Method and apparatus for providing privacy for telephone conversations
AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.
InventorsBing Chen, John D. Francis, Laurie Garrison, Diane Nawrocki, David Nemec
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing privacy for telephone conversations over communication networks is disclosed. For example, a telephony endpoint device comprises a microphone for receiving an audio signal and a gain boost circuit, coupled to the microphone, for applying a gain boost to the audio signal. The telephony endpoint device also comprises a switch, coupled to the gain boost circuit, wherein operating the switch will control whether the gain boost is to be applied to the audio signal.
Claims17
A telephony endpoint device, comprising:
- a microphone for receiving an audio signal;
- a gain boost circuit, coupled to the microphone, for applying a gain boost to the audio signal, wherein the gain boost circuit further applies a noise cancellation to the audio signal;
- a manually activated switch, coupled to the gain boost circuit, wherein operating the manually activated switch controls whether the gain boost and the noise cancellation are to be applied to the audio signal to produce a resulting audio signal, wherein the operating the manually activated switch comprises depressing the manually activated switch to apply the gain boost and the noise cancellation to the audio signal;
- and
- a transmitter for transmitting the resulting audio signal to a communication network.
A method for processing an audio signal, comprising:
- receiving an audio signal via a microphone of a telephony endpoint device;
- receiving a user input via a manually activated switch to apply a gain boost and a noise cancelation to the audio signal, wherein the user input is received when the manually activated switch is depressed;
- applying the gain boost to the audio signal and applying the noise cancellation to the audio signal to produce a resulting audio signal, wherein the applying is performed in response to the user input being received;
- and
- transmitting the resulting audio signal to a communication network via a transmitter.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for processing an audio signal, the operations comprising:
- receiving an audio signal via a microphone of a telephony endpoint device;
- receiving a user input via a manually activated switch to apply a gain boost and a noise cancelation to the audio signal, wherein the user input is received when the manually activated switch is depressed;
- applying the gain boost to the audio signal and applying Ran the noise cancellation to the audio signal to produce a resulting audio signal, wherein the applying is performed in response to the user input being received;
- and
- transmitting the resulting audio signal to a communication network via a transmitter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.