Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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System For Creating And Maintaining
Side Audio Conferences During A Main Audio Conference
Description
k~round of the Invention
Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to audio telephone conferences, and more
particularly to systems allowing separate side audio conferences during a main
5 audio conference.
Discussion of the Related Art
As companies expand and open global wide offices, they have an increased
need for efficient communications between offices. Typically, persons in different
of fices conduct audio conferences using several phones tied together. One of the
10 drawbacks of an audio conference, however, is that unlike a live conference,
participants may not have side conversations. In live conferences, one or more
participants may whisper certain comments to each other that are not meant to beshared with the other participants. For example, if one participant wants to obtain
another participant's opinion on something before raising the issue to the entire
15 conference, he may simply whisper or write a note to the other participant or leave
the room with the other to talk separately. A typical telephone audio conferenceprovides no mech~ni.sm for whispering or communicating with fewer than all the
other participants.
If one does choose to ask his question out loud then all the other
20 participants in the audio conference must simply sit and wait for this side
conference to finish before continuing with the main conference. This disrupts the
audio conference and discourages these useful side conferences.
Of course, two members could hang up or put the current conference on
hold while they talked on another telephone line call to each other. These multiple
25 steps are cumbersome and may not allow for more than two parties to be in the side
conference. The greater the number of participants in the side conference, the more
difficult it becomes to manage the side conference. There is no automatic or
convenient way for setting up a side conference.
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Accordingly, it is desirable to have a system for easily leaving a main audio
conference and entering into a side conference, and then easily rejoining the main
conference.
Summary of the Invention
Systems and methods consistent with the present invention include
structure and steps for maintaining a main conference among several participants,
allowing participants to leave the conference and create a side conference that is
out of communication with the main conference, and allowing participants to leave
the side conference and re-enter the main conference. Several different side
10 conferences may be created and a list of these side conferences maintained. Aparty to the main conference may enter any side conference and may enter and exit
both the main conference and side conferences freely.
Brief Description of the Drawin~.~
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a
15 part of this specification illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with
the description, serve to explain the objects, advantages and principles of the
invention. In the drawings,
Fig. 1 is an overall communications system diagram consistent with the
present invention;
Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing steps for m~n:~ging an audio conference
consistent with the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing the steps for carrying out one example
consistent with the present invention; and
Figs. 4-8 are overall alternative system configurations to carry out the steps
25 in Fig. 3.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments
Reference will now be made in detail to the construction and operation of
preferred implementations consistent with the present invention illustrated in the
accompanying drawings. In those drawings, like elements and operations are
30 designated with the same reference numerals where possible.
Fig. 1 shows the overall communication system that includes participant
stations 100, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 110, and a conference
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controller 120 that includes a main bridge 130, side conference bridges 140, a
memory 150, a processor 160, breakout function software 400, and conference
~mini~tration function software 410. Conference controller 120 performs the
procedures shown in the flow charts of Figs. 2 and 3.
Generally audio conferences are held by connecting each participant to a
bridge. A conference bridge is a known communication connector that connects
several telephones to a single communication line. Each bridge is assigned an
associated identifier. Users are told of this identifier so that they may call into an
audio conference service and designate the desired main conference bridge 130.
10 Side conference bridges 140 are communication bridges for side conference rooms
and are accessed through a menu available only to those connected to a main
conference bridge 130. Conference controller 120 includes the necessary hardwareand software for setting up basic communication connections such as conference
bridges.
The telephone conference participants are at participant stations 100, which
include a telephone. The participant telephones at station 100 connect through
PSTN 110 to conference controller 120. Conference controller 120 will identify,
based on an entered conference identifier, the appropriate main conference bridge
130 and will connect participant telephone at station 100 to the identified mainconference bridge 130.
In one implementation consistent with the present invention, when a
participant first connects to a main conference bridge, the participant records its
name, which is then stored in memory 150. This name is spoken to other
participants already connected to the main conference bridge. While in the
conference, a key such as "9" on the telephone keypad, may be pushed by a
participant to request a readout of the names of the people that are in the
conference. The recorded names are also spoken when participants enter a side
conference bridge 140. Finally, a recorded name may be spoken to indicate that aparticipant has left the main or side conference.
Fig. 2 shows the steps of the overall process flow for m~n~ging an audio
conference consistent with the present invention. Conventional systems can create
and maintain a conference call using bridges. Generally, one participant initiates
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the conference by telling a conference ~flmini~trator what time a conference bridge
should be set up and how many people to expect. The participant then receives anidentifying number which he passes on to all other participants.
At the designated conference time, the conference ~(lmini~tration function
S 410 will create the main bridge (step 200). Participants, who were told of theconference identifier, dial into conference controller 120 and designate a main
conference bridge 130 using the conference identifier (step 210). The conference~ministration function 410 connects the participants to the designated main
conference bridge (step 220).
During the conference, if participants wish to have a side conference with
each other, they press a designated key on their telephone keypad, such as by
hitting the "*" key (step 230). The conference ~(lministration function 410
disconnects the participants from the main conference bridge 130 and connects the
participants to breakout function 400. Breakout function 400 determines what
15 action an individual participant wishes to take such as "join," "create," "list side
conferences," or "rejoin the main conference" (step 240). In a preferred
embodiment, the breakout function 400 audibly lists these options along with an
identifying number for each option. For example, in order to designate the desired
option, the user could be prompted to select "3" on his telephone key pad for a list
20 of side conference bridges, "S" to rejoin the main conference, "2" to create a new
conference, or " 1 " to join an ongoing side conference bridge.
If a user selects "2" to create a new side conference (step 250), then the
breakout function 400 creates a new side conference bridge 140 (step 255). The
breakout function 400 plays an audio request to the participant instructing the
25 participant to record a greeting for the list. This greeting identifies the purpose of
the room so that the breakout function 400 may later play a list of recorded
greetings from which another participant can select a side conference bridge to
join. For example, a participant could record the greeting "side conference room to
discuss financial validity of plan." If another participant wishes to join one of the
30 side conferences, this recording will be played allowing the participant to select to
join this particular side conference. After the greeting is recorded, the participant
is connected to the new conference bridge (step 256). Processing then continues
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until the participant gives an indication, such as the "*" key to exit, which results in
the repetition of steps 230 and 240.
The user may select to join an ongoing conference by selecting " 1 " on the
telephone key pad (step 260). When this option is selected, the breakout function
400 determines which side conference bridge 140 a participant wishes to join by
asking the user to input an identifier number assigned to the conference (step 265).
The participant is then connected to the selected bridge (step 267) and processing
continues until the user selects the "*" key to leave.
If the user selects "3" on the telephone key pad to request a list (step 270),
10 then the system reads the list of active side conference bridges 140 by playing the
recorded greeting for each and the number identifier for each (step 275). The
number identifier is used by participants to select the desired side conference
bridge in step 265. If the user selects to rejoin the main conference by selecting
"5" (step 280), then the user is disconnected from the side conference bridge 140
15 and reconnected to the main conference bridge 130 (step 285).
Processing continues in the main conference bridge until the participant
again presses the "* " key. If the user fails to select any of the options after a
predetermined period of time, then the options are repeated to the participant (step
290).
A specific example of a conference taking place consistent with the present
invention will be described with respect to Figs. 3-8. The breakout function 400and conference ~lmini~tration function 410 in Fig. 4, maintain access to a
processor and a memory, not shown, for performing functions shown in Fig. 3.
Conference controller 420 is the overall controller that includes the necessary
hardware and software for m~int~ining bridges and controlling conferences. Users440 are shown with general connection lines to the bridges.
The system shown in Fig. 4 shows several users connected through a trunk
(not shown) and a bridge that connects the trunks together to allow communication
among all of the lines. An example of a bridge is a conferencing board circuit card
that connects a number of answering lines together. An example of a trunk is a
primary rate interface (PRI) board card and provides twenty-three connections to a
single cable. Adding more than twenty-three phone lines together, requires more
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PRI trunks. An ~mini~trative software function will route the calls when they
come in and determine which conference they should be hooked up to.
As shown in Fig. 3, users A-F dial into the conference controller 420
designating a main conference (step 300). Users A-D designate identifiers for the
5 main bridge " 1 " and are connected to this main conference bridge 430 by the
conference a~lministration function 410. Users E and F designate bridge number
"2" and therefore are connected to the main conference 435 by the conference
a(lministration function 410.
Next, user A hits the "*" key (step 320), and the conference ~(lministration
10 function 410 disconnects the user from bridge number 1 and connects the user to
the breakout function 400 through the connection line 500 shown in Fig. 5 (step
330). The rem~ining users are unaffected by this change.
The breakout function 400 next solicits information from user A. For
example, the breakout function 400 may play the list of menu options, from which15 user A decides to create a new side conference bridge for a side conference (step
340). The conference a~mini~tration function 410 creates a new bridge number "3"in response to this request and connects the user to new bridge 600 using
communication line 610 shown in Fig. 6 (step 350). In creating the new bridge,
breakout function 400 also elicits information about the new bridge from user A so
20 that this identifying information may be to other users who may request a list of all
currently active side conference bridges.
Next, user D hits the "*" key, indicating a desire to leave the main
conference (step 360). The conference a(lministration function 410 will then
connect user D to the breakout function 400 (step 365). User D will then be given
25 a list of options by the breakout function 400 from which user D selects to join
ongoing bridge 600 (step 370). The breakout function 400 directs the conference
a(lmini~trator 410 to connect user D to bridge 600 (step 375) as shown in Fig. 7 by
communication line 700. Users A and D are now connected to bridge 600, which
allows them to communicate without users B and C hearing their side conference.
30 Users B and C are the only users now left in the main conference bridge 430.
Both users A and D leave the side conference by hitting the "*" key (step
380). The conference a(lministration function 410 connects users A and D to
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breakout function 400 (step 385). Breakout function 400 again lists the options to
users A and D. Users A and D now select to rejoin the main conference (step 390).
Breakout function 400 directs the conference ~1mini.~tration function 410 to
connect users A and D back to their original main conference which is bridge 4305 (step 395), by connection lines 800 and 805 shown in Fig. 8.
The side conference bridges are left even after the participants return to the
main conference to prevent any confusion. For example, if participants are in one
side conference bridge and know it is conference bridge "2," and then later decide
to reenter the side conference bridge, they will be confused if side conference
10 bridge "2" now includes a different conference title and participants. They expect
the conference bridge to remain for the same purpose as was originally assigned.Therefore, all of the side conference bridges will be disconnected when the mainconference is disconnected.
Systems and methods consistent with the present invention allow
15 participants in an audio conference to have a side conversation during the audio
conference easily and quickly without interrupting those in the main audio
conference. This is achieved by allowing users to create new side conference
bridges dynamically during a main conference and enter and exit the new side
conference bridges freely.
The foregoing description is presented for purposes of illustration and
description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the
precise form disclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light of the
above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. The
embodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principles of the
invention and its practical application to enable one skilled in the art to utilize the
invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited tothe particular use contemplated. The scope of the invention is defined by the
following claims and their equivalents.
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