Conference Call Interruption Reconstruction via Audio Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio and video-based conference calling technologies often experience interruptions when multiple participants speak simultaneously, leading to broken continuity and missed important topics, as visual cues are absent in virtual meetings.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that analyze conference calls to identify interruptions, reconstruct interrupted segments, and integrate them with uninterrupted portions, using machine learning to predict and prevent future interruptions, and transcribe both heard and unheard audio streams with chat and graphical content.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple participants speak simultaneously during a conference call, then the conversation flow is more dynamic and engaging, but interruptions occur that break continuity and cause important topics to be missed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of audio streams to detect potential interruptions before they fully occur. By identifying overlapping speech patterns and predicting interruptions in advance, the system can prepare to reconstruct the interrupted content, ensuring continuity is maintained rather than broken.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing layer that sits between the raw audio streams and the final meeting recording. This intermediary system analyzes multiple audio streams, detects interruptions, reconstructs missed content using contextual information and chat data, and integrates the reconstructed segments back into the meeting record, thereby mediating between simultaneous speech and continuous recording.
2Adaptability or versatility
If visual cues are removed from face-to-face meetings to create virtual conference calls, then remote participation becomes possible, but the ability to detect when speakers are pausing or taking breaks is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the visual-mechanical system of observing speaker gestures and facial expressions with an audio-digital system. By analyzing audio signal characteristics, pause patterns, and contextual information from chat streams, the system substitutes visual cue detection with computational audio analysis, enabling pause detection without visual information.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback loops where detected speech patterns and pause durations are continuously analyzed and used to improve future interruption detection. The system learns from each detected pause pattern and adjusts its detection algorithms, creating a self-improving system that becomes more accurate at detecting speaker intentions without visual cues.
3Loss of information
If audio streams from all participants are recorded during interruptions, then more content is captured, but the quality and clarity of the recording deteriorates due to overlapping sounds
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the audio recording into distinct time-based and speaker-based portions. By dividing the meeting recording into segments where only one speaker is active at a time, and separately identifying interruption segments for reconstruction, the system maintains high audio quality in each segment while capturing complete content across all segments.
Solution Approach 2:
The system temporarily discards low-quality overlapping audio segments during interruptions, then recovers the missed content by analyzing contextual information, chat streams, and speaker patterns. The recovered content is then integrated into the final recording, ensuring both completeness and quality are achieved through a discard-recover-integrate process.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, computer system, and a computer program product for interpreting conference call interruptions is provided. The present invention may include analyzing a conference call including at least two participants. The present invention may also include identifying at least one interrupted segment in the analyzed conference call. The present invention may further include reconstructing the identified at least one interrupted segment of the analyzed conference call and integrating it with the uninterrupted (heard) portion of the conference call.