System and method for communication of information using channels of different latency

• US 5,995,518 A
• Filed: 05/01/1997
• Issued: 11/30/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Hughes Electronics Corporation (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Seidman, Lawrence P., Mead, Donald C., Burns, Ronnie R.
• Primary Examiner(s): TON, DANG T
• Application Number:
  US08/850,022
• Time in Patent Office: 943 Days
• Field of Search: 370/503, 370/350, 370/389, 370/392, 370/395, 370/396, 370/397, 370/398, 370/399, 370/400, 370/351, 370/352, 370/353, 370/535, 370/356, 370/537, 370/516, 370/519, 370/468, 348/395, 348/403, 348/384, 348/390, 348/400, 348/405, 348/407, 348/409, 348/413, 348/415, 348/416, 348/402, 348/406, 348/408, 382/190, 382/232, 382/236, 382/238, 382/243, 382/248, 382/250, 382/276, 358/133, 358/135, 358/260, 358/287
• US Class Current: 370/503
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6143 involving transmission via a satellite
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6193 involving transmission via a satellite arrangements for data linking, networking or transporting, or for controlling an end to end session in a satellite broadcast system H04B7/18526
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/14 Systems for two-way working H04N7/12, H04N7/173 take precedence

Abstract

A system and method for communication of information using channels of different latency combine a high latency communication channel with a low latency communication channel to reduce the communication delay perceived by a user. The system and method includes separating information into first and second components based on a parameter correlated to the perceived delay, communicating the first component via a first channel, communicating the second component via a second channel having a communication delay greater than the first channel, and generating a representation of the information based on the first component. The second component of the information may be used to augment or modify the information represented by the first component. In one embodiment, the invention is applied to video teleconferencing where voice information and basis image information is transmitted via the low latency channel while background and other non-real-time information is communicated via the high latency communication channel.

Claims

1. A method for reducing perceived delay between transmission and reception of information, the method comprising:

separating the information into first and second components based on at least one predetermined parameter correlated to the perceived delay;

communicating the first component via a first channel characterized by a first bandwidth and a first communication delay;

communicating the second component via a second channel characterized by a second bandwidth and a second communication delay, the second communication delay being greater than the first communication delay; and

generating a representation of the information based on the first component to reduce the perceived delay between transmission and reception of the information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

modifying the representation of the information based on the second component.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the second component after reception for use in generating future representations of similar information.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first component comprises a header transmitted to initialize a transaction.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of separating comprises separating the information based on frequency.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the information represents an image, the second component represents a previously stored image, and the first component represents a difference between the previously stored image and a current image.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the information represents an image sequence and wherein the at least one parameter corresponds to rate of change of the information corresponding to a predetermined position within each image of the sequence.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the second component represents a substantially stationary background image.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the information is generated by a game executing on a remote computer, the game including commands initiated by a player, responses initiated by the remote computer, and graphics representing various scenes of the game, the first component representing the commands and the responses, and the second component representing the graphics.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the information is generated by an application program executing on a remote computer and wherein the first component represents feedback in response to a command initiated by a user of the application program.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the step of generating a representation of the information comprises changing position of a cursor in response to movement of an input device.

12. A system for providing wideband communication of information while reducing perceived latency between transmission and reception, the system comprising:

a first transmitter having an associated first communication channel characterized by a first communication latency;

a second transmitter having an associated second communication channel characterized by an associated second communication latency, the second communication latency being greater than the first communication latency;

a first encoder for generating a symbolic representation of the information;

a second encoder in communication with the first encoder for generating a bit stream representing the symbolic representation generated by the first encoder and control information; and

a router in communication with the second encoder and the first and second transmitters for directing a first portion of the bit stream to the first transmitter and a second portion of the bit stream to the second transmitter based on the control information;

wherein the first transmitter transmits the first portion of the bit stream and the second transmitter transmits the second portion of the bit stream to provide wideband communication of the information while reducing the perceived latency.

13. The system of claim 12 further comprising:

a controller in communication with the first encoder, the second encoder, and the router for generating the control information.

14. The system of claim 13 further comprising:

a first receiver associated with the first communication channel for receiving the first portion of the transmitted bit stream;

a second receiver associated with the second communication channel for receiving the second portion of the transmitted bit stream;

a first parser in communication with the first receiver and the controller for parsing the first portion of the bit stream to identify predetermined objects;

a second parser in communication with the second receiver and the controller for parsing the second portion of the bit stream to identify predetermined objects and control information;

a second router in communication with the first parser and the controller for routing portions of the bit stream based on the control information and the predetermined objects;

a cache in communication with the second router for storing the predetermined objects and providing previously stored objects to the second router;

a decoder in communication with the second router, the second parser, and the controller for decoding the symbolic representations; and

a compositor in communication with the second router, the controller and the decoder, the compositor generating a scene representing the information using the first portion of the bit stream and modifying the scene based on the second portion of the bit stream.

15. A method for communicating audio and video information to reduce perceived latency between transmission and reception of the information and to reduce perceived latency between reception of the audio information and video information, the method comprising:

processing the audio and video information to generate a symbolic representation having audio and corresponding video based on deviations from predetermined, stored audio and video information, respectively;

transmitting the symbolic representation via a first communication channel having an associated first communication latency;

representing the audio and video information using the transmitted symbolic representation to reduce perceived latency between transmission and reception;

transmitting the audio and video information via a second communication channel having an associated second communication latency, the second communication latency being greater than the first communication latency; and

using the audio and video information transmitted via the second communication channel to enhance the symbolic representation.