reference is now made to fig1 a block illustration of system 10 , an augmented teleconferencing system , operated and constructed according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention . system 10 may provide a complete and coherent solution to the problems described in the background . system 10 may provide the solution via use of existing data channels , such as short message service ( sms ), wireless application protocol ( wap ) or transmission control protocol / internet protocol tcp / ip based protocols and visual displays of mobile and other devices . system 10 uses events from telephony switches to detect when participants join or leave the call , and when they speak . system 10 similarly uses events sent by users and their applications to detect the same information . system 10 may comprise a conference information manager 30 to store and distribute information about the meeting . the devices associated with the different call members may present the information based on the capabilities of the device , and user preferences . system 10 may comprise a plurality of conference call members 12 , a conferencing bridge 18 , a voice activity detector ( vad ) 20 , a teleconferencing service 24 , and a conference information manager 30 . call members 12 may be cell phone users with sms or wap capacities , telephone users with smart telephone capabilities , and / or telephone users with computers . call members 12 may additionally comprise cell phone users with hand held devices with sms capabilities . the above list is meant to be illustrative of the possible call members 12 , while not limiting the complete options to the above list . other possible options for call members 12 are included within the true spirit and scope of this invention . in an optional preferred embodiment , two or more call members 12 may be connecting to system 10 on the same call - leg , i . e . on a shared phone in a conference room . in these cases , system 10 may comprise a dominant speaker detector 14 . dominant speaker detector 14 is typically installed in the conference room . dominant speaker detector 14 identifies the dominant speaker and send this information a service execution environment ( see ) 22 . in order to identify the dominant speaker , in one embodiment , dominant speaker detector 14 may comprise a microphone and multiple active badges ( not shown ), one for each person in the room . via the active badges , dominate speaker detector 14 “ knows ” where the is badge is located , and hence where each person is sitting . the microphone then detects where the dominant voice is coming from . in an alternative solution , each person participating in the conference call may have an active device comprising a small microphone . when the microphone detects that the associated user is speaking , the active device notifies dominant speaker detector 14 . alternatively , the active device may transmit the voice level , but not the actual speaking to dominate speaker detector 14 . dominant speaker detector 14 then decides who the dominant speaker is , and send this information to see 22 . it is noted that although not listed herein , there are numerous methods and apparatus to perform the functions of dominate speaker detector 14 . such methods and apparatus , although not listed , fall within the scope and principles of the present invention . conferencing bridge 18 may sit on a telephony switch 16 . telephone switch 16 may comprise a plurality of telephone lines . some of the telephone lines may be “ cordless ” telephone lines . conferencing bridge 18 may be a centralized and may enable multipoint control unit ( mcu ) features for media mixing on multiparty calls . each telephone line may be mapped to a call leg at conferencing bridge 18 . when an event occurs on a call leg , such as “ user started speaking ”, conferencing bridge 18 sends this information to see 22 . in preferred embodiments , conferencing bridge 18 may comprise a callback service 19 . callback 19 may provide the ability to reserve a conference at a specific time . callback 19 may enable conferencing bridge 18 to telephone call members 12 at a specific time . callback 19 may additionally enable conferencing bridge 18 to notify and remind the call members 12 of a teleconference . in preferred embodiments of the present invention vad 20 may also sit on telephony switch 16 . when there is voice activity on more then one leg , vad 20 may determine the dominant speaker . vad 20 may work in a self - detection mode , when possible . in alternative embodiments , as noted above , dominant speaker detector 14 may identify the dominant speaker . service 24 may sit on see 22 . see 22 may receive call information from a telephony switch 20 . see 22 may also connect to the internet . information received by see 22 may be delivered to service 24 . service 24 may comprise a participant identification module ( pim ) 26 and a participate device mapping ( pdm ) 28 . participant identification module 26 may comprise a list of invitees , and mapping from the call - legs to call members 12 . via the mapping , system 10 may detect events such as ‘ user joined ’, ‘ user left ’ and / or ‘ user speaking ’. participant device mapping 28 may comprise a list of call members 12 and their associated calling devices . participant device mapping 28 may additionally comprise the capabilities and address of the associated calling devices . participant device mapping 28 may send this information and events to the conference information manager 30 . conference information manager 30 may store and update the conference status , and send status updates to the associated calling devices of call members 12 . changes in the status of the teleconference , such as ‘ topic started ’ ‘ user x sent message y to users z ’ will arrive at conference information manager 30 . conference information manager 30 may then store this information and distribute it to the call members 12 . it is noted that in alternative embodiments , conference information manager 30 , rather than service 24 , may comprise participant identification module 26 and participant device mapping 28 . additionally , although represented herein as two elements , participant identification module 26 and participant device mapping 28 may be joined into one element . conference information manager 30 may communicate with an sms dispatcher 32 . sms dispatcher 32 may connect to the internet and may have the ability to send sms messages to and from the internet . sms dispatcher 32 may additionally send sms messages via a cellular phone provider switch . system 10 may additionally communicate with a general packet radio service ( gprs ) provider 34 . gprs provider 34 may exchange data information in addition to voice and take advantage of the capabilities of the display . in preferred embodiments of the present invention , system 10 may comprise a recorder 36 . recorder 36 may sit at either a call member 12 with a smart phone or on see 22 . recorder 36 may associate each recording frame with the current speaker . detailed explanation of the recording and playback process will be described hereinbelow in reference to fig2 . the operation and functioning of system 10 will now be explained . when setting up the teleconference , one of the call members 12 , or any other person , may provide initial information to conference information manager 30 . the initial information may comprise typical teleconference information , such as date , time , and conference number , as well as agenda details and the personal details of the call members 12 . in some embodiments , conference information manager 30 may be in communication with a corporate database ( not shown ). the corporate database may provide the personal details of each call member 12 , thus eliminating the need to provide such information manually . conference information manager 30 may store this information . when a new call member 12 connects to the teleconference , telephony switch 16 is aware of this information . telephony switch 16 may send the port and caller identification of new call member 12 to see 22 . in preferred embodiments , see 22 may provide service 24 with low - level events detected by the telephony switches 16 . in alternative embodiments , see 22 may provide higher - level events to service 22 , or directly to conference information manager 30 . as noted above , service 24 holds the information on call members 12 , their associated ports / legs , and mapping of their names and caller ids . service 24 may pass the event , e . g . “ new user ”, to the conference information manager 30 . conference information manager 30 updates the list of call members 12 in the teleconference . conference information manager 30 may then send an event message to call members 12 notifying them of the new call member status . the event message may be sent over ip - line , as an sms message or as a wap - push message in preferred embodiments of the present invention , the call members 12 may receive at least a subset of a conference information structure that is represented in extendable markup language ( xml ). the form of the conference xml - based information may be determined according to the capabilities of the call member &# 39 ; s associated calling device . examples of conference xml - based information are listed hereinbelow . in some cases , the xml - based structure may be mapped to another format before sending it . for example , if the associated calling device is sms - enabled only , an sms message may be sent with a list of all attending call members 12 . in alternative embodiments , according to the capabilities of the associated device , call members 12 may request to view further information about the teleconference . as an example , call members 12 may request to receive detailed information about a particular call member 12 , the speakers &# 39 ; list , or see the list of topics . during the teleconference , call member 12 may send a text or multimedia message to any subset of the participant list . service 24 assists in passing some of those messages as sms or multimedia messaging system ( mms ) messages , while others may use wap or the tcp / ip channel . call member 12 may define the context of the message , i . e . the current topic , ‘ general ’, ‘ gossip ’, undefined , and so on . the message may then be stored according to the defined context . in a preferred embodiment system 10 may be a disciplined environment . in such cases , system 10 may give call members 12 a “ speaker ” role . call member 12 may then send a dual tone multi - frequency ( dtmf ) message when he wants to speak . conferencing bridge 18 may receive the dtmf message , and send the request to speak to see 22 . see 22 may inform service 24 of the request , who in turn may inform conference information manager 30 . alternatively , see may directly inform conference information manager 30 . conference information manager 30 may then send a ‘ speaker - changed ’ event with the speaker &# 39 ; s name to call members 12 . alternatively , in a non - disciplined environment , one of the call members 12 may start to speak . vad 20 may detect voice activity , and via dominant speaker algorithms identify the dominant speaker . this information is passed to service 24 and conference information manager 30 . conference information manager 30 may send to call members 12 a ‘ speaker - changed ’ event with the speaker &# 39 ; s name . in preferred embodiments of the present invention , a conference moderator or another user may manually enter some changes to system 10 . examples of such changes may include , inter alia , ending one topic and starting the other . these events may be sent to call members 12 in the same manner as described above . reference is now made to the below example of conference xml - based information . during the teleconference , and according to the capabilities of their associated calling device , call members 12 may navigate through the xml - based information . agenda ; topic list , and for each topic any subset of the following : a sequential list of the speakers in the teleconference , past , present and future . as an example , the list may comprise call members 12 waiting to speak , and the order in which they are invited to speak . for each past speaker , the start and end time of their speaking period may be kept . the current speaker — a quick access to the ‘ present speaker ’ in the list . in some embodiments , the name of the current speaker may be displayed as the first call member 12 in the list of participating call members 12 . in other embodiments , the current speaker is identified via alternative methods , such as flashing the name of the current speaker , placing a symbol next to the current speaker &# 39 ; s name , etc . accompanying text messages ; during the teleconference , text messages may be created by call members 12 . some of the message may be of public nature , while others may be private . public messages may include , inter alia , formal messages such as meeting - minutes or action items . private message may include among other things , chats between participants . for each message the following information may be saved : call members 12 may decide which part ( s ) of the conference xml - based information to concentrate on , and which part ( s ) to display . depending on the available display , conference xml - based information may be presented in parallel or only one part at a time . in some preferred embodiments , depending on the associated calling devices , changes to the teleconference information may be ‘ pushed ’ to the call members 12 as events . in particular , sms or wap - push messages may be used to send these events to the call members 12 . thus , via messages , and without the necessity of running a dedicated application , the present invention may be provided to cellular phone users . please refer now to fig2 an illustration of a lifetime diagram 50 , constructed according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention . when teleconferences are critical , it may be important to record the teleconference . it may be equally important to be able to identify , at any particular time , the current speaker . thus , service 24 may save the ongoing dominant speaker identity . in alternative embodiments , call change information may be stored with the recorded voice . alternatively , event information may be stored with the recorded voice . the above alternative storage methods may enable “ smart ” replay . a user may chose to listen to just one call member 12 , to replay from any position , and / or to perform statistics and analysis on all the calls . in alternative embodiments , call member 12 may request lifeline diagram 50 of the teleconference . lifeline diagram 50 may be a two - dimension dynamic graph representing the participation of call members 12 at any point in time of the teleconference . lifeline diagram 50 may be used either in real - time or in playback . lifetime diagram 50 may comprise call lifelines 52 and time blocks 54 . each lifeline 52 may be associated with a call member 12 . time block 54 may comprise the identify and recording for the dominate speaker for that associated time . lifeline diagram 50 may conveniently enable viewing of call members 12 participated at any specific time . when viewing the lifeline diagram 50 with a mobil information device ( mid ) or other device with a limited viewing area , the lifeline diagram 50 may “ bubble ” the active lifelines 52 to the top of lifeline diagram 50 . consequently , the top lifelines 52 in diagram 50 may be the most active ones . in preferable embodiments , at any time during the teleconference , the top lifeline 52 is the current speaker . in a limited viewing device , such as a small cell phone , bubbling up the lifelines 52 may be critical because the display may not be large enough to show all or most of the conference participants . if the bubbling is not active , the user will not be able to benefit from all the information available in lifeline diagram 50 . lifeline 52 may be active when the telephone line of the associated call member 12 shows activity . one lifeline 52 may be more active than an other if ( 1 ) one lifeline 52 is active more time then the another lifeline 52 , or ( 2 ) if no lifeline 52 is active , than the lifeline 52 that was active last remains active . lifeline diagram 50 may also be interactive . when activated , time block 54 may play a recording of the associated dominant speaker for that relevant time block . alternatively , when a speaker block 52 is activated , a recording of the associated call member 12 may be heard . lifeline diagram 52 may provide a powerful tool to analyze and thoroughly understood the teleconference . while the present invention has been described with reference to one or more specific embodiments , the description is intended to be illustrative of the invention as a whole and is not to be construed as limiting the invention to the embodiments shown . it is appreciated that various modifications may occur to those skilled in the art that , while not specifically shown herein , are nevertheless within the true spirit and scope of the invention .