IDENTIFYING MEETING PARTICIPANTS IN A REMOTE CONFERENCE
Identifying conference participants of a conference is often difficult when two or more conference participants share one conference endpoint. A participant receiving the conference may be unable to identify the participants and/or unable to identify a currently speaking participant. Systems and methods herein are provided to identify participants by image identification. Systems and methods herein are provided to identify a speaking participant by receiving a signal from a user device associated with the currently speaking participant. Systems and methods herein are provided to utilize a user device to communicate with an endpoint engaged in a communication with another endpoint, such as an emergency service provider.
1 . A conference server, comprising:
a network interface to a network; and
at least one processor coupled to a computer memory comprising instructions that, when read by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform:
accessing a conference between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, the first endpoint being shared between a plurality of users wherein speech from any one or more of the plurality of users is received by the first endpoint, converted to electronic signals, and provided to the second endpoint as an audio portion of the conference;
receiving a signal from the first endpoint identifying a user device, utilized by one of the plurality of users, and indicating speech has been detected from the one of the plurality of users; and
in response to receiving the signal, inserting an identifier into the conference for presentation by the second endpoint.
2 . The conference server of claim 1 , further comprising:
a storage device; and
wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform:
appending a transcript of the conference with the identifier; and
storing the appended transcript in the storage device.
3 . The conference server of claim 2 , further comprising appending the transcript of the conference with the identifier and a timestamp of the occurrence of the signal.
4 . The conference server of claim 1 , wherein inserting an identifier of the one of the plurality of users into the conference for presentation by the second endpoint comprises generating speech comprising the identifier of the one of the plurality of users.
5 . The conference server of claim 4 , wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to buffer the audio portion of the conference to accommodate presentation of the identifier by the second endpoint and, upon completion of the presentation of the identifier, resume presentation of the audio portion of the conference.
6 . The conference server of claim 1 , wherein the network interface further comprises a Bluetooth wireless interface and the signal further comprises a Bluetooth signal.
7 . A communication endpoint, comprising:
a first network interface to a first network;
a second network interface to a second network; and
at least one processor coupled to a computer memory comprising instructions that, when read by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform:
initiating, in response to an input from a user, a first communication via the first network to a second endpoint;
receiving, via the second network interface, a location of a communication device associated with the user; and
encoding the location for inclusion in the first communication for presentation by the second endpoint.
8 . The communication endpoint of claim 7 , wherein receiving the location of the communication device associated with the user further comprises receiving the location of the communication device associated with the user upon determining that the second endpoint is associated with an emergency service provider.
9 . The communication endpoint of claim 7 , wherein the instructions to perform receiving of the location further comprise instructions to perform determining the communication device is available via the second network and, in response, querying the communication device for the location.
10 . The communication endpoint of claim 7 , wherein the location is determined by triangulation of a plurality of radio frequency signals each in communication with the communication device.
11 . The communication endpoint of claim 7 , wherein the location is determined by the communication device by receipt of global satellite positioning information.
12 . A conference server, comprising:
a network interface to a network; and
at least one processor coupled to a computer memory comprising instructions that, when read by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform:
accessing a conference between a first endpoint and a second endpoint, the first endpoint being shared between a plurality of users wherein images of the plurality of users are received by the first endpoint, converted to electronic signals, and provided to the second endpoint as a video portion of the conference;
determining an identifier of a first user of the plurality of users; and
annotating the conference presented to the second endpoint with the identifier of the first user.
13 . The conference server of claim 12 , wherein annotating the conference comprises annotating the video portion of the conference with at least one of a highlight, a graphical element, or a textual description of the identifier.
14 . The conference server of claim 12 , wherein annotating the conference comprises annotating an audio portion of the conference with generated speech announcing the identifier.
15 . The conference server of claim 12 , further comprising:
a storage device; and
wherein the instructions further cause the at least one processor to perform:
appending a transcript of the conference with the identifier; and
storing the appended transcript in the storage device.
16 . The conference server of claim 12 , further comprising instructions to cause the at least one processor to perform annotating the conference presented to the second endpoint with a graphical element emphasizing the first user upon detecting speech originating from the first user.
17 . The conference server of claim 12 , wherein determining the identifier of the first user of the plurality of users further comprises:
selecting a set of candidate users from a database record comprising a set of potential users; and
comparing an image of the first user to ones of the set of candidate users and selecting a best matching candidate user thereto; and
setting the identifier to a name associated to the best matching candidate user.
18 . The conference server of claim 17 , wherein the database record comprises an employee directory.
19 . The conference server of claim 17 , wherein the database record comprises an invitation list to the conference.
20 . The conference server of claim 17 , wherein the database record comprises an artificial intelligence trained to receive images of the plurality of users, a set of candidate users, and a request to identify matches to the first user and return the identifier of the first user.