ADJUSTING AUDIO VOLUME IN A CONFERENCE CALL ENVIRONMENT

• US 20080037749A1
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shaffer, Shmuel, O'Brien, Michael P., Metzger, Larry Raymond
• Granted Patent: US 8,670,537 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A method of and system for adjusting audio volume in a conference call environment are disclosed. The method comprises associating respective gain factors with each source of a plurality of incoming audio streams. The method further comprises automatically adjusting the volume of each incoming audio stream in accordance with the associated gain factor. In accordance with example embodiments, the method may be performed either at a telephony endpoint such as a VoIP telephone or at a conference bridge.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting audio volume during a conference call, the method comprising:

associating at least one gain factor with each source of a plurality of incoming audio streams; and

automatically adjusting the volume of each incoming audio stream based on the at least one associated gain factor.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which associating the at least one gain factor with each source comprises:

receiving a user input via a telephone endpoint; and

identifying a gain factor based on the user input.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, which comprises automatically adjusting the volume of each incoming audio stream independently of the volume of other incoming audio streams.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conference call is a VoIP communication, the method comprising identifying a source of an incoming audio stream from a packet header.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises:

automatically calculating a gain factor based, at least partially, on the audio volume of the at least one incoming audio stream; and

automatically adjusting the audio volume of the at least one audio stream relative to the other audio streams using the gain factor.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which automatically adjusting the volume of the audio streams is performed at a telephony endpoint.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, in which automatically adjusting the volume of the audio streams is performed at a conference bridge.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7, which comprises transmitting at least one gain factor from a telephony endpoint to the conference bridge, the at least one gain factor being associated with both a telephony endpoint sending the incoming audio stream and the endpoint from which the at least one gain factor is transmitted.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises identifying separate voices in an audio stream from a single telephony endpoint, and associating separate gain factors to each voice.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, which comprises processing an incoming voice stream using a voiceprint to identifying each voice.

11. The method as claimed in claim 1, which comprises:

monitoring a volume level of each incoming voice stream;

detecting when a volume level of an incoming audio stream exceeds a threshold volume level; and

automatically muting an incoming audio stream when an incoming audio stream exceeds the threshold volume level.

12. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

associate at least one gain factor with each source of a plurality of incoming audio streams; and

automatically adjust the volume of each incoming audio stream in accordance with the at least one gain factor.

13. A device to adjust audio volume in a conference call environment, the system comprising:

a memory to store a plurality of gain factors, each gain factor being associated with an incoming audio stream; and

an adjustment module automatically to adjust the volume of each incoming audio stream based on an associated gain factor.

14. The device as claimed in claim 13, in which the adjustment module is configured to automatically adjust the volume of each incoming audio stream independently of the volume of other incoming audio streams.

15. The device as claimed in claim 13, which comprises a user input arrangement to receive a user input defining an associated gain factor

16. The device as claimed in claim 15, in which the user input arrangement is configured automatically to associate the gain factor with the incoming audio stream.

17. The device as claimed in claim 13, which comprises a calculation module automatically to calculate a gain factor based, at least partially, on the audio volume of the incoming audio stream.

18. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the device forms at least part of a telephony endpoint.

19. The device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the telephony endpoint is VoIP telephony endpoint.

20. The device as claimed in claim 13, wherein the device forms at least part of a conference bridge.

21. The device as claimed in claim 20, in which the endpoint comprises a sender module and the conference bridge comprises a receiver module to transmit a particular gain factor from an endpoint to the conference bridge, the particular gain factor being associated with both the respective incoming audio stream and the endpoint from which the particular gain factor is transmitted.

22. The device as claimed in claim 13, which comprises a voice identification module to identify separate voices in a particular audio stream, and to associate a gain factor with each respective voice.

23. The device as claimed in claim 13, in which the adjustment module is configured to automatically mute a particular incoming audio stream if that audio stream exceeds a threshold volume level.

24. A VoIP telephony endpoint comprising:

memory to store a plurality of gain factors, each gain factor being associated with at least one of a plurality of an incoming voice streams; and

a processor to;

associate at least one gain factor with an incoming audio stream; and

automatically adjusting the volume of the incoming audio stream based on the at least one associated gain factor.

25. A deice to adjust audio volume in a conference call environment, the device comprising:

means for associating at least one gain factor with each source of a plurality of incoming audio streams; and

means for automatically adjusting the volume of the at least one incoming audio stream based on the associated gain factor.