Method and apparatus for launching a conference based on presence of invitees

• US 20060067250A1
• Filed: 11/02/2004
• Published: 03/30/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Klemm, Reinhard P., John, Ajita, Seligmann, Doree D., Boyer, David G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,270,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1818 Conference organisation arrangements, e.g. handling schedules, setting up parameters needed by nodes to attend a conference, booking network resources, notifying involved parties
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/54 Presence management, e.g. monitoring or registration for receipt of user log-on information, or the connection status of the users
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42365 Presence services providing information on the willingness to communicate or the ability to communicate in terms of media capability or network connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/563 User guidance or feature selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems

Abstract

Methods and apparatus are provided for establishing a conference based on the presence or preferences (or both) of one or more invitees. The presence of each invitee is evaluated on one or more devices. A media type is selected based on the presence information. User preference information may be evaluated for those invitees who are not currently present on a device. The selected media type for the conference may optionally be required to support the requirements of the conference, such as document sharing or video links. In this manner, the same communication application can trigger conferences of different media types (where the selected media type is most likely to lead to the successful establishment of the conference). In addition, the present invention allows a media type to be selected that will be more likely to lead to the successful establishment of a conference.

Claims

1. A method for initiating a conference with a plurality of invitees, comprising:

evaluating a presence of each of said invitees on one or more devices, each of said one or more devices having at least one associated media type; and

selecting a media type for said conference based on said presence information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of evaluating media type preference information for one or more invitees who are not currently present on a device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step further comprises the step of ensuring that a selected media type supports specified requirements for said conference.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step further comprises the step of ensuring that a required artifact is available for said conference.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step is based on a number of said invitees that are present for each media type.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step is based on a number of said invitees that have specified a preference for each media type.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting step is based on one or more predefined rules for evaluating said presence information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more predefined rules select a media type having a greatest number of invitees present.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more predefined rules ensure that a selected media type satisfies media requirements for said conference.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein said one or more predefined rules evaluate said presence information in accordance with priority information for said invitees.

11. An apparatus for initiating a conference with a plurality of invitees, comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor, coupled to the memory, operative to;

evaluate a presence of each of said invitees on one or more devices, each of said one or more devices having at least one associated media type; and

select a media type for said conference based on said presence information.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to evaluate media type preference information for one or more invitees who are not currently present on a device.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to ensure that a selected media type supports specified requirements for said conference.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to make said selection based on a number of said invitees that are present for each media type.

15. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to make said selection based on a number of said invitees that have specified a preference for each media type.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said processor is further configured to make said selection based on one or more predefined rules stored in said memory for evaluating said presence information.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said one or more predefined rules select a media type having a greatest number of invitees present.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said one or more predefined rules ensure that a selected media type satisfies media requirements for said conference.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said one or more predefined rules evaluate said presence information in accordance with priority information for said invitees.

20. An article of manufacture for initiating a conference with a plurality of invitees, comprising a machine readable medium containing one or more programs which when executed implement the steps of:

evaluating a presence of each of said invitees on one or more devices, each of said one or more devices having at least one associated media type; and

selecting a media type for said conference based on said presence information.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 20, further comprising the step of evaluating media type preference information for one or more invitees who are not currently present on a device.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 20, wherein said selecting step further comprises the step of ensuring that a selected media type supports specified requirements for said conference.