SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUDIO CONFERENCING

• US 20150304502A1
• Filed: 04/18/2014
• Published: 10/22/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Godavarti, Mahesh, PILLI, SRIDHAR
• Granted Patent: US 10,237,412 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• 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

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed towards an audio conferencing method. Some embodiments may include receiving, at a first mixing device, a first audio stream from one or more participant conferencing devices. The method may further include generating a top-N voice stream at the first mixing device, wherein the top-N voice stream corresponds with at least one top-N talker and wherein the identification of the at least one top-N talker is based upon, at least in part, an activity ranking. The method may also include receiving the top-N voice stream at a centralized mixing device and generating at least one mixed audio stream at the centralized mixing device.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for audio conferencing comprising:

receiving, at a first mixing device, a first audio stream from one or more participant conferencing devices;

generating a top-N voice stream at the first mixing device, wherein the top-N voice stream corresponds with at least one top-N talker and wherein the identification of the at least one top-N talker is based upon, at least in part, an activity ranking;

receiving the top-N voice stream at a centralized mixing device; and

generating at least one mixed audio stream at the centralized mixing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mixing device is a participant-slave mixer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mixing device is a cascading-slave mixer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mixing device is a grid mixer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mixing device is a peer mixer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of echo cancellation, noise reduction, and level control is performed at the centralized mixing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of enhanced voice intelligibility (“

EVI”

) and adaptive level equalization (“

ALE”

) is performed separate from the centralized mixing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first mixing device is configured to receive a plurality of audio streams from the one or more conferencing devices.

9. An audio conferencing system comprising:

one or more participant conferencing devices configured to generate a first audio stream;

a first mixing device configured to receive the first audio stream from the one or more participant conferencing devices, the first mixing device further configured to generate a top-N voice stream, wherein the top-N voice stream corresponds with at least one top-N talker and wherein the identification of the at least one top-N talker is based upon, at least in part, an activity ranking; and

a centralized mixing device configured to receive the top-N voice stream and to generate at least one mixed audio stream.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first mixing device is a participant-slave mixer.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the first mixing device is a cascading-slave mixer.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the first mixing device is a grid mixer.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the first mixing device is a peer mixer.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of echo cancellation, noise reduction, and level control is performed at the centralized mixing device.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one of enhanced voice intelligibility (“

EVI”

) and adaptive level equalization (“

ALE”

) is performed separate from the centralized mixing device.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the first mixing device is configured to receive a plurality of audio streams from the one or more conferencing devices.

17. An audio conferencing system comprising:

one or more participant conferencing devices configured to generate a first audio stream;

a first peer mixing device configured to receive the first audio stream from the one or more participant conferencing devices, the first peer mixing device further configured to select a top-N voice stream and generate a ranking vector based upon, at least in part, the first audio stream received from the one or more participant conferencing devices; and

a second peer mixing device configured to receive the top-N voice stream and the ranking vector, the second peer mixing device further configured to generate at least one mixed audio stream.

18. The audio conferencing system of claim 17, wherein the first peer mixing device is configured to transmit at least one of a mixed audio stream and an individual audio stream to the second peer mixing device.

19. An audio conferencing system comprising:

one or more participant conferencing devices configured to generate a first audio stream;

a first grid mixing device configured to receive the first audio stream from the one or more participant conferencing devices, the first grid mixing device further configured to select a top-N voice stream and generate a ranking vector based upon, at least in part, the first audio stream received from the one or more participant conferencing devices; and

a second grid mixing device configured to receive the top-N voice stream and the ranking vector, the second grid mixing device further configured to generate at least one mixed audio stream.

20. The audio conferencing system of claim 19, further including at least two additional grid mixing devices configured to communicate with the first grid mixing device and the second grid mixing device.