CONFERENCE ROLL CALL

• US 20080117838A1
• Filed: 11/22/2006
• Published: 05/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Yee, Dawson, Gupta, Anoop
• Granted Patent: US 8,885,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/32 including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system or for message authentication, e.g. authorization, entity authentication, data integrity or data verification, non-repudiation, key authentication or verification of credentials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5072 Multiple active speakers conducting a computer conference, e.g. Admission detection H04L12/1822
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5081 Inform conference party of participants, e.g. of change of participants conducting a computer conference, e.g. admission detection, H04L12/1822
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/569 using the instant speaker's algorithm speech detection per se G10L25/78
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

A facility is described for providing conference roll calls that identify participants in electronically facilitated conferences. In various embodiments, the facility receives identifiers of participants in an electronically facilitated conference and displays a list of the participants in a roll call. The list can include indications of which participant is speaking, whether participants are authenticated, and other information associated with the participant, such as the participant'"'"'s name.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system for providing a conference roll call for an electronically facilitated conference, comprising:

receiving indications of a first participant and a second participant participating in the electronically facilitated conference;

storing the received indications of the first participant and the second participant in a list of conference participants, the list of conference participants providing a roll call for the electronically facilitated conference; and

dynamically detecting that the first participant is speaking; and

displaying the roll call to the second participant, the display indicating identifiers for the first and second participants and an indication that the first participant is speaking.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving messages containing voice information wherein the dynamically detecting includes employing signal processing techniques to analyze the received messages containing voice information.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an indication that a third participant has joined the electronically facilitated conference and displaying an identifier for the third participant in the displayed roll call.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving a message indicating that a participant is authenticated and displaying in the displayed roll call an indication that the participant is authenticated.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising retrieving information associated with a participant and displaying in the displayed roll call the retrieved information.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the retrieving includes employing an application program interface provided by an address book provider to retrieve the participant'"'"'s name.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving from a participant an identifier for the participant and a secret and authenticating the participant based on the received identifier and the secret.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising sending a message to other participants indicating that the participant is authenticated.

9. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method of providing a conference roll call for an electronically facilitated conference, the method comprising:

receiving from a first participant a second uniform resource identifier of a second participant, the first participant associated with a first uniform resource identifier;

sending to a location associated with the second uniform resource identifier a message inviting the second participant to the electronically facilitated conference; and

upon receiving an acceptance to the invitation from the second participant displaying a roll call listing the first and second uniform resource identifiers.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising determining whether one of the participants is speaking and, when a participant is speaking, identifying in the displayed roll call the speaking participant.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising:

receiving an identifier for the first participant;

receiving a secret associated with the first participant; and

authenticating the first participant based on the received identifier and the secret.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9 further comprising:

adding a third participant to the electronically facilitated conference, the third participant employing a conventional telephone; and

indicating a telephone number associated with the third participant in the displayed roll call.

13. A system for providing a conference roll call for an electronically facilitated conference, comprising:

a first apparatus that enables an electronically facilitated conference, the first apparatus employed by a first participant in the electronically facilitated conference, the first participant identified by a first identifier;

a second apparatus that enables an electronically facilitated conference, the second apparatus employed by a second participant in the electronically facilitated conference, the second participant identified by a second identifier;

a network that enables communications between the first apparatus and the second apparatus, the first apparatus and the second apparatus connected to the network; and

a display unit associated with the first apparatus that displays information associated with identifiers of the first and second participants, the displayed information including a roll call of participants in the electronically facilitated conference.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the first apparatus comprises a computing device executing a Voice over Internet Protocol application.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the second apparatus comprises a computing device executing a Voice over Internet Protocol application.

16. The system of claim 14 wherein the second apparatus comprises a Voice over Internet Protocol telephone.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the second apparatus comprises a conventional telephone or a mobile phone and the first apparatus displays a telephone number associated with the second participant.

18. The system of claim 13 further comprising a multipoint control unit connected to the network that receives messages containing at least audio information from the first apparatus and the second apparatus, mixes the audio information, and sends messages containing the mixed audio information to the first apparatus and the second apparatus.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the multipoint control unit sends a message indicating that a participant is speaking.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein upon receiving the message indicating that a participant is speaking, the first apparatus updates its display to indicate that the first participant is speaking.