AUTOMATIC MEETING INVITATION BASED ON PROXIMITY

• US 20120185291A1
• Filed: 01/19/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramaswamy, Muralidharan, Nam, Jinseok
• Granted Patent: US 9,495,663 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1095 Meeting or appointment
• 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

Abstract

In one implementation, proximity of a possible meeting participant is used to initiate joining the meeting. A host device or other device detects the presence of a possible meeting participant in a room, conference center, or other region. In response, an invite is sent for joining the meeting. The proximity based invitation may remove the requirement of the possible participant from having to find a previous message with the meeting invitation for joining and/or the requirement of the host to manually invite the possible participant. From the perspective of the possible participant, merely being in the proximity of the meeting may be enough to initiate joining, to receive an invite, and/or to join a meeting.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

hosting a meeting between participants in a computer network;

determining that a communications device of a possible participant for the meeting is proximate to a host device; and

inviting the possible participant to join the meeting based on the proximity.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein hosting comprises interconnecting computer network devices of the participants, receiving communications information from one of the computer network devices, and transmitting the communications information to others of the computer network devices.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises determining that the communications device is within communications range.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises determining that the communications device is within a room.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises determining that the communications device is within a distance from the host device, the host device comprising a conferencing phone.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises scanning for the communications device, and comparing a user identification for the communications device with a list of invitees.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein inviting comprises sending an invite for the meeting to the communications device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein sending the invite comprises sending a token referring to a session identification of the meeting and encrypted for the possible participant.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein inviting comprises sending a network link for the meeting to the communications device.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a connection for the possible participant to the meeting based on the inviting.

11. The method of claim 10 where establishing comprises launching conferencing software on the communications device in response to user acceptance of the invite.

12. A meeting system comprising:

a processor for detecting a user'"'"'s device within a distance of a location of a meeting, the meeting comprising communications over a network between a plurality of participants; and

a transmitter, connected with the processor, for sending invite information for the meeting to the user'"'"'s device.

13. The meeting device of claim 12 wherein the processor comprises a conferencing phone.

14. The meeting device of claim 12 wherein the transmitter comprises a Bluetooth transmitter.

15. The meeting device of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to detect the user'"'"'s device being within room, and wherein the transmitter is configured to send a network link for the meeting to the user'"'"'s device.

16. The meeting device of claim 12 further comprising a receiver, connected with the processor, for receiving acceptance of the invite information, the transmitter configured to transmit a network link in response to receiving the acceptance.

17. The meeting device of claim 12 wherein the processor is configured to receive a user identification from the user'"'"'s device.

18. One or more computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions and when the software is executed operable to:

receive invite information for a meeting based on proximity of a device to the meeting; and

present to a user of the device an opportunity to join the meeting, the opportunity being based on the invite information.

19. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 18 further comprising posting user identification information, the invite information being received based on the user identification.

20. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 18 wherein the device comprises a mobile computing device housing the computer readable storage media, and wherein presenting comprises outputting a selection to activate joining the meeting;

further comprising;

transmit acceptance of the opportunity; and

receiving a network link in response to the transmitting of the acceptance.

21. The one or more computer readable storage of claim 18 further comprising:

running a meeting application on the device, wherein the receiving occurs while running the meeting application.