Enhancing conferencing user experience via components
View Patent ↗An enhanced user experience during a telecommunications conference may be achieved by using components of devices associated with users as ephemeral adjuncts to a conferencing system. These components may be associated with equipment in a conference room or location such that other participants in the conference may not recognize the use of the device. The quality of a user's experience may thus be improved by using a device and associated components in close proximity to the user. Other participants in a conference may also perceive a benefit from improved intelligibility.
1. A method, comprising:
receiving, in a memory of a server, a first signal from a first telecommunications device indicating a request to connect to a communication session, wherein the first signal is associated with an identification of one or more multimedia components of the first telecommunications device;
associating, using a processor of the server and coupled to the memory, the one or more multimedia components with a location, to produce an association;
disabling one or more multimedia components of the first telecommunication device while the first telecommunication device is in association;
receiving, in the memory, a second signal from the first telecommunications device, wherein the second signal comprises an indication to communicate using at least one of the one or more multimedia components of the first telecommunications device;
receiving multimedia content from the first telecommunications device, wherein the multimedia content is generated using the at least one multimedia components indicated by the second signal;
mixing, by the server, the multimedia content from the first telecommunications device with a second multimedia content, to produce a mixed multimedia content; and
selectively sending, using the processor, the mixed multimedia content to at least one multimedia component capable of outputting the mixed multimedia content.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first telecommunications device is configured to be disabled by remote control.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the request to connect relates to communication within a zone of coverage.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
detecting that the first telecommunications device has left the zone of coverage; and
suspending the association.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that the first telecommunications device has stopped communicating for a predetermined period of time; and
suspending the association.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: providing an identification code of the communication session to the first telecommunications device.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a user of the first telecommunications device is not a required participant of the communication session; and
suspending the association.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the selective sending further comprises sending the location as the source of the multimedia content.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the multimedia components of the first telecommunications device comprise one or more of a microphone, camera, and keyboard.
10. The method of claim 1 wherein the multimedia content comprises one or more of text, audio, and video.
11. The method of claim 1 wherein the location is determined by wireless signal strength metrics.
12. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
detecting that the first telecommunications device has left the zone of coverage; and
extending the association to the first telecommunications device outside the zone of coverage.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of selectively sending multimedia content comprises the steps of:
receiving a request to share a multimedia component; and
sending a multimedia content to the multimedia component.
14. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one multimedia component comprises one or more of speakers and a display.
15. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an indication to stop selectively sending the multimedia content to the at least one multimedia component.
16. The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving multimedia content from a second telecommunications device.
17. A method to share a multimedia device comprising one or more components, the method comprising:
receiving, by a conference server, an identifier of active components within a location;
determining, by a conference server, a location of a user who is speaking;
analyzing an audio received by a plurality of active components within a plurality of multimedia devices within a predetermined distance from the user, to produce a reception quality for the respective active components within the predetermined distance from the user;
selecting a first active component and associated first multimedia device from among the plurality of multimedia devices based upon the reception quality; and
sharing audio multimedia content from the selected first active component to a multimedia device different than the selected first multimedia device.
18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising notifying the selected first multimedia device that its multimedia content is being provided to a different multimedia device.
19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising determining whether the user is speaking publicly or privately.
20. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
selecting a second active component and associated second multimedia device based upon the reception quality; and
sharing a second audio multimedia content from the second selected active component to the multimedia device different than the selected first or second multimedia device.