Participant-specific volume control
View Patent ↗A method performed by a computing system includes managing an audio communication session that includes an audio connection between a plurality of participant devices, associating with each of the plurality of participant devices, a volume adjustment factor, adjusting a volume of an audio out signal from a first participant device of the plurality of participant devices to create an adjusted audio out signal, the adjusting being based on the volume adjustment factor associated with the first participant device, and transmitting a conference audio signal based on the adjusted audio out signal to a subset of the plurality of participant devices.
1. A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
managing an audio communication session that includes an audio connection between a plurality of participant devices;
associating with each of the plurality of participant devices, a set of volume adjustment factors, each volume adjustment factor within a set indicating a volume level for other participant devices of the plurality of participant devices;
determining that one of the plurality of participant devices is an active participant device, the active participant device being one in which the user of that participant device is currently speaking;
transmitting a conference audio signal to the plurality of participant devices;
for a particular participant device, adjusting the conference audio signal to the particular participant device based on a particular volume adjustment factor within the set of volume adjustment factors associated with the particular participant device, the particular volume adjustment factor indicating a volume level for the active participant device.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume adjustment factor associated with the first participant device is manually set.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the volume adjustment factor is manually set by a participant using a touch interface and rotating two fingers around a volume knob control representation on the touch interface.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the participant devices is designated as a managing participant device, the managing participant device having an ability to adjust volume adjustment factors associated with each of the participant devices.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising, receiving an instruction from the managing participant device to adjust a volume adjustment factor for the first participant device.
6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the instruction is received via one of: HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), or Representational State Transfer (REST).
7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the instruction is received via Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) signaling.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein receipt of a DTMF command to raise or lower volume is applied to the volume adjustment factor associated with a currently active participant device.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the volume adjustment factors for each of the participant devices are configured to bring audio levels from each of the participant devices to a substantially similar level.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the participant devices is one of a phone, a smartphone, a laptop, or a tablet.
11. A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
managing an audio communication session that includes an audio connection between a plurality of participant devices;
receiving, from a first participant device of the plurality of participant devices, a first set of volume adjustment factors, the first set of volume adjustment factors being specific to the first participant device, each volume adjustment factor of the first set indicating a volume level for a different participant device of the audio communication session;
determining which of the plurality of participant devices is an active participant device the active participant device being one in which the user is currently speaking; and
adjusting a volume level of a conference audio signal being sent to the first participant device based on the volume adjustment factor, of the first set, indicating a volume level for the active participant device.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, receiving from a second participant device of the plurality of participant devices, a second set of volume adjustment factors, the second set of volume adjustment factors being specific to the second participant device, each volume adjustment factor of the second set being associated with a different participant device of the audio communication session, the second set being different from the first set.
13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising adjusting a volume level of the conference audio signal being sent to the second participant device based on the volume adjustment factor, of the second set, associated with the active participant device.
14. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, receiving from the first participant device, an updated first set of volume adjustment factors, the revised first set of volume adjustment factor having at least one updated volume adjustment factor.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first set of volume adjustment factors are manually set by a user of the participant device associated with the first set of volume adjustment factors.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the volume adjustment factor is manually set by a participant using a touch interface and rotating two fingers around a volume knob control representation on the touch interface.
17. A conference bridge comprising:
a processor; and
a memory with machine readable instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
receive, for each participant device of a plurality of participant devices engaged in a communication session, a set of volume adjustment factors, each volume adjustment factor within the set defining volume adjustment for a different participant device within the communication session; and
determine that one of the plurality of participant devices is an active participant device, the active participant device being one in which the user of that participant device is currently speaking;
for a particular participant device of the plurality of participants device, adjust a volume of audio out signals sent to the particular participant device to create adjusted audio out signals, the adjusted audio signals based on a particular volume adjustment factor of the set of volume adjustment factors for the particular participant device, the particular volume adjustment factor defining volume adjustment for the active participant;
receive the adjusted audio out signals; and
transmit, as audio in signals, a conference audio signal based on the adjusted audio out signals to each of the plurality of participant devices.
18. The conference bridge of claim 17 , wherein the volume adjustment factors are controllable by a managing participant device of the plurality of participant devices.
19. The conference bridge of claim 17 , further comprising a Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) detector module configured to detect DTMF commands within an audio out signal of one of the participant devices, the DTMF commands indicating a change to one of the volume adjustment factors.
20. The conference bridge of claim 17 , wherein the volume adjustment factors are controllable by each conference participant.