Patent ID: 8154588

Claim:
A table-centric system for dynamically facilitating audible conversation among a plurality of potential participants in one or more conversations around the table, the system distinct from and independent of any potential or actual participants, comprising: a plurality of directional microphones, configured to receive sounds from the potential participants; a plurality of loudspeakers configured to transmit sounds to the potential participants; an automatic means for identifying and locating the potential participants; and a control unit, coupled to the microphones, to the loudspeakers and to the identification means, the control unit configured to dynamically identify, without intervention from any participants, one or more subgroups from the plurality of potential participants, each of the one or more subgroups including at least two participants; for each subgroup identified by the control unit, the control unit performing the following without intervention from any participants: dynamically locating a first participant within a specific subgroup; dynamically locating one or more second participants within the specific subgroup; utilizing microphones to capture sound from the first participant; processing the captured sound to generate a specific enhanced sound for each second participant; utilizing loudspeakers to deliver the specific enhanced sound to the second participants, the specific enhanced sound operable to improve audible conversation intelligibility of the first participant as heard by the second participants.