COMMUNICATION DEVICE AND DATA PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20150350037A1
• Filed: 12/09/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Minamino, Takanori, Nguyen, Khoi
• Granted Patent: US 9,806,967 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/024 by adaptive sampling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/087 Jitter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS

Abstract

A packet reception state monitoring unit calculates a target stored data number as a target number of audio packets stored in a memory based on the variation in the reception intervals of audio packets, and a reproduction control unit controls the audio reproduction speed in accordance with the difference between the target stored data number and a memory-stored data number. When the memory-stored data number is smaller than the target stored data number, reproduction control is performed in a low-speed reproduction mode at a lower speed than a regular reproduction speed. When the memory-stored data number is larger than the target stored data number, reproduction control is performed in a high-speed reproduction mode at a higher speed than the regular reproduction speed. A reproduction speed changing process is performed, with hysteresis being given to transitions of the difference between the memory-stored data number and the target stored data number.

Claims

1. A communication device comprising:

a packet reception state monitoring unit configured to monitor reception intervals of packets received by a communication unit, and generate and output a target value as a parameter for a reproduction control process based on a variation in the packet reception intervals; and

a reproduction control unit configured to perform reproduction control in accordance with the target value generated by the packet reception state monitoring unit,

wherein the reproduction control unit controls an audio reproduction speed or image frame reproduction in accordance with the target value.

2. The communication device according to claim 1,

wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit calculates a target stored data number as a target number of audio packets stored in a memory based on the variation in the reception intervals of audio packets received by the communication unit, and

the reproduction control unit controls the audio reproduction speed in accordance with a difference between the target stored data number and a memory-stored data number that is the number of audio packets actually stored in the memory.

3. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit makes the target stored data number larger when the variation in the reception intervals of the audio packets received by the communication unit is wide, and makes the target stored data number smaller when the variation is narrow.

7. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit calculates a standard deviation of the reception intervals of audio packets received by the communication unit, to calculate the variation in the reception intervals of the audio packets.

8. The communication device according to claim 7, wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit makes the target stored data number larger when the standard deviation in the reception intervals of the audio packets is large, and makes the target stored data number smaller when the standard deviation in the reception intervals is small.

9. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein the memory-stored data number is an average value of the numbers of packets stored in the memory in a predetermined period of time.

10. The communication device according to claim 1,

wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit calculates a target phase offset as a target value of a phase offset equivalent to a difference between a server vertical synchronization signal of a server transmitting packets and a client vertical synchronization signal of a client based on the variation in the reception intervals of image packets received by the communication unit, the client being the communication device, and

the reproduction control unit performs image reproduction control by determining the timing to reproduce an image frame in accordance with the target phase offset.

11. The communication device according to claim 10, wherein the packet reception state monitoring unit makes the target phase offset larger when the variation in the reception intervals of the image packets received by the communication unit is wide, and makes the target phase offset smaller when the variation is narrow.

12. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein, when the variation in the reception intervals of the image packets is narrow, and the target phase offset is small, the reproduction control unit sets a small phase offset and performs image reproduction with a shorter reproduction delay.

13. The communication device according to claim 11, wherein, when the variation in the reception intervals of the image packets is wide, and the target phase offset is large, the reproduction control unit sets a large phase offset and performs image reproduction with a reduced possibility of intermittent reproduction due to a packet delay.

4. The communication device according to claim wherein the reproduction control unit

performs reproduction control in a low-speed reproduction mode at a lower speed than a regular reproduction speed when the memory-stored data number is smaller than the target stored data number, and

performs reproduction control in a high-speed reproduction mode at a higher speed than the regular reproduction speed when the memory-stored data number is larger than the target stored data number.

5. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein the reproduction control unit changes the audio reproduction speed by giving hysteresis to a transition of the difference between the memory-stored data number and the target stored data number.

6. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein the reproduction control unit performs an audio reproduction speed control process to

increase the audio reproduction speed when a difference value between the memory-stored data number and the target stored data number continuously increases, and

reduce the audio reproduction speed when the difference value between the memory-stored data number and the target stored data number continuously decreases.

14. A data processing method implemented in a communication device, the method comprising:

monitoring reception intervals of packets received by a communication unit, and generating and outputting a target value as a parameter for a reproduction control process based on a variation in the packet reception intervals, the monitoring and the generating and outputting the target value being performed by a packet reception state monitoring unit; and

performing reproduction control in accordance with the target value generated by the packet reception state monitoring unit, the reproduction control being performed by a reproduction control unit,

wherein an audio reproduction speed or image frame reproduction is controlled in accordance with the target value in the reproduction control.