METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SYNCHRONIZED DISTRIBUTED DISPLAY OVER MULTIPLE CLIENT DEVICES

• US 20140019520A1
• Filed: 05/15/2013
• Published: 01/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Andrew Milburn, Thomas Hajdu
• Original Assignee: Andrew Milburn, Thomas Hajdu
• Inventors: MILBURN, ANDREW, HAJDU, THOMAS
• Granted Patent: US 9,357,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/10 Transforming into visible information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/03 characterised by the type of extracted parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/40 Support for services or applications
• 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 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/06 Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Portable interactive devices of audience members are remotely operated to substantially “simultaneously” respond to a signal from an origin, e.g., a central server, despite variation in latencies among the devices in order to produce a shared experience. The audience members are reached through varying communication links. Latencies vary among portable interactive devices and among carriers. A firing time for the portable interactive devices is selected to occur at a time in the future. An execution time at which a respective portable interactive device is commanded to operate is a function of the firing time minus the latency control signal reaches clients in a venue in an audience or at a remote location simultaneously despite the varying latencies.

Claims

1. A system for operating a plurality of portable interactive devices to perform a commanded function at a firing time in order to produce a shared experience in an event, comprising:

a server producing a command signal to command performance of the function by a portable interactive device at an execution time;

a communications link for coupling outputs from said server to a set of portable interactive devices;

a program to issue command signals via the server to the set of portable interactive devices;

a time protocol measuring circuit including a time-tagged signal generator coupled to transmit signals to portable interactive devices and a comparator to compare time-tagged signals to a computer clock time and produce a latency for a respective portable device;

a latency register coupled to store the measured latencies; and

the server including an arithmetic unit arranged to calculate an execution time for each respective portable interactive device as a function of the firing time minus value of a respective latency.

2. A system according to claim 1 further comprising a function circuit receiving the values of the signals and calculating a maximum time difference to be selected between the firing time and earliest execution time.

3. A system according to claim 2 comprising an arithmetic circuit coupled to read a latency signal from a respective portable interactive device and subtract the latency signal value from the calculated maximum time difference.

4. A system according to claim 3 wherein said server generates a command signal to the respective portable interactive device to provide a command instructing the portable interactive device to execute at a time in the future as a function of current device latency and the calculated maximum difference.

5. A system according to claim 4 comprising a circuit defining a time window defining a tolerance for the time of execution by each portable interactive device and the firing time.

6. A system according to claim 5 wherein said server provides a command for execution by the portable interactive devices upon calculation of the maximum time delay.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein the time protocol is an NTP protocol.

8. A system according to claim 2 comprising a circuit adapting periodically measured respective latency of portable interactive devices and dynamically recalculating the latency for each device.

9. A system according to claim 3 wherein said signal generation circuit further comprises means for constructing packets to send messages in words to all clients.

10. A system according to claim 9 where a command is selected which causes the portable interactive devices to perform a preselected function.

11. A method for operating a plurality of portable interactive devices to produce a shared experience in an event, comprising:

repeatedly providing a command signal from a server for transmission to a set of portable interactive devices at a rate in correspondence with a rate of provision of intelligence to the portable interactive devices;

measuring by a time protocol the latency of each portable interactive device;

selecting a firing time at a time in the future at which substantially all of the portable interactive device perform a commanded function;

selecting an execution time for each respective portable interactive device; and

creating the command signal to command execution at a time as a function of the firing time minus latency of the respective portable interactive device.

12. A method according to claim 11 comprising operating a control circuit by the server to initiate transmissions of the command signals.

13. A method according to claim 11 wherein the step of selecting an execution time comprises reading signal for a respective portable interactive device and subtracting the latency from the firing time.

14. A method according to claim 13 wherein a step of selecting a maximum delay comprises reading at least a sampling of latency values and selecting a maximum permissible difference between execution time and firing time.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed by a processor, causes said processor to perform operations comprising:

repeatedly providing a command signal from a server for transmission to a set of portable interactive devices at a rate in correspondence with a rate of provision of intelligence to the portable interactive devices;

measuring by a time protocol the latency of each portable interactive device;

selecting a firing time at a time in the future at which substantially all of the portable interactive device perform a commanded function;

selecting an execution time for each respective portable interactive device; and

creating the command signal to command execution at a time as a function of the firing time minus latency of the respective portable interactive device.

16. A non-transitory machine-readable medium according to claim 15 wherein the instruction to measure by a time protocol comprises utilizing an NTP protocol.