Method and apparatus for identification of conference call participants

• US 8,050,917 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Issued: 11/01/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: RingCentral Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc. (Atos SE)
• Inventors: Caspi, Rami, Beyda, William J.
• Primary Examiner(s): ABEBE, DANIEL DEMELASH
• Application Number:
  US11/904,651
• Publication Number:
  US 20090089055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,496 Days
• Field of Search: 704/248, 704/270, 379/142.05, 379/88.02
• US Class Current: 704/238
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition speaker recognition per se G10L17/00
• 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 2203/6045 Identity confirmation
• 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 system including a conferencing telephone coupled to or in communication with an identification service. The identification service is configured to poll user devices of conference participants to determine or confirm identities. In response, the user devices transmit audio electronic business cards, which can include user voice samples and/or preprocessed voice recognition data. The identification service stores the resulting audio electronic business card data. When the corresponding participant speaks during the conference, the identification service identifies the speaker.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

polling a plurality of conference call participants for audio electronic business card data;

receiving audio electronic business card data;

updating a presence context of at least one of the plurality of conference call participants based on the received audio electronic business card data; and

identifying a speaker of the plurality of conference participants by comparing the received audio electronic business card data with only an active voice of the speaker of the plurality of conference participants.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the received audio electronic business card data comprises voice samples.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the received audio electronic business card data comprises preprocessed voice recognition samples.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the received audio electronic business card data to at least one of the plurality of conference call participants.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein providing the received audio electronic business card data to at least one of the plurality of conference call participants comprises transmitting and receiving the received audio electronic business card data using a Bluetooth protocol.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio electronic business card data comprises vCard data.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the presence context of at least one of the plurality of conference call participants in a messaging system and updating a status of at least one of the plurality of conference call participants in the messaging system.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating meeting minutes and identifying at least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants in the generated meeting minutes based on the received audio electronic business card data.

9. A telecommunications system, comprising:

an identification unit being operably coupled to a network; and

a presence control unit;

wherein the identification unit is configured to poll a plurality of user devices of a plurality of conference call participants for audio electronic business card data; and

wherein the identification unit is configured to receive the audio electronic business card data from the plurality of user devices; and

wherein the presence control unit is configured to update a presence context of at least one of the plurality of conference call participants based on the received audio electronic business card data; and

wherein the identification unit is configured to identify at least one speaker of the plurality of conference call participants by comparing the received audio electronic business card data with only an active voice of the at least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants.

10. The telecommunications system of claim 9, wherein the audio electronic business card data comprises at least one speech sample of one of the plurality of conference call participants, and wherein the identification unit is configured to identify at least one of the plurality of conference call participants by comparing the at least one speech sample to a voice of one of the plurality of conference call participants.

11. The telecommunications system of claim 9, wherein the audio electronic business card data comprises preprocessed voice recognition data, and wherein the identification unit is configured to identify one of the plurality of conference call participants by comparing the preprocessed voice recognition data to a voice of one of the plurality of conference call participants.

12. The telecommunications system of claim 9, further comprising an audio business card generator, wherein the audio business card generator transfers the received audio electronic business card data to at least one of the plurality of conference call participants.

13. The telecommunications system of claim 9, further comprising a meeting minutes generator wherein at least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants is identified in generated minutes from the meeting minutes generator based on the audio electronic business card data.

14. The telecommunications system of claim 9 wherein the presence control unit transmits the presence context of the plurality of conference call participants to a messaging system and is configured to cause an update in a status of the plurality of conference call participants in the messaging system.

20. The telecommunications method of claim 12 further comprising receiving the presence context of the plurality of conference call participants in a messaging system and updating a status of the plurality of conference call participants in the messaging system.

15. A telecommunications method, comprising:

polling a plurality of telecommunication devices of a plurality of conference call participants for audio electronic business card data;

receiving audio electronic business card data from the plurality of telecommunications devices;

updating a presence context of at least one of the plurality of conference call participants based on the received audio electronic business card data; and

identifying at least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants by comparing the received audio electronic business card data and with active speech data of the least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants.

16. The telecommunications method of claim 15, wherein identifying comprises comparing the speech data with at least one speech sample in the audio electronic business card data.

17. The telecommunications method of claim 15, wherein identifying comprises comparing the speech data with preprocessed voice recognition data in the audio electronic business card data.

18. The telecommunications method of claim 15, further comprising providing the received audio electronic business card data to an interface of each of the plurality of telecommunications devices.

19. The telecommunications method of claim 15, further comprising generating meeting minutes and identifying at least one speaker of the plurality of conference participants in the generated meeting minutes based on the audio electronic business card data.