Methods and apparatuses for monitoring attention of a user during a conference

• US 8,516,105 B2
• Filed: 01/25/2007
• Issued: 08/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Chawla, Jitendra, Knight, David, Wong, Edward, Kumar, Manish, Farshchi, Shawn, Montoya, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Cheema, Umar
• Application Number:
  US11/627,024
• Publication Number:
  US 20080034085A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,399 Days
• Field of Search: 709204-207, 709/224, 370/260
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

In one embodiment, the methods and apparatuses detect devices participating in a conference; monitor the devices for an attribute corresponding to an attention level of each of the devices; and determine whether each device is active based on the attention level.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, by a server, devices participating in a conference, wherein the devices are presented content conveyed over a network during the conference;

monitoring each of the devices for presence of an audio signal originating from any one of the devices and sent to other devices during the conference that represents a voice transmission from a user of the device at which the audio signal originated;

recording a representation of the audio signal from the devices as audio content of the conference;

recording timestamps indicative of respective times at which the presence of the audio signal is detected and at which absence of the audio signal is detected;

determining a level of attention to the conference of the user of each device from a measure of the presence and the absence of the audio signal;

determining an activity status of each device with respect to participating in the conference based on a comparison of the attention level of the user of the device with a predetermined threshold; and

displaying an indication of the activity status of each device in association with any corresponding timestamps.

2. The method according to claim 1 further comprising storing the attention level of the user of each device within a record associated with each device.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the attention level is based on a frequency of the presence and absence of the audio signal representing the voice transmission.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the attention level is based on a duration of the presence of the audio signal representing the voice transmission.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the attention level of the user further comprises determining the attention level of the user from at least one other attribute that indicates the attention level of the user of the device in addition to the presence and absence of the audio signal.

6. The method according to claim 5 further comprising:

generating a score descriptive of the attention level of the user of the device from the at least one other attribute and the presence and absence of the audio signal; and

determining the activity status of the device from the score.

18. The method according to claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether each device is inactive based on a comparison of the attention level with the predetermined threshold; and

sending a notification to a device presenting the content during the conference in response to determining that the device is inactive.

7. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a storage device to store recorded audio content of a conference; and

a tangible, non-transient computer readable medium having instructions stored therein that when executed by the processor, activate the processor to;

store a record containing an attention attribute associated with a device participating in the conference and indicating a level of attention to the conference by the user of the device,

detect an audio signal originating from the device and sent over the network during the conference, the audio signal representing a voice transmission from the user of the device at which the audio signal originated, wherein presence and absence of the audio signal contributes to the attention attribute,

record a timestamp associated with the attention attribute upon detection of the audio signal,

generate a score indicating an activity status of the device based on the attention attribute, and

display a graphical time chart of the conference along with any timestamps previously recorded.

8. The system according to claim 7 wherein the storage module is configured to store the score for the device.

9. The system according to claim 7 wherein the interface detection module is further configured to detect the audio signal representing the voice transmission using an input to the device during the conference.

10. The system according to claim 7 further comprising a duration module configured to detect a duration over which the audio signal representing the voice transmission is present.

14. The system according to claim 7 wherein the interface detection module is further configured to detect the frequency of the audio signal representing the voice transmission.

11. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory configured to store instructions that, when executed by the processor, configures the processor to;

store recorded audio content of a conference;

detect devices participating in a conference, wherein the devices are presented the content over a network during the conference;

monitor each of the devices for an audio signal originating therefrom and sent to other devices during the conference, the audio signal representing a voice transmission from a user of a contributing device, presence of the audio signal contributing to an attention level of the user that indicates attention to the content presented during the conference;

record a timestamp of the audio signal;

determine whether each device is active based on a comparison of a measure of the attention level of the user thereof with a predetermined threshold; and

display an indication of whether each device is active along with any corresponding indications of timestamps.

12. The system according to claim 11 wherein the instructions include instructions that when executed by the processor, implement a scoring module configured to weigh a plurality of attributes that contribute to the attention level of the user.

13. The system according to claim 11 wherein the instructions include instructions that when executed by the processor, implement a comparing module configured to compare the measure of the attention level with the predetermined threshold.

15. The system according to claim 11 wherein the instructions for monitoring the voice transmission include instructions that when executed by the processor, configures the processor to capture the audio signal representing the voice transmission from each device during the conference.

16. The system according to claim 15 wherein the attention level is based on a frequency of capture of the audio signal representing the voice transmission from the contributing device during the conference.

17. The system according to claim 15 wherein the attention level is based on a duration of capture of the audio signal representing the voice transmission from the contributing device during the conference.