ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,689,709, issued on July 21, was assigned to Cisco Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.).

"Audio quality mapping and orientational feedback in video conferencing" was invented by Fergal Keating (Carlow, Norway), Wayne Elmer Moorefield Jr. (Apex, N.C.) and Bjorn Winsvold (Tranby, Norway).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "In one embodiment, a method is disclosed comprising: monitoring, by a device and during a video conferencing session in a video conferencing area, audio quality of audio collected from a subject participating in the video conferencing session; detecting, by the device and based on the audio quality, an audio quality issue for the...