Automated Meeting Room Device Management via Communication Apps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Unmanaged meeting rooms lack centralized data on device locations, usage, and availability, leading to inefficiencies in resource allocation, maintenance, and optimizing communication services.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing network-based communication applications on participant computing devices to report information about connected peripherals to a management service, which assigns devices to rooms and infers room usage, allowing for metadata collection and customization of communication sessions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If unmanaged meeting rooms use ad-hoc peripheral devices without centralized management, then device flexibility and ease of setup are improved, but device location tracking and usage monitoring become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a communication application as an intermediary between participant computing devices and peripheral devices. This application automatically discovers peripheral devices, collects their information, and reports it to a management service, thereby enabling centralized tracking without requiring manual setup or dedicated management hardware in each room.
Solution Approach 2:
The communication application performs automatic device discovery and information collection without requiring manual intervention from administrators or users. The system self-services by automatically detecting peripheral devices, gathering their metadata, and submitting this information to the management service, eliminating the need for manual device registration and tracking.
2Reliability
If dedicated meeting room management devices are deployed in every managed meeting room, then centralized control and monitoring are improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the communication application universal by having it perform multiple functions: it serves as both a communication tool for users and a device management tool for administrators. The same application that users run for video conferencing also automatically discovers peripheral devices, collects information, and reports to the management service, eliminating the need for separate dedicated management devices.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of deploying dedicated hardware management devices in each room, the patent uses software-based management through the communication application running on participant devices. This software copy of management functionality can be distributed across multiple devices, providing centralized control without requiring physical presence of dedicated management hardware in each location.
3Ease of manufacture
If manual tracking of meeting room devices is performed, then implementation simplicity is improved, but time consumption and labor costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The communication application automatically performs device discovery, information collection, and reporting to the management service without requiring manual intervention. This automation eliminates the time-consuming manual tracking of device locations, usage, and availability while keeping the implementation relatively simple through the use of existing communication software infrastructure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system establishes automatic feedback loops where the communication application continuously monitors peripheral device status and usage, then reports this information back to the management service. This automated feedback mechanism provides real-time or near-real-time device tracking data without requiring manual data collection and entry, significantly reducing time consumption.
4Device complexity
If no centralized system manages unmanaged meeting rooms, then system simplicity is improved, but room usage and availability data become unavailable
Solution Approach 1:
The communication application acts as an intermediary that bridges unmanaged meeting rooms with centralized management. It automatically discovers peripheral devices in unmanaged rooms, collects usage information, and reports this data to the management service, thereby providing room usage and availability data without requiring a full centralized management system or dedicated management devices in each room.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed in some examples are methods, systems, and machine-readable mediums to provide for automated ad-hoc meeting room management. The disclosed systems may leverage the communication application executing on the participant computing devices of participants of the communication session to report information about connected peripheral devices to a management service, such as a communication service. Peripheral devices may then be assigned, either automatically or via manual assignment to a particular conference room. Various management actions may then be performed on those devices.