Videoconferencing Breakout-Room Control With Queued Co-Host Commands
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing videoconferencing systems face challenges in managing sub-meetings (breakout rooms) due to potential conflicts and race conditions when multiple users attempt to issue commands simultaneously, which can lead to undesirable results and inconvenience for hosts who need to manage large gatherings.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that allows multiple hosts, including a main host and co-hosts, where commands from co-hosts are treated as if originated by the main host, stored in a command queue, and prioritized to prevent conflicts, ensuring centralized control and predictability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple hosts are allowed to manage sub-meetings simultaneously, then ease of operation is improved, but race conditions and conflicts occur leading to reduced reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a command queue as an intermediary mechanism between multiple hosts and the sub-meeting control system. Commands from any host are queued and processed sequentially, preventing direct conflicts while maintaining the ability for multiple users to manage sub-meetings. This mediator (command queue) resolves the contradiction by allowing multiple operation sources without causing race conditions.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by queuing commands before execution. Instead of allowing hosts to directly control sub-meetings simultaneously, their commands are first stored in a queue in advance, then processed one by one. This preliminary queuing action prevents conflicts from occurring in the first place, maintaining reliability while permitting multiple hosts.
2Ease of operation
If commands from co-hosts are processed directly, then ease of operation is improved, but race conditions occur reducing predictability
Solution Approach 1:
The command queue serves as a mediator that standardizes the processing of commands from co-hosts. By routing all co-host commands through this intermediary queue with defined processing rules, the system maintains predictability about command execution order and timing, eliminating race conditions while preserving ease of operation for co-hosts.
3Reliability
If centralized control is maintained with a single host, then reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates for large gatherings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the host role into multiple co-hosts who can independently issue commands. Instead of one centralized host managing all sub-meetings alone, the host functionality is divided and distributed to multiple co-hosts. Each co-host can manage sub-meetings independently, improving ease of operation for large gatherings while the command queue maintains centralized control reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The command queue mechanism provides universal functionality for handling commands from any host or co-host uniformly. It standardizes the processing of sub-meeting control commands regardless of which user issued them, allowing multiple users to perform host functions while maintaining system-wide consistency and reliability through a single processing pathway.
Data Source
AI summary
One example system for multiple host management of videoconferencing sub-meetings includes a processor and at least one memory device. The processor establishes a main videoconferencing meeting and establishes a host of the main videoconferencing meeting. The host participates using a first host client device. The processor can receive a selection of a participant to be a co-host. The co-host participates in the main videoconferencing meeting from a second host client device. The processor receives a first sub-meeting control input from the second host client device, wherein the first sub-meeting control input identifies an action to perform with respect to a sub-meeting. The system generates a second sub-meeting control input based on the first sub-meeting control input, executes the second sub-meeting control input, and discards the first sub-meeting control input so that the sub-meeting command is associated with the main host.