Facilitation of real time conversations based on topic determination

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving one or more user topic profiles;

receiving an audio recording of a conversation obtained from one or more audio sensors, wherein the one or more audio sensors comprises one or more microphones positioned within an office environment;

converting the audio recording of the conversation to text;

determining, by applying a topic model to the text, a topic of the conversation;

determining, based on the topic of the conversation and the one or more user topic profiles, one or more potentially interested users; and

providing a notification by a user notification engine to the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring, wherein the notification includes a physical location at which the conversation is occurring to allow the one or more potentially interested users to physically join the conversation.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a sound indicative of the topic of the conversation; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a portion of the audio recording; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 further comprising:

responsive to receiving a user-input opt-in signal from a device associated with the user, electronically joining the user to the conversation.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the audio output device comprises noise-reducing headphones.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

applying a change-point algorithm to determine a new topic of conversation;

determining, based on the new topic of the conversation and the one or more user topic profiles, a new set of one or more potentially interested users; and

notifying the new set of one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more audio sensors comprise microphones associated with a persistent video conferencing application operating at multiple locations.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining the topic of conversation by applying a topic model to the text comprises:

generating one or more subject scores, wherein each subject score is associated with a subject of conversation;

determining that a given subject score of the one or more subject scores exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

selecting a subject of conversation associated with the given subject score as the topic of conversation.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein each user topic profile of the one or more user topic profiles comprises one or more subjects of interest and determining one or more potentially interested users comprises:

determining a subset of the one or more user topic profiles that comprises user topic profiles comprising a subject of interest that matches the topic of conversation; and

designating one or more users associated with the subset of the one or more user topic profiles as being the one or more potentially interested users.

10. A system comprising:

a processor communicatively coupled to a memory, the processor configured to:

receive one or more user topic profiles;

receive an audio recording of a conversation obtained from one or more audio sensors, wherein the one or more audio sensors comprises one or more microphones positioned within an office environment;

convert the audio recording of the conversation to text;

determine, by applying a topic model to the text, a topic of the conversation;

determine, based on the topic of the conversation and the one or more user topic profiles, one or more potentially interested users; and

provide a notification by a user notification engine to the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring, wherein the notification includes a physical location at which the conversation is occurring to allow the one or more potentially interested users to physically join the conversation.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a sound indicative of the topic of the conversation; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

12. The system of claim 10 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a portion of the audio recording; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

responsive to receiving a user-input opt-in signal from a device associated with the user, electronically join the user to the conversation.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the audio output device comprises noise-reducing headphones.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith the program instructions executable by a computer processor to cause the computer processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving one or more user topic profiles;

receiving an audio recording of a conversation obtained from one or more audio sensors, wherein the one or more audio sensors comprises one or more microphones positioned within an office environment;

converting the audio recording of the conversation to text;

determining, by applying a topic model to the text, a topic of the conversation;

determining, based on the topic of the conversation and the one or more user topic profiles, one or more potentially interested users; and

providing a notification by a user notification engine to the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring, wherein the notification includes a physical location at which the conversation is occurring to allow the one or more potentially interested users to physically join the conversation.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a sound indicative of the topic of the conversation; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein notifying a user of the one or more potentially interested users that the conversation is occurring comprises:

causing an audio output device associated with the user to play a portion of the audio recording; and

providing the user with an option of listening to the conversation live via the audio output device associated with the user.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 , wherein the method further comprises:

responsive to receiving a user-input opt-in signal from a device associated with the user, electronically joining the user to the conversation.