Teleconferencing system

• US 6,804,340 B2
• Filed: 05/03/2001
• Issued: 10/12/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: OL Security LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Craig A., Daily, Michael J., Howard, Michael D., Burns, Ronald R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Deane, Jr., William J.
• Application Number:
  US09/848,143
• Publication Number:
  US 20020181686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 379/201.01, 379/202.01, 379/203.01, 379/205.01, 379/204.01, 379/206.01, 379/207.01, 379/158, 379/114.07, 379/93.21, 379/93.15, 379/221.07, 370/260, 370/261, 370/262, 370/263, 370/264, 370/265, 370/266, 370/267, 370/468
• US Class Current: 379/202.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4038 with floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• 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: H04M 3/569 using the instant speaker's algorithm speech detection per se G10L25/78

Abstract

A system and method for encoding the speech of multiple speakers for transmission on a limited medium such as ISDN or ADSL. The system and method encode one or more “dominant” speakers on a first channel, and merges all other speakers into a second channel. A “dominant” speaker may be defined according to the needs of the application, but intuitively it is a speaker in a collaboration session who has the “floor”. The method and system transmit speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth. Speech from a speaking one, or ones, of the plurality of participants is passed while speech from non-speaking participants is rejected. The system responds to the speech from the one, or ones of the speaking participants passed by the speech detector, and determines which of the detected speaking one, or ones, thereof is a dominant speaker. The system allocates one portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and merges the non-dominant participant(s) onto a second bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

Claims

1. A teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such system comprising:

a dominant speaker detector, for determining which of a plurality of participants is at least one dominant speaker;

a bandwidth allocator, having a wide bandwidth codec and a narrow bandwidth codec, for allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a second portion of the available bandwidth to a non-dominant speaker participant; and

wherein the wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and the narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

2. The system recited in claim 1 including a merger for merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a narrower bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

3. The system recited in claim 2 wherein the merger comprises a combiner for adding the speech of the non-dominant participants together into a composite signal.

4. The system recited in claim 3 wherein the bandwidth allocator comprises a codec for coding the dominate speaking participant speech into the wider portion of the available bandwidth and the composite signal into the narrower portion of the available bandwidth.

5. A teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such system comprising:

a speech detector responsive to speech from a plurality of participants, for passing speech from a speaking one, or ones, of the plurality of participants while rejecting non-speaking participants;

a dominant speaker detector, responding to the speech from the one, or ones of the speaking participants passed by the speech detector, for determining which of the detected speaking one, or ones, thereof is a dominant speaker;

a bandwidth allocator, having a wide bandwidth codec and a narrow bandwidth codec, for allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a second portion of the available bandwidth to a non-dominant speaker participant; and

wherein the wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and the narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

6. The system recited in claim 5 including a merger for merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a narrower bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

7. A teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such system comprising;

a plurality of microphones, each one being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of participants;

a dominant speaker detector, responsive to signals produced by the microphones, for determining which of a plurality of participants is a dominant speaker;

a bandwidth allocator, having a wide bandwidth codec and a narrow bandwidth codec, for allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a second portion of the available bandwidth to a non-dominant speaker participant; and

wherein the wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and the narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

8. The system recited in claim 7 including a merge module for merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a portion of the available bandwidth.

9. The system recited in claim 8 wherein the merger comprises a combiner for adding the speech of the non-dominant participants together into a composite signal.

10. The system recited in claim 9 wherein the bandwidth allocator comprises a codec for coding the dominate speaking participant speech into the wider portion of the available bandwidth and the composite signal into the narrower portion of the available bandwidth.

11. A teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such system comprising:

a plurality of microphones, each one being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of participants;

a speech detector responsive to signals produced by the plurality of microphones, for passing speech produced by the microphones from a speaking one, or ones, of the plurality of participants while rejecting non-speaking participants;

a dominant speaker detector, responding to the speech from the one, or ones of the speaking participants passed by the speech detector, for determining which one of the detected speaking one, or ones, thereof is a dominant speaker and for producing a signal indication of the participants determined to be the dominant speaker;

a bandwidth allocator, having a wide bandwidth codec and a narrow bandwidth codec, for allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker, such dominant speaker speech being transmitted in a relative wide bandwidth channel, and allocating a second portion of the available bandwidth to a non-dominant speaker participant;

wherein the wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and the narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

12. The system recited in claim 11 including a merger for merging remaining speaking participants into a narrower portion of the available bandwidth;

and wherein the remaining speaker speech is transmitted in a relative narrow channel, and the signal indication of the participants determined is transmitted to be the dominant speaker in a speaker code channel.

13. A method for transmitted speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such method comprising:

determining which of a plurality of participants is a dominant speaker;

allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a non-dominant participant into a second bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth; and

wherein a wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and a narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

14. The method recited in claim 13 including merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a narrower bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

15. The method recited in claim 14 wherein the bandwidth allocator codes the dominate speaking participant speech into the wider portion of the available bandwidth and the composite signal into the narrower portion of the available bandwidth.

16. A method of transmitting speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such method comprising:

passing speech from a speaking one, or ones, of the plurality of participants while rejecting non-speaking participants;

responding to the speech from the one, or ones of the speaking participants passed by the speech detector, and determining which of the detected speaking one, or ones, thereof is a dominant speaker;

allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a non-dominant participant into a second bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth; and

wherein a wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and a narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

17. The method recited in claim 16 including merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a narrower bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

18. A method for transmitting speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such method comprising:

providing a plurality of microphones, each one being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of participants;

responding to signals produced by the microphones and determining, from such signals, which of a plurality of participants is a dominant speaker;

allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a non-dominant participant into a second bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth; and

wherein a wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and a narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

19. The method recited in claim 18 including merging non-dominant speaker ones of the participants into a narrower bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth.

20. The system recited in claim 19 including coding the dominate speaking participant speech into the first portion of the available bandwidth and the composite signal into the second portion of the available bandwidth.

21. A method for transmitting speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such method comprising:

providing a plurality of microphones, each one being associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of participants;

responding to signals produced by the plurality of microphones and passing speech produced by the microphones from a speaking one, or ones, of the plurality of participants while rejecting non-speaking participants;

responding to the speech from the one, or ones of the speaking participants passed by a speech detector, to determine which of the determined speaking one, or ones, thereof is a dominant speaker;

producing a signal indication of the participants determined to be the dominant speaker;

allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker, such dominant speaker speech being transmitted in a first bandwidth channel;

merging remaining speaking participants into a second portion of the available bandwidth;

transmitting the remaining speaking participants speech

transmitting the signal indication of the participants determined to be the dominant speaker in a speaker code channel or coded into the audio data itself; and

wherein a wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and a narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.

22. A method for transmitted speech through a teleconferencing system having an available bandwidth, such method comprising:

determining which of a plurality of participants is a dominant speaker, such determination being in response to parameters selectable by a moderator;

allocating a first portion of the available bandwidth to the determined dominant speaker and allocating a non-dominant participant into a second bandwidth portion of the available bandwidth; and

wherein a wide bandwidth codec encodes signals from the dominant speaker to first portion of the bandwidth and a narrow bandwidth codec encodes signals from the non-dominant speaker to the second portion of the bandwidth.