Method and system for associating a conference participant with a telephone call

• US 7,792,262 B2
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Issued: 09/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Parker, Cameron J.
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US11/120,648
• Publication Number:
  US 20060245566A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,954 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/204.01, 379/205.01, 379/206.01, 709/205, 709/204
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/38 Displays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5054 Meet-me conference, i.e. participants dial-in
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/563 User guidance or feature selection

Abstract

A method and system for identifying conference participants who dial in to a telephone conference of an electronic conference that includes a web conference is provided. To identify a conference participant, a conference system displays to a user the names of those conference participants who have not yet been associated with a telephone line of the telephone conference. The conference system plays to the user the identification announcement of a conference participant who is not yet associated with a telephone line. When the user hears the identification announcement, the user recognizes the name of the conference participant and selects the name of that conference participant from the displayed names. The conference system can then associate that conference participant with the telephone line associated with the identification announcement that was played to the user.

Claims

1. A method in a conference system having a processor and memory for associating a conference participant with a telephone line,

the method comprising:

for each of a plurality of conference participants,

receiving from the conference participant an incoming call on a telephone line;

after the received incoming call is answered, receiving via the telephone line from the conference participant an audio name announcement;

determining by the processor whether the conference participant can be automatically identified based on information provided with the incoming call;

when the conference participant can be automatically identified based on information provided with the incoming call, associating in the memory with the telephone line an identification of the conference participant that was automatically identified;

when the conference participant cannot be automatically identified based on information provided with the incoming call,

providing to a user a display of conference participants who have not been associated with a telephone line;

outputting to the user the audio name announcement received via the telephone line;

receiving from the user an identification of the conference participant associated with the telephone line based on the user recognizing the name of the conference participant from the output audio name announcement; and

associating in the memory with the telephone line the identification of the conference participant that was received from the user.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the user is the leader of the conference.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the audio name announcement is provided by a caller as an identification for other conference participants.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the conference system is a web-based conference system.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the user can request that the audio name announcement be repeated.

6. A computer-readable storage medium containing instructions capable of being executed by a computer for controlling a web conference system to associate conference participants with telephone calls of a telephone conference system for a conference having a web portion and a telephone portion, by a method comprising:

receiving from the conference participants requests to join the web portion of the conference;

establishing the telephone portion of the conference with telephone calls between the telephone conference system and the conference participants;

providing a mapping of audio identification announcements associated with the telephone calls, the identification announcements being provided by conference participants;

when it can be determined from a telephone number associated with the telephone call that the telephone call is associated with a conference participant, associating for the conference that telephone call with that conference participant; and

when a conference participant is not associated with a telephone call,

directing the telephone conference system to provide to a user the audio identification announcement associated with the telephone call of the telephone portion of the conference as indicated by the mapping;

determining the conference participant who corresponds to the provided audio identification announcement by receiving from the user an identification of the conference participant identified by the audio identification announcement; and

associating that telephone call with the determined conference participant so that when a conference participant speaks during the telephone conference, the web conference system can use the association between telephone calls and conference participants to identify the speaking conference participant.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the user is provided with the identification of conference participants not associated with a telephone line.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the user is the leader of the conference.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein the audio identification announcement is provided by a caller as an identification for other conference participants.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 6 wherein a conference participant not associated with a telephone line is a person who joins the telephone conference by dialing in.

11. A computer-based conference system for associating a conference participant with a telephone line of a telephone conference system, comprising:

a mapping of audio identification announcements associated with telephone lines of the telephone conference, the audio identification announcements being provided by conference participants;

a component that for each telephone line of the telephone conference,

when it is determined that non-audio identification information that uniquely identifies the conference participant who called in via that telephone line has been provided, associates that telephone line with that conference participant; and

when it is determined that non-audio identification information that uniquely identifies the conference participant who called in via that telephone line has not been provided;

directs a telephone conference system conducting a telephone conference in parallel with a computer-based conference to output to a user an audio identification announcement associated with a telephone line of a telephone conference as indicated by the mapping;

receives from the user an identification of the conference participant who corresponds to the output audio identification announcement; and

associates that telephone line with the determined identification of the conference participant as indicated by the mapping

wherein the components are implemented as computer-executable instructions stored in memory for execution by the computer of the conference system.

12. The computer-based conference system of claim 11 wherein the component that directs the telephone conference system to output the audio identification announcement plays the audio identification announcement to a user.

13. The computer-based conference system of claim 11 wherein the user is provided with the identification of conference participants not associated with a telephone line.

14. The computer-based conference system of claim 11 wherein the user is the leader of the conference.

15. The computer-based conference system of claim 11 wherein a conference participant not associated with a telephone line is a person who joins the telephone conference by dialing in.