Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to video conferencing, and more specifically, to integrating real-time, personalized documents into a video conference session.
Often, users engage in video conferencing sessions with professionals, such as accountants, attorneys, and financial advisors. In many cases, a professional requires additional information (such as documentation) from the users so that the professional may provide different services to the users. One object of the video conferencing session is for the professional to identify the necessary additional information. However, the video conferencing session imparts limitations on such scenarios. For example, the video conference often occupies an entire screen, making it difficult to create and share lists of necessary information. Instead, the professional often prepares such a list outside of the video conference session, and emails the list to the user after the video conference session. However, such a scenario leads to questions, missed information, and incomplete or incomprehensive lists.
In one embodiment, a method comprises establishing a video conference between a first application instance and a second application instance, and during the video conference: receiving, by an application server from the first application instance, an indication of a first data element required to prepare a tax return, storing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element, and publishing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element to the second application instance, wherein the second application instance is configured to output the indication of the data element for display.
In another embodiment, a system comprises a processor and a memory containing a program which when executed by the processor performs an operation comprising establishing a video conference between a first application instance and a second application instance, and during the video conference: receiving, by an application server from the first application instance, an indication of a first data element required to prepare a tax return, storing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element, and publishing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element to the second application instance, wherein the second application instance is configured to output the indication of the data element for display.
In another embodiment, a non-transitory computer readable medium stores instructions, which, when executed by a processor, performs an operation comprising establishing a video conference between a first application instance and a second application instance, and during the video conference: receiving, by an application server from the first application instance, an indication of a first data element required to prepare a tax return, storing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element, and publishing, by a notification server, the indication of the first data element to the second application instance, wherein the second application instance is configured to output the indication of the data element for display.
So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the disclosure, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only exemplary embodiments and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures. It is contemplated that elements and features of one embodiment may be beneficially incorporated in other embodiments without further recitation.
Embodiments disclosed herein provide techniques to integrate real-time, personalized documents in video conferencing sessions. Generally, one or more client users may participate in a networked video conferencing session with a professional user via respective instances of a common application. During the video conference, embodiments disclosed herein provide graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that allow the professional user to generate indications of required documentation (or other data). A notification server orchestrates the receipt of the generated indications from the professional user, and the transmission of the generated indications to the client user (e.g., in real-time as they are generated by the professional user). Furthermore, embodiments disclosed herein provide GUIs to allow the client user to view the indications in real-time.
During the video conference, the parties may discuss the information needed for the professional to prepare a tax return for the client. The tax professional may then identify data elements necessary to prepare the tax return, such as income statements, receipts, and the like. As shown, the instance of the tax application 104C on the professional system 103 provides a generation interface 113 that allows the professional to enter indications of the necessary data elements. Once entered by the professional, the indications may be stored in the instance of the client data 112 on the professional system 103 (and/or on the servers 1021-N). The instance of the tax application 104A on the client system 101 includes a client data interface 115 for viewing the indications of data elements entered by the tax professional.
As shown, the servers 1021-N include a plurality of application servers 1051-N, a plurality of notification servers 1061-N, and a data store of client data 112. The servers 102, 105, and 106 are representative of physical and virtualized servers. The application servers 1051-N execute instances of the tax application 104, namely instances 104B, which support the functionality (including video conferencing) provided by the tax application 104. The notification servers 1061-N are generally configured to receive indications of data elements entered by the professional via the generation interface 113, and store the indications in the client data cache 114. The notification servers 1061-N may then generate push notifications of the data elements entered by the professional, and transmit the notifications to any subscribing application server 1051-N and/or subscribing instances of the client data interface 115.
Generally, a given instance of the tax application 104 executing on the client system 101 and/or professional system 103 establishes a socket connection with an application server 1051-N when the respective instance of the tax application 104 is launched. For example, the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client system 101 may establish a socket with application server 1051, while the instance of the tax application 104C executing on the professional system 103 may establish a socket connection with the application server 1052. In other embodiments, the instances of the tax application 104A,C on the systems 101, 103 may establish socket connections with the same application server 105N.
A user of the client system 101 may then use the video conferencing interface 111 to initiate a video conference with a professional (e.g., a user of the professional system 103). The instances of the tax application 104B on the application servers 1051-N may then establish a connection to initiate the video conference between the client and the tax professional. Furthermore, a socket connection is established between the associated application servers 1051-N and the notification servers 1061-N. For example, the instances of the tax application 104B and/or the respective application servers 1051,2 may each establish a socket connection with the notification server 1061. The client data interface 115 and/or the tax application 104A on the client system 101 may then subscribe to receive push notifications from the notification server 1061. In at least one embodiment, the respective instance of the tax application 104B on the application server 1051 subscribes to receive push notifications from the notification server 1061, which then pushes applicable notifications to the client data interface 115. Therefore, in one embodiment, when the tax professional enters indications of needed data elements via the generation interface 113, the generation interface 113 transmits an indication of the needed data element to the application server 1052. The instance of the tax application 104B executing on the application server 1052 then transmits an indication of the needed data element to the notification server 1061, which stores the indication in the client data cache 114. In another embodiment, the instance of the tax application 104C on the professional system 103 transmits the indication directly to the notification server 1061.
The notification server 1061 then generates a push notification to all subscribing client data interfaces 115. Continuing with this example, the push notification is sent from the notification server 1061 to the application server 1051, where the instance of the tax application 104B transmits the push notification to the client data interface 115 on the client system 101. The client data interface 115 then outputs an indication of the push notification to the user, and optionally stores an indication of the needed data in the client data 112.
The notification server 106N may then store the indication in the client data cache 114. In some embodiments, the notification server 106N stores a copy of the data element. However, if the size of the data element exceeds a threshold, the notification server 106N may store a link to the data element in the cache 114, and store the actual data element at a different network location to minimize the size of the cache 114.
The notification server 106N then generates a push notification describing the data element, which is transmitted to all subscribing client data interfaces 115.
At block 420, a socket connection is established between the application servers 1051-N connected to the instances of the tax application 104A,C executing on the client device 101 and the professional device 103 (e.g., the devices participating in the video conference). At block 430, a socket connection is established between a notification server 1061-N and the application server 1051-N to which the instance of the tax application 104C of the professional device 103 is connected. At block 440, a socket connection is established between a notification server 1061-N and the application server 1051-N to which the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client device 101 is connected. At block 450, the application server 1051-N to which the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client device 101 is connected subscribes to push updates provided by the notification server 1061-N. In at least one embodiment, the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client device 101 subscribes to receive push updates from the notification server 1061-N. At block 460, the video conference is established, and the parties may begin communicating via the video conference.
At block 530, the notification server 1061-N receives an indication of the current data element via the socket connection between the notification server 1061-N and the application server 1051-N to which the instance of the tax application 104C of the professional device 103 is connected. At block 550, the notification server stores an indication of the current data element in the client data cache 114. Generally, the indication includes metadata describing the current data element, such as a type (e.g., tax form, personal metadata, income information, etc.), an associated party (e.g., the client, a spouse, a dependent, etc.), and the like. As previously indicated, if the size of the current data element does not exceed the threshold, the current data element is also stored in the client data cache 114. However, if the size of the current data element exceeds the threshold, the current data element is stored at a storage location in a server 1021-N (e.g., in the client data 112), and a URL of the storage location is stored in the client data cache 114.
At block 540, the notification server 1061-N generates a push notification for the current data element, and pushes the notification to any subscribed application servers 1051-N. At block 570, the subscribing application servers 1051-N transmit the received push notification to the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client device 101. At block 580, the instance of the tax application 104A executing on the client device 101 outputs an indication of the current data element for display during the video conference. Doing so allows the client to view the information in real-time and during the video conference without having to switch screens or manually save the list of required data elements. At block 590, if more data elements remain, the method returns to block 590. Otherwise, the method 500 ends.
The computer 602 generally includes a processor 604 which obtains instructions and data via a bus 620 from a memory 606 and/or a storage 608. The computer 602 may also include one or more network interface devices 618, input devices 622, and output devices 624 connected to the bus 620. The computer 602 is generally under the control of an operating system (not shown). Examples of operating systems include the UNIX operating system, versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system, and distributions of the Linux operating system. (UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.) More generally, any operating system supporting the functions disclosed herein may be used. The processor 604 is a programmable logic device that performs instruction, logic, and mathematical processing, and may be representative of one or more CPUs. The network interface device 618 may be any type of network communications device allowing the computer 602 to communicate with other computers via the network 630.
The storage 608 is representative of hard-disk drives, solid state drives, flash memory devices, optical media and the like. Generally, the storage 608 stores application programs and data for use by the computer 602. In addition, the memory 606 and the storage 608 may be considered to include memory physically located elsewhere; for example, on another computer coupled to the computer 602 via the bus 620.
The input device 622 may be any device for providing input to the computer 602. For example, a keyboard and/or a mouse may be used. The input device 622 represents a wide variety of input devices, including keyboards, mice, controllers, and so on. Furthermore, the input device 622 may include a set of buttons, switches or other physical device mechanisms for controlling the computer 602. The output device 624 may include output devices such as monitors, touch screen displays, and so on.
As shown, the memory 606 contains the application servers 1051-N and the notification servers 1061-N, each described in greater detail above. As shown, the storage 608 contains the client data 112, which stores user profile data. For example, the profile data stored in the client data 112 may include data elements identified by a tax professional as being necessary to prepare a tax return for the user. As described herein, the data elements may be identified during a video conference leveraging the video cameras 650 of the client system 101 and the professional system. Generally, the system 600 is configured to implement all systems, methods, and functionality described above with reference to
It may be noted that, descriptions of embodiments of the present disclosure are presented above for purposes of illustration, but embodiments of the present disclosure are not intended to be limited to any of the disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain the principles of the embodiments, the practical application or technical improvement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodiments disclosed herein.
In the preceding, reference is made to embodiments presented in this disclosure. However, the scope of the present disclosure is not limited to specific described embodiments. Instead, any combination of the recited features and elements, whether related to different embodiments or not, is contemplated to implement and practice contemplated embodiments. Furthermore, although embodiments disclosed herein may achieve advantages over other possible solutions or over the prior art, whether or not a particular advantage is achieved by a given embodiment is not limiting of the scope of the present disclosure. Thus, the recited aspects, features, embodiments and advantages are merely illustrative and are not considered elements or limitations of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s). Likewise, reference to “the invention” shall not be construed as a generalization of any inventive subject matter disclosed herein and shall not be considered to be an element or limitation of the appended claims except where explicitly recited in a claim(s).
Aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “component,” “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, aspects of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon.
Any combination of one or more computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples a computer readable storage medium include: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. In the current context, a computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program.
The flowcharts and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. Each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations can be implemented by special-purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present disclosure, other and further embodiments of the disclosure may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.