Meeting effectiveness indicator and method

• US 20050265264A1
• Filed: 05/27/2005
• Published: 12/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dean H. Hering
• Original Assignee: NetCentrics Corporation (Fishtech Group LLC)
• Inventors: Hering, Dean H., Dixon, John R., Dougherty, Robert J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,805,486 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1096 Supplementary features, e.g. call forwarding or call holding systems providing special services or facilities to telephony subscribers H04M3/42
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• 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: H04Q 11/04 for time-division multiplexing H04Q11/0001 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/13175 Graphical user interface [GUI], WWW interface, visual indication
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1324 Conference call
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2213/1332 Logic circuits

Abstract

A meeting effectiveness indicator provides information to participants of a meeting. The information includes messages that the meeting has gone off topic, and resources are being wasted. Participants within a room or local vicinity of the indicator used wired or wireless transmitters to send indications that the meeting is going off topic. Remote participants linked to a network also send indications via a network interface. Once a total number of indications reaches a warning threshold, the indicator warns the participants that the meeting is going off topic with a warning message. If additional indications are received, then the total number of indications will reach a tangent threshold, and the participants are alerted using a tangent message that the meeting is off topic.

Claims

1. A meeting effectiveness indicator comprising:

a receiver to receive an indication about a meeting from at least one transmitter;

a message logic device to add the indication to a total number of indications and to determine whether the total number of indications correspond to a threshold;

a controller to set the threshold within the message logic device; and

a display to indicate to at least one participant in the meeting that the threshold for the total number of indications is reached.

2. The indicator of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmitter includes at least one wired transmitter.

3. The indicator of claim 1, wherein the at least one transmitter includes at least one wireless transmitter.

4. The indicator of claim 1, further comprising a control panel to input the threshold to the controller.

5. The indicator of claim 1, wherein the controller sets an other threshold within the message logic device, and wherein the other threshold is greater than the threshold.

6. The indicator of claim 1, wherein the display includes a visual indicator to indicate that the threshold is reached.

7. The indicator of claim 1, further comprising an audio device to indicate audibly that the threshold is reached.

8. The indicator of claim 1, further comprising a cancellation means for preventing the display from indicating that the threshold is reached.

9. The indicator of claim 1, further comprising a network interface to receive a network indication over a network.

10. The indicator of claim 9, wherein the network interface is coupled to the message logic device to provide the network indication to the total number of indications.

11. A meeting effectiveness indication system comprising:

receiving means for receiving an indication about a meeting;

adding means for adding the indication to a total number of indications and determining if a threshold for the total number of indications has been reached;

control means for controlling the threshold within the adding means; and

display means for displaying an alert that the total number of indications has reached the threshold.

12. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 11, wherein the receiving means includes a receiver.

13. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 12, wherein the receiver receives the indication from at least one transmitter.

14. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 11, wherein the receiving means includes a network interface.

15. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 14, wherein the network interface receives the indication over a network.

16. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 15, wherein the network is coupled to a device of a participant of the meeting over the network.

17. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 11, wherein the display means includes a visual display.

18. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 17, wherein the visual display scrolls a message across the visual display, and wherein the message corresponds to the threshold.

19. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 11, wherein the threshold includes a warning threshold.

20. The meeting effectiveness indication system of claim 11, wherein the threshold includes a tangent threshold.

21. A method for indicating meeting effectiveness, the method comprising:

receiving an indication about a meeting;

adding the indication to a total number of indications;

determining if a threshold for the total number of indications has been reached; and

displaying an alert that the total number of indications has reached the threshold.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the displaying step comprises displaying the alert, wherein the alert includes a message.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the displaying step comprises activating a visual indicator.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the displaying step comprises displaying a graphic within a display window.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising canceling the indication.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising resetting the total number of indications to cancel the displaying step.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving the indication from at a transmitter.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving the indication from a device over a network.

29. A meeting effectiveness indicator comprising:

a receiver to receive a transmitted indication from a transmitter of a participant of a meeting;

a network interface to receive a network indication over a network from a remote participant of the meeting;

counting and message logic to determine if a total number of indications, including the transmitted indication and the network indication, corresponds to at least one of a first threshold and a second threshold;

a controller to set the first and second thresholds according to an input, wherein the first and second thresholds are variable;

a display to scroll a message regarding the first or second threshold to the participant of the meeting;

wherein the network interface sends data to display the message to the remote participant over the network.

30. The indicator of claim 29, wherein the first threshold is less than the second threshold.

31. The indicator of claim 29, wherein the first threshold comprises a warning threshold.

32. The indicator of claim 29, wherein the second threshold comprising a tangent threshold.