Control of a video conference system using personal devices

1. A video conference system comprising:

a proximity detector configured to detect the presence of a plurality of mobile devices within a predetermined proximity of the proximity detector;

a wireless controller configured to establish a wireless link with each mobile device in response to the proximity detector detecting the presence of the mobile device; and

a control unit configured to:

automatically add a plurality of users associated with the plurality of mobile devices as participants to a scheduled video conference;

designate one of the plurality of mobile devices as a control mobile device having control of one or more video conference settings;

receive a command from the control mobile device via the wireless link; and

control a video conference setting based on the received command.

2. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the proximity detector comprises a near field communication (NFC) device configured to provide pairing credentials to the mobile device for establishing the wireless link in response to the mobile device being proximate to the NFC device.

3. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the proximity detector is configured to detect the presence of the mobile device based on a determined location of the mobile device relative to a location of the proximity detector.

4. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the proximity detector is configured to detect the mobile device upon physical contact of the mobile device with the proximity detector.

5. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the proximity detector comprises a Wi-Fi positioning system configured to estimate the location of the mobile device.

6. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the wireless link is a Bluetooth link or a Wi-Fi link.

7. The video conference system of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to provide a uniform resource locator (URL) for a control interface to the control mobile device via the wireless link, and

wherein the control interface is configured to send the command from the control mobile device.

8. The video conference system of claim 7 , wherein the control unit further comprises a webserver configured to host a video conference control application accessible by the control interface on the control mobile device, the video conference control application configured to control the control unit.

9. The video conference system of claim 1 , further comprising a communication unit configured to communicate with one or more remote video conference systems.

10. A computer-implemented method of providing control of a video conference system by a mobile device, the method comprising:

detecting, by a proximity detector, the presence of a plurality of mobile devices within a predetermined proximity of the proximity detector;

establishing a wireless link between each mobile device and a wireless controller based on the detected proximity of the mobile device, each wireless link providing a communication path for a command from the linked mobile device to be received by a control unit;

automatically adding a plurality of users associated with the detected plurality of mobile devices as participants to a scheduled video conference;

designating, by the control unit, one of the plurality of mobile devices as a control mobile device having control of one or more video conference settings;

receiving, from the control mobile device, a command over the wireless link;

and

changing, by the control unit, one or more video conference settings based on the received command.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the proximity detector detects the mobile device through a Bluetooth signal and provides pairing credentials to the mobile device for establishing the wireless link in response to the mobile device being detected.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the mobile device is detected based on a determined location of the mobile device relative to a location of the proximity detector.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the wireless link is established over a Bluetooth link or a Wi-Fi link.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising providing to the control mobile device a uniform resource locator (URL) via the wireless link and providing access to a video conference control application pointed to by the URL.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions for causing a processor to execute a method for providing control of a video conference system by a mobile device, the method comprising:

detecting, by a proximity detector, the presence of a plurality of mobile devices within a predetermined proximity of the proximity detector;

providing pairing credentials from the proximity detector to each mobile device based on the detected presence of the mobile device;

establishing a wireless link between each mobile device and a wireless controller based on the pairing credentials;

automatically adding a plurality of users associated with the detected plurality of mobile devices as participants to a scheduled video conference;

designating, by the control unit, two or more of the plurality of mobile devices as control mobile devices having control of one or more video conference settings;

receiving mobile device based commands over the wireless links;

resolving, by the control unit, conflicts between competing commands from the two or more control mobile devices; and

changing a video conference setting of the video conference system based on the resolved command.

16. The storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the mobile device is detected by a near field communication (NFC) device, the NFC device providing Bluetooth pairing credentials to the mobile device for establishing the wireless link in response to the mobile device being proximate to the NFC device.

17. The storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the mobile device is detected by a determined location of the mobile device relative to a location of the proximity detector and the wireless link is established over a Wi-Fi link.

18. The storage medium of claim 15 , wherein a uniform resource locator (URL) is provided to the control mobile devices via the wireless links, wherein the control mobile devices access a video conference control application pointed to by the URL.