HIERARCHAL CONTROL OF TELECONFERENCES

• US 20120250846A1
• Filed: 06/13/2012
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Patrick J., Stern, Edith H., Weir, Robert C., Willner, Barry E., Willner, Marjorie R.
• Granted Patent: US 8,565,401 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A teleconference between at least two participants is evaluated by monitoring the teleconference and detecting a triggering event if more than one participant desires to speak at the same time. Upon detecting a triggering event, e.g., detecting an attempt of one or more participants to interrupt another participant, or detecting a request initiated by one or more participants to interrupt another participant, a dominant source is selected from among the ones of the participants attempting/requesting to speak based at least in part upon a determined hierarchal order of those participants attempting/requesting to speak. A participant is then selected from the participants to have the role of the dominant participant based upon the selected dominant source and only the speech of the dominant participant is conveyed to each participant through the teleconference system.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a teleconference conducted between two or more participants, comprising:

assigning, by a server of a corresponding teleconference system, a selected one of at least two participation states to each participant in the teleconference, wherein the corresponding teleconference system communicates with a communication device of each participant, wherein;

a first one of the participation states designates a muted state wherein communication from a corresponding participant in the muted state is prevented from reaching the remainder of the teleconference participants over the corresponding teleconference system; and

a second one of the participation states designates an active state wherein communication from a corresponding participant in the active state is transmitted to the remainder of the teleconference participants over the corresponding teleconference system;

monitoring, by the server of the corresponding teleconference system, at least one teleconference parameter associated with the teleconference, each teleconference parameter related to determining whether control of the teleconference should change; and

automatically performing a teleconference update without manual intervention when a triggering event is detected based upon monitoring the at least one teleconference parameter by;

determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference;

modifying a participation state of at least one participant based at least in part upon the determined hierarchal order of the participants; and

conveying at least the modified participation state to the corresponding teleconference system so as to implement the modified participation state of the at least one participant of the corresponding teleconference system.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

deriving a hierarchy based upon a policy or rule that determines whether a first participant can interrupt a designated dominant participant who is the only speaker that reaches the remainder of the teleconference participants over the corresponding teleconference system.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

deriving an organizational hierarchy from at least one as a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) or BluePages, or by deriving a hierarchy based upon a directed acyclic graph.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

creating a hierarchy by a host of the teleconference.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

deriving a hierarchy based upon at least one rule or policy specified by at least one of a corresponding organization, individual profiles of the participants or a predetermined set of best practice rules.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

deriving a hierarchy based upon at least one rule derived from at least one of cultural practice, gender or business practice.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a hierarchal order of the participants of the teleconference comprises

establishing the hierarchical order based upon a level of involvement of each participant during the teleconference.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the hierarchical order based upon a level of involvement dynamically changes during the teleconference.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the hierarchal order automatically dynamically changes at various times during the corresponding teleconference.

10. A method of controlling a teleconference between at least two participants comprising:

monitoring the teleconference, by a server of a corresponding teleconference system, to determine whether more than one participant connected to the corresponding teleconference system by a communication device desires to speak at the same time;

detecting a triggering event based upon monitoring the teleconference;

determining a hierarchal order of participants of the teleconference;

automatically selecting a dominant source without manual intervention based upon the participants desiring to speak and the hierarchal order of the participants;

determining a selected one participant from the at least two participants to have a role of a dominant participant based upon the selected dominant source; and

conveying only the speech of the dominant participant in the teleconference to each participant.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein at least one participant requests to be the dominant participant by performing at least one of

entering a dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) code on their communication device,

speaking into the communication device or

sending a data request to a corresponding teleconference system.

12. The method according to claim 10, further comprising

providing at least one of a visual or an audible cue to designate a change to the dominant participant.

13. The method according to claim 10, further comprising

responding to queries from the participants so as to identify the dominant participant.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the dominant participant has the right to delegate the role of dominant participant to another participant of the teleconference.

15. The method according to claim 10, further comprising

utilizing a policy of arbitration among participants desiring to be the dominant participant having similar hierarchal positions.