MANAGING CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS IN A ROSTER

• US 20070260684A1
• Filed: 05/05/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Baird, Randall, Sharma, Heeral
• Application Number:
  US11/381,963
• Publication Number:
  US 20070260684A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• 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 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership

Abstract

This document discusses, among other things, systems and methods for managing a conference room roster. A method identifies a meeting participant. The method determines whether the meeting participant is associated with a meeting location and if the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location, provides an indication of the association on a computer display.

Claims

1. A computer-assisted method of organizing meeting participants comprising:

identifying a meeting participant;

determining whether the meeting participant is associated with a meeting location; and

if the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location, then providing an indication of the association on a computer display.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the association includes at least one sub-roster related to one of a plurality of meeting locations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the association is a hierarchal tree display.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the meeting location is a geographic location or a conference room.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the meeting participant comprises:

providing a login screen to the meeting participant;

receiving login information from the meeting participant; and

using the login information to determine the meeting participant'"'"'s identity.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the meeting participant comprises:

receiving a voice sample of the meeting participant;

comparing characteristics of the voice sample to characteristics of one or more stored voice samples; and

if the comparison results in a match, then using the match to determine the meeting participant'"'"'s identity.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location comprises:

receiving location identification information from a meeting attendee; and

using the location identification information to determine the meeting participant'"'"'s location.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the location identification information is one of a vocal command, a keystroke, or a mouse action.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the location identification information is an indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking and wherein using the location identification information comprises:

detecting a voice signal of the current speaker;

associating the voice signal with at least one voice channel; and

determining the location of the meeting participant using the corresponding voice channel.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location comprises:

receiving an indication that the meeting participant is currently speaking;

detecting an active voice channel associated with the meeting participant'"'"'s speech; and

using the active voice channel to determine a meeting participant'"'"'s location.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication that the meeting participant is currently speaking is one of a vocal command, a keystroke, or a mouse action.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication that the meeting participant is currently speaking is provided by the meeting participant.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking is provided by another meeting participant.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein using the voice channel only occurs if the active speaker can be unambiguously associated with the meeting location.

16. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving voice data;

determining if the voice data matches voice data of a current meeting participant; and

if there is a match, indicating a speaking meeting participant on the computer display.

10. The method of claim 10, wherein associating the voice signal with activity on the voice channel occurs only if the activity uniquely identifies the location.

17. A computer-assisted method of identifying an actively speaking participant in conference comprising:

receiving an indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking;

recording voice characteristics of an active voice channel;

associating the recorded voice characteristics with the meeting participant;

matching voice characteristics of subsequent active voice channels against the recorded voice characteristics; and

displaying an indication of the identity of the meeting participant as the active speaker using the results of the matches.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking is provided by another meeting participant.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the recording of voice characteristics only occurs if there is an unambiguous active voice channel.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the recording of voice characteristics only occurs if the voice characteristics are sufficiently distinctive.

21. The method of claim 17, comprising displaying an active location using the active voice channel.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein displaying the active location only occurs if the active voice channel uniquely identifies a location.

23. A computer-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by a computer, cause the computer to:

identify a meeting participant;

determine whether the meeting participant is associated with a meeting location; and

if the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location, then provide an indication of the association on a computer display.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the indication of the association includes at least one sub-roster related to one of a plurality of meeting locations.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the indication of the association is a hierarchal tree display.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the meeting location is a geographic location or a conference room.

27. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions for identifying the meeting participant cause the computer to:

receive a voice sample of the meeting participant;

compare characteristics of the voice sample to characteristics of one or more stored voice samples; and

if the comparison results in a match, then use the match to determine the meeting participant'"'"'s identity.

28. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions for determining whether the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location cause the computer to:

receive location identification information from a meeting attendee; and

use the location identification information to determine the meeting participant'"'"'s location.

29. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the location identification information is one of a vocal command, a keystroke, or a mouse action.

30. The computer-readable medium of claim 28, wherein the location identification information is an indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking and wherein the instructions for using the location identification information cause the computer to:

detect a voice signal of the current speaker;

associate the voice signal with at least one voice channel; and

determine the location of the meeting participant using the corresponding voice channel.

31. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, wherein the instructions for determining whether the meeting participant is associated with the meeting location cause the computer to:

receive an indication that the meeting participant is currently speaking;

detect an active voice channel associated with the meeting participant'"'"'s speech; and

use the active voice channel to determine a meeting participant'"'"'s location.

32. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, comprising instructions that cause the computer to:

receive a voice data;

determine if the voice data matches a voice data of a current meeting participant; and

if there is a match, indicate a speaking meeting participant on the computer display.

33. A computer-readable medium including instructions that, when performed by a computer, cause the computer to:

receive an indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking;

record voice characteristics of an active voice channel;

associate the recorded voice characteristics with the meeting participant;

match voice characteristics of subsequent active voice channels against the recorded voice characteristics; and

display an indication of the identity of the meeting participant as the active speaker using the results of the matches.

34. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the indication that a meeting participant is currently speaking is provided by another meeting participant.

35. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the recording of voice characteristics only occurs if there is an unambiguous active voice channel.

36. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, wherein the recording of voice characteristics only occurs if the voice characteristics are sufficiently distinctive.

37. The computer-readable medium of claim 33, comprising instructions to display an active location using the active voice channel.

38. The computer-readable medium of claim 37, wherein the instructions to display the active location only occur if the active voice channel uniquely identifies a location.

39. A system for organizing meeting participants comprising:

a processor coupled to a memory;

a user interface coupled to the processor;

a sound capture module to run on the processor to receive and store a voice print; and

a display module to run on the processor to update the user interface related to the captured voice print, wherein the update to the user interface includes arranging an indication of a meeting participant associated with the voice print to correspond with the meeting participant'"'"'s location.

40. The system of claim 39, comprising:

a sound analyzer module to run on the processor to determine if the captured voice print'"'"'s quality is sufficient to allow voice matching.

41. A system for organizing meeting participants comprising:

one or more conference end points; and

one or more hubs communicatively coupled to the one or more conference endpoints, wherein each hub includes;

a processor;

a sound capture module to run on the processor to receive and store a voice print from the one or more conference end points; and

an output module to run on the processor to deliver an indication a location of a meeting participant associated with the voice print to the one or more conference endpoints.

42. The system of claim 41, the one or more hubs comprising:

a sound analyzer module to run on the processor to determine if the captured voice print'"'"'s quality is sufficient to allow voice matching.

43. The system of claim 41, wherein the conference end point is one of a microphone, a video conference station, a telephonic device, or a computer.