Method and system for replaying a portion of a multi-party audio interaction

• US 8,547,880 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2009
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arlington Technologies, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Avaya Incorporated
• Inventors: Yoakum, John H., Costello, John, McCormack, Tony
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Ayaz
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ghafoerkhan, Faiyazkhan
• Application Number:
  US12/569,931
• Publication Number:
  US 20110077755A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/260
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• 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: H04M 2203/1066 Game playing
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• 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

Abstract

A method for replaying a portion of a multi-party audio interaction to a participant of the audio interaction. A participant of a multi-party audio interaction, such as a conference call or a gaming session, can request a replay of a portion of the audio interaction. A conference processor can provide an outgoing audio stream to the participant that includes a replay audio stream that includes the requested replayed portion of the multi-party audio interaction and a real-time audio stream that includes the ongoing multi-party audio interaction. The replay audio stream can be aurally positioned at an aural position that is different from the real-time audio stream to enhance the participant'"'"'s ability to distinguish between the two audio streams.

Claims

1. A method for replaying a portion of a multi-party audio interaction to a participant of the audio interaction, comprising:

receiving a plurality of incoming audio streams, wherein each of the plurality of incoming audio streams corresponds to one of a plurality of participants of the multi-party audio interaction;

generating an outgoing audio stream comprising a real-time audio stream based on one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

buffering at least one of the plurality of incoming audio streams and the outgoing audio stream in a memory;

continuously providing the outgoing audio stream to a first communication session corresponding to a first participant of the plurality of participants;

receiving a request from the first participant to replay a portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

determining a replay length identifying a length of time of the portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

retrieving the portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory comprising determining a start replay location in the memory based on the replay length and a finish replay location, wherein the portion of the multi-party audio interaction comprises a portion of the buffered audio streams contained in the memory between the start replay location and the finish replay location;

modifying the portion of the multi-party audio interaction to generate a replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a first aural position; and

mixing the replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein modifying the portion to generate the replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at the first aural position further comprises generating multiple channels of audio signals, wherein the audio signals in at least one of the multiple channels includes frequency and phase characteristics which position the replay audio stream at the first aural position.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the replay length is provided as a parameter in the request.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the replay length is maintained in a persistent memory location.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the replay length is participant configurable.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising modifying the real-time audio stream to aurally position the real-time audio stream at a second aural position that is different from the first aural position.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the second aural position is participant configurable.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a second outgoing audio stream comprising a second real-time audio stream based on the one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

continuously providing the second outgoing audio stream to a second communication session corresponding to a second participant of the plurality of participants;

receiving a second request from the second participant to replay a second portion of the conference call;

retrieving the second portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory;

modifying the second portion to generate a second replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a second aural position; and

mixing the second replay audio stream into the second outgoing audio stream being provided to the second communication session concurrently while mixing the modified replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein continuously providing the outgoing audio stream to the first communication session corresponding to the first participant comprises continuously providing the outgoing audio stream to the first communication session during a period of time that the first participant participates in the multi-party audio interaction.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein a first incoming audio stream of the plurality of incoming audio streams corresponds to the first participant, and wherein receiving the request from the first participant to replay the portion of the multi-party audio interaction comprises detecting in the first incoming audio stream a replay command spoken by the first participant.

11. An apparatus for replaying a portion of a multi-party audio interaction to a participant of the audio interaction, comprising:

a controller; and

a conference processor coupled to the controller and adapted to;

receive a plurality of incoming audio streams, wherein each of the plurality of incoming audio streams corresponds to one of a plurality of participants of the multi-party audio interaction;

generate an outgoing audio stream comprising a real-time audio stream based on one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

buffer at least one of the plurality of incoming audio streams and the outgoing audio stream in a memory;

continuously provide the outgoing audio stream to a first communication session corresponding to a first participant of the plurality of participants;

receive a request from the first participant to replay a portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

determine a replay length identifying a length of time of the portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

retrieve the portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory, wherein retrieving the portion of the multi-party audio interaction comprises determining a start replay location in the memory based on the replay length and a finish replay location, wherein the portion of the multi-party audio interaction comprises a portion of the buffered audio streams contained in the memory between the start replay location and the finish replay location;

modify the portion of the multi-party audio interaction to generate a replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a first aural position; and

mix the replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the conference processor is further adapted to modify the real-time audio stream to aurally position the real-time audio stream at a second aural position that is different from the first aural position.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein the second aural position is participant configurable.

14. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the conference processor is further adapted to:

generate a second outgoing audio stream comprising a second real-time audio stream based on one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

continuously provide the second outgoing audio stream to a second communication session corresponding to a second participant of the plurality of participants;

receive a second request from the second participant to replay a second portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

retrieve the second portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory;

modify the second portion to generate a second replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a second aural position; and

mix the second replay audio stream into the second outgoing audio stream being provided to the second communication session concurrently while mixing the modified replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

15. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein a first incoming audio stream of the plurality of incoming audio streams corresponds to the first participant, and wherein to receive the request from the first participant to replay the portion of the multi-party audio interaction the conference processor is further adapted to detect in the first incoming audio stream a replay command spoken by the first participant.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the replay length is provided as a parameter in the request.

17. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the replay length is maintained in a persistent memory location.

18. A computer program product, comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for designating an aural position of an audio stream, said method comprising:

receiving a plurality of incoming audio streams, wherein each of the plurality of incoming audio streams corresponds to one of a plurality of participants of a multi-party audio interaction;

generating an outgoing audio stream comprising a real-time audio stream based on one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

buffering at least one of the plurality of incoming audio streams and the outgoing audio stream in a memory;

continuously providing the outgoing audio stream to a first communication session corresponding to a first participant of the plurality of participants;

receiving a request from the first participant to replay a portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

determining a replay length identifying a length of time of the portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

retrieving the portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory comprising determining a start replay location in the memory based on the replay length and a finish replay location, wherein the portion of the multi-party audio interaction comprises a portion of the buffered audio streams contained in the memory between the start replay location and the finish replay location;

modifying the portion of the multi-party audio interaction to generate a replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a first aural position; and

mixing the replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

19. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein modifying the portion to generate the replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at the first aural position further comprises generating multiple channels of audio signals, wherein the audio signals in at least one of the multiple channels includes frequency and phase characteristics which position the replay audio stream at the first aural position.

20. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the method further comprises:

generating a second outgoing audio stream comprising a second real-time audio stream based on one or more of the plurality of incoming audio streams;

continuously providing the second outgoing audio stream to a second communication session corresponding to a second participant of the plurality of participants;

receiving a second request from the second participant to replay a second portion of the multi-party audio interaction;

retrieving the second portion of the multi-party audio interaction from the memory;

modifying the second portion to generate a second replay audio stream that is aurally positioned at a second aural position; and

mixing the second replay audio stream into the second outgoing audio stream being provided to the second communication session concurrently while mixing the modified replay audio stream into the outgoing audio stream being provided to the first communication session.

21. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the replay length is provided as a parameter in the request.

22. The computer program product of claim 18 wherein the replay length is maintained in a persistent memory location.