VOICE PROCESSING INTERFACE FOR A TELECONFERENCE SYSTEM

A teleconferencing system having screened introductions, named introductions, roll call, talker identification, and subconferencing, scheduling, and recording options. A caller attempting to join a teleconference is prompted to enter identification information by generating corresponding DTMF signals. The caller's identification is used to index the caller's profile stored in memory. The profile includes a memory address pointer to the location at which data representative of the spoken name of the caller is stored. The caller's identification is also checked against a list specified by the meeting organizer and stored in memory to determine whether the caller is to be admitted to the teleconference. If the caller is to be admitted to the teleconference, an announcement is generated to the attendees of the teleconference using the caller's spoken name retrieved from memory. Likewise, when the attendee leaves the conference, the system detects the attendee disconnecting and retrieves the attendee's spoken name stored in memory in order to generate an announcement to the attendees: "XYZ has left the conference." The system is responsive to requests by attendees during the teleconference. The attendees communicate with the system by depressing buttons on their touch tone phones which generate DTMF signals. The system also has the capability of scheduling new conferences and automatically checking for any conflicts.