US 12,452,320 B2
Persistent participant prioritization across communication sessions
Defne Ayanoǧlu, Prague (CZ); Nakul Madaan, Munich (DE); and Chris Sano, Seattle, WA (US)
Assigned to Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed by MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC, Redmond, WA (US)
Filed on Oct. 31, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/978,121.
Prior Publication US 2024/0146779 A1, May 2, 2024
Int. Cl. H04L 65/1093 (2022.01); G06F 3/14 (2006.01); H04N 5/262 (2006.01)
CPC H04L 65/1093 (2013.01) [G06F 3/1454 (2013.01); H04N 5/2624 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for providing persistent participant prioritization across communication sessions, the method for execution on a system, the method comprising:
automatically accessing settings of a user of a communication session, wherein the settings persist across multiple communication sessions, and define individual prerequisites for the user based on the settings of the user, determining that at least one prerequisite of the user maps to a required role of another user;
analyzing a data structure that relates individual users in the communication session, the data structure specifies one or more roles of the individual users in the communication session;
based on the analysis of the data structure, identifying at least one select user of the communication session having the role that corresponds to the at least one prerequisite of the user, wherein the at least one select user is different from the user; and
during the communication session:
causing a display of video streams of the communication session on a user interface rendered on a device associated with the user and on respective devices associated with other users of the communication session;
in response to the at least one prerequisite in the settings of the user, causing a persistent display of a rendering of a video stream of the at least one select user within a designated region on the device associated with the user, wherein the user has the at least one prerequisite that corresponds to the role of the at least one select user, the persistent display of the video stream of the at least one select user is not provided to other users in the communication that do not have a setting that includes the prerequisite that corresponds to the role of the at least one select user; and
in response to detected changes of activities in the communication session:
modifying the video streams of the communication session rendered on the device associated with the user and on the respective devices associated with other users of the communication session, to reflect the changes of activities in the communication session; and
maintaining the rendering of the persistent video stream of the at least one select user on the device of the user by maintaining a location or a size of the persistent display despite of the video streams of the communication session being modified to reflect the changes of activities in the communication session, wherein the rendering of the video stream of the at least one select user on the respective devices associated with other users is moved or resized depending on the changes of activities in the communication session.