Virtual meeting place system and method

• US 9,268,398 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2012
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voispot, Inc., Voispot, LLC
• Original Assignee: Voispot, LLC
• Inventors: Tipirneni, Kishore
• Primary Examiner(s): Levy, Amy M
• Application Number:
  US13/603,670
• Publication Number:
  US 20120331401A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,266 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/011 Arrangements for interaction with the human body, e.g. for user immersion in virtual reality blind teaching G09B21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• 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

Abstract

A virtual meeting place system is disclosed. The online virtual meeting place facilitates initiating, scheduling, or spontaneously organizing an online discussion or meeting, organizing the discussion into active and passive participants, limiting or eliminate participation of selected participants and soliciting, receiving and answering questions. The system is configurable to allow for customization based upon the social protocols or preferences of meeting participants and may present different user interfaces based upon participant identity, meeting topic or meeting format.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

enabling, by a virtual meeting computer, a virtual meeting comprising online interaction among a plurality of meeting participants;

periodically generating, by the computer, an interaction reward icon for display on a first user interface of a first user in the plurality of meeting participants,

wherein the interaction reward icon is randomly displayed for a temporary duration,

wherein selecting the interaction reward icon results in an increase in a user interaction rating,

wherein a plurality of user interfaces comprises the first user interface;

in response to the generating the interaction reward icon, displaying the interaction reward icon;

receiving, by the computer and from the first user, a selection of the displayed interaction reward icon;

in response to the receiving the selection, increasing, by the computer, the user interaction rating associated with the first user;

receiving, by the virtual meeting computer, a scan request via a scan control of the first user interface, wherein the scan request includes a request to search for a subset of meetings related to a first topic and a meeting within the subset of meetings where certain multiple participants exist; and

while iterating, by the virtual meeting computer and based upon the scan request, through a plurality of active meetings, wherein the iterating comprises providing first audio data associated with a first meeting to a user device of the first user for a predetermined period of time and, in response to the first predetermined period of time expiring, providing second audio data associated with a second meeting to the user device of the first user for the predetermined period of time, continuing to periodically generate the interaction reward icon.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to a duration of time expiring without receiving the selection of the interaction reward icon, removing the displayed interaction reward icon.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the computer, a push-to-talk control on a second user interface, wherein the second user interface is configured in a mode where audio input is not continuously sending by the second user interface, wherein in response to activation of the push-to-talk control, the second user interface immediately sends audio input.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising receiving first input of a plurality of inputs from the first user and increasing, based upon the first input, the user interaction rating associated with the first user.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein a quantity of the increase in the user interaction rating varies based upon at least one of:

the amount of the first input, the type of the first input, the participant type, the participant status, the participant affiliation or the participant area associated with the first user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the participant area is one of a plurality of participant areas comprising:

a stage area, an audience area and a queue area.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising receiving an exclusion request to exclude a second user from participation in the virtual meeting, and sending a poll request to the plurality of meeting participants.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising decreasing, based upon the plurality of responses to the poll request, a user interaction rating associated with the second user.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to desirable behavior by the first user, increasing, by the computer, a community rating associated with the first user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein desirable behavior includes at least one of the first user hosts the virtual meeting, the first user participates in the virtual meeting, the first user is an active participant in the virtual meeting, the first user provides input to the virtual meeting, the first user provides quality input to the virtual meeting, or the first user receives positive feedback from a second user, and wherein an amount of the increasing of the community rating is based on at least one of an amount of input by the first user, a type of input by the first user, a participant type of the first user and a participant area associated with the first user.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising, in response to undesirable behavior by the first user, decreasing, by the computer, a community rating, wherein the undesirable behavior includes at least one of the first user being bounced from the virtual meeting, the first user receiving negative feedback, the first user scheduling the virtual meeting but failing to attend, or the first user providing objectionable input.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

mixing a plurality of audio inputs into an audio output and sending the audio output to the plurality of user interfaces;

analyzing the plurality of audio inputs to identify a speaking user; and

updating a currently speaking indicator on the plurality of user interfaces.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the analyzing the plurality of audio inputs to identify the speaking user comprises:

matching each audio input in the plurality of audio inputs with a user in the plurality of meeting participants;

determining an amplitude of each audio input in the plurality of audio inputs;

creating, based upon the determining, audio amplitude user data comprising a plurality of audio amplitude indicators associated with each user in the plurality of users, wherein the audio output comprises the audio amplitude user data.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the updating the currently speaking indicator on the plurality of user interfaces comprises sending the audio amplitude user data to the plurality of user interfaces, wherein the plurality of user interfaces displays the audio amplitude user data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising displaying the audio amplitude user data as a plurality of icons, wherein each icon is associated with a meeting participant and an associated audio amplitude indicator.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a depiction of each icon in the plurality of icons is configured to vary, based upon the associated audio amplitude indicator.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the depiction comprises at least one of varying color, varying brightness, varying size, or varying a numeric indicator.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

continuously determining, by the computer and from the plurality of inputs, a first subset of users from the meeting participants who are sending input to the computer; and

continuously updating, by the computer and based upon the continuously determining, a subset of the displayed audio amplitude icons associated with the first subset of users on the first user interface.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein each audio input of the plurality of inputs further comprises video input, wherein the audio input and the video input are each formatted according to different transmission protocols and are each associated with a different bandwidth requirement.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the plurality of user interfaces comprises a queue indicator configured to display meeting participants that are at least one of waiting to receive different permissions associated with the virtual meeting or waiting to move to the stage area of the virtual meeting.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of user interfaces comprises a roster indicator to view a roster associated with the virtual meeting, wherein a stage roster, an audience roster and a queue roster include requests for display of the meeting participants in the stage area, the audience area and the queue area, respectively.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising sorting, by the computer and in response to a sort request by a requesting user, the roster associated with the requesting user, based upon a user rating associated with each user of the plurality of meeting participants.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the plurality of user interfaces comprises a plurality of user rating indicators configured to display the user rating for each user in the plurality of meeting participants.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the user rating is based upon at least one of the user interaction rating associated with the user or the community interaction rating associated with the user.

25. A virtual meeting system comprising:

a network interface communicating with a tangible memory;

the tangible memory communicating with a hardware processor; and

the tangible memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

enabling, by the processor, a virtual meeting comprising online interaction among a plurality of meeting participants;

periodically generating, by the processor, an interaction reward icon for display on a first user interface of a first user in the plurality of meeting participants,

wherein the interaction reward icon is randomly displayed for a temporary duration,

wherein selecting the interaction reward icon directly results in an increase in a user interaction rating,

wherein a plurality of user interfaces comprises the first user interface;

in response to the generating the interaction reward icon, displaying the interaction reward icon;

receiving, by the processor and from the first user, a selection of the displayed interaction reward icon;

in response to the receiving the selection, increasing, by the processor, the user interaction rating associated with the first user;

receiving, by the processor, a scan request via a scan control of the first user interface, wherein the scan request includes a request to search for a subset of meetings related to a first topic and a meeting within the subset of meetings where certain multiple participants exist; and

while iterating, by the processor and based upon the scan request, through a plurality of active meetings, wherein the iterating comprises providing first audio data associated with a first meeting to a user device of the first user for a predetermined period of time and, in response to the first predetermined period of time expiring, providing second audio data associated with a second meeting to the user device of the first user for the predetermined period of time, continuing to periodically generate the interaction reward icon.

26. A non-transitory tangible computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

enabling, by the computer, a virtual meeting comprising online interaction among a plurality of meeting participants;

periodically generating, by the computer, an interaction reward icon for display on a first user interface of a first user in the plurality of meeting participants,

wherein the interaction reward icon is randomly displayed for a temporary duration,

wherein selecting the interaction reward icon directly results in an increase in a user interaction rating,

wherein a plurality of user interfaces comprises the first user interface;

in response to the generating the interaction reward icon, displaying the interaction reward icon;

receiving, by the computer and from the first user, a selection of the displayed interaction reward icon;

in response to the receiving the selection, increasing, by the computer, the user interaction rating associated with the first user;

receiving, by the computer, a scan request via a scan control of the first user interface, wherein the scan request includes a request to search for a subset of meetings related to a first topic and a meeting within the subset of meetings where certain multiple participants exist; and

while iterating, by the computer and based upon the scan request, through a plurality of active meetings, wherein the iterating comprises providing first audio data associated with a first meeting to a user device of the first user for a predetermined period of time and, in response to the first predetermined period of time expiring, providing second audio data associated with a second meeting to the user device of the first user for the predetermined period of time, continuing to periodically generate the interaction reward icon.