Patent ID: 7852999

Claim:
A method for classifying a plurality of signals, comprising: receiving a plurality of auditory signals from a plurality of communication devices, each signal received from a communication device; repeating the following for each signal of the plurality of signals to yield one or more classified signals: encoding an auditory signal received from the communication device using a processor; determining, using the processor, whether the encoded auditory signal comprises an undesirable auditory signal by: collecting one or more parameters from the encoded auditory signal over a predetermined period of time for a plurality of periods of time; and analyzing the one or more parameters over the predetermined periods of time to classify the encoded auditory signal as a selected one of a desirable auditory signal, a non-human generated undesirable auditory signal, and a human generated undesirable auditory signal, wherein analyzing the one or more parameters over the predetermined periods of time to classify the encoded auditory signal comprises: establishing a residual threshold and a parameter variation threshold to analyze the encoded auditory signal; determining whether the encoded auditory signal has a residual that exceeds the residual threshold and the parameter variation threshold; determining whether the one or more parameters from the encoded auditory signal exceed the parameter variation threshold; and classifying the encoded auditory signal as the non-human generated undesirable auditory signal if the residual of the encoded auditory signal exceeds the residual threshold or classifying the encoded auditory signal as the human generated undesirable auditory signal if the one or more parameters from the encoded auditory signal do not exceed the parameter variation threshold; modifying the encoded auditory signal if the encoded auditory signal comprises an undesirable auditory signal, wherein modifying the encoded signal if the encoded signal comprises an undesirable auditory signal comprises at least one of: attenuating the undesirable auditory signal over a conference bridge; and dropping the undesirable auditory signal from the conference bridge; and combining the plurality of received signals.