Patent ID: 7715541
Filing Date: 2010-05-11
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
1. A method for using a personal conference to privately establish and control media connections with a telephony device, the method comprising: (a) establishing a first media connection between a first user and a personal conference call instance, wherein the first user is connected to the personal conference instance using a telephony device; (b) establishing a plurality of second media connections between a plurality of second users and the personal conference call instance in a manner that conceals existence of the personal conference call instance from at least one of the second users so that the at least one second user is unaware that he or she is participating in a conference call and such that the at least one second user believes that he or she is communicating exclusively with the first user; (c) mixing media packets from the second users and delivering the mixed media packets to the first user; (d) sending media packets from the first user to the at least one second user; (e) providing at least one feature of the personal conference call instance that that is controllable exclusively by the first user; and (f) dynamically controlling, exclusively by the first user, the at least one feature of the personal conference call instance.