back to article On the interactive web conference, nobody will hear you are a dog

Cisco's updating the old internet anonymity maxim - "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" - by training its WebEx conferencing wares to recognise sounds. The company says that "in the next couple of weeks, sounds like knocking, typing, sirens, and barking dogs are classified as background noise by WebEx." Artificial …

  1. yoganmahew

    More focus steal?

    Another effing pop-up from Webex that can't be turned off. To go with both the unnecessary browser page to start a webex and the even more irritating "a message from webex" afterwards.

  2. DNTP

    Crisps + headset mic

    CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH

    Make it filter that out and I'll be happy.

  3. JoeTheAnnoying
    FAIL

    Or, you could just teach people to, y'know, MUTE their lines when they're not speaking.

    Sorry. Pet peeve of mine. In our immediate group we have two dogs, a cat, and a clutch of chickens, and typically at least one person who has construction going on in their area, NONE of which interfere with our meeting because we have the brains to hit mute when we're not talking.

    Then we get into our larger group meetings with 20-30 people, and you get to listen to other people's phone conversations, typing, sirens, etc., in spite of repeated requests, "If you're not speaking, please mute your line."

    And I ask my manager, "Why can't we just fire them all?"

    After all, you can't fix stupid.

    1. Kernel

      "Or, you could just teach people to, y'know, MUTE their lines when they're not speaking."

      Oh yes, please!

      And for an encore, can we teach them to dial in before the meeting starts, rather than a t some random time in the first 15 minutes - followed by requests to repeat what's been discussed so far, because "I wasn't here and don't know what was talked about."

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    finally!

    A possible fix for when someone decides to type using a hammer until you have to remind them for the 4th time to mute. Then remind them they're on mute when you ask them a question (complete with audible irritation at having to mute and unmute).

    Now if only they could let us choose which webcam to view......(like when it's a large team meeting and they dial in using a phone with a different user id than the main webcam *facepalm*)

    Annon. To save the guilty... They know who they are.

  5. David 132 Silver badge
    WTF?

    Um...

    "Artificial intelligence techniques, applied to Cisco's immense collection of past WebEx sessions..."

    Two possibilities.

    1) the words "..from within their own company" are missing from the end of that sentence, or

    2) this is yet another manifestation of the current corporate attitude to privacy - i.e, it is a mere irritation, a quaint social construct of the past like the wearing of hats and crinolines. And we're all supposed to shrug and say "well, of course they have the right to record everyones' Webex conferences... it's for our benefit so they can improve the product... if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear...."

  6. Nifty Silver badge
    Joke

    Can it detect the sound of snoring?

    Looking for a real-world use for this.

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