Automatic meeting invitation based on proximity

• US 9,495,663 B2
• Filed: 01/19/2011
• Issued: 11/15/2016
• 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
• Primary Examiner(s): JEANTY, ROMAIN
• Application Number:
  US13/009,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20120185291A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,127 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7.19
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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, with at least one processor of a host device, a meeting at a predetermined physical meeting location between participants in a computer network;

scanning with a transceiver of the host device for communications devices in proximity of the physical meeting location;

receiving, with the at least one processor from the transceiver of the host device, an identification message from a particular communications device associated with a possible participant of the meeting;

in response to receiving the identification message from the transceiver, determining, with the at least one processor, whether the particular communications device is proximate to the predetermined physical meeting location for the meeting; and

sending, with the at least one processor, an invite for the transceiver to send to the particular communications device, the invite being a request for the possible participant to join the meeting, the sending being in response to determining that the particular communications device is proximate the host device at the predetermined physical meeting location, wherein sending the invite comprises sending a token referring to a session identification of the meeting and encrypted for the possible participant.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein hosting comprises interconnecting, with the at least one processor, computer network devices of the participants,

receiving, with the at least one processor, communications information from one of the computer network devices, and

transmitting, with the at least one processor, the communications information to others of the computer network devices.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises determining, with the at least one processor, that the communications device is within communications range.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining comprises determining, with the at least one processor, that the particular communications device is within a room.

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

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising comparing, with the at least one processor, a user identification for the particular communications device with a list of invitees.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing, with the at least one processor, a connection for the possible participant to the meeting based on the inviting.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the invite comprises a subsequent invite, the method further comprises:

sending, with the at least one processor, an initial invite to the particular communications device before occurrence of the meeting; and

detecting, with the at least one processor, a failure of the possible participant to respond to the initial invite or to join the meeting in response to the initial invite,

wherein sending the subsequent invite comprises sending, with the at least one processor, the subsequent invite to the particular communications device in response to detecting the failure of the possible participant and determining that the particular communications device is proximate the host device at the predetermined physical meeting location.

9. The method of claim 7 where establishing comprises launching, with the at least one processor, conferencing software on the particular communications device in response to user acceptance of the invite.

10. A meeting system comprising:

a communications device of a user; and

a host device comprising;

a transmitter; and

a processor connected to the transmitter, the processor configured to;

host a meeting at a predetermined physical meeting location between participants in a computer network;

scan for communications devices in proximity of the physical meeting location and detect whether the communications device of the user is proximate to the predetermined physical meeting location of the meeting;

when the communications device of the user is proximate to the predetermined physical location, generate an invite to request that the user join the meeting, wherein the invite is generated to include a link that allows the communications device to join the meeting and a token referring to a session identification of the meeting and encrypted for the user;

send the invite to the transmitter; and

wherein the transmitter is configured to send the invite to the device upon receipt of the invite from the processor.

11. The meeting system of claim 10 wherein the processor comprises a conferencing phone.

12. The meeting system of claim 10 wherein the transmitter comprises a Bluetooth transmitter.

13. The meeting system of claim 10 wherein the processor is configured to detect the communications device being within a room.

14. The meeting system of claim 10 wherein the host device further comprises a receiver, connected with the processor, the receiver configured to receive an acceptance of the invite from the communications device.

15. The meeting system of claim 10 wherein the processor is further configured to:

receive a user identification from the communications device;

identify that the user identification is included in a list of invitees for the meeting; and

generate the invite further in response to the identification that the user identification

is included in the list of invitees.

16. The meeting system of claim 10, wherein the invite comprises a subsequent invite, wherein the processor is further configured to detect a failure of the user to respond to a prior invite of the meeting or join the meeting in response to the prior invite, and

wherein the transmitter is configured to transmit the subsequent invite to the communications device in response to the detection of the failure of the user and the detection of the communications device proximate to the predetermined physical meeting location of the meeting.

17. One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions operable to:

receive a search inquiry from a transceiver in a mobile device, the search inquiry originating from a host device searching for communications devices in proximity to a predetermined physical meeting location of a meeting;

send a device address of the mobile device to a transceiver of the mobile device for a transmission to a host device;

responsive to receiving a request for a user identification associated with a possible participant for the meeting, posting the user identification to the transceiver of the mobile device for transmission to the host device to determine whether to possible participant is proximate to the predetermined physical meeting location of the meeting;

receive invite information for the meeting in response to a determination by the host device that the possible participant is proximate to the predetermined physical meeting location of the meeting, the invite information including a token referring to a session identification of the meeting and encrypted for a user of the mobile device; and

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

18. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 17 wherein the invite information being received is based on the user identification.

19. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 17 wherein the mobile device comprises a mobile computing device housing the computer readable storage media, and wherein the presentation comprises output of a selection to activate joining the meeting;

further comprising software comprising executable instructions operable to;

transmit acceptance of the opportunity; and

receive a network link in response to the transmission of the acceptance.

20. The one or more computer readable storage of claim 17 further comprising:

software comprising executable instructions operable to run a meeting application on the mobile device, wherein the receipt occurs during the run of the meeting application.

21. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the invite information comprises subsequent invite information, the computer executable instructions operable to receive the subsequent invite information for the meeting in response to a failure of a user of the mobile device to respond to a prior invite or join the meeting and in response to the determination that the mobile device is proximate the predetermined physical meeting location.