Patent Issued for Concurrent secondary electronic communication session (USPTO 11729227): Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company

2023 AUG 01 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors John, Jiby (Suffield, CT, US), Knas, Michal (Monson, MA, US), filed on June 7, 2021, was published online on August 15, 2023.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11729227 is Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (Springfield, Massachusetts, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “As the processing power of computers have increased and as the Internet technology era allows for greater computer functionality and efficient computing system interconnectivity, more people use electronic communication sessions to virtually meet, discuss, and share information. For instance, many employees rely on electronic communication sessions (e.g., audio and/or video teleconference) to conduct various discussions with coworkers/clients and to share various files and work product.

“Since the use of the electronic communication session has become ubiquitous, users have discovered many technical shortcomings. For instance, while connected to a group of people in a teleconference, a user may desire to have a secondary private communication with a selected group of participants. However, conventional electronic communication sessions do not provide this functionality. Conventionally, users must pause the electronic communication session (e.g., place a teleconference on hold or mute the line) to internally discuss private matters. This has created a negative user experience because, first, participants who are not participating in the private conversation must wait until the private conversation has ended. Second, participants of the private conversation must then initiate a separate secondary electronic communication session every time they desire to privately discuss a matter. This is more difficult and complicated for private communication sessions involving a high number of participants or geographically dispersed participants. Third, participants not participating in the private conversation will be aware of the private conversation, which may be undesirable.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “For the aforementioned reasons, there is a need for a surreptitious secondary communication session where a user may privately communicate with one or more participants of a primary electronic communication session. There is a need for a system to efficiently identify the secondary communication sessions’ participants and automatically establish a connection allowing the identified participants to be involved in the primary and secondary communication sessions concurrently.

“In an embodiment, a method comprises identifying, by a server, a set of electronic devices associated with a first electronic communication session; upon receiving an instruction from a first electronic device within the set of electronic devices during the first electronic communication session to establish a second communication session between a subset of the set of electronic devices: establishing, by the server, the second electronic communication session between the subset of electronic devices; reducing, by the server, a volume of the first electronic communication session outputted on each electronic device within the subset of electronic devices, whereby each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices allows users to listen to audio of the second electronic communication session rather than the first electronic communication session; and disabling, by the server for the first electronic communication session, a microphone of any electronic device within the subset of electronic devices until termination of the second electronic communication session.

“In another embodiment, a computer system comprises a set of electronic devices configured to communicate with each other via a first electronic communication session; a subset of the set of electronic devices configured to communicate with each other via a second electronic communication session; and a server in communication with the set and subset of electronic devices, the server configured to: identify a set of electronic devices associated with a first electronic communication session; upon receiving an instruction from a first electronic device within the set of electronic devices during the first electronic communication session to establish a second communication session between a subset of the set of electronic devices: establish the second electronic communication session between the subset of electronic devices; reduce a volume of the first electronic communication session outputted on each electronic device within the subset of electronic devices, whereby each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices allows users to listen to audio of the second electronic communication session rather than the first electronic communication session; and disable, for the first electronic communication session, a microphone of any electronic device within the subset of electronic devices until termination of the second electronic communication session.

“It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the disclosed systems and methods for providing beacon-based navigation system.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method comprising: during a videoconference having a first audio session between a set of electronic devices, selecting, by a processor, a subset of the set of electronic devices based on a common attribute between each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices, wherein the common attribute corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices having a network connection attribute that indicates a common connection; establishing, by the processor, a second audio session between the subset of electronic devices, whereby the subset of electronic devices receives the first audio session and the second audio session; and muting, by the processor, a microphone of each electronic device of the subset of electronic devices on the first audio session during the second audio session.

“2. The method of claim 1, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices being associated with a list of participants.

“3. The method of claim 2, wherein the list of participants is received from at least one electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“4. The method of claim 1, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices having an identifier that satisfies a threshold, the identifier comprising at least one of internet protocol address, media access control address, phone number, or an electronic mail address associated with each electronic device.

“5. The method of claim 1, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices being within a defined proximity to at least one other electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the processor, a transcript of communication within the first or second audio sessions on at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising reducing, by the processor, a volume of the first audio session.

“8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving, by the processor, a geographic location identifier of each electronic device within the set of electronic devices; and disabling, by the processor for the first or second audio session, a microphone of any electronic device within the set of electronic devices that is located within a predetermined proximity to at least one electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the processor, an indication of at least one electronic device to be added to the second audio session.

“10. A computer system comprising: a server comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions that when executed by the processor causes the processor to perform operations comprising: during a videoconference having a first audio session between a set of electronic devices, select a subset of the set of electronic devices based on a common attribute between each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices, wherein the common attribute corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices having a network connection attribute that indicates a common connection; establish a second audio session between the subset of electronic devices, whereby the subset of electronic devices receives the first audio session and the second audio session; and mute a microphone of each electronic device of the subset of electronic devices on the first audio session during the second audio session.

“11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices being associated with a list of participants.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the list of participants is received from at least one electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“13. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices having an identifier that satisfies a threshold, the identifier comprising at least one of internet protocol address, media access control address, phone number, or an electronic mail address associated with each electronic device.

“14. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the common attribute further corresponds to each electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices being within a defined proximity to at least one other electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“15. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to display a transcript of communication within the first or second electronic communication session on at least one electronic device within the set of electronic devices.

“16. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to reduce a volume of the first audio session.

“17. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: retrieve a geographic location identifier of each electronic device within the set of electronic devices; and disable, for the first or second audio sessions, a microphone of any electronic device within the set of electronic devices that is located within a predetermined proximity to at least one electronic device within the subset of the set of electronic devices.

“18. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to display an indication of at least one electronic device to be added to the second audio session.”

For additional information on this patent, see: John, Jiby. Concurrent secondary electronic communication session. U.S. Patent Number 11729227, filed June 7, 2021, and published online on August 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11729227)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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