US Patent 9876913 Perceptual continuity using change blindness in conferencing

In an audio conferencing mixing system of the type taking a plurality of audio input streams of input audio information of conference participants, including mixing transition events and outputting a plurality of audio output streams including output audio information, a method of mixing the audio output streams so as to reduce the detectability of the mixing transition events, the method including the steps of (a) determining that a transition event is to occur; (b) determining that a masking trigger is to occur; (c) scheduling the transition event to substantially occur when the masking event occurs. Change blindness mechanism to mask changes in audio conference mix and maintain perceptual continuity.