US Patent 11604623 Electronic device with imaging based mute control

An electronic device, computer program product, and method mitigates loss of communication between participants in a communication session when a local participant attempts to speak without manually unmuting the electronic device. The electronic device includes an image capturing device, a user interface device having a microphone, and a controller. The controller is communicatively coupled to the image capturing device and to the user interface device. The controller monitors, during the communication session with a second electronic device, an image stream received from the image capturing device for movements by the local participant in the communication session. The controller autonomously generates a prompt to unmute the microphone in response to determining that the microphone is muted while identifying at least one of a speaking movement of a mouth of the local participant to speak or a gesture by the local participant that correlates with the participant wanting to speak.