Audiovisual data transport protocol

• US 20080055399A1
• Filed: 11/01/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Data Services LLC (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ruiz-Velasco, Enrique, Woodworth, Brian R.
• Granted Patent: US 7,940,653 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.12
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• 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

The present invention discloses systems and methods for transmitting video messages between network terminals over a network. When transmitting video data, a first network determines at least one video parameter based on, at least, the performance of the first network terminal, the performance of the network performance and user-preference data. Transmitted video data is encoded based on the video parameter.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

transmitting video data over a network from the first network terminal to a second network terminal;

storing data representing user-preferences;

storing data representing the performance of the first network terminal;

storing data representing the performance of the network;

determining, based on at least said first network terminal performance data, said network performance data, and said user-preference data, at least one video parameter; and

encoding the video data based on the at least one video parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one video parameter includes:

determining an estimate of the quality of the video data presented at the second network terminal based on at least one of first network terminal performance data and network performance data; and

modifying the at least one video parameter if said estimate does not meet a predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein modifying the at least one video parameter includes selecting the at least one video parameter based on the user-preference data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein user-preference data provides a user-defined hierarchy between video quality, system resource consumption and network resource consumption provided by a user of the first network terminal.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein video quality includes at least one of:

video resolution, frame rate, jitter, color quality, frame size and compression format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein first network terminal performance data represents at least one of:

processor usage, memory usage or network usage.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein network performance data represents at least one of:

data lost, data delay, jitter, and video quality.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one video parameter controls at least one of:

video resolution, video frame rate, video frame size, video color quality, and video buffer size.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said at least one video parameter controls at least one of:

data transmission bandwidth, data transmission rate, data transmission interval, number of data streams and data encryption.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the at least one video parameter includes negotiating the at least one video parameter between the first network terminal and the second network terminal.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the video data is not encoded based on the at least one video parameter if the video parameter is outside a range negotiated by the first network terminal and the second network terminal prior to transmitting video.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the video data is not encoded based on the at least one video parameter if the video parameter is outside a range specified by the user-preference data.

13. A system, comprising:

a network communicatively coupled to a plurality of network terminals including a first network terminal and a second network terminal, wherein the first network terminal is configured to;

transmit video data over the network from the first network terminal to the second network terminal;

store data representing user-preferences;

store data representing the performance of the first network terminal;

store data representing the performance of the network;

determine, based on at least said first network terminal performance data, said network performance data, and said user-preference, data, at least one video parameter; and

encode the video data based on the at least one video parameter.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first network terminal is further configured to determine the at least one video parameter by:

calculating an estimate of the quality of the video data presented at the second network terminal based on at least one of first network terminal performance data and network performance data; and

modifying the at least one video parameter if said estimate does not meet a predetermined threshold.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first network terminal is further configured to modify the at least one video parameter by selecting the at least one video parameter based on the user-preference data.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the user-preference data provides a user-defined hierarchy between video quality, system resource consumption and network resource consumption.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein video quality includes at least one of:

video resolution, frame rate, jitter, color quality, frame size and compression format.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein first network terminal performance data represents at least one of:

processor usage, memory usage or network usage.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein network performance data represents at least one of:

data lost, data delay, jitter, and video quality.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein said at least one video parameter controls at least one of:

video resolution, video frame rate, video frame size, video color quality, and video buffer size.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein said at least one video parameter controls at least one of:

data transmission bandwidth, data transmission rate, data transmission interval, number of data streams and data encryption.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein determining the at least one video parameter includes negotiating the at least one video parameter between the first network terminal and the second network terminal.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the video data is not encoded based on the at least one video parameter if the video parameter is outside a range negotiated by the first network terminal and the second network terminal prior to transmitting video.

24. The system of claim 22, wherein the video data is not encoded based on the at least one video parameter if the video parameter is outside a range specified by the user-preference data.

25. A terminal device comprising:

a memory system storing processor-executable instructions;

a processing system coupled to the memory system and configured to execute the processor-executable instructions;

a network interface coupled to the processing system and configured to communicate over a network;

wherein the processor-executable instructions are configured to cause the processing system to

transmit video data over the network to a destination network terminal;

store data representing user-preferences;

store data representing the performance of the system;

store data representing the performance of the network;

determine, based on at least said terminal device performance data, said network performance data, and said user-preference data, at least one video parameter; and

encode the video data based on the at least one video parameter.