System, method, and computer-readable medium for verbal control of a conference call

1. A method for providing verbal control of a conference call in a conferencing system, comprising:

bridging a plurality of conference call legs to form a bridged conference stream in the conferencing system;

evaluating the bridged conference stream with a speech recognition algorithm;

determining if a first hot word is identified in the bridged conference stream, wherein at least a caller name is used to populate a voice template for identifying the first hot word;

responsive to determining the first hot word is in the bridged conference stream, invoking a conference feature associated with the first hot word; and

suppressing the first hot word in the bridged stream prior to transmission of the bridged stream to conference participants.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a second hot word is identified in the bridged conference stream; and

invoking a speaker recognition algorithm to identify the speaker of the second hot word.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining if the speaker is authorized to invoke a conference feature associated with the second hot word.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising invoking the conference feature associated with the second hot word in response to determining the speaker is authorized.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein determining if the speaker is authorized further comprises evaluating a record assigned to the speaker that specifies privileges allocated to the speaker.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining if a first hot word is identified in the bridged conference stream comprises comparing a word identified in the bridged conference stream with a database of hot words configured for the conferencing system.

7. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for execution by a processing system, the computer-executable instructions for providing verbal control of a conference call in a conferencing system, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions for:

bridging a plurality of conference call legs to form a bridged conference stream;

evaluating the bridged conference stream with a speech recognition algorithm;

determining if a hot word is identified in the bridged conference stream, wherein at least a caller name is used to populate a voice template for identifying the first hot word;

responsive to determining the hot word is in the bridged conference stream, identifying a speaker of the hot word; and

suppressing the hot word in the bridged stream prior to transmission of the bridged stream to conference participants.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions for determining whether the speaker is authorized to invoke a conference feature associated with the hot word.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 , further comprising instructions for invoking the conference feature in response to determining the speaker is authorized to invoke the conference feature.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the conference feature is not invoked in response to determining the speaker is not authorized to invoke the conference feature.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions that define conference privileges of each participant of the conference call.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , further comprising instructions for:

determining if a participant's name was spoken in a pre-defined interval subsequent to the hot word; and

invoking a conference feature associated with the hot word on behalf of a participant having the participant's name.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the instructions for determining if a hot word is identified in the bridged conference stream comprises instructions for comparing a word identified in the bridged conference stream with a database of hot words configured for the conferencing system.

14. A system for providing a conference call, comprising:

a database that specifies privileges of respective conference participants;

a media server adapted to terminate a conference leg with each of a plurality of terminal devices of the participants, bridge a plurality of conference legs to form a bridged conference stream, evaluate the bridged conference stream with a speech recognition algorithm, determine a hot word is included in the bridged conference stream, and identify a speaker of the hot word, wherein the hot word is associated with a conference feature, wherein the media server suppresses the hot word in the bridged conference stream prior to transmission of the bridged conference stream to the conference participants, wherein at least a caller name is used to populate a voice template for identifying the first hot word; and

an application server communicatively coupled with the media server and adapted to provide control information to the media server for managing the conference call, wherein the application server is notified of the hot word and the speaker, and wherein the application server interrogates the database to determine if the speaker is authorized to invoke the conference feature.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the application server determines the speaker is authorized to invoke the conference feature.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the application server directs the media server to invoke the conference feature.

17. The system of claim 14 , further comprising a database of hot words that is communicatively coupled with the media server, wherein the media server determines the hot word is included in the bridged conference stream by obtaining a match with the hot word and an entry in the database of hot words.