WO2008139495A2

WO2008139495A2 - Hidden participant in real-time communications

Info

Publication number: WO2008139495A2
Application number: PCT/IN2008/000298
Authority: WO
Inventors: Aravind Pani
Original assignee: Aravind Pani
Priority date: 2007-05-14
Filing date: 2008-05-13
Publication date: 2008-11-20
Also published as: WO2008139495A3

Abstract

The embodiments introduce the method of inviting and involving a hidden participant in a text based or audio based conference. Members of the conference can invite the hidden participant by sending an invite. Once the hidden participant accepts the invitation and joins in the conference, the hidden participant can witness the entire happenings of the conference but his inputs are visible/ audible only to the inviting participant. The member of the conference system can also invite more than one hidden participants and can authorize them to communicate with each other. The member can make himself invisible to become hidden participant and remain in the conference. In this case associated hidden participant also continues to be the part of conference. Participation of the hidden participant in the conference can be terminated by participant himself or by the member who had sent the invitation to the hidden participant.

Description

HIDDEN PARTICIPANT IN REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS

BACKGROUND

Technical field

[0001] The embodiments herein generally relate to hidden participant in real-time communications and more particularly to invisible participant who can witness and participate in a real-time text or audio based conference to a limited extent.

Description of the Related Art

[0002] Modern communication technologies have made it usual to have communication for people who are distant from each other. For example, telephone is one of the most useful tools to communicate using acoustic information, and e-mail is one of them using literal information. Video-chat or video-phone is also available to communicate. Many people consider video-phone to be the richest communication to the other's place because appearances of speakers are directly transmitted to each other. Using these communication technologies many people participate in a conference or a meeting.

[0003] Communication may take place between units of very different size and complexity. It may occur between and within individuals, group, organizations, social classes, nations, countries and regions of the world. Communication is thus the basic phenomenon to all human beings.

[0004] Over the millennia, human beings have used various techniques to communicate in space and time. The growth of the Internet has led to new and faster forms of communication. One of the fundamental internet-based communications tools that have ethical implications when used for client development purposes is e-mail. Email may be information conveyed from one person to another, or it may be part of a discussion group mailing list where individuals signup and subsequently exchange email with all subscribers.

[0005] There are now programs, that allow users to communicate in real-time with one or more people while bypassing the need to constantly check e-mail. These instant messaging tools are commonly referred to as internet relay chat. The term chat in the field of internet refers to real time communication between two or more people. The voice chat allows two people to speak to each other using the internet, as with a normal telephone call. In terms of text chat, one can either use a specially designed program, such as Microsoft® messenger to interact with a person or a group of people in other locations, or one can join a web-based chat dedicated to the community.

[0006] Chat differs from e-mail and other electronic communication modalities it provides an opportunity for online conversation to take place in real time. Although chat conversations take the form of text rather than audio, a chat session shares many features with a telephonic conference call. In both scenarios, several people from different locations participate in a conversation at the same time. Both allow people to join or leave the session as needed. A chat or conference software enables people to hold a live discussion by sending each other short written messages. Chat software normally enables public and/or private conversations to take place and, depending on the software, these may be individuals or group.

[0007] The concept of conference is used for a conversation involving more than two people or parties. Such a conference can be a text only conversation like the computer or mobile phone based chat applications, voice conferences which are through telephonic or Voice Over IP (VOIP) using software or video conferencing. Such conferencing methods can be called real-time communications, as they are instantaneous and happen in real-time. There are various technologies and different designs and architecture to implement such a conferencing facility. In such conferences, all the participants share the information which is exchanged among other participants. Some conferences allow one of the participants to have extra rights to govern the conference by allowing a participant to join or block from joining or dropping from the conference. But, all the joined participants share the same information which is offered by any other participant. For example, if there are five participants in a text conference and one of them posts a text message, it is seen by all the five participants. In a similar voice conference, if one speaks, it is heard by all the others.

[0008] The concept of BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) is present in e-mails. Carbon copy (CC) in e-mails means that the person whose address is given in the CC field, will also receive a copy of the e-mail, but the original receiver(s) of the e-mail will be able to see the person to whom the mail was CC'ed to. In the case of BCC, the person whose address is entered in the BCC field will receive a copy of the e-mail. However, in this case, none of the other recipients will be able to know that a copy of the e-mail was sent to this other address(es) who were addressed in the BCC by the sender.

[0009] In a normal real-time communication system, all the participants are able to view all the other participants and are able to interact with them without any restrictions. However, in some cases, a need might be felt for a private conversation between a few participants or a hidden observer to observe the whole conversation and report his findings or any queries the observer has regarding the conversation to another participant in the conversation. This feature is especially useful in situations like interviews, where a high ranking officer can listen into the conversation with the interviewee being unaware of his presence. The observing officer can interact with the interviewer and route questions through the interviewer. This can aid in maintaining a more casual atmosphere during the interview, as the interviewee is under the impression that he is interacting with only one person. It can also be helpful in scenarios like call centers, where the supervisors can listen in onto calls, without the customer being aware of it. This helps in maintaining a quality check on the customer service representatives. It can also be useful in the conference wherein text based instant messenger is used. The feature can be used for conference where some of the hidden participants can view entire text conversation and only the natural participant who has invited the hidden participant can view the comments posted by hidden participant.

[0010] US Patent application 20060172727 talks about a method of providing one-to- one call during conference call in a mobile terminal. In this application, the method allows for two participants to set up a one-to-one call between them, without disconnecting from the conference call and the other participants being aware of the call being held. However, in this method, the other participants are aware of the presence of the participants, who are holding the one-to-one call.

[0011] US Patent 7058682 "Instant Messaging Blind Join" talks about a method of inviting a participant anonymously to participate in an instant messaging session. The participant's identity is not revealed and can post actively to the session. The posts by the anonymous participant can be seen by all the participants in the session.

[0012] Both of the above mentioned cases do not consider a completely hidden participant, not visible to any of the other participants, visible only to the person who gave the invite. The interaction between the participants, mentioned in the cases above and the session is visible to all the other participants and is not restricted to the person who invited him.

[0013] Hence there is a need to develop a method of allowing a hidden participant to a real-time text or audio based conference system.

SUMMARY

[0014] According to one embodiment of present invention, a method is developed to provide hidden participant facility in text based conferencing system using instant messenger. The method comprising: of sending invitations to participants corresponding to natural and hidden participants and validating the rights of natural and hidden participants to participate in a conference. The comments of the all natural participants are viewed by everyone including hidden participants. The comments of the hidden participant can only seen by the natural participant who had invited the hidden participant in the conference. The natural participant can only invite the hidden participant and natural participant can invite plurality of hidden participants. Once hidden participant accepts the invitation, he can see complete text based communications and further interact with the natural participant who had sent the participation request. Participation of the hidden participant in the conference can be terminated by the natural participant who had sent the invitation to the hidden participant. The hidden participant can also leave the conference at any point of time. The participation of the hidden participant in the conference is terminated as soon as the natural participant, who had sent invitation to the hidden participant, leaves the conference. When a natural participant invites more than one hidden participant, he can authorize the hidden participants to communicate with each other. The natural participant can make himself invisible to become hidden participant and remain in the conference. In this case, the hidden participant associated with natural participant continues to be the part of conference. The entire natural and hidden participants quit the conference automatically once the conference is complete.

[0015] According to another embodiment, the invention provides a method of inviting a hidden participant to an audio conference by using passcodes; which are assigned to each participant and stored in the conference bridge server; to validate the participants and to validate the participants' rights to participate as hidden. The invitation to the hidden participant may be extended by the moderator or by any participant in the conference. The data sent by the hidden participant is routed only to the moderator or participant who sent the invitation to the hidden participant. Only the moderator or conference participant, who sent the invitation to the hidden participant for the conference, can interact with the hidden participant. In the hidden mode, the hidden participant can witness the entire happenings of the conference but his inputs will be visible only to the inviting participant.

[0016] These and other embodiments herein are understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof and the embodiments herein include all such modifications. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The embodiments herein will be better understood from the following detailed description with reference to the drawings, in which:

[0018] FIG. 1 shows the diagrammatic representation of the conference system and the various elements constituting the system.

[0019] FIG. 2 shows a general flow diagram of the conferencing process.

[0020] FIG. 3 shows participation and interaction of hidden participant an instant messaging conference.

[0021] FIG. 4 shows a typical audio conferencing bridge server and participants associated.

[0022] FIG. 5 shows the general process for adding a participant to an audio conference.

[0023] FIG. 6 shows the process of how a participant can join the audio conference in the hidden mode.

[0024] FIG. 7 shows how a normal participant of the conference can invite a hidden participant to the audio conference.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the embodiments herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the embodiments herein.

[0026] The embodiments introduce the method of inviting and involving a hidden participant in a text based or audio based conference.

[0027] FIG. 1 shows the diagrammatic representation of instant messenger based conferencing system and the various elements constituting the system. In this case, members (natural participants) of the conference (102) are A, B, C, D (104) and E (106). Hidden participant is X (108), who has been invited to the conference by natural participant E (106). Participant X (104) is an audience to the conference, but can interact only with E (103), his inviter. This is the conceptual overview, on which the system is improved. Natural participant can invite plurality of hidden participants. When more than one hidden participants are invited by any natural participant, hidden participants can not interact or view comments of other hidden participants without authorization of natural participant (inviter). In case of audio conference, a hidden participant can be authorized to be heard by other hidden participants by the same inviter. The inviter can also authorize the hidden participant to be heard by one or more natural participants.

[0028] FIG. 2 shows the process flow of the method. Various natural participants A, B, C, D, E (as shown in FIG. 1) join the conference to initiate a real-time conference (202). Every natural participant is aware of the presence of all other natural participants in the conference and can interact with each of them in the conference. Participant E sends a conference invitation to a hidden participant X (204). Hidden participant X accepts the invitation and joins the conference (206). X can witness the conference, but is invisible to the rest of the participants. The conference is carried out normally where all participants can interact with each other, without being aware of the presence of X. Hidden Participant X can interact only with E (208) who is inviter of hidden participant X. Hidden participant X can terminate his participation in the conference by quitting the conference or the participation can be terminated by E (210). The conference continues or terminates in accord to the will of the rest of the members who are participating in it (212). Incase of termination of conference all the participant including hidden participants are terminated from the conference automatically.

[0029] This process can be implemented on any medium of real-time communication like phone, text chats, voice chats, video conferencing, tele-conferencing, text based conferencing, etc.

[0030] FIG. 3 shows participation and interaction of hidden participant in instant messaging conference. The natural participants, who are online on the instant messaging software, set up a conference among themselves (302). A moderator may be appointed to regulate the conference. When a hidden participant is to be invited, appropriate options are selected from the menu and the invite is sent (304). This invite can be sent out by either the moderator of the conference or by any of the participants in the conference. The recipient of the invite, who is the hidden participant, accepts the invitation and joins in the conference (306). All other natural participants are unaware of presence of hidden participant in the conference. Hidden participant can see the comments and discussion in the conference. When data is received from a participant (308), the details of the participant are checked (310) to see if the participant is a hidden participant or a normal participant. If the data is from a hidden participant, then the participant permission details are collected (312). The permission details are checked to see which natural participants are authorized to receive the data from the hidden participant. The data is then sent to the natural participants authorized to receive the data (314). If the data is from a natural participant, then the data is broadcast the conference where all the participants can see the data (316). A hidden participant can be used for specific purposes like a real time consultation of experts who need not be active participants or exposed to the others in the conference. The experts who participate as hidden participants may offer real time information and consultancy depending on the progress of the conference and this information will reach only the relevant party. The embodiments also provide a facility to natural participant on the conference to become invisible and remain in the conference as hidden participant. In this case, the hidden participant associated with the natural participant, continue to be part of conference in the hidden mode. Other natural members of the conference would be unaware of the hidden participant including the natural participant who has become invisible in the conference.

[0031] According to other embodiment of current invention, a voice conference call is carried out by using telephones, can be cellular or land based phone. FIG. 4 shows a regular conference call using a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) (402) connected to multiple members (natural participants) along with a conference bridge. The PBX is any call receiving exchange which can receive calls from various networks. The conference bridge (404) is essentially a server that bridges multiple incoming calls and acts as conference controller. It creates real time data transfer of all communications to all participating parties. Software plays a huge role in the bridge's capabilities beyond simply connecting multiple callers. Multiple callers can call on a single PBX through a conference bridge. The various participating members in the conference 406, 408, 410, and 412 maybe using a cellular phone, a land phone or a computer through which they can dial and connect to the conference. The natural participants can hear others on their phones, but the hidden participant has different rights. He is allowed to witness the presence and happenings of the entire conference but he is audible only to the inviting participant.

[0032] FIG. 5 shows the general process for adding a participant to an audio conference. Participant who aims to participate in ,the conference initiates the process by dialing a designated number, provided to him by the conference moderator (502). By dialing this number, the participant is connected to the bridge server. The bridge server further attempts to authenticate the natural participant by requesting for the passcode (504). The participant dials in the passcode (506) and the bridge server verifies the passcode (508). If the passcode is authenticated, then the participant is allowed to join the conference (510). If the passcode is not authenticated, then the bridge server checks if the maximum number of tries for entering the correct passcode has been completed (512). If yes, then the bridge server terminates the connection. If no, then the bridge server requests for the passcode once again i.e. the bridge server jumps to step (504). The process repeats itself till the participant has entered the correct passcode or the maximum number of tries have been attempted.

[0033] To introduce a new participant as hidden participant, the server has to authenticate a participant and validate his rights to participate as hidden. A method of introducing a new participant is that the moderator or administrator decides whether a participant can be allowed to join in as a hidden participant. The bridge server administrator or moderator of a conference registers one or more passcodes with the server and issues passcode to one or more specific personnel who can use the new pass code to join as hidden participants.

[0034] FIG. 6 shows the process of adding a participant to the audio conference, with the bridge server having the ability to check if the participant is a hidden participant or a natural participant and assigning the necessary permissions to the participants. Step (602) shows how a participant who aims to participate in the conference initiates the process by dialing a designated number, provided to him by the conference moderator. By dialing this number, the person is connected to the bridge server. In step (604), the bridge server attempts to authenticate the participant by requesting for the passcode. The participant dials in the passcode (606) and the bridge server verifies the passcode (608). If the passcode is not authenticated, then the bridge server checks if the maximum number of tries for entering the correct passcode has been completed (610). If yes, then the bridge server terminates the connection. If no, then the bridge server requests for the passcode once again i.e. the bridge server jumps to step (604). The process repeats itself till the participant has entered the correct passcode or the maximum number of tries have been attempted. If the passcode has been authenticated, then the bridge server checks the passcode against the list of passcodes assigned to hidden participants (612). If the passcode matches an entry for passcodes assigned to hidden participants, then the participant is added as a hidden participant along with the necessary permissions and details (614). If the passcode does not match the passcodes assigned to hidden participants, then the participant is added as a natural participant (616) and the other participants in the conference are intimated that a new participant has joined the conference (618).

[0035] Another alternate method of adding a hidden participant is by natural participant who can decide to invite another participant to join as a hidden participant. A participant is allowed to register with the bridge server to request for a hidden participant passcode and obtains the passcode. Depending on the security requirements, two separate passcodes may be issued for the inviter participant and the hidden participant to be identified as links. This helps at the time of exit from conference so that the server exits the hidden participant when the natural participant who invited the hidden participant exits.

[0036] FIG. 7 shows the general process for adding a participant to an audio conference. Step (702) shows how a participant who aims to participate in the conference initiates the process by dialing a designated number, provided to him by the conference moderator. By dialing this number, the participant is connected to the bridge server. In step (704), the bridge server attempts to authenticate the participant by requesting for the passcode. The participant dials in the passcode (706) and the bridge server verifies the passcode (708). If the passcode is authenticated, then the participant is allowed to join the conference (710). If the passcode is not authenticated, then the bridge server checks if the maximum number of tries for entering the correct passcode has been completed (712). If yes, then the bridge server terminates the connection. If no, then the bridge server requests for the passcode once again i.e. the bridge server jumps to step (704). The process repeats itself till the participant has entered the correct passcode or the maximum number of tries have been attempted. Once a participant joins the conference, he can add plurality of hidden participant. The participant should register with the bridge server to request for a hidden participant code (714). Two separate passcodes are issued (716); one for the inviter participant and the second one for the hidden participant. Two passcodes are issued to maintain a link between the invitee participant (natural participant) and the hidden participant; so that when the inviter participant (natural participant) exits the conference, the hidden participant is also exited from the conference by the bridge server. The hidden participant who aims to participate in the conference initiates the process by dialing a designated number (718), provided to him by the inviter participant (natural participant). By dialing this number, the hidden participant is connected to the bridge server. In step (720), the bridge server attempts to authenticate the hidden participant by requesting for the passcode. The hidden participant dials in the passcode (722) and the bridge server verifies the passcode (724). If the passcode is not authenticated, then the bridge server checks if the maximum number of tries for entering the correct passcode has been completed (726). If yes, then the bridge server terminates the connection. If no, then the bridge server requests for the passcode once again i.e. the bridge server jumps to step (720). The process repeats itself till the hidden participant has entered the correct passcode or the maximum number of tries have been attempted. If the passcode has been authenticated, then the hidden participant is allowed to join the conference and given the necessary permissions (728). When the inviter participant exits the conference (730), the server automatically exits the hidden participant (732).

[0037] There can be multiple hidden participants and the permissions for them can be configured by the inviting participants. For example, if a natural participant invites two hidden participants and chooses to allow them to be able to receive data from each other while they receive data from all other natural participants, it can be done through the bridge server. There are different ways in which a conferencing server is configured to function. Some do not allow the conference to begin or continue without the participation of the moderator. In such cases, the hidden participants are put on hold or exited from conference exactly as the other normal participants. Some servers allow other participants to continue the conference even when the moderator has not joined in. In such cases, the hidden participant is a part of the conference until the inviting party who invites the hidden participant is also a part of the conference. The hidden participant like natural participants can choose to exit the conference anytime by closing their connection/call.

[0038] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A method of providing hidden participant facility in instant messenger based conferencing system, the method comprising:

sending invitations to participants corresponding to natural and hidden participants; and

validating the rights of natural and hidden participants to participate in a conference;

wherein the comments of all the natural participants are viewed by the hidden participants, the comments of the hidden participants are not available to all the natural participants in the conference.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the person who sends the invitation to a hidden participant is a natural participant of the conference.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein comments of the natural participants are viewed by all the participants including the hidden participants in the conference.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the comments of the hidden participants are viewed only by the natural participant who has sent the invitation to the hidden participant.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein participation of the hidden participant in the conference can be terminated by the natural participant who had sent the invitation to the hidden participant.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein hidden participant can leave the conference at any point of time.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the participation of the hidden participant in the conference is terminated as soon as the natural participant, who had sent invitation to the hidden participant, leaves the conference.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein natural participant can invite more than one hidden participant.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein natural participant, who had sent invitations to the hidden participants, can provide authority to hidden participants to communicate with each other.

10. The method according to claim 8, wherein the comments of the plurality of the hidden participants are not viewed by all the hidden participants.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural participant can make himself invisible to become hidden participant and remain in the conference.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the hidden participant associated with natural participant continue to be the part of conference.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the entire natural and hidden participants quit the conference automatically once the conference is complete.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural person, who has invited hidden participant, can authorize the other natural participant to view the comments of the hidden participant.

15. A method of providing hidden participant facility in an audio conferencing system, the method comprising:

generating and assigning pass codes to participants corresponding to natural and hidden participants;

storing the pass codes in a conference bridge server;

sending invitation to the participants along with the respective pass codes; and validating the rights of natural and hidden participants to participate in a conference.

16. The method according to claim 15, the pass codes are stored in the conference bridge server to validate the rights of the natural participants for participating in the audio conference.

17. The method according to claim 15, the pass codes are stored in the conference bridge server to validate the rights of the hidden participants for participating in the audio conference.

18. The method according to claim 15, wherein the invitation to the natural participants are sent along with the pass codes stored corresponding to the natural participants in the conference bridge server.

19. The method according to claim 15, wherein the invitation to the hidden participants are sent along with the pass codes stored corresponding to the hidden participants in the conference bridge server by an organizer of the conference.

20. The method according to claim 15, wherein the invitation to the hidden participants are sent along with the pass codes stored corresponding to the hidden participants in the conference bridge server by a natural participant in the conference.

21. The method according to claim 15, wherein the pass codes received from the natural participants are compared with the respective codes stored in the conference bridge server to permit the participation of the natural participants in the conference.

22. The method according to claim 15, wherein the pass codes received from the hidden participants are compared with the respective codes stored in the conference bridge server to permit the participation of the hidden participants in the conference.

23. The method according to claim 15, wherein the audio discussion of the natural participants are heard by all the participants including the hidden participants in the conference.

24. The method according to claim 15, wherein the audio comments of the hidden participants are heard only by the organizer who sent the invitation to the hidden participant.

25. The method according to claim 15, wherein the audio comments of the hidden participants are heard only by the natural participant who sent the invitation to the hidden participant

26. The method according to claim 15, wherein hidden participant can leave the conference at any point of time.

27. The method according to claim 15, wherein the participation of the hidden participant in the conference can be terminated by the organizer who had sent invitation to the hidden participant.

28. The method according to claim 15, wherein the participation of the hidden participant in the conference can be terminated by the natural participant who had sent invitation to the hidden participant.

29. The method according to claim 15, wherein the participation of the hidden participant in the conference is terminated as soon as the natural participant, who had sent invitation to the hidden participant, leaves the conference.

30. The method according to claim 15, wherein pluralities of hidden participants can be invited to attend the conference.

31. The method according to claim 30, wherein the audio comments of the pluralities of the hidden participants are heard by other the hidden participants based on rights provided by natural participant who had sent the invitation.

32. The method according to claim 30, wherein the audio comments of the pluralities of the hidden participants are heard by other the hidden participants based on rights provided by organizer who had sent the invitation.

33. The method according to claim 15, wherein the audio comments of the hidden participants are available to natural participant who has sent to the invitation to the respective hidden participant.