INTELLIGENT CONFERENCE CALL INFORMATION AGENTS

• US 20100274796A1
• Filed: 04/27/2009
• Published: 10/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Bhatnager, Vivek, Beauregard, Derek, Toennis, Roger
• Granted Patent: US 8,700,665 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• 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 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

A system is disclosed that integrates with conferencing platforms and provides real-time information by having intelligent agents running on a networked server that is integrated with the conferencing platform. The intelligent agents may be customized or adapted “on the fly” or be preprogrammed by a user or caller to examine real-time data feeds or actively search websites and other information sources. The agents then report any relevant information or content to the system for injection or broadcast into the conference.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

(a) connecting a live communication between at least first and second participants;

(b) during the live communication, searching, by a processor, a data source for selected information, the selected information being relevant to the content of the live communication; and

(c) in response to locating selected information, providing, by a processor and during the live communication, the located selected information to at least one of the first and second participants.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the live communication is a conference call, wherein the selected information is provided to a conference bridge associated with the live communication, and wherein the data source is in the form of a syndicated feed.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) comprises the substeps:

(B1) receiving the content of the live communication;

(B2) converting at least a portion of the content of the live communication to a text equivalent;

(B3) parsing the text equivalent to locate a set of keywords; and

(B4) searching the data source using the keywords to locate the selected information.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search parameters are selected by at least one of the first and second participants before the live communication is initiated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first participant is associated with first and second agents, wherein the first agent is configured to locate selected first information using a first set of keywords, wherein the second agent is configured to locate selected second information using a second set of keywords, and wherein the first and second agents are connected simultaneously to the live communication.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein, in step (c), the processor broadcasts the selected information to the first and second participants during the live communication.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein, in step (c), the selected information is provided over a channel different from the channel being used for the bearer messages for the live communication.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

(d) configuring the processor to perform the search, wherein the configuration parameters comprise a plurality of a conference bridge number, a time to call into the conference bridge, a prerecorded message to be relayed during the live communication, the search parameters, and data fees to be used for the data source.

9. A computer readable medium comprising processor-executable instructions to perform the steps of claim 1.

10. A conferencing system, comprising:

(a) a conference bridge to conference together at least first and second participants; and

(b) an agent operable, during the conference call, to search a data source for selected information, the selected information being relevant to the content of the conference call and, in response to locating selected information, provide the located selected information to at least one of the first and second participants.

11. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the selected information is provided to the conference bridge and wherein the data source is in the form of a syndicated feed from an Internet aggregator.

12. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the search operation comprises the sub-operations:

receive the content of the conference call;

convert at least a portion of the content of the conference call to a text equivalent;

parse the text equivalent to locate a set of keywords; and

search the data source using the keywords to locate the selected information.

13. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the first participant is associated with first and second agents, wherein the first agent is configured to locate selected first information using a first set of keywords, wherein the second agent is configured to locate selected second information using a second set of keywords, and wherein the first and second agents are connected simultaneously to the conference call.

14. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the providing operation comprises broadcasting the selected information to the first and second participants during the conference call.

15. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the providing operation comprises transmitting the selected information over a channel different from the channel being used for the bearer messages for the conference call.

16. The conferencing system of claim 10, wherein the agent is configured to perform the search before the conference call and wherein the configuration parameters comprise a plurality of a conference bridge number, a time to call into the conference bridge, a prerecorded message to be relayed during the live communication, the search parameters, and data fees to be used for the data source.

17. A method, comprising:

(a) transmitting by a conference bridge a first audio output stream from a first participant communication device to a second participant communication device and a second audio output stream from the second participant communication device to the first participant communication device;

(b) identifying, by an information agent, at least a first keyword in at least one of the first and second audio output streams;

(c) searching, by the information agent, a syndicated feed for the at least a first keyword to provide selected information; and

(d) providing, while the conference call is connected, the selected information to at least one of the first and second participant communication devices.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the selected information is provided by the conference bridge to the at least one of the first and second participant communication devices.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the selected information is provided by a channel different from the channels used for communications.

20. A computer readable medium encoded with processor-executable instructions operable to perform the steps of claim 17.