METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEAR REAL-TIME SYNCHRONIZATION OF VOICE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090168759A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: RANNEY, Matthew J., PANTTAJA, James T., PANTTAJA, Mary G., KATIS, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,250,181 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/352
• 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 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355

Abstract

A method and system for synchronizing in real-time the voice media of a conversation conducted over a network between a first communication device and a second communication. The method includes at each of the first and second communication devices progressively storing in first and second storage elements and transmitting the voice media created using the first and second communication devices to the other communication device respectively. Both the first and second communication devices store in the first and second storage elements the progressively received media from the other device respectively. A mechanism to continually review, ascertain and request the media stored in the first storage element, but not the second storage element, and vice-versa is provided to ensure that the two storage elements contain the same voice media. As a result, the first and second storage elements each maintain real-time synchronized copies of the voice media of the conversation respectively.

Claims

1. A first communication device configured to synchronize in real-time the voice media of a conversation conducted over a network, the first communication device comprising:

a first storage element configured to progressively store voice media created using the first communication device as the voice media is being created using the first communication device;

a transmitting element configured to progressively transmit the voice media created using the first communication device to a second communication device over the network;

a receiver configured to progressively receive and store in the first storage element voice media pertaining to the conversation generated at the second communication device, stored in a second storage element associated with the second communication device, and transmitted from the second communication device to the first communication device over the network;

a media ascertaining element configured to ascertain any voice media pertaining to the conversation stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element; and

a request generator configured to send to the second communication device one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element;

the receiver further configured to store in the first storage element the media received at the first communication device from the second communication device in response to the requests for transmission,

whereby the voice media in the first storage element is synchronized in real-time with the voice media in the second storage element as the requests for transmission of voice media not already stored in the first communication device are satisfied.

2. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the request generator is further configured to generate the one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media including an ongoing request for transmission of future voice media pertaining to the conversation generated at the second communication device and stored in the second storage element but not the first storage element.

3. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first storage element and the transmitting element are further configured to cooperatively:

(i) progressively store the voice media in the first storage element before progressively transmitting the indexed voice media;

(ii) progressively transmit the voice media before progressively storing the voice media in the first storage element;

or

(iii) progressively transmit the voice media at substantially the same time the voice media is progressively stored in the first storage element.

4. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the transmitting element progressively transmits the voice media created using the first communication device to the second communication device over the network by:

(i) defining a transmission loop;

(ii) ascertaining the available voice media created using the first communication device during the defined transmission loop;

(iii) ascertaining the usable bit rate available on the network during the defined transmission loop;

(iv) determining if the ascertained usable bit rate available on the network during the transmission loop is sufficient to transmit a full bit rate representation of the ascertained available voice media as originally encoded; and

either;

(v) transmitting the available full bit rate presentation of the available media if the ascertained available bit rate is sufficient;

or

(vi) generating a reduced bit rate version of the available voice media when the ascertained available bit rate on the network is not sufficient to transmit a full bit rate representation of the available voice media, the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media enhancing the ability for the first communication device and the second communication device to engage in the conversation in real-time; and

(vii) transmitting the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media when the ascertained usable bit rate available on the network during the transmission loop is not sufficient.

5. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element progressively transmits the voice media created using the first communication device to the second communication device over the network further by:

defining successive transmission loops; and

performing (i) through (iii) and either (v) or (vi) and (vii) depending on if the ascertained usable bit rate on the network is sufficient or not for each defined successive loop respectively.

6. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element is further configured to generate the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media by using fewer bits per unit of time when packetizing the available voice media for transmission.

7. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element is further configured to generate the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media by using (a) one or more different codec settings, (b) one or more different codecs, (c) a compression algorithm;

or (d) any combination of (a) through (c) when packetizing the available voice media for transmission.

8. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element is further configured to generate the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media by increasing the packetization interval used to transmit the available voice media.

9. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element is further configured to generate the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media by adjusting the transmission rate at which packets containing the available voice media are transmitted.

10. The first communication device of claim 4, wherein the transmitting element is further configured to generate the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media by performing one or more of the following:

(i) using fewer bits per unit of time when packetizing the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media relative to the full bit rate representation;

(ii) increasing the packetization interval when transmitting the available voice media;

(iii) adjusting the rate at which packets containing the available voice media are transmitted;

or

(iv) any combination of (i) through (iii).

11. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication device further comprises a media time-sensitivity ascertaining element configured to ascertain if the voice media created using the first communication device is either time-sensitive or not time-sensitive, the media time-sensitivity ascertaining element ascertains the sensitivity of the indexed voice media as either:

(i) time-sensitive if a user of the second communication device has an intent to progressively render the voice media immediately upon receipt;

or

(ii) not time-sensitive if the intent of the user of the second communication device has no intent to render the voice media immediately upon receipt.

12. The first communication device of claim 11, wherein the media time-sensitivity ascertaining element and the first transmitting element cooperate to:

(iii) transmit the voice media ascertained as not time-sensitive to the second communication device using a first transmission technique, the first transmission technique relying on packets having a first packetization interval;

or

(iv) progressively transmit the voice media ascertained as time-sensitive to the second communication device using a second transmission technique, the second transmission technique relying on packets having a second packetization interval, where the first packetization interval is larger than the second packetization interval.

13. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the first communication device further comprises a data quality store configured to note any missing, corrupted or reduced bit rate versions of the voice media pertaining to the conversation created using the second communication device and transmitted and to the first communication device.

14. The first communication device of claim 13, wherein the media time-ascertaining element is configured to ascertain any voice media pertaining to the conversation stored in the second storage element but not in the storage element by continually reviewing the voice media noted in the data quality store.

15. The first communication device of claim 14, wherein the request generator is further configured to generate and send to the second communication device the one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained indexed voice media noted in the data quality store

16. The first communication device of claim 15, wherein the data quality store is further configured to remove the notation for the indexed voice media noted in the data quality store as the corresponding one or more requests for transmission are satisfied.

17. The first communication device of claim 1, further comprising a rendering element associated with the first communication device and configured to optionally render the voice media of the conversation after an arbitrary delay by retrieving the voice media from the first storage element, wherein the arbitrary delay is defined by a user of the first communication device.

18. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the voice media of the conversation includes one or more of the following types of media besides voice:

video, photo, text, sensor data, position or GPS information, radio signals, or any combination thereof.

19. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the communication device comprises one of the following:

a land-line phone, a wireless phone, a cellular phone, a satellite phone, a computer, a radio, a server, a satellite radio, a tactical radio or a tactical phone.

20. The first communication device of claim 1, wherein the voice media is indexed using one of the following indexing schemes:

(i) time-based indexing;

(ii) bit or byte based indexing;

(iii) hashing type indexing;

(iv) binary-tree type indexing;

(v) file directory based indexing;

or

(vi) any combination of (i) through (v).