Concurrent secondary electronic communication session

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11032335-B1
Application number	US-201916429873-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jun 3, 2019
Priority date	Jun 3, 2019
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

Methods and systems disclosed herein describe automatically establishing two concurrent electronic communication sessions. Participants of a primary electronic communication session may request a private (secondary) electronic communication session in which only a subset of the participants of the primary electronic communication session can participate. Methods and systems described herein also describe automatically identifying participants of the second electronic communication session based on various factors including predetermined lists, commonality among different users or user identifiers, and geographic location of each participant of the primary and/or secondary electronic communication session. The methods and systems described herein also describe monitoring location of all participants of the primary and secondary electronic communication sessions and causing input and output elements of various electronic devices based on each user's location and/or whether the user is participating in the secondary or primary electric communication session.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
identifying, by a server, a set of electronic devices associated with a first electronic communication session;
upon receiving an instruction from a first electronic device within the set of electronic devices during the first electronic communication session to establish a second electronic communication session:
automatically selecting, by the server, a subset of the set of electronic devices based on an attribute of a network used by each electronic device to communicate with the server to establish the first electronic communication session;
establishing, by the server, the second electronic communication session between the subset of the set of electronic devices;
reducing, by the server, a volume of the first electronic communication session outputted on each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices to a predetermined volume level, whereby each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices allows users to listen to audio of the second electronic communication session rather than the first electronic communication session; and
disabling, by the server for the first electronic communication session, a microphone of each electronic device within the subset of electronic devices until a termination of the second electronic communication session.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying, by the server, a transcript of communication within the first electronic communication session on at least one electronic device associated with the subset of the set of electronic devices.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is selected by the first electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is selected by the server based on a location of each electronic device being within a predetermined proximity to the first electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is further selected by the server in accordance with an identifier of each electronic device.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the identifier of each electronic device comprises at least one of internet protocol address, media access control address, phone number, and electronic mail address associated with each electronic device.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first electronic communication session and the second electronic communication session are established using different electronic channels.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving, by the server, a geographic location identifier of each electronic device within the set of electronic devices;
disabling, by the server for the first electronic communication session, a microphone of any electronic device within the set of electronic devices that is located within a predetermined proximity to the first electronic device until a termination of the second electronic communication session.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the geographic location identifier of each electronic device corresponds to a GPS location or a beacon identifier.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the server receives a revised list of electronic devices within the subset of the set of electronic devices while the second electronic communication session is established.

11. A computer system comprising:
a set of electronic devices configured to communicate with each other via a first electronic communication session;
a subset of the set of electronic devices configured to communicate with each other via a second electronic communication session; and
a server in communication with the set and subset of the set of electronic devices, the server configured to:
identify a set of electronic devices associated with the first electronic communication session;
upon receiving an instruction from a first electronic device within the set of electronic devices during the first electronic communication session to establish the second electronic communication session:
automatically select the subset of the set of electronic devices based on an attribute a network used by each electronic device to communicate with the server to establish the first electronic communication session;
establish the second electronic communication session between the subset of the set of electronic devices;
reduce a volume of the first electronic communication session outputted on each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices to a predetermined volume level, whereby each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices allows users to listen to audio of the second electronic communication session rather than the first electronic communication session; and
disable, for the first electronic communication session, a microphone of any electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices until termination of the second electronic communication session.

12. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the server is further configured to:
display a transcript of communication within the first electronic communication session on at least one electronic device associated with the subset of the set of electronic devices.

13. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is selected by the first electronic device.

14. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is selected by the server based on a location of each electronic device being within a predetermined proximity to the first electronic device.

15. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the subset of the set of electronic devices is further selected by the server in accordance with an identifier of each electronic device.

16. The computer system of claim 15 , wherein the identifier of each electronic device comprises at least one of internet protocol address, media access control address, phone number, and electronic mail address associated with each electronic device.

17. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the first electronic communication session and the second electronic communication session are established using different electronic channels.

18. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the server is further configured to:
retrieve a geographic location identifier of each electronic device within the set of electronic devices; and
disable, for the first electronic communication session, the microphone of any electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices, that is located within a predetermined proximity to the first electronic device, until a termination of the second electronic communication session.

19. The computer system of claim 18 , wherein the geographic location identifier of each electronic device corresponds to a GPS location or a beacon identifier.

20. The computer system of claim 11 , wherein the server receives a revised list of electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices while the second electronic communication session is established.

Assignees

• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co

Inventors

• Knas Michal
• John Jiby

Classifications

• H04L12/1822

  Conducting the conference, e.g. admission, detection, selection or grouping of participants, correlating users to one or more conference sessions, prioritising transmission · CPC title

• H04L65/403

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04L65/4015 Primary

  where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference · CPC title

• H04L65/1093

  by adding participants; by removing participants · CPC title

• H04M3/564 Primary

  whereby the feature is a sub-conference · CPC title