Patent ID: 8218738

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a data-processing system, a first in-use signal from a first telecommunications endpoint that is part of a plurality of endpoints that are situated within a first geographic area and that are served by the data-processing system, the first in-use signal indicating that a user is using the first telecommunications endpoint, the data-processing system being capable of setting up a telephone call between the first telecommunications endpoint and a second telecommunications endpoint; receiving, at the data-processing system, a first audio signal from the first telecommunications endpoint, the first audio signal containing content uttered by the user of the first telecommunications endpoint; generating a first control signal for changing a first environmental condition, the first control signal being based on the receiving of the first in-use signal, wherein the generation of the first control signal is also based on the content of the first audio signal; and generating a second control signal for changing the first environmental condition, wherein the second control signal is based on not having detected any content within any audio signal from the first telecommunications endpoint within a predetermined amount of time.