Environment Delivery Network

• US 20100185891A1
• Filed: 01/16/2009
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shahraray, Behzad, Liu, Zhu, Renger, Bernard S., Basso, Andrea, Begeja, Lee
• Granted Patent: US 8,161,137 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/16 Combinations of two or more digital computers each having at least an arithmetic unit, a program unit and a register, e.g. for a simultaneous processing of several programs coordinating program control therefor G06F9/52; in regulating and control system G05B
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/131 Protocols for games, networked simulations or virtual reality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/38 for collecting sensor information

Abstract

A method for environmental delivery network prioritizes groups of data for transmission based on a various factors such as synchronization requirements, endpoint configuration, and the fidelity of sensory stimuli reproduction. A device detects data missing from a group of data received from a server and replaces the missing data with replacement data based on a predetermined value. The predetermined value may be based on a default value specific to the sensory stimulus missing data, data received prior to the missing data, or data received prior to and after the missing data.

Claims

1. A method for delivering data over a network, the data representing an environment comprised of a plurality of sensory stimuli, the method comprising the steps of:

selecting a plurality of groups of data, each group comprising data representing a sensory stimulus;

prioritizing the groups relative to one another;

transmitting the plurality of groups based on the prioritization.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of receiving configuration data from an endpoint, the configuration data indicating the sensory stimuli the endpoint is configured to output.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the step of prioritizing is based at least in part on the configuration data.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of prioritizing is based at least in part on a requirement that at least two of the plurality sensory stimuli be output from an endpoint in synchronization.

5. A device configured to replace data missing from one of a plurality of groups of data received, each of the plurality of groups containing data representing one sensory stimulus of an environment, the device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive the plurality of groups of data;

a detector module configured to detect data missing from one of the plurality of groups of data received; and

a data replacement module configured to replace the missing data with replacement data representing the sensory stimulus associated with the replacement data having a predetermined data value.

6. The device of claim 5 wherein the predetermined data value is based on data received from the plurality of groups of data prior to the missing data.

7. The device of claim 5 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on data received prior to the missing data, the data received prior to the missing data being data from the one of the plurality of groups of data from which the data is missing.

8. The device of claim 5 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on data received prior to the missing data and data received after the missing data, the data received prior to the missing data and the data received after the missing data being data from the plurality of groups of data.

9. The device of claim 5 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on data received prior to the missing data and data received after the missing data, the data received prior to the missing data and the data received after the missing data being data from the one of the plurality of groups of data from which the data is missing.

10. The device of claim 5 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on the sensory stimulus associated with the one of the plurality of groups of data missing data.

11. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions, the computer executable instructions for replacing data missing from one of a plurality of groups of data, each of the plurality of groups of data containing data representing one sensory stimulus of an environment comprised of a plurality of sensory stimuli, the computer executable instructions defining steps comprising:

receiving a plurality of groups of data;

detecting data missing from one of the plurality of groups of data received;

replacing the missing data with replacement data representing the sensory stimulus associated with the missing data changing from a data value received prior to the missing data to a predetermined data value.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the predetermined data value is based on data received from the plurality of groups of data prior to the missing data.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the predetermined data value is based on data received prior to the missing data from the one of the plurality of groups of data missing data.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on data received prior to the missing data and data received after the missing data, the data received prior to the missing data and the data received after the missing data being data from the plurality of groups of data.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on data received prior to the missing data and data received after the missing data, the data received prior to the missing data and the data received after the missing data being data from the one of the plurality of groups of data from which the data is missing.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 11 wherein the predetermined data value is based at least in part on the sensory stimulus transmitted by the one of the plurality of data streams missing data.

17. A device configured to receive a plurality of groups of data, each of the plurality of groups of data representing one sensory stimulus of an environment, the device configured to generate a group of data missing from the received plurality of groups of data, the missing group of data representing one sensory stimulus the device is configured to output, the device comprising:

a receiver configured to receive the plurality of groups of data;

a detector module configured to detect the missing group of data; and

a data replacement module configured to generate the missing group of data based on at least one of the received plurality of groups of data.