System and method of managing conference calls through the use of filtered lists of participants

• US 9,025,751 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2008
• Issued: 05/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Afiniti Ltd
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Michaelis, Paul Roller, Toennis, Roger, Weber, Greg, Grover, Doug
• Primary Examiner(s): Matar, Ahmad F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Pope, Kharye
• Application Number:
  US12/243,142
• Publication Number:
  US 20100080375A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,407 Days
• Field of Search: 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/204.01, 379/205.01, 379/206.01, 370/352, 370/353, 370/354, 370/355, 370/356, 370/357, 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 455/416
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1822 Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• 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 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

The system and method establish a conference call between a plurality of communication devices. Each communication device may have one or more participants. The number of participants on each communication device is determined. The system and method get a profile for each participant in the conference call. The profile contains at least one parameter. A filtered list of participants in the conference call is generated based on at least one parameter in the profiles. The filtered list of participants is then presented to various participants in the conference call.

Claims

1. A system for managing conference calls comprising:

a mixer configured to establish a conference call between a plurality of communication devices, wherein each communication device has at least one participant; and

a controller configured to;

determine, for each communication device of the plurality of communication devices and when each communication device connects to the conference call, a number of the participants on said communication device, wherein the number of participants on at least one of the plurality of communication devices comprises a plurality of participants;

get a first set of profiles each containing at least one parameter for one of the participants, wherein there is a profile for each participant;

receive an identification of at least a first parameter to use to filter the first set of profiles;

determine from the first set of profiles a second set of profiles containing the at least a first identified parameter;

generate a filtered list of the participants based on the second set of profiles and permissions defining the rights of each participant;

present the filtered list of the participants to specified participants; and

leverage the profiles in conjunction with determining the filtered list of participants on the conference to provide dynamic filtering via the controller, wherein the controller is configured to determine the number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices sequentially or in parallel.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to generate a first profile of the first set of profiles by parsing voice input from a first one of the participants on a first one of the plurality of communication devices to create at least one parameter in the first profile.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to generate a second profile of the first set of profiles by parsing voice input from a second one of the participants on the first one of the plurality of communication devices to create at least one parameter in the second profile.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the parsing is accomplished by using DTMF to separate at least one parameter in at least one profile in the first set of profiles.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to allow a participant of the participants to request a new said profile.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to get at least one profile of the plurality of profiles from a database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to generate at least one profile of the plurality of profiles based on a registration list.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is generated based on the at least one parameter selected from the group comprising:

a name, a title, a job function, a company, a telephone prefix, an area code, a duration the participant was on the conference call, a start time of the participant on the conference call, an end time of the participant on the conference call, and a telephone number.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the mixer is configured to drop a communication device of the plurality of communication devices from the conference call if one of the participants on the communication device has a profile with a parameter that indicates that the participant did not respond.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented to all of the participants in the conference call.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented to only a subset of the participants in the conference call.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the mixer is configured to generate a conference record using each profile for each of the participants on each communication device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the controller is configured to generate a filtered list of the participants from the conference record.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented by at least one device selected from the group comprising:

a speaker, a printer, and a video display.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the conference call is an item selected from the group comprising:

a voice conference call, a chat conference call, a multimedia conference call, and a video conference call.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the participants can define an additional parameter in the profile of the at least one of the participants.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is a list of all of the participants on one of the plurality of communication devices.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the filtered list of the participants is generated based on rules.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine if at least one of the participants has permissions.

20. A computer-implemented method for managing conference calls comprising:

establishing a conference call between a plurality of communication devices, wherein each communication device has at least one participant;

determining a number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices when each communication device connects to the conference call, wherein the number of participants on at least one of the plurality of communication devices comprises a plurality of participants;

getting a profile for each of the participants on each communication device, wherein each said profile contains at least one parameter;

creating a first set of profiles for all the participants;

receiving at least one parameter from which to filter the first set of profiles;

determining a second set of profiles containing the at least one received parameter;

generating a filtered list of the participants based on the second set of profiles and permissions defining the rights of each participant;

presenting the filtered list of the participants to specified participants; and

leveraging the profiles in conjunction with determining the filtered list of participants on the conference to provide dynamic filtering via the controller, wherein the step of determining the number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices is accomplished sequentially or in parallel.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

generating a first profile of the profiles by parsing voice input from a first one of the participants on a first one of the plurality of communication devices to create the at least one parameter in the first profile.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising the step of:

generating a second profile of the profiles by parsing voice input from a second one of the participants on the first one of the plurality of the communication devices to create the at least one parameter in the second profile.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the parsing is accomplished by using DTMF to separate at least one parameter in at least one profile in the plurality of profiles.

24. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

allowing a participant of the participants to request a new said profile.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of getting the profile for each of the participants on each communication device further comprises:

getting at least one of the profiles from a database.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

generating at least one of the profiles based on a registration list.

27. The method of claim 20, wherein the step of determining the number of the participants on an individual communication device of the plurality of communication devices is accomplished when the individual communication device connects to the conference call.

28. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is generated based on the at least one parameter selected from the group comprising:

a name, a title, a job function, a company, a telephone prefix, an area code, a duration the participant was on the conference call, a start time of the participant on the conference call, an end time of the participant on the conference call, and a telephone number.

29. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

dropping a communication device of the plurality of communication devices from the conference call if the parameter of the profile of one of the participants on the communication device indicates that the one participant did not respond.

30. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented to all of the participants in the conference call.

31. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented to only a subset of the participants in the conference call.

32. The method of claim 20, further comprising the step of:

generating a conference record using each said profile for each of the participants on each said communication device.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of:

generating a filtered list of the participants from the conference record.

34. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is presented by at least one device selected from the group comprising:

a speaker, a printer, and a video display.

35. The method of claim 20, wherein the conference call is an item selected from the group comprising:

a voice conference call, a chat conference call, a multimedia conference call, and a video conference call.

36. The method of claim 20, wherein at least one of the participants can define an additional parameter in the profile of the one participant.

37. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is a list of all the participants on one of the plurality of communication devices.

38. The method of claim 20, wherein the filtered list of the participants is generated based on rules.

39. The method of claim 20, wherein generating the filtered list of the participants further comprises the step of:

determining if at least one of the participants has permissions using a controller.

40. A system for managing conference calls comprising:

a mixer configured to establish a conference call between a plurality of communication devices, wherein each communication device has at least one participant; and

a controller configured to;

determine a number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices when each communication device connects to the conference call, wherein the number of participants on at least one of the plurality of communication devices comprises a plurality of participants;

generate a first profile by parsing voice input from a first one of the participants on a first one of the communication devices to create at least one parameter in the first profile;

generate a second profile by parsing voice input from a second one of the participants on the first one communication device to create at least one parameter in the second profile;

get the profile that contains the at least one parameter for each of the participants on each one of the communication devices;

receive at least one parameter from which to filter the first and second profiles;

determine which of the first and second profiles contains the at least one received parameter;

generate a filtered list of the participants based on which of the first and second profiles contains the at least one received parameter and permissions defining the rights of each participant;

present the filtered list of the participants to specified participants; and

leverage the profiles in conjunction with determining the filtered list of participants on the conference to provide dynamic filtering via the controller, wherein the controller is configured to determine the number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices sequentially or in parallel.

41. A computer-implemented method for managing conference calls comprising:

establishing a conference call between a plurality of communication devices, wherein each communication device has at least one participant;

determining, when each communication device connects to the conference call, a number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices, wherein the number of participants on at least one of the plurality of communication devices comprises a plurality of participants;

generating a first profile by parsing voice input from a first one of the participants on a first one of the communication devices to create at least one parameter in the first profile;

generating a second profile by parsing voice input from a second one of the participants on the first one communication device to create at least one parameter in the second profile;

getting the profile of each of the participants on each of the communication devices, wherein each said profile contains the at least one parameter;

receiving at least one parameter from which to filter the first and second profiles;

determining which of the first and second profiles contains the at least one received parameter;

generating a filtered list of the participants based on which of the first and second profiles contains the at least one received parameter and permissions defining the rights of each participant;

presenting the filtered list of the participants to specified participants; and

leveraging the profiles in conjunction with determining the filtered list of participants on the conference to provide dynamic filtering via the controller, wherein the step of determining the number of the participants on each communication device of the plurality of communication devices is accomplished sequentially or in parallel.