Techniques for announcing conference attendance changes in multiple languages

• US 9,059,860 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2011
• Issued: 06/16/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Tamosevicius, Rokas, Carr, Tim, Noris, Elia, Eminovici, Vlad
• Primary Examiner(s): Neway, Samuel G
• Application Number:
  US13/021,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20120203538A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: 37920201-20601
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1053 IP private branch exchange [PBX] functionality entities or arrangements circuit switched PBXs H04M3/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1104 Session initiation protocol [SIP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/22 Synchronisation circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/5009 Adding a party to an existing conference 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 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

Techniques for announcing conference attendance changes in multiple languages and in a minimally disruptive form are described. An embodiment may include batching announcement events for a time period. The time period may be specific, or may be determined by the length of an ongoing announcement. At the end of the batching time, an announcement of the batched events may be streamed to the conference participants. Multiple batched events may be summarized into one announcement. Multiple access points to a conference may be provided, where each access point provides announcements in a different language. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving an announcement event at a conference announcement module for a conference;

starting a batch time window and batching the received announcement event;

batching subsequent announcement events until the batch window ends; and

streaming each subsequent announcement event sequentially when a number of batched announcement events is below a threshold or a summary of batched announcement events when the number of batched announcement events is at or above the threshold, when the batch time window ends, with a group virtual assistant (GVA).

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

streaming an announcement event in a plurality of languages, using a separate GVA for each language.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

batching announcement events while the GVA is making an announcement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein an announcement event is one of:

a participant entry event and a participant exit event.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

suppressing streaming repeating announcement events within one batch time window.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein a repeating announcement event comprises a pair of a participant entry event and a participant exit event for the same participant.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating at least one of an audio announcement, a video announcement, and a graphical announcement.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein streaming a batched announcement event or a summary of batched announcement events comprises:

inserting the generated announcement into an audio stream or a video stream for the conference.

9. An article comprising computer-readable storage hardware containing instructions that when executed cause a computing device to:

stream an announcement event received during a conference using a group virtual assistant (GVA);

batch subsequent announcement events received while the announcement is streaming; and

stream each batched announcement event sequentially when a number of batched announcement events is below a threshold or an announcement comprising a summary of batched announcement events, when a previous announcement ends, using the GVA in which the summary comprises one summary announcement event when the number of announcement events is at or above the threshold.

10. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the computing device to:

stream an announcement event in a plurality of languages using a separate GVA for each language.

11. The article of claim 10, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the computing device to provide a separate access point for each GVA to participants of the conference.

12. The article of claim 9, further comprising instructions that when executed cause the computing device to:

start a batch time window when an announcement event is received;

batch subsequent announcement events; and

stream at least one of a batched announcement event or a summary of batched announcement events when the batch time window ends.

13. The article of claim 9, wherein an announcement event comprises at least one of:

a participant entry event and a participant exit event, the article further comprising instructions that when executed cause the computing device to;

suppress streaming a pair of a participant entry event and a participant exit event for the same participant within one batch time window.

14. An apparatus, comprising:

a logic device;

a memory;

a conference announcement module operating on the logic device to;

receive an announcement event for a conference;

start a batch time window and batch the received announcement event;

batch subsequent announcement events received during the batch time window in the memory;

summarize the subsequent announcement events when a number of the subsequent announcement events is at or above a threshold;

stream, from a group virtual assistant (GVA), a summary of batched announcement events when the batch time window ends;

batch subsequent announcement events received while the announcement is taking place;

start a batch time window when a new announcement event is received;

batch the new announcement event and any subsequent announcement events received during the batch time window; and

stream, from the GVA, at least one of each subsequent announcement event sequentially when a number of subsequent announcement events is below the threshold or a summary of batched announcement events when a number of batched announcement events is at or above the threshold.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, the conference announcement module further comprising:

a plurality of GVAs, wherein each GVA makes announcements in a different language; and

the conference announcement module to provide a separate access point for each GVA.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein each GVA is to

stream the summary of the batched announcement events when the batch time window ends.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, the GVA to stream a batched announcement event or a summary of batched announcement events by:

generating at least one of an audio announcement, a video announcement, and a graphical announcement; and

inserting the generated announcement into an audio stream or a video stream for the conference.

18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein an announcement event comprises at least one of:

a participant entry event and a participant exit event, the conference announcement module operating on the logic device further to;

suppress streaming a pair of a participant entry event and a participant exit event for the same participant within one batch time window.