Proxy for asynchronous meeting participation

• US 9,471,902 B2
• Filed: 11/24/2011
• Issued: 10/18/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hoff, Aaron, Quinn, Kori Inkpen, Johns, Paul, Roseway, Asta, Zhao, Chen, Cao, Xiang, Marlow, Jennifer, Tang, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Manglesh M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hasty, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US13/304,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20130139071A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,790 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/00 Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54

Abstract

Embodiments described herein relate to enabling a lightweight way of recording and sharing video messages intended to provide input to a future meeting that cannot be personally attended. A person who cannot attend the meeting pre-records their thoughts and remarks for the meeting as video clips for presentation at the meeting. A physical device with at least a display is presented at the meeting. The physically present participants can play the pre-recorded clips on the device. Video of participants'"'"' responses to the clips is recorded and made available so that the represented attendee can view the participants'"'"' responses.

Claims

1. A method for asynchronous participation in a meeting, the method comprising:

providing a proxy representative at a physical meeting of participant persons who physically attend the meeting, the proxy representative comprising a graphic displayed on a device at the meeting and representing a represented attendee who does not physically or electronically attend the meeting, the device comprising at least a display and having access during the meeting to a plurality of pre-recorded video clips of the represented attendee, the device configured to associate playback of the pre-recorded video clips at the meeting with respective video segments captured at the meeting, the device further comprising an input device and a video camera that captures video of the physical participant persons during the physical meeting;

responsive to activation events triggered by actions of the persons while physically attending the meeting, correspondingly displaying, by the device, the pre-recorded video clips on the display, wherein the activation events correspond to physical manipulations of the input device by the participant persons or correspond to physical actions of the participant persons that are sensed by the input device; and

based on the activation events and/or the displaying of the pre-recorded video clips, generating and storing association information comprising associations for each respective playback of a pre-recorded video clip responsive to an activation event, wherein each association (i) associates a beginning of a corresponding pre-recorded video clip displayed per an activation event with a beginning of a corresponding video segment captured during the displaying of the corresponding pre-recorded video clip and wherein a duration of the corresponding video segment is substantially greater than a duration of the corresponding pre-recorded video clip, the video segments comprising video data of the participant persons captured during the physical meeting by the video camera, and wherein each time an event occurs a new corresponding association is generated and added to the association information.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising displaying on the display a plurality of user interface elements corresponding to the pre-recorded video clips, respectively, wherein the user interface elements are activated by the physical manipulations of the input device.

3. A method according to claim 2, wherein the pre-recorded video clips include a default video clip whose playing by the device during the meeting is interrupted responsive to, and at times corresponding to the activation events.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising initiating resumptions of playing of the default video clip responsive to endings of the pre-recorded video clips.

5. A method according to claim 2, wherein the activation events comprise activations of the user interface elements by the participant persons at the meeting.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein an activation event comprises a voice or image recognition by the device.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the input device comprises the video camera or a microphone.

8. Computer storage hardware storing information to enable one or more computers to perform a process, the process comprising:

prior to a meeting, storing and providing access to a plurality of video clips of a first person, the video clips prepared by a first person prior to a meeting of participant persons, wherein meeting-associating information associating the video clips with meeting is stored prior to the meeting by the first person;

during the meeting of the participant persons each physically attending the meeting at a same physical location, where the first person does not have real time physical or electronic interactions with the participant persons during the meeting, based on the meeting-associating information, providing access to the video clips to the one or more computers during the meeting;

monitoring for, capturing, and responding to, interactions by the participant persons with the one or more computers, including responding to each detection of an interaction by selecting a video clip according to the corresponding captured interaction, wherein the interactions occur at arbitrary times decided by the participant persons, wherein the interactions control which of the video clips are to be played on a display at the meeting and when the video clips will be played, wherein the video clips are played by the one or more computers, and wherein each detected interaction is responded to by (i) selecting one of the video clips based on the corresponding interaction and playing the selected video clip, and (ii) forming a video portion having a start formed to correspond with a start of playing the selected video clip and having an end that precedes the start of any subsequent video portion, each video portion comprising video of the one or more of the participant persons at the physical location while the one or more participant persons viewed a corresponding video clip; and

further during the meeting, generating and storing linking information that indicates which of the pre-recorded video clips are associated with which of the respective video portions of the meeting, the linking information comprising links, wherein each link associates a pre-recorded video clip with a corresponding video portion, the video portions captured at times corresponding to times during the meeting when the pre-recorded video clips were played.

9. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 8, the process further comprising, after the meeting, using the linking information to display information indicating which of the video portions are correlated with which of the pre-recorded video clips.

10. Storage hardware according to claim 9, the process further comprising, after the meeting, displaying indicia of the pre-recorded video clips to the first person, and in response to the first person selecting an indicator of one of the pre-recorded video clips, selecting a corresponding video portion of the meeting, according to the linking information, and playing the selected video portion from the start of the video portion, whereby the playing displays video of one or more of the participant persons while the pre-recorded video clip selected by the indicator was being played at the meeting.

11. Storage hardware according to claim 8, the process further comprising, after the meeting, providing feedback to one of the participant persons indicating whether the represented participant viewed a video portion of the one of the participant persons.

12. Storage hardware according to claim 8, wherein a computing device comprising the display is present at the meeting, and includes a video camera to capture the video portions.

13. Storage hardware according to claim 12, wherein displaying the interactively selected one of the pre-recorded video clips comprises participants at the meeting directing voice, gestural, or manual inputs to the computing device, and the process further comprises the computing device responding to the inputs by playing the pre-recorded video clips and capturing the video portions and associating them with the respective pre-recorded video clips.

14. One or more computer-readable storage media according to claim 8, the process further comprising displaying an image of a participant to the represented participant when the represented participant is recording one of the video clips prior to the meeting.

15. Storage hardware according to claim 8, wherein the video portions comprise segments of a full video capture of the meeting, and wherein the linking information includes information identifying the video portions of the full video capture, the linking information allowing the first person to determine which video portions correspond to which of the pre-recorded video clips.

16. A computing device comprising a display, a processor, and memory:

the memory storing instructions configured to, when the computing device is operating, cause the processor to;

display on the display, at a meeting of participant persons attending the meeting in-person, default media of a person, the person not physically or electronically attending the meeting of participant persons;

respond to detections of interactions of the participants with the computing device by interrupting the default media to play respective pre-recorded video clips of the person not attending the meeting, wherein the pre-recorded video clips are selected according to the interactions of the participants such that the participants determine by their interactions which of the pre-recorded video clips are played and when they are played, wherein a video camera at the meeting captures video segments of participant responses to the pre-recorded video clips during respective playings of the pre-recorded video clips, each video segment having a beginning formed to correspond to the start of an interaction-triggered playing of a corresponding pre-recorded video clip; and

store association information indicating which of the video segments are associated with which of the respective pre-recorded video clips.

17. A computing device according to claim 16, the instructions further configured to cause the processor, when operating, to display interactive user interface elements identifying topics of the pre-recorded video clips, respectively, and a participant interaction comprises an activation of a user interface element, the activation in turn triggering (i) playing of a corresponding pre-recorded video clip and capture of a corresponding video segment of participant reaction to the pre-recorded video clip and (ii) including in the association information a link between the video segment and the pre-recorded video clip or the topic corresponding thereto.

18. A computing device according to claim 16, the instructions further configured to cause the processor to enable the person who did not attend the meeting to select any of the pre-recorded video clips, wherein when one of the pre-recorded video clips is selected, the software identifies and plays a corresponding video segment that captured participant reaction to the selected pre-recorded video clip.

19. A computing device according to claim 16, wherein the video segments each consist of video data corresponding to portions of time of the meeting that are less than the entire meeting.

20. A computing device according to claim 16, wherein one or more of the video segments are captured in response to a participant person interacting with the computing device.