Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls
First Claim
1. A method of managing a conference call, comprising:
- classifying participants of the conference call in a hierarchy according to respective priority values;
detecting an attempt of a first participant and a second participant to speak at substantially a same time;
detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking;
blocking an 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;
organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and
increasing a first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant.
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Abstract
Methods and apparatus to manage conference calls are described. An example method includes classifying participants of the conference call in a hierarchy according to respective priority values; detecting an attempt of a participants to speak at a same time; detecting which one of the participants has a lower priority ranking; blocking an audio signal of the one of the participants having the lower priority ranking; placing an identifier associated with the blocked one of the participants in a queue; organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy by comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and increasing a point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant.
31 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of managing a conference call, comprising:
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classifying participants of the conference call in a hierarchy according to respective priority values; detecting an attempt of a first participant and a second participant to speak at substantially a same time; detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking; blocking an 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; organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and increasing a first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to perform operations comprising:
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classifying participants of the conference call in a hierarchy according to respective priority values; detecting an attempt of a first participant and a second participant to speak at substantially a same time; detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking; blocking an 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; organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and increasing a first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. An apparatus, comprising:
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a memory comprising machine readable instructions; a processor to execute the instructions to cause a machine to perform operations comprising; detecting an attempt of a first participant and a second participant to speak at substantially a same time; detecting which one of the first and second participants has a lower priority ranking; blocking an 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; organizing the queue according to a behavior-based policy, wherein organizing the queue according to the behavior-based policy comprises comparing an utterance of a current speaker to a keyword associated with the conference call to determine a relevancy of the utterance; and increasing a first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially relevant, and decreasing the first point total associated with the current speaker in response to determining that the utterance is substantially irrelevant. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification