US Patent 11089163 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.