Embedding Content Of Interest In Video Conferencing
Patent No. US11394923 (titled "Embedding Content Of Interest In Video Conferencing") was filed by Arlington Technologies Llc on May 3, 2019.
What is this patent about?
’923 is related to the field of video conferencing and communication systems. The patent addresses the problem of enhancing user experience and productivity during video conferences by automatically responding to the context of the meeting. Traditional video conferencing systems lack the ability to proactively assist participants based on the content of their discussions or their individual needs and preferences.
The underlying idea behind ’923 is to use a virtual assistant that monitors the communication session, senses the context of the discussion, and automatically performs actions in response. This involves analyzing audio, video, and textual data to understand the topics being discussed, the participants involved, and their individual needs. The virtual assistant then leverages this information to provide relevant content, suggest actions, or even invite third parties to the session.
The claims of ’923 focus on a method and a communication system that acquire content during a communication session, monitor the content, sense a context within the content, and automatically perform an action in response to the context. Crucially, the action is performed at a time automatically determined by the processor , based on both the action itself and the sensed context. This temporal aspect of the action is a key element of the claims.
In practice, the system uses a combination of speech recognition, face recognition, and natural language processing to understand the context of the video conference. For example, if participants are discussing a specific hardware component, the virtual assistant might display an advertisement or technical documentation for that component. The timing of this action is determined by the system, perhaps waiting for a lull in the conversation or presenting the information during a screen-sharing segment.
This approach differs from prior solutions by providing a proactive and context-aware assistant that enhances the video conferencing experience. Instead of relying on users to manually search for information or initiate actions, the system automatically anticipates their needs and provides relevant assistance. The use of credits for advertising content also provides an economic incentive for users to adopt the system, offsetting the cost of video conferencing services.
How does this patent fit in bigger picture?
Technical landscape at the time
In the mid-2010s when ’923 was filed, video conferencing systems commonly relied on client-server architectures where a central server managed the video streams and data exchange between multiple participants. At a time when speech recognition and natural language processing were becoming more practical, systems commonly relied on keyword spotting and template matching to analyze audio and text streams. When hardware or software constraints made real-time context analysis non-trivial, systems commonly relied on pre-defined rules and templates to trigger actions based on sensed context.
Novelty and Inventive Step
The examiner allowed the claims because the applicant clarified how and when an action is automatically performed by a processor based on context. The examiner stated that prior art (Proulx) taught presenting an advertisement during silence, but did not teach determining *when* an action should occur based on the action and context itself. The examiner also performed updated searches and found that the new references did not clearly teach the claimed combination of elements, particularly the bolded and underlined portions of independent claims 21, 30, and 31.
Claims
This patent includes 20 claims, with independent claims 1, 11, and 20. The independent claims are generally directed to a method and system for automatically performing an action in response to a context sensed during a communication session, particularly a video communication session. The dependent claims generally elaborate on the specific contexts, actions, and content used in the method and system.
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Date
Description
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US11394923
- Application Number
- US16402973
- Filing Date
- May 3, 2019
- Status
- Granted
- Expiry Date
- Oct 5, 2036
- External Links
- Slate, USPTO, Google Patents