Setting user-preference information on the conference bridge

• US 8,856,665 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2009
• Issued: 10/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Baker, Al, Balasaygun, Mehmet C., Stevens, Matt Jerome
• Primary Examiner(s): Abdul-Ali, Omar
• Assistant Examiner(s): BHARGAVA, ANIL K
• Application Number:
  US12/428,975
• Publication Number:
  US 20100275134A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,993 Days
• Field of Search: 715/753, 379/202, 379/202.01
• US Class Current: 715/753
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42068 where the identifier is used to access a profile
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

User-preference information is utilized in conjunction with a conference bridge for the purpose of customizing the receiving of text data, alerts, or other associated information. These settings can be stored in a media file, or a set of data that is kept on an endpoint, such as a conference-enabled endpoint or it can be a configuration of data maintained by one or more conference bridges. This user preference information can specify various preferences such as language, font, phone capabilities, phone number associated with a conference, video conferencing capabilities, preferences for rendering images, multi-media content preferences, whiteboard resolution, volume, and in general, any preference associated with any application or data associated with a conference.

Claims

1. A method of managing a multimedia conference comprising:

establishing and storing, in a memory, before commencement of the multimedia conference, a plurality of profiles corresponding to a plurality of individual users, each profile including user preference information of an individual user of the plurality of individual users, wherein at least one of the plurality of profiles is on an endpoint of one of the plurality of individual users, wherein the at least one of the plurality of profiles on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of individual users contains preference information for an application on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of individual users, and wherein the application is not on another endpoint of another one of the plurality of individual users;

accessing the previously stored plurality of profiles, including the user preference information of the plurality of individual users;

applying the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users to one or more of functionality of the multimedia conference and operation of an endpoint, the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users being limited based on a master profile associated with the multimedia conference;

displaying, by one or more processors, the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users that were stored before the commencement of the multimedia conference for display to a moderator, wherein the moderator overrides at least one preference included in at least one of the user preference information of the plurality of individual users;

monitoring, by the one or more processors, the multimedia conference, endpoint capabilities and bandwidth, and dynamically updating the one or more of the functionality of the multimedia conference and the operation of the endpoint throughout the multimedia conference, wherein the stored plurality of profiles can be used for one or more additional multimedia conferences;

determining that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of individual users; and

in response to determining that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of individual users, spawning and running the application at a conference bridge.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users to initiate the multimedia conference.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconciling differences between the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users and the master profile.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising reconciling differences between the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users and another user'"'"'s preference information.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of profiles are stored on one or more of a conference bridge, the endpoint and another storage device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising interrogating one or more of the endpoint and a conference bridge to determine the capabilities thereof and reconciling the capabilities with one or more of the plurality of profiles.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users includes one or more of billing preferences, language and display preferences, font and font size characteristics, volume information, audio equalizer preferences, whiteboard resolution, font, marker color preferences, multimedia capabilities and preferences, the endpoint capabilities and preferences, connectivity preferences, bandwidth capabilities, available applications, video preferences, multimedia preferences, screen layout, skin preferences, color scheme preferences, initial setup preferences, user preferences and scheduling preferences.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising initiating the multimedia conference based on information stored in the plurality of profiles.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

electing, by the other one of the plurality of users, whether the other one of the plurality of users would like to use the application at the conference bridge.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage media including processor-executable instructions that when executed on the one or more processors performs the steps in claim 1.

11. A multimedia conference system comprising:

a plurality of profiles, including user preference information of a plurality of individual users, wherein the plurality of profiles are established and stored in a memory on at least one of a conference bridge, and an endpoint before commencement of the multimedia conference, wherein at least one of the plurality of profiles is on an endpoint of one of the plurality of individual users, wherein the at least one of the plurality of profiles on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of individual users contains preference information for an application on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of individual users, and wherein the application is not on another endpoint of another one of the plurality of individual users;

a processor enabled preference management module that applies the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users to one or more of functionality of a multimedia conference and operation of the endpoint, the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users being limited based on a master profile associated with the multimedia conference, that displays the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users, that were stored before the commencement of the multimedia conference, on a display that receives input from the moderator that overrides at least one of the user preference information of the plurality of individual users, monitors the multimedia conference, endpoint capabilities and bandwidth, dynamically updates the one or more of the functionality of the multimedia conference and the operation of the endpoint throughout the multimedia conference, wherein the stored plurality of profiles can be used for one or more additional multimedia conferences, determines that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of individual users, and in response to determining that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of individual users, spawns and runs the application at a conference bridge.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the preference management module uses the user preference information of the plurality of individual users in the plurality of profiles to initiate the multimedia conference.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the preference management module reconciles differences between the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users and the master profile.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the preference management module reconciles differences between the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users and another user'"'"'s preference information.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of profiles are stored on one or more of the conference bridge, the endpoint and another storage device.

16. The system of claim 11, further comprising an interrogation module that interrogates one or more of the endpoint and the conference bridge to determine the capabilities thereof and reconciles the capabilities with one or more of the plurality of profiles.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of individual users includes one or more of billing preferences, language and display preferences, font and font size characteristics, volume information, audio equalizer preferences, whiteboard resolution, font, marker color preferences, multimedia capabilities and preferences, the endpoint capabilities and preferences, connectivity preferences, bandwidth capabilities, available applications, video preferences, multimedia preferences, screen layout, skin preferences, color scheme preferences, initial setup preferences, user preferences and scheduling preferences.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the multimedia conference is initiated based on information stored in the plurality of profiles.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor enabled preference management module is further configured to detect an election by the other one of the plurality of users whether the other one of the plurality of users would like to use the application at the conference bridge.

20. A multimedia conference system including:

a processor enabled multimedia conference bridge;

one or more processor enabled endpoints; and

user preference information associated with a plurality of endpoints and plurality of users, each user preference information being stored in a respective user profile stored in a memory, each user preference information used to control one or more characteristics of a multimedia conference based on monitoring of the multimedia conference, endpoint capabilities and bandwidth, each user preference information being limited based on a master profile associated with the multimedia conference, each user preference information established and stored before commencement of the multimedia conference, wherein the stored user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of users can be used for one or more additional multimedia conferences, wherein the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of users, that were stored before the commencement of the multimedia conference, is displayed to a moderator, and wherein the moderator overrides at least one preference included in the user preference information from the plurality of profiles of the plurality of users, wherein at least one of the plurality of profiles is on an endpoint of one of the plurality of users, wherein the at least one of the plurality of profiles on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of users contains preference information for an application on the endpoint of the one of the plurality of users, wherein the application is not on another endpoint of another one of the plurality of users, wherein the conference bridge determines that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of users, and in response to determining that the application is not running on the other endpoint of the other one of the plurality of users, the conference bridge spawns and runs the application.