Patent ID: 8345849

Claim:
A telecommunications endpoint that is used by a first participant in a conference call, the telecommunications endpoint comprising: a microphone configured to receive a first input audio signal from the first participant; a network interface configured to receive a second input audio signal from a second participant of the conference call at a second telecommunications endpoint; a processor configured: to recognize the first input audio signal as a first spoken phrase; to recognize the second input audio signal as a second spoken phrase; to determine whether the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase; and to automatically decrease the volume level of a loudspeaker at the telecommunications endpoint in response to i) the processor recognizes the first input audio signal and ii) the processor detects that the microphone has been muted; a memory configured to store: i) the first spoken phrase; and ii) the latest T seconds of audio associated with the conference call, wherein T is a real number greater than zero, wherein the processor is also playing back at least a portion of the latest T seconds of audio when the processor determines that the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase; and alerting means configured to alert one of the participants in the conference call other than the second participant, when the processor determines that the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase, wherein the alerting means comprises a display at the telecommunications endpoint; wherein: the processor is user-configurable not to decrease a volume level of a loudspeaker prior to when the processor determines that the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase; and if the processor has been configured to decrease the volume level prior to when the processor determines that the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase, then the processor is further configured to increase the volume level of the loudspeaker when the processor determines that the second spoken phrase is equivalent to the first spoken phrase.