Automated queuing system and queue management
Electronic conferences often comprise a mixture of on-site and remote participants. A moderator may selectively engage remote participants for full-duplex interactions, such in response to the remote participant “raising their hand” to signal a question or desire to speak. Systems and methods are provided to enable a moderator to utilize natural speech to be utilized as voice commands, and with no other input, to cause a remote participant to be unmuted, enabling full-duplex for the associated remote terminal, and when the question is done, re-muted and thereby returned to half-duplex.
1. A system, comprising:
a microprocessor;
a data storage; and
a network interface; and
the microprocessor performs:
receiving a voice stream, the voice stream comprising speech received from a moderator;
broadcasting, via the network interface, the voice stream to remote endpoints operable to communicate in full-duplex with the system;
monitoring the voice stream for a spoken phrase;
accessing the data storage comprising an equivalency data structure, the equivalency data structure comprising a conferencing command field, the conferencing command field comprising an embedded conference command, and a spoken phrase field comprising a plurality of phrases associated with the conferencing command field;
upon determining that the spoken phrase matches one of the plurality of phrases,
processing the embedded conference command; and
upon determining that an embedded conference command is not present, continue the monitoring of the voice stream.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor performs the determining that the embedded conference command is present in the voice stream further comprises the microprocessor determining the embedded conference command is present within the voice stream and the microprocessor receives no other cue indicating nor introducing the embedded conference command.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein:
the embedded conference command comprises a first command for a full interaction with a first one of the remote endpoints; and
the microprocessor, unmutes an audio from the first one of the remote endpoints.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein:
the embedded conference command comprises a second command for a full interaction with a second one of the remote endpoints; and
the microprocessor, excludes audio from the first one of the remote endpoints and unmutes audio from the second one of the remote endpoints.
5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the microprocessor further performs the unmuting by inserting an audio unmuting announcement into the voice stream of the first one of the remote endpoints prior to performing the unmuting.
6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the microprocessor further performs re-muting the first one of the remote endpoints upon determining that spoken content provided in the unmuted audio from the first one of the remote endpoints comprises banned content.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor broadcasts the voice stream to the remote endpoints and mutes audio from the remote endpoints.
8. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an alerting component; and
wherein the microprocessor further performs:
receiving, from a first one of the remote endpoints, a signal indicating a request for a user associated with the first one of the remote endpoints wishes to engage in full-duplex communications; and
in response to receiving the signal, causing the alerting component to be energized.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the microprocessor enqueues indicia of the signal in a question queue in a position associated with an order received.
10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the microprocessor, upon receiving the embedded conference command associated with engaging a next remote participant in full-duplex mode, selects one of the remote endpoints having a next position in the question queue.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the microprocessor, upon receiving the embedded conference command associated with engaging a next remote participant in full-duplex mode and further identifying a topic, selects one of the remote endpoints having a next position in the question queue and associated with the topic.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the microprocessor further performs:
placing at least one endpoint on hold and omitting the broadcasting of the voice stream to the at least one endpoint; and
upon receiving the embedded conference command associated with a next participant, unmuting the at least one endpoint on hold and initiating the broadcasting of the voice stream to the at least one endpoint.
13. A method, comprising:
receiving, by a microprocessor, a voice stream, the voice stream comprising speech received from a moderator of an electronic conference;
broadcasting, by the microprocessor over a network, the voice stream to remote endpoints operable to communicate in full-duplex;
monitoring the voice stream for a spoken phrase;
accessing an equivalency data structure, comprising a conferencing command field, the conferencing command field comprising an embedded conference command, and a spoken phrase field comprising a plurality of phrases associated with the conferencing command field;
upon determining that the spoken phrase matches one of the plurality of phrases,
processing the embedded conference command; and
upon determining that an embedded conference command is not present, continue the monitoring of the voice stream.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the determining that the embedded conference command is present in the voice stream further comprises the microprocessor determining the embedded conference command is present within the voice stream and the microprocessor receives no other cue indicating nor introducing the embedded conference command.
15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining, by the microprocessor, whether the embedded conference command comprises a first command for a full interaction with a first one of the remote endpoints; and
in response to the determination the embedded conference command does comprises the first command for the full interaction with the first one of the remote endpoints, unmuting, by the microprocessor, audio from the first one of the remote endpoints.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:
determining, by the microprocessor, whether the embedded conference command comprises a second command for a full interaction with a second one of the remote endpoints; and
in response to the determination that the embedded conference command comprises the second command for the full interaction with the second one of the remote endpoints, muting, by the microprocessor, the audio from the first one of the remote endpoints and unmutes audio from the second one of the remote endpoints.
17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the unmuting further comprises inserting, by the microprocessor, an audio unmuting announcement into the voice stream of the first one of the remote endpoints prior to performing the unmuting.
18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
receiving, from a first one of the remote endpoints, a signal indicating a request for a user associated with the first one of the remote endpoints wishes to engage in full-duplex communications; and
in response to receiving the signal, energizing an alerting component.
19. The system of claim 8 , further comprising enqueuing indicia of the signal in a question queue in a position associated with a predetermined order.
20. A system, comprising:
means to receive a voice stream, the voice stream comprising speech received from a moderator of an electronic conference;
means to broadcast the voice stream to remote endpoints operable to communicate in full-duplex and wherein the remote endpoints are participating in the electronic conference via a communications network;
monitoring the voice stream for a spoken phrase;
means to access an equivalency data structure, the equivalency data structure comprising a conferencing command field, the conferencing command field comprising an embedded conference command, and a spoken phrase field comprising a plurality of phrases associated with the conferencing command field;
means to, upon determining that the spoken phrase matches one of the plurality of phrases,
process the embedded conference command comprising at least one of muting or unmuting at least one selected remote endpoint of the remote endpoints to alter whether audio is received from the at least one selected remote endpoint from the remote endpoints; and
upon determining that an embedded conference command is not present, means to continue the monitoring of the voice stream.