Post-conference playback system having higher perceived quality than originally heard in the conference

• US 10,567,185 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2016
• Issued: 02/18/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Cartwright, Richard J., Dickins, Glenn N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Crompton, Christopher R
• Application Number:
  US15/546,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20180006837A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,476 Days
• Field of Search: 370260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/1809 Selective-repeat protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/56 for VoIP communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/305 Recording playback features, e.g. increased speed
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

Some aspects of the present disclosure involve the recording, processing and playback of audio data corresponding to conferences, such as teleconferences. In some teleconference implementations, the audio experience heard when a recording of the conference is played back may be substantially different from the audio experience of an individual conference participant during the original teleconference. In some implementations, the recorded audio data may include at least some audio data that was not available during the teleconference. In some examples, the spatial characteristics of the played-back audio data may be different from that of the audio heard by participants of the teleconference.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an interface system; and

a control system configured to perform operations comprising;

receiving teleconference audio data during a teleconference, via the interface system, the teleconference audio data comprising a plurality of individual uplink data packet streams, each uplink data packet stream corresponding to a respective telephone endpoint, each telephone endpoint being used by one or more teleconference participants, at least one of the uplink data packet streams corresponding to a particular telephone endpoint being used by multiple teleconference participants and including spatial information regarding each of the multiple teleconference participants, the spatial information comprising information for rendering each of the multiple teleconference participants to a respective virtual conference participant position in a virtual acoustic space; and

sending to a memory system, via the interface system, the teleconference audio data as individual uplink data packet streams.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise:

determining that a late data packet of an incomplete uplink data packet stream has been received from a telephone endpoint after a late packet time threshold, the late packet time threshold being greater than or equal to a mouth-to-ear latency time threshold of the teleconference; and

adding the late data packet to the incomplete uplink data packet stream.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the operations comprise:

determining that a missing data packet of an incomplete uplink data packet stream has not been received from a telephone endpoint within a missing packet time threshold that is greater than the late packet time threshold;

transmitting a request to the telephone endpoint, via the interface system, to re-send the missing data packet;

receiving the missing data packet; and

adding the missing data packet to the incomplete uplink data packet stream.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the late packet time threshold is greater than or equal to 1 second.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the individual uplink data packet streams are individual encoded uplink data packet streams.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the sending includes sending the teleconference audio data to the memory system as individual encoded uplink data packet streams.

7. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the mouth-to-ear latency time threshold is greater than or equal to 100 milliseconds.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the operations include providing teleconference server functionality.

9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the interface system includes a network interface and wherein the operations comprise sending the teleconference audio data to the memory system via the network interface.

10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the apparatus includes at least part of the memory system and wherein the interface system includes an interface between the control system and at least part of the memory system.

11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at least one of the uplink data packet streams includes at least one data packet that was received after a mouth-to-ear latency time threshold of the teleconference and was therefore not used for reproducing audio data during the teleconference.

12. A method of processing audio data, comprising:

receiving, via an interface system, teleconference audio data during a teleconference, the teleconference audio data comprising a plurality of individual uplink data packet streams, each uplink data packet stream corresponding to a respective telephone endpoint, each telephone endpoint being used by one or more teleconference participants, at least one of the uplink data packet streams corresponding to a particular telephone endpoint being used by multiple teleconference participants and including spatial information regarding each of the multiple teleconference participants, the spatial information comprising information for rendering each of the multiple teleconference participants to a respective virtual conference participant position in a virtual acoustic space; and

sending, via the interface system, the teleconference audio data to a memory system as individual uplink data packet streams.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the individual uplink data packet streams are individual encoded uplink data packet streams.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of the uplink data packet streams includes at least one data packet that was received after a mouth-to-ear latency time threshold of the teleconference and was therefore not used for reproducing audio data during the teleconference.

15. A non-transitory medium having software stored thereon, the software including instructions for processing audio data by controlling at least one device for:

receiving teleconference audio data during a teleconference, the teleconference audio data comprising a plurality of individual uplink data packet streams, each uplink data packet stream corresponding to a respective telephone endpoint, each telephone endpoint being used by one or more teleconference participants, at least one of the uplink data packet streams corresponding to a particular telephone endpoint being used by multiple teleconference participants and including spatial information regarding each of the multiple teleconference participants, the spatial information comprising information for rendering each of the multiple teleconference participants to a respective virtual conference participant position in a virtual acoustic space; and

sending the teleconference audio data to a memory system as individual uplink data packet streams.

16. The non-transitory medium of claim 15, wherein the individual uplink data packet streams are individual encoded uplink data packet streams.

17. The non-transitory medium of claim 15, wherein at least one of the uplink data packet streams includes at least one data packet that was received after a mouth-to-ear latency time threshold of the teleconference and was therefore not used for reproducing audio data during the teleconference.