System and method for joining conference calls

• US 8,483,375 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2010
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Dhara, Krishna Kishore, Krishnaswamy, Venkatesh, Shim, Eunsoo, Wu, Xiaotao
• Primary Examiner(s): SMITH, CREIGHTON H
• Application Number:
  US12/896,674
• Publication Number:
  US 20110228922A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,012 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 370/260, 709/204
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/83 based on usage prediction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/565 relating to time schedule aspects

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for scheduling an event to automatically join a user to a conference call. In one aspect, the method includes receiving an invitation for a user to join a conference call, extracting from the invitation a scheduled conference call time, conference call address information, conference call authentication information, and a conference call modality, and scheduling an event to join the user to the conference call via the conference call modality at the scheduled conference call time based on the conference call address information and the conference call authentication information. In another aspect, the system retrieves a scheduled event at a scheduled time, extracts the address, authentication, and modality information for the conference, and joins the user to the conference automatically at the scheduled time.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an invitation for a user to join a conference call;

extracting from the invitation a scheduled conference call time, conference call address information, conference call authentication information, and a conference call modality;

identifying a resource associated with the conference call; and

scheduling an event to join the user to the conference call via the conference call modality at the scheduled conference call time based on the conference call address information and the conference call authentication information, and scheduling the event further to open the resource in connection with joining the user to the conference call, wherein the event to join the user to the conference does not require user interaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the event is scheduled, monitoring user communications for modifications to the conference call; and

if a modification to the conference call is found, updating the event based on the modification.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting optional user information that is not necessary to join the conference call; and

submitting the optional user information when joining the conference call.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the optional user information is extracted from a user profile.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the optional user information comprises a text name, a spoken name, an image, a title, a maximum amount of time the user can participate in the conference call, a callback telephone number, schedule information, presence information, and contact information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting at least one of the schedule conference call time, the conference call address information, the conference call authentication information, and the conference call modality is performed via at least one of fuzzy logic, machine learning, and a regular expression.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a conference information template that matches the invitation; and

extracting the schedule conference call time, the conference call address information, the conference call authentication information, and the conference call modality based on the conference information template.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a test connection to the conference call based on the event;

receiving feedback from the test connection; and

updating at least one of the conference call address information, the conference call authentication information, and the conference call modality based on the feedback.

9. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

retrieving a scheduled conference call event stored in an event database of a user, the conference call retrieved before a scheduled time for the scheduled conference call event;

extracting, from the scheduled conference call event, address information, authentication information, and a modality;

identifying a resource associated with the conference call;

establishing a connection to the conference call via the modality based on the address information and the authentication information; and

joining the user to the connection and opening the resource in connection with joining the user to the conference call.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the address information comprises at least one of a telephone number, a web address, a video conference address, and an IP address.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the authentication information comprises at least one of a password, a pass code, and a personal identification number.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the system retrieves the conference call at an interval before the schedule time, wherein the interval is based on an expected amount of time required to connect to the conference call.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving an invitation for a user to join a conference call;

extracting from the invitation a scheduled conference call time, conference call address information, conference call authentication information, and a conference call modality;

identifying a resource associated with the conference call; and

scheduling an event to join the user to the conference call via the conference call modality at the scheduled conference call time based on the conference call address information and the conference call authentication information, and scheduling the event further to open the resource in connection with joining the user to the conference call, the event to join the user to the conference does not require user interaction.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, storing additional instructions which, when executed by the processor, result in operations further comprising:

extracting optional user information that is not necessary to join the conference call; and

submitting the optional user information when joining the conference call.