking during the audio conference, receiving a user selection from one of the identified participants of the corresponding participant profile control;

in response to the user selection of the participant profile control displayed in the unique interactive participant object of the unidentified participant, the conference user interface prompting the selecting identified participant to enter one or more participant parameters for the unidentified participant, the one or more participant parameters specified via one of a search engine results page or a social networking system; and

in response to receiving the one or more participant parameters for the unidentified participant;

updating the conference user interface to display the one or more participant parameters via the unique interactive participant object associated with the previously unidentified participant; and

the conferencing system generating and storing a new participant profile linking the one or more participants parameters to the originating telephone number.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more participant parameters comprises one or more of a participant name, a title and an organization.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the previously unidentified participant accessing the conferencing system for a subsequent online conference via the originating telephone number;

the conferencing system performing a database query to identify the new participant profile based on the originating telephone number; and

determining the one or more participant parameters stored in the new participant profile.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

identifying the previously unidentified participant according to the one or more participant parameters during the subsequent online conference.

5. A computer system for providing an audio conference, the computer system comprising:

a conferencing system for establishing an audio conference having an associated online conference between a plurality of identified participants having a stored participant profile and an unidentified participant who joins the audio conference via an incoming call from an originating telephone number without joining the associated online conference; and

a server configured to communicate with the conferencing system to present a conference user interface to the plurality of identified participants, the conference user interface displaying a unique interactive participant object with an audio indicator for each of the identified participants and the unidentified participant, the audio indicator having a first visual display state identifying when the corresponding participant is not speaking during the audio conference and a second visual display state identifying when the corresponding participant is speaking during the audio conference, the unique interactive participant objects corresponding to the identified participants displaying profile information from the associated stored participant profile, and the unique interactive participant object corresponding to the unidentified participant visually indicating that participant profile information is not available, each of the unique interactive participant objects comprising a participant profile control, the server comprising;

a processor and a memory; and

a participant profile module embodied in the memory and executed by the processor, the participant profile module comprising logic configured to;

in response to the audio indicator in the unique interactive participant object associated with the unidentified participant being switched from the first visual display state to the second visual display state while the unidentified participant is speaking during the audio conference, receive a user selection from one of the identified participants of the corresponding participant profile control;

in response to the user selection of the participant profile control displayed in the unique participant object of the unidentified participant, prompt the selecting identified participant to enter one or more participant parameters for the unidentified participant, the one or more participant parameters specified via one of a search engine results page or a social networking system;

receive the one or more participant parameters for the unidentified participant;

update the conference user interface to display the one or more participant parameters via the unique interactive participant object associated with the previously unidentified participant; and

generate and store a new participant profile linking the one or more participant parameters to the originating telephone number.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the one or more participant parameters comprises one or more of a participant name, a title and an organization.

7. The computer system of claim 5, wherein:

the previously unidentified participant accesses the conferencing system for a subsequent online conference via the originating telephone number;

the server performs a database query to identify the new participant profile based on the originating telephone number; and

the server determines the one or more participant parameters stored in the new participant profile.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the server identifies the previously unidentified participant in a new interactive participant object according to the one or more participant parameters during the subsequent online conference.

9. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the conference system and the server communicate via an API.

10. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the server is integrated with the conference system.