Adaptive meeting management

• US 9,111,263 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2009
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Li, Jin, Oker, James E., Hegde, Rajesh K., Florencio, Dinei Afonso Ferreira, Pahud, Michel, Cunnington, Sharon K., Chou, Philip A., Zhang, Zhengyou
• Primary Examiner(s): MANSFIELD, THOMAS L
• Application Number:
  US12/484,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20100318399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,255 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1093 Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups

Abstract

A template and/or knowledge associated with a synchronous meeting are obtained by a computing device. The computing device then adaptively manages the synchronous meeting based at least in part on the template and/or knowledge.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

retrieving, by one or more processors, from a plurality of stored meeting templates, a meeting template associated with a meeting, the meeting template including meeting rules associated with a particular type of meeting;

determining, by the one or more processors, multiple participants associated with the meeting;

retrieving, by the one or more processors from multiple computing devices, individual schedules associated with individual participants of the multiple participants, individual computing devices of the multiple computing devices corresponding to the individual participants of the multiple participants;

scheduling, by the one or more processors, the meeting based on the individual schedules and the meeting template;

adaptively managing the meeting, comprising;

determining, by the one or more processors, using voice recognition performed on audio data provided by one or more microphones, a presence of at least one participant of the multiple participants;

determining, by the one or more processors, that conditions associated with initiating the meeting have been satisfied;

after initiating the meeting, retrieving, by the one or more processors from the multiple computing devices, updated individual schedules associated with the individual participants; and

rearranging, by the one or more processors, an order of at least a portion of a plurality of topics to be discussed in the meeting based on the updated individual schedules.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing, by the one or more processors, facial recognition of at least one participant that is present in a meeting room that is associated with the meeting using video data provided by one or more cameras.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before the meeting has concluded, playing back, by the one or more processors, an audio recording or a video recording of a meeting invitee who was unable to participate in the meeting.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein, before the meeting has concluded, the method further comprises:

providing, by the one or more processors using a speech synthesizer, an audio introduction to at least one topic of the plurality of topics to be discussed in the meeting before the meeting has concluded.

5. A method comprising:

retrieving, by one or more processors, a meeting template in response to receiving a meeting notification, the meeting notification specifying a particular type of meeting;

determining, by the one or more processors, multiple participants associated with the meeting based at least partly on the particular type of meeting;

determining, by the one or more processors, using voice recognition on audio data provided by one or more microphones or facial recognition on video data provided by one or more cameras, a presence of at least one participant of the multiple participants;

determining, by the one or more processors, that conditions associated with initiating the meeting have been satisfied, the conditions including a minimum number of participants;

retrieving, by the one or more processors, from multiple computing devices corresponding to the multiple participants, individual schedules associated with individual participants of the multiple participants and individual locations associated with the individual participants;

rearranging, by the one or more processors, an order of at least one topic to be discussed in the meeting based on the individual schedules and the individual locations; and

after the meeting has concluded, generating, by the one or more processors, metrics based on data gathered during the meeting.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the meeting template includes at least one of:

an agenda associated with the meeting;

one or more meeting room locations;

a start time associated with the meeting;

an end time associated with the meeting;

or

meeting rules associated with the meeting.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the meeting template includes:

identities of one or more participants associated with the meeting; and

a role associated with at least one participant of the one or more participants.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the meeting template includes:

identifies of one or more presenters to speak during the meeting;

a priority associated with at least one of the one or more presenters; and

a time allotted to at least one of the one or more presenters.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the meeting template includes:

a list of equipment to be used for the meeting, the list of equipment including the one or more microphones used to determine an identity of one or more participants using the voice recognition.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein the meeting template includes:

a list of equipment to be used for the meeting, the list of equipment including the one or more cameras used to determine an identity of one or more participants using the facial recognition.

11. The method of claim 5, wherein rearranging, by the one or more processors, the order of the at least one topic to be discussed in the meeting comprises:

determining, by the one or more processors, that at least one of the individual schedules has changed after the meeting was initiated; and

rearranging, by the one or more processors, the order of the at least one topic to be discussed in the meeting based on the at least one of the individual schedules that has changed.

12. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

providing, by the one or more processors, a user interface to modify the meeting template; and

modifying, by the one or more processors, the meeting template based on user input received via the user interface.

13. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

playing back, by the one or more processors, a recording of a presenter that was unable to participate in the meeting.

14. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending, by the one or more processors, a message to a presenter during the meeting indicating that a topic associated with the presenter is approaching, the message including a time at which the presenter is to begin presenting the topic and an amount of time allotted to the topic.

15. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

prior to the time allotted to the topic elapsing, sending, by the one or more processors, a message to the presenter indicating that an amount of time allotted to the presenter will be elapsing.

16. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

sending, by the one or more processors to a meeting invitee that declined to participate in the meeting, a notification that a topic or a presenter in which the meeting invitee had indicated an interest is about to present.

17. A method comprising:

retrieving, by one or more processors, a meeting template associated with a meeting;

determining, by the one or more processors, multiple participants to participate in the meeting based at least in part on the meeting template;

retrieving, by the one or more processors from individual computing devices corresponding to individual participants of the multiple participants, individual schedules associated with the individual participants of the multiple participants;

scheduling, by the one or more processors, the meeting based on the individual schedules;

determining, by the one or more processors, that conditions associated with initiating the meeting have been satisfied;

determining, by the one or more processors, an identity of at least one individual participant by performing voice recognition on audio data provided by a microphone or by performing facial recognition on video data provided by a video camera;

retrieving, by the one or more processors from the individual computing devices, updated individual schedules associated with the individual participants;

rearranging, by the one or more processors, an order of one or more topics to be discussed in the meeting based on the updated individual schedules; and

after the meeting had concluded, automatically scheduling at least one follow-up meeting for at least a portion of the multiple participants.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein rearranging, by the one or more processors, the order of the one or more topics to be discussed in the meeting based on the updated individual schedules comprises modifying, by the one or more processors, an amount of time allotted to at least one topic of the one or more topics to be discussed in the meeting.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein rearranging, by the one or more processors, the order of the one or more topics to be discussed in the meeting based on the updated individual schedules comprises modifying, by the one or more processors, a number of topics to be discussed in the meeting.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein determining that conditions associated with initiating the meeting have been satisfied comprises:

identifying, by the one or more processors, at least one particular participant without which the meeting cannot be initiated; and

determining, by the one or more processors based on the voice recognition or the facial recognition, that the at least one particular participant is present.