Abstract:
A method for efficiently accessing pertinent information retrieved from a videoconferencing system call log. System call logs typically contain a chronological list of raw information pertaining to inbound and outbound videoconferencing calls. The method for efficiently accessing this chronological information is performed using input from the user at an endpoint to correlate and sort for display the information required at the current time. Videoconferencing systems typically are shared use or community type devices and the method of this disclosure allows for more user friendly access to pertinent information. Auto population of a speed dial list or associating a smart tag with the retrieved information is another possible feature to aid the end user. This method will allow a business to more efficiently use a limited number of videoconferencing systems amongst diverse groups of users with diverse calling needs.

Description:
BACKGROUND  
       [0001]    This disclosure relates generally to organizing call log records from a videoconferencing system to generate a contact listing of already dialed numbers. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a method of presenting a calling list based on user defined input parameters used to filter all available call log records to allow easy initiation of a new call. 
         [0002]    Because of the nature of videoconferencing systems, most people use videoconferencing systems to communicate with a limited set of people and remote systems. Heretofore there has been no easy way to look at and find the contact information for a specific person from that specific group of people with whom a user has most frequently interacted without searching through a system call log. The system call log typically includes duplicated entries along with other information that is not relevant to the current user&#39;s attempt to place a call. The system call log may also contain numerous entries from other users of the same videoconferencing system and that may make this user&#39;s task of locating contact information in a system call log more difficult. 
       SUMMARY  
       [0003]    In one embodiment, a method is provided to compress the redundant data in a videoconferencing system call log to enable a user to select a record of interest to perform an action pertaining to the videoconferencing system identified by the record of interest. The method includes determining which information in the system call log is redundant; creating an interim format for parsing and optional later use; and presenting the filtered information to the end user of the videoconferencing system. A compressed intermediate file may be stored in any media that is readable and executable by a computer system or videoconferencing system for later use in populating the same or even a different videoconferencing systems speed dialing directory. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
         [0004]      FIG. 1  illustrates a table of “raw data” in a system call log from a general use conference room. 
           [0005]      FIG. 2  illustrates a possible “filtered” response to a user request. 
           [0006]      FIG. 3  illustrates, in flow chart form, a typical use case for this disclosure. 
           [0007]      FIG. 4  illustrates a block diagram of one embodiment of a videoconferencing system. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0008]    The following description is presented to enable any person skilled in the art to make and use the claimed invention and is provided in the context of the particular examples discussed below, variations of which will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the claims appended hereto are not intended to be limited by the disclosed embodiments, but are to be accorded their widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein. 
         [0009]    In the interest of clarity, not all features of an actual implementation are described in this specification. It will be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous decisions must be made to achieve the developer&#39;s specific goals (e.g., compliance with system-related and business-related constraints), and that these goals will vary from one implementation to another. It will be appreciated that such development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure. 
         [0010]    The present disclosure relates to optimizing the ability of individual users to interact with the system call log of a videoconferencing system. Videoconferencing systems typically feature a call log that records all inbound and outbound call information for the device. In this disclosure, an entry in a call log will be referred to as a “component item.” Each component item can include information such as: date and time of the call, type of the call (i.e., inbound or outbound), type of communication protocol (e.g., H.323, H.320, etc.), caller name (ID), site, caller address (e.g., system address), called address, etc. 
         [0011]    Videoconferencing systems are often located in a general use area such as a conference room of an office building. As such, these devices are used by a general population of users that may be required to interact with disparate parties. Because of this interaction amongst different and distinct groups of parties, the system call log in its generic form may not allow a particular user to easily retrieve the information that is pertinent for their use. Theses and other problems may be solved by allowing a user to define a set of selection criteria to be used while retrieving information and creating a “processed data set” from the system call log of a videoconferencing system. 
         [0012]    To allow efficient presentation of the possibly voluminous information contained in the system call log, the system and method described herein allow the user to provide various selection criteria. In one embodiment the selection criteria can include: most frequently dialed calls above a certain threshold value (e.g., 5, 10 or 15 entries), only inbound calls, only outbound calls, combination of both inbound and outbound calls, time range of calling activity specified by start and end date or number of previous days, etc. 
         [0013]    Similarly, once the information is retrieved, display sorting criteria can assist the user in identification of the particular information sought. The display sorting criteria can include: name of caller, name of called endpoint, call type, or time (e.g., oldest to newest or vice versa), etc.. By allowing the user to specify the granularity and type of information required, the user is able to more easily create and display a processed data set to obtain the desired information from the system call log. 
         [0014]    As an example, assume 500 non-duplicated calls were made during the January to December time frame. The system described herein can allow a user to select a specific month and display the calls that are placed during that time. It further allows a user to restrict the size of call list with a specified number. If a user selects February, during which time 100 calls were made, and restricts the display list size to 10, then the VC unit will display only 10 non-duplicated calls that were most frequently made in February. 
         [0015]    By way of another example, consider a corporation with multiple offices located in different geographic regions across the United States. The offices are located in Dallas, Houston, Delaware, and San Clemente. Each of these offices may provide a different set of business functions, for this example corporation, as can be seen in each column of the following table. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
               
                 Houston 
                 Dallas 
                 Delaware 
                 San Clemente 
               
               
                 VC System 1 
                 VC system 2 
                 VC system 3 
                 VC system 4 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                 Sales 
                 Sales 
                   
                 Sales 
               
               
                 Executive Offices 
               
               
                 Research and 
                   
                   
                 Research and 
               
               
                 Development 
                   
                   
                 Development 
               
               
                 Financials 
               
               
                 Corporate Legal 
                   
                 Corporate Legal 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0016]    Therefore, the videoconferencing system located in Houston (i.e., VC1) might be used by a corporate community to hold video meetings with each of the other videoconferencing systems VC2, VC3, and VC4. The system call log of VC1 may contain many calls made by the sales team to both VC2 and VC4, in addition to the calls made by the R&amp;D group to VC4. The corporate legal department may also use the system with those calls likely connected between VC1 and VC3. The financial team in Houston may also use the VC1 system to connect calls to systems outside of the example corporate community. 
         [0017]    During the lifecycle of new product development it is typical for an R&amp;D group to communicate frequently at both the beginning and the end of the development cycle. Toward the end of a new product development cycle it is typical for the Sales teams to communicate frequently to coordinate the launch of the new product. Corporate legal departments may not place calls that are keyed to any particular development cycle as their business function is less driven by a single development project. 
         [0018]    Because of the cyclical nature of the use of the different VC systems it would not be unusual for the most recent calls in the VC system call log to represent the activity of a different set of users from the corporate community. Therefore, a user trying to use the system call log to place a call may have to scroll through a multitude of undesired call entries to place a call to their location of interest. 
         [0019]    This problem can be overcome by automatically grouping multiple calls to a given location into a single entry in the dialing list. By grouping the redundant information using user defined grouping criteria the user is able to quickly recover the dialing instructions of interest from the system call log. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  shows an exemplary unparsed system call log for the videoconferencing system VC1. In this condensed example, it can be seen that keeping the information in a purely chronological format allows for multiple “redundant” entries (i.e., calls that differ only by date, time and type) to obscure other entries. A corporate executive might only be interested in historical calls to Delaware office  100  while a sales person might only be interested in using the record for the call placed to the Dallas office  110 . By removing all the redundant entries in the raw data there could be presented a selection dialog that only contains three entries (shown in  FIG. 2 ) because all of the calls between Houston and San Clemente could be compressed into a single record. It should be understood that this is a relatively simple example for a condensed time frame and the total number of records in a system call log might be substantially more voluminous than this example, rendering the system described herein even more beneficial. 
         [0021]    Note that in  FIG. 2  the information required by a member of the executive or sales groups could be presented for selection even if it was far down in the system call log. Thus, the member of the executive or sales teams is not presented information that is not pertinent to his attempt to place a call to a location group of interest. 
         [0022]    After a user identifies a location group of interest, the user might also be presented with an option to store the selection criteria in the system or automatically populate the system speed dial database with a user defined tag for a later use of the system. By allowing the user to store a user defined tag the system can present the desired information without the need to enter complete selection and sort criteria. 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows, in flow chart form, a typical use case  300  of the system described herein. The user can be prompted at box  310  to define proper selection and display sorting criteria. The video conference call log can be retrieved at box  315  and translated into a format such as an extensible Markup Language “XML” file at box  320 . The XML file may be stored as an intermediate file and stored for current and future use. This XML intermediate file can be used to mark each call with its frequency and type at box  325 . For example, a map of key-value pairs may be used; where the key may be the name of an entry, and the value may be the number of times calls are being placed or received from that specific entry. Each of the input records can then be filtered based on user defined selection criteria, and all records that are not of current interest can be removed at box  330 . All redundant records can optionally be removed to compress the list for display at box  335 . In one example embodiment, as few as two matching fields can cause a call to be marked as redundant although any number of matching fields could be used depending on the particular embodiment. For example, if the name of the caller or called party matches the name of the caller or called party from a previous call in the list and the address of the caller or called party matches the address of the caller or called party from a previous call in the list then the record can be marked as redundant and suppressed from displaying multiple times. 
         [0024]    Once the information from the system call log has been retrieved and filtered based on the selection sort criteria, the retained information may be optionally stored for later use or used as input to the display sorting routine at box  340 . The list can be sorted based on the user defined sorting criteria. For example, the list can be sorted based on the frequency of calls and to remove records that exceed the user input display limit. Note that the entries removed because of a display limit will typically be those that have the lowest frequency count in the filtered list. Thus culled and sorted information can be presented to the user at box  345 . 
         [0025]    Even though this disclosure has been explained in the context of a videoconferencing system, those skilled in the art will recognize that this disclosure could be used in many other types of user interactive devices. These devices include but are not limited too: telepresence systems, cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and home phone caller id systems. 
         [0026]    As mentioned above, an intermediate file may have been stored in an intermediate file for later use. The intermediate file, which contains parsed system call log records, may provide the user several degrees of flexibility. This intermediate file may be saved and used as a source to populate a different videoconferencing system and potentially eliminate the need to set system speed dial numbers. The intermediate file may be shared as an input source amongst several videoconferencing systems to provide a comprehensive calling directory for each of the videoconferencing systems sharing the information. Any kind of external call information directory, such as a database containing contact information, could also be processed into this intermediate file format for easy population of a call log or an address book of one or more videoconferencing systems. 
         [0027]    In alternate embodiments, the population of the videoconferencing system log file could be from one or more sources including but not limited too: system log files from other available videoconferencing systems, external log files, or other external files containing videoconferencing call log data. 
         [0028]      FIG. 4  shows a block diagram of one embodiment of a videoconferencing system  400 . The videoconferencing unit ( 410 ) contains a processor ( 420 ) which can be programmed to perform various data manipulation and collection functions. The videoconferencing unit ( 410 ) also contains a network interface ( 430 ) which is capable of communicating with other network devices using Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Ethernet, token ring or any other network interface or protocol known to those of skill in the art. Example input devices (keyboard  440  and mouse  450 ) are connected to the videoconferencing unit and provide for user interaction with the videoconferencing system. Display  460  is an example output device, which may also comprise a touch screen input capability, for displaying both images and textual information in the form of user menus as explained throughout this disclosure. 
         [0029]    Various changes to the systems and methods disclosed herein are possible without departing from the scope of the following claims. For instance, the illustrative propagation method may perform the identified steps in an order different from that disclosed here. Alternatively, some embodiments may combine the activities described herein as being separate steps. Similarly, one or more of the described steps may be omitted, depending upon the specific operational environment the method is being implemented in. In addition, acts in accordance with the methods of this disclosure may be performed by a programmable control device executing instructions organized into one or more program modules. A programmable control device may be a single computer processor, a special purpose processor (e.g., a digital signal processor, “DSP”), a plurality of processors coupled by a communications link, or a custom designed state machine. Custom designed state machines may be embodied in a hardware device such as an integrated circuit including, but not limited to, application specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”) or field programmable gate array (“FPGAs”). Storage devices, sometimes called computer readable media, suitable for tangibly embodying program instructions include, but are not limited to: magnetic disks (fixed, floppy, and removable) and tape; optical media such as CD-ROMs and digital video disks (“DVDs”); and semiconductor memory devices such as Electrically Programmable Read-Only Memory (“EPROM”), Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (“EEPROM”), Programmable Gate Arrays and flash devices.