SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ECHO SUPPRESSION IN WEB BROWSER-BASED COMMUNICATION
First Claim
1. A method of suppressing echoes in an online audio conference, comprising:
- receiving at a server a plurality of audio streams from a plurality of users participating in the conference, each user operating a device that has a microphone and that sends to the server a stream of packets of audio data representing the sound received at the microphone;
testing the packets in the order received at the server to identify the first packet that contains audio data indicative of speech by a user;
designating the stream containing the identified first packet containing speech data as the active stream;
setting the streams other than the active stream to silence; and
distributing the streams to the devices of the identified users.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for performing echo suppression on a server in browser-based online audio conferences without downloading or installing software on a participant'"'"'s computing device is disclosed. Streams of audio communication data from the participants in an audio conference are received at the server. An echo suppression application determines the first party that speaks by analyzing the streams to locate speech data, and assigns that party as the “owner” of the audio channel. The speech data is sent to the other participants in the conference. The application then determines whether newly received audio from the owner of the channel is new speech; if so, then the party remains the owner of the channel, and the new speech data is also sent to the other parties in the conference. The channel is surrendered if no new speech is received from the owner in a defined period, and the next party that speaks becomes the new owner of the channel. The other audio data from the participants is replaced by silence.
6 Citations
17 Claims
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1. A method of suppressing echoes in an online audio conference, comprising:
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receiving at a server a plurality of audio streams from a plurality of users participating in the conference, each user operating a device that has a microphone and that sends to the server a stream of packets of audio data representing the sound received at the microphone; testing the packets in the order received at the server to identify the first packet that contains audio data indicative of speech by a user; designating the stream containing the identified first packet containing speech data as the active stream; setting the streams other than the active stream to silence; and distributing the streams to the devices of the identified users. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A system for suppressing echoes in an online audio conference, comprising:
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an input means for receiving a plurality of streams of packets of audio data, each stream corresponding to the sound generated by one of a plurality of participants in the conference; a processor configured to; test the packets in the order received to identify the first packet that contains audio data indicative of speech by a participant; designate the stream containing the identified first packet containing speech data as the active stream; replace the streams other than the active stream with streams of packets representing silence; and an output means for distributing the streams to the participants. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method comprising the steps of:
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receiving at a server a plurality of audio streams from a plurality of users participating in the conference, each user operating a device that has a microphone and that sends to the server a stream of packets of audio data representing the sound received at the microphone; testing the packets in the order received at the server to identify the first packet that contains audio data indicative of speech by a user; designating the stream containing the identified first packet containing speech data as the active stream; setting the streams other than the active stream to silence; and distributing the streams to the devices of the identified users.
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Specification