Building Mediator for Conference Environmental Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing conferencing architectures face challenges in optimally coordinating environmental factors such as lighting, temperature, humidity, and noise levels during virtual meetings, which can impact participant comfort and engagement.
Innovation Solution
A communication system that integrates a building mediator element with a conference server to control and manage environmental settings in real-time through a network, allowing meeting hosts to adjust parameters like lighting, heating, air-conditioning, and background noise via a user interface, using APIs and credential authentication for secure access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If environmental controls are integrated into the conferencing system, then participant comfort and engagement are improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A building mediator element is introduced as an intermediary component that sits between the conference server and multiple building elements (lighting, HVAC, blinds, etc.). This mediator handles authentication, credential verification, and coordination of environmental controls, thereby improving participant comfort while containing system complexity within a dedicated intermediary component rather than distributing it across all system elements.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple building elements are controlled through a single conference server, then coordination capability is improved, but communication overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments communication pathways by introducing the building mediator element as a dedicated intermediary layer. Instead of the conference server directly communicating with multiple building elements (which would create high communication overhead), the mediator handles all communications with building elements, segmenting the complexity and reducing the burden on the conference server while maintaining coordination capability across multiple elements.
3Reliability
If secure authentication is implemented for environmental control, then system security is improved, but access time increases
Solution Approach 1:
Authentication credentials are exchanged and verified in advance during the meeting setup phase. The conference server exchanges credentials with the building mediator element before the meeting begins, and participants are pre-authenticated. This preliminary authentication action ensures system security while minimizing access time during the actual meeting, as the verification has already been completed beforehand.
Data Source
AI summary
An example method is provided and includes establishing a communication pathway to a building element configured to control at least one environmental setting within a room. The method also includes communicating an ability to control the environmental setting within the room to an endpoint configured to participate in a meeting session. The method further includes receiving a command from the endpoint to adjust the environmental setting during the meeting session. The command can be communicated to the building element. In more specific examples, the method can include registering with one or more application program interfaces (APIs) associated with the building element, and communicating a credential to the building element in order to provide an authentication for controlling the environmental setting. In yet other embodiments, the command to adjust the environmental setting is received via a menu of a user interface provided by a video conferencing platform.