Audio start service for Ad-hoc meetings

• US 8,245,043 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2007
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Cutler, Ross G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Pwu, Jeffrey
• Assistant Examiner(s): Anderson, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US11/764,114
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313713A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,887 Days
• Field of Search: 726/4, 713/176, 709/245
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/018 Audio watermarking, i.e. embedding inaudible data in the audio signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties

Abstract

An audio start service method for enabling and scheduling ad hoc distributed meetings. Only a short (in some embodiments less than or equal to about 32 bits) unique device identification is needed to enable distributed meeting devices participating in the meeting to rendezvous at a common rendezvous network address. Once the participants know the unique meeting network address they can take part in the meeting, while others can join or leave the meeting. The data string is each device'"'"'s unique identification that is encoded into an inaudible watermark and continuously exchanged between devices over the telephone network. A first distributed meeting device requests a network address from a distributed meeting server. This unique meeting network address then is sent to an audio start service that identifies “buddies” of the first device and sends out meeting invitations and the network address to other devices so they can join the meeting.

Claims

1. A method for transmitting device identifications over a telephone network to schedule an ad hoc meeting between a first distributed meeting device and a second distributed meeting device, comprising:

generating a first unique device identification for the first distributed meeting device and a second unique device identification for the second distributed meeting device;

encoding the first unique device identification into a first inaudible watermark and the second unique device identification into a second inaudible watermark; and

transmitting the first inaudible watermark continuously over the telephone network to the second distributed meeting device as long as the first distributed meeting device is connected to the telephone network and transmitting the second inaudible watermark over the telephone network to the first distributed meeting device;

obtaining a network address where the first and the second distributed meeting devices can rendezvous for the ad hoc meeting;

generating an audio start service table that contains a list of distributed meeting devices involved in the ad hoc meeting as described by their unique device identification, a list of buddies for each of the distributed meeting devices as described by their unique device identification, and the network address sent by the first distributed device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a first buddies list for the first distributed meeting device that contains the second unique device identification, wherein the first buddies list represents a list of distributed meeting devices with whom the first distributed meeting device exchanges its first unique device identification; and

generating a second buddies list for the second distributed meeting device that contains the first unique device identification, wherein the second buddies list represents a list of distributed meeting device with which the second distributed meeting device exchanges its second unique device identification.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising adding the following to the audio start service table:

(1) the first unique device identification;

(2) the first buddies list; and

(3) the network address.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

sending a distributed meeting request from the first distributed meeting device to a distributed meeting server;

sending the network address for the ad hoc meeting from the distributed meeting device to the first distributed meeting device; and

starting the ad hoc meeting at the network address using the first distributed meeting device.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising adding the following to the audio start service table:

(1) the second unique device identification; and

(2) the second buddies list.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending a distributed meeting invitation from the distributed meeting server to the second distributed meeting device along with the network address; and

joining the ad hoc meeting at the network address using the second distributed meeting device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and the second unique device identifications are less than or equal to 32 bits long.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating a third unique device identification for a third distributed meeting device;

encoding the third unique device identification into a third inaudible watermark; and

transmitting the first inaudible watermark over the telephone network to the third distributed meeting device and transmitting the third inaudible watermark over the telephone network to the first distributed meeting device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting the second inaudible watermark over the telephone network to the third distributed meeting device and transmitting the third inaudible watermark over the telephone network to the second distributed meeting device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising generating a third buddies list for the third distributed meeting device that contains the first and the second unique device identifications, wherein the third buddies list represents a list of distributed meeting devices with whom the third distributed meeting device exchanges its third unique device identification.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

updating the first buddies list to contain both the second unique device identification and the third unique device identification; and

updating the second buddies list to contain both the first unique device identification and the third unique device identification.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

updating the first buddies list to contain both the second unique device identification and the third unique device identification; and

updating the second buddies list to contain both the first unique device identification and the third unique device identification.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

sending the updated first buddies list, the updated second buddies list, and the updated third buddies list to the audio start service table; and

updating the audio start service table based on the first buddies list, the second buddies list, and the third buddies list.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

sending only changes made to the first buddies list, the second buddies list, and the third buddies list to the audio start service table; and

updating the audio start service table based on the changes made to the first buddies list, the second buddies list, and the third buddies list.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising removing the first unique device identification from the audio start service table when the first distributed meeting device discontinues transmitting the first inaudible watermark signifying that the first distributed meeting device has disconnected from the telephone network.

16. A computer-implemented process for a first distributed meeting device to notify a second distributed meeting device of a distributed meeting, comprising:

encoding a first unique device identification representing the first distributed meeting device into a first inaudible watermark and a second unique identification representing the second distributed meeting device into a second inaudible watermark;

sending the first unique device identification continuously from the first distributed meeting device to the second distributed meeting device and sending the second unique device identification from the second distributed meeting device to the first distributed meeting device;

obtaining a network address for the distributed meeting by sending the network address from a distributed meeting server to the first distributed meeting device;

sending the network address from the first distributed device to an audio start service table;

sending the network address from the audio start service table to the second distributed meeting device;

conducting the distributed meeting between the first and the second distributed meeting devices at the network address; and

using the audio start service table to automatically send a third distributed meeting device a meeting invitation and the network address when the third distributed meeting device desires to join the ad hoc meeting.