Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property I, L.P.
InventorsSreenivasa Gorti, Hisao Chang
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls are described. An example method of managing a conference call includes maintaining a record of participants of the conference call; enabling a first one of the participants to request an adjustment of a volume of a current speaker; and in response to a request from the first participant, adjusting an amplification setting associated with the current speaker in a preference file associated with the first participant.
Claims27
A method of managing a conference call, comprising:
- classifying participants of the conference call according to a priority value in a hierarchy;
- detecting an attempt of a first one of the participants and a second one of the participants to speak at substantially a same time;
- detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking;
- blocking a first audio signal of the one of the first participant and the second participant having the lower priority ranking;
- placing an identifier associated with the blocked one of the first and second participants in a queue;
- and
- organizing, via a processor, the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises decreasing a first point total associated with the blocked one of the first and second participants in response to the blocked one of the first and second participants attempting to interrupt a current speaker.
A conference call manager, comprising;
- memory having machine readable instructions stored thereon;
- and
- a processor to execute the machine readable instruction to perform operations comprising:
- storing identification information of a plurality of participants of a conference call and a hierarchy of priority rankings associated with respective ones of the plurality of participants;
- identifying a first one of the participants attempting to speak at substantially a same time as a current speaker;
- when the first participant has a lower priority ranking than the current speaker, blocking the first participant and placing an identifier associated with the first participant in a queue;
- and
- organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises decreasing a first point total associated with the first participant in response to the first participant attempting to interrupt the current speaker.
A tangible machine readable storage device having instructions stored thereon which, when executed, cause a machine to perform a method comprising:
- classifying participants of the conference call according to a priority value in a hierarchy;
- detecting an attempt of a first one of the participants and a second one of the participants to speak at substantially a same time;
- detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking in the hierarchy;
- blocking a first audio signal of the one of the first participant and the second participant having the lower priority ranking;
- placing an identifier associated with the blocked one of the first and second participants in a queue;
- and
- organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises decreasing a first point total associated with a third participant in response to the third participant attempting to interrupt a current speaker.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.