Breakout Room Communication Control via Virtual Assistant
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional breakout rooms in conferencing software lack the ability for a host to monitor and control communications within breakout rooms without joining the room, which can stifle participant discussions and limit the host's control over content sharing and timing.
Innovation Solution
The solution allows a host to control communications in breakout rooms without joining the room by receiving and transmitting content, such as audio streams, screen sharing, and chat messages, and dynamically controlling the duration of content display.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the host joins the breakout room to monitor and control communications, then the host can directly observe and manage the discussion, but the host's presence stifes participant discussions and reduces natural conversation flow
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual assistant as an intermediary between the host and the breakout room participants. The assistant receives audio streams and chat messages from the breakout room, processes this information, and transmits it back to the host without the host needing to physically join the room. This mediator enables host monitoring and control while eliminating the harmful effect of the host's physical presence stifling natural conversations.
2Reliability
If the host joins the breakout room to control content sharing and timing, then the host can directly manage these aspects, but the host must leave the main meeting and join the breakout room, disrupting the main meeting flow
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual assistant serves as a mediator that allows the host to control content sharing and timing in breakout rooms without physically joining them. The assistant receives content sharing commands and timing control signals from the host through the main meeting interface and executes these controls in the breakout rooms remotely, eliminating the need for the host to leave the main meeting and join individual breakout rooms.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the host's control function into two separate components: the host remains in the main meeting while the virtual assistant handles breakout room control operations. This segmentation allows the host to maintain presence in the main meeting while delegating breakout room management to the assistant, eliminating the time loss associated with switching between meetings.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If the host does not join the breakout room, then the host can avoid disrupting conversations, but the host cannot monitor or control communications, audio streams, or screen sharing in real-time
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual assistant acts as an intermediary that captures audio streams, chat messages, and screen sharing content from the breakout room and transmits this information to the host. This allows the host to monitor all communications in real-time without joining the room, eliminating the information loss that would occur with remote monitoring while avoiding conversation disruption caused by physical presence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical presence of the host in the breakout room with a digital communication system. Instead of the host physically being present to monitor and control communications, the system uses audio stream transmission, message routing, and digital signal processing to enable remote monitoring and control, eliminating the need for physical presence while maintaining full situational awareness.
4Reliability
If the host controls breakout rooms individually, then the host can manage each room's content and timing precisely, but the system complexity increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual assistant is designed as a universal control system that can manage multiple breakout rooms through a single interface. Rather than requiring separate control mechanisms for each room, the assistant provides unified control capabilities that work across all breakout rooms, reducing the overall system complexity while maintaining the ability to control each room individually when needed.
Data Source
AI summary
A meeting room corresponding to a first video conference controlled by a host is instantiated. The meeting room is configured to allow communication among meeting participants. A breakout room corresponding to a second video conference and associated with the meeting room is instantiated, where the breakout room is configured to allow communication among two or more of the meeting participants. Communication in the breakout room is controlled via a host device associated with the host. The communication is controlled by controlling a transmission of content to the breakout room without requiring the host to join the breakout room.