System for meeting facilitation

• US 10,679,182 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2017
• Issued: 06/09/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kadowaki, Isao, Lin, Xueting, Nogami, Shigetoshi, Ohtani, Munetaka, Watanabe, Terue, Yamada, Fumiyoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Ries, Laurie A
• Application Number:
  US15/598,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20180336519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,119 Days
• Field of Search: 715254
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/345 Summarisation for human users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/182 Level alarms, e.g. alarms responsive to variables exceeding a threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A method, system and computer program product for facilitating a meeting is implemented in a server computer and provides a graphical user interface to one or more client devices. The server displays a mind map of a center topic on the clients. The server collects statements of participants, and extracts words and phrases therefrom, to identify topics that are currently being discussed. The server determines whether a transition has occurred between the topics, and then calculates a correlation between the topics that are currently being discussed and the center topic. The server determines a location of the topics that are currently being discussed on the mind map, based on the calculated correlation, and displays an updated mind map on the clients. The server generates a warning on the clients when the server determines that the meeting proceedings are being retarded, based on the calculated correlation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system, comprising:

a server computer implementing a system for facilitating a meeting and for providing a graphical user interface to one or more client devices connected thereto, wherein;

the server computer displays a mind map of a center topic on the client devices, the center topic serving as a theme of the meeting, and being registered with the server computer in advance of the meeting;

the server computer collects statements of participants during the meeting as voice input via microphones of the client devices, the collected statements being subjected to voice analysis, including voice recognition, by the server computer to extract words and phrases therefrom in a time-series manner, and the extracted words and phrases being defined as one or more topics that are currently being discussed in the meeting;

the server computer analyzes the extracted words and phrases to determine whether a transition has occurred between the topics, and then calculates a correlation between the topics that are currently being discussed and the center topic;

the server computer determines a location of the topics that are currently being discussed on the mind map, based on the calculated correlation, and displays an updated mind map on the client devices; and

the server computer generates a warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the meeting proceedings are being retarded, based on the calculated correlation.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the calculated correlation exceeds a threshold.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the topics that are currently being discussed are repeated or recursive topics.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the transition is displayed on the mind map as an arrow representing an order of occurrence of the topics that are currently being discussed.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer designates one of the topics that are currently being discussed as the center topic.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer records a duration of each of the collected statements made by the participants, as well as an identity of the participant who made the collected statements.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

implementing a system for facilitating a meeting on a server computer and providing a graphical user interface to one or more client devices connected thereto, wherein;

the server computer displays a mind map of a center topic on the client devices, the center topic serving as a theme of the meeting, and being registered with the server computer in advance of the meeting;

the server computer collects statements of participants during the meeting as voice input via microphones of the client devices, the collected statements being subjected to voice analysis, including voice recognition, by the server computer to extract words and phrases therefrom in a time-series manner, and the extracted words and phrases being defined as one or more topics that are currently being discussed in the meeting;

the server computer analyzes the extracted words and phrases to determine whether a transition has occurred between the topics, and then calculates a correlation between the topics that are currently being discussed and the center topic;

the server computer determines a location of the topics that are currently being discussed on the mind map, based on a magnitude of the calculated correlation, and displays an updated mind map on the client devices; and

the server computer generates a warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the meeting proceedings are being retarded, based on the calculated correlation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the calculated correlation exceeds a threshold.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the topics that are currently being discussed are repeated or recursive topics.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the transition is displayed on the mind map as an arrow representing an order of occurrence of the topics that are currently being discussed.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the server computer designates one of the topics that are currently being discussed as the center topic.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein the server computer records a duration of each of the collected statements made by the participants, as well as an identity of the participant who made the collected statements.

13. A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

implement a system for facilitating a meeting on a server computer and provide a graphical user interface to one or more client devices connected thereto, wherein;

the server computer displays a mind map of a center topic on the client devices, the center topic serving as a theme of the meeting, and being registered with the server computer in advance of the meeting;

the server computer collects statements of participants during the meeting as voice input via microphones of the client devices, the collected statements being subjected to voice analysis, including voice recognition, by the server computer to extract words and phrases therefrom in a time-series manner, and the extracted words and phrases being defined as one or more topics that are currently being discussed in the meeting;

the server computer analyzes the extracted words and phrases to determine whether a transition has occurred between the topics, and then calculates a correlation between the topics that are currently being discussed and the center topic;

the server computer determines a location of the topics that are currently being discussed on the mind map, based on the calculated correlation, and displays an updated mind map on the client devices; and

the server computer generates a warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the meeting proceedings are being retarded, based on the calculated correlation.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the calculated correlation exceeds a threshold.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the server computer generates the warning on the client devices when the server computer determines that the topics that are currently being discussed are repeated or recursive topics.

16. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the transition is displayed on the mind map as an arrow representing an order of occurrence of the topics that are currently being discussed.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the server computer designates one of the topics that are currently being discussed as the center topic.

18. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the server computer records a duration of each of the collected statements made by the participants, as well as an identity of the participant who made the collected statements.