Method and apparatus for improving listener differentiation of talkers during a conference call

A method for indicating the voice of each talker from a plurality of talkers, using a signal being transmitted over a telecommunications system to be heard by a listener, the method comprising:

• projecting the voice from each one of the plurality of talkers to the listener;
• providing a talker indicator proximate to the listener;
• generating talker identification information in the talker indicator that can be used to indicate the identity of each talker to the listener;
• and
• providing a device coupled to the talker indicator that can transmit the voice signal to the listener;
• wherein the projecting includes projecting voices corresponding to different talkers at different signal strengths through a plurality of speakers to different apparent locations relative to the listener.

An apparatus for conveying a voice signal and the identity of a talker comprising:

• a sound coordinate capture device for generating spatial voice information in response to a plurality of voices spoken by a respective plurality of talkers;
• a talker identifier correlation device, coupled to the sound coordinate capture device, for selecting the talker from the plurality of talkers that most likely produced the voice based on the spatial voice information;
• a voice retransmission device for producing regenerated voices in response to the spatial voice information;
• and
• a talker indicator for spatially indicating the identity of the talker that produced the voice.

A method for displaying an emotigraphic over a display, the emotigraphic may be provided with a plurality of emotional expressions, the method comprising:

• receiving voice input including talker identification information, wherein the talker identification information includes attitude indication information;
• selecting one of the emotional expressions in response to the attitude indication information and in response to the talker identification information;
• and
• displaying the emotigraphic with the selected emotion expression.

An apparatus for conveying a voice signal, the identity of at least one talker, and the special location of the talker across a communication network comprising:

• a spatialization determiner that spatially determines the location of a voice originating from a distinct spatial location, the spatialization determiner comprising:
• a steerable beamformer that can be steered to receive voices from different spatial positions, comprising:
• a primary microphone;
• and
• a plurality of secondary microphones acting in conjunction with the primary microphone to determine angular location of each talker relative to a reference point;
• an adaptive filter coupled to the steerable beamformer, to optimize steering of the steerable beamformer to optimize the received voice from the beamformer;
• a location coordinate detector coupled to the beamformer secondary microphone signals,
• a beamformer controller coupled to the beamformer and the location coordinate dectector for identifying physical locations of each talkers;
• and
• a talker identifier coupled to the beamformer primary microphone signal for prompting the talker for identification and for transmitting the identification information to the network;
• whereby the talker identification and location are determined detector.

A method for communicating a voice signal and talker identification information from a plurality of talkers to at least one listener, the method comprising:

• conveying the voice signal from the plurality of talkers to a first terminal point;
• conveying the talker identification information that individually identifies each one of the plurality of talkers to a second terminal point, wherein the listener can access the voice signal from the first terminal point and the talker identification information from the second terminal point;
• and
• indicating to the listener which talker is speaking in response to the talker identification information;
• wherein the indicating the talker includes projecting the voice corresponding to different talkers to different apparent locations relative to the first terminal point;
• and
• wherein the projecting includes associating an audio announcement with a segment of the voice signal;
• said method further comprising:
• temporally compressing the voice signal from an original length to a shortened length;
• providing the audio announcement with a duration substantially equal to the difference between said original length and said shortened length;
• mixing said temporally compressed voice signal and said audio announcement to create a mixed temporally compressed sound segment that lasts less than or equal to the same duration as the original length of the voice signal;
• and
• playing the mixed temporally compressed voice signal and the audio announcement at the first terminal point.

A method for communicating a voice signal and talker identification information from a plurality of talkers to at least one listener, the method comprising:

• conveying the voice signal from the plurality of talkers to a first terminal point;
• conveying the talker identification information that individually identifies each one of the plurality of talkers to a second terminal point, wherein the listener can access the voice signal from the first terminal point and the talker identification information from the second terminal point;
• and
• indicating to the listener which talker is speaking in response to the talker identification information;
• wherein said voice signal is carried on a packet based network as a series of packets, and said packets include packet origination information, the method additionally including:
• extracting at least a part of said packet origination information from said series packets to provide origination data;
• searching using a part of said origination information as a keyword, to determine at least one component of said talker identification information;
• and
• storing using a part of said origination data as a lookup handle in a storage element, containing part of said talker identification information.

A method for communicating a voice signal and talker identification information from a plurality of talkers to at least one listener, the method comprising:

• conveying the voice signal from the plurality of talkers to a first terminal point;
• conveying the talker identification information that individually identifies each one of the plurality of talkers to a second terminal point, wherein the listener can access the voice signal from the first terminal point and the talker identification information from the second terminal point;
• and
• indicating to the listener which talker is speaking in response to the talker identification information;
• wherein the voice signal and the talker identification information are carried over separate networks.

A method for communicating a voice signal and talker identification information from a plurality of talkers to at least one listener, the method comprising:

• conveying the voice signal from the plurality of talkers to a first terminal point;
• conveying the talker identification information that individually identifies each one of the plurality of talkers to a second terminal point, wherein the listener can access the voice signal from the first terminal point and the talker identification information from the second terminal point;
• and
• indicating to the listener which talker is speaking in response to the talker identification information;
• wherein the voice signal and the talker identification information are carried over the same network, but said talker identification information is conveyed over a side-band of the network and the voice signal is conveyed over a main band of the network.

A method for communicating a voice signal and talker identification information from a plurality of talkers to at least one listener, the method comprising:

• conveying the voice signal from the plurality of talkers to a first terminal point;
• conveying the talker identification information that individually identifies each one of the plurality of talkers to a second terminal point, wherein the listener can access the voice signal from the first terminal point and the talker identification information from the second terminal point;
• and
• indicating to the listener which talker is speaking in response to the talker identification information;
• wherein the voice signal and the talker identification information are carried over the same network, but said talker identification information is conveyed over a mainband of the network and the voice signal is conveyed over a side band of the network.