Systems and methods for computer and voice conference audio transmission during conference call via VoIP device

• US 8,954,505 B2
• Filed: 09/25/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GOTO Group Incorporated (LogMeIn, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Citrix Systems, Inc. (Cloud Software Group)
• Inventors: Alexandrov, Albert, Winterstein, Florian
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MINH CHAU
• Application Number:
  US13/626,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20130024518A1
• Time in Patent Office: 868 Days
• Field of Search: 709203-207
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0027 Collaboration services where a computer is used for data transfer and the telephone is used for telephonic communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 9/082 using echo cancellers echo cancellers per se H04B3/23

Abstract

A new approach is proposed that contemplates systems and methods to support canceling audio streams leaked from a speaker to a microphone so that a clean audio stream of a presenter or viewer speaking at a conference call is transmitted. Here, the audio streams being canceled includes the computer audio stream of an application being run or a material being presented online during a web conference and/or the audio stream received from the rest of the group of participants at the conference call. The computer audio stream is then transmitted in addition to the presenter or viewer audio stream, and separate from any other audio stream captured by the hosting device during the conference call.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

processing hardware;

a host associated with a viewer;

a computer audio engine of the host, which in operation,

captures and outputs, using the processing hardware and via a voice conferencing bridge, a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material to a voice audio engine;

a sound mixing component of the host, which in operation,

captures and outputs a mix of the computer audio stream and a conference audio stream from the voice audio engine to a speaker, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

said voice audio engine running on the host, which in operation,

transmits, without accessing the voice conferencing bridge, a clean viewer audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from an output of the sound mixing component, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a receiving component, which in operation,

captures and mixes both the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream; and

outputs the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a transmitting component, which in operation,

captures via a microphone one or more of;

a viewer audio stream and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

captures from the receiving component a mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream; and

cancels the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.

4. A system, comprising:

processing hardware;

a host associated with a viewer;

a sound mixing component of the host, which in operation,

captures and outputs, using the processing hardware, a mix of a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material and an conference audio stream from a voice audio engine to a speaker;

said voice audio engine running on the host, which in operation,

transmits, via a voice conferencing bridge, a clean viewer audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from an output of the sound mixing component, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer; and

a computer audio engine running on the host, which in operation, captures, without accessing the voice conferencing bridge, outgoing audio, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a receiving component, which in operation,

captures the mix of the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream from the voice conference bridge; and

outputs the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a transmitting component, which in operation,

captures via the microphone one or more of;

a viewer audio stream and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

captures from the receiving component a mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

cancels the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.

7. A system, comprising:

a presenter host associated with a presenter, which in operation, runs an application or presents a material;

a computer audio engine executing on or included in the presenter host, which in operation,

captures and transmits, without accessing a voice conferencing bridge, an outgoing computer audio stream of the application or the material to a conference while cancelling other audio sources, wherein the cancelled other audio sources comprise audio from participants in the conference different from the presenter, and wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices; and

a voice audio engine executing on or included in the presenter host, which in operation,

provides, via the voice conference bridge, an incoming conference audio stream from a viewer at the conference to the presenter; and

captures, processes, and transmits an outgoing presenter audio stream of the presenter to the conference while cancelling other audio sources;

wherein the presenter host is a computing device, a communication device, a storage device, or any electronic device capable of running a software component.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a first display component of the presenter host, which in operation,

enables the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material; and

a second display component of a viewer host, which in operation,

receives and displays the application or the presentation material originated by the presenter to the viewer at the conference.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein:

each of the presenter host and the viewer host is a computing device, a communication device, a storage device, or any electronic device capable of running a software component.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein:

the voice audio engine executing on or included in the presenter host enables the presenter to listen to the conference via a speaker and to speak to the conference via a microphone.

11. A system, comprising:

processing hardware;

a host associated with a presenter, which in operation,

runs, using the processing hardware, an application or a presentation material;

a voice audio engine running on the host, which in operation,

accepts, via a voice conferencing bridge, and outputs a conference audio stream from a voice conference bridge hosting a conference call;

a sound mixing component of the host, which in operation,

captures and mixes both a computer audio stream of the application or the presentation material and the conference audio stream; and

a computer audio engine, which in operation,

captures from output of the voice audio engine the conference audio stream;

captures from output of the sound mixing component a mix of both the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

cancels the conference audio stream from the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream, wherein the cancelled conference audio stream comprises audio from participants in the conference call different from the presenter;

transmits, without accessing the voice conferencing bridge, the clean computer audio to the conference call, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a display component of the host, which in operation,

enables the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material at a conference call.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the sound mixing component outputs a mix of the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream to a speaker associated with the host.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a receiving component, which in operation,

accepts and outputs the conference audio stream from a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a transmitting component, which in operation,

captures via a microphone one or more of;

a presenter audio stream and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

captures from output of the sound mixing component a mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

cancels the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone;

transmits the clean presenter audio stream to the conference call.

16. A system, comprising:

processing hardware;

a host associated with a viewer;

a sound mixing component of the host, which in operation,

captures, mixes, and outputs, using the processing hardware, both a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material and a conference audio stream of a conference call to a speaker;

a voice audio engine running on the host, which in operation,

transmits, via a voice conferencing bridge, a clean audio stream of the viewer to a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from an output of the sound mixing component, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer, and

a computer audio engine running on the host, which in operation,

captures, without accessing a voice conferencing bridge, an outgoing computer audio stream, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a display component of the host, which in operation,

receives and displays a presentation material originated by a presenter to the viewer at a conference call.

18. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a computer audio playback component of the host, which in operation, plays back the computer audio stream; and

provides the computer audio stream to the sound mixing component.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a receiving component, which in operation,

accepts and outputs the conference audio stream from the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the voice audio engine further comprises at least a transmitting component, which in operation,

captures via a microphone one or more of;

a voice audio stream from the viewer and a mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

captures from output of the sound mixing component the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

cancels the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone;

transmits a clean viewer voice audio stream to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

21. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a presenter to run and share an application or a material at a conference call;

transmitting, using a voice audio engine of the presenter and via a voice conferencing bridge, a clean outgoing computer audio stream of the application or the presentation material to a viewer at the conference call;

enabling the presenter to listen to an audio stream from the viewer and speak a voice audio stream at the conference call;

transmitting a clean outgoing presenter audio stream to the viewer via a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from the outgoing presenter audio stream, audio from participants in the conference different from the presenter;

accepting, using a computer audio engine and without accessing the voice conferencing bridge, the incoming computer audio stream, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

enabling the viewer to listen to the incoming presenter audio stream and speaking a voice audio stream at the conference call;

transmitting a clean outgoing viewer audio stream to the presenter via the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

enabling the presenter to display, manipulate, and share the application or the presentation material;

receiving and displaying the application or the presentation material originated by the presenter to the viewer at the conference call.

23. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

enabling each of the presenter and the viewer to listen to the conference call via a speaker and speaks to the conference call via a microphone.

24. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a presenter to participate in a conference call by listening to and speaking at the conference call;

capturing a mix of a conference audio stream and a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material;

capturing and canceling, using a computer audio engine and without accessing voice conference bridge, an individual conference audio stream from the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream wherein the cancelled individual conference audio stream comprises audio from participants in the conference call different from the presenter, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

transmitting, using a voice audio engine and via the voice conference bridge, the clean computer audio stream to the conference call.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

capturing, mixing, and outputting both the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream to a speaker.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

accepting and outputting the conference audio stream from a voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising:

capturing via a microphone one or more of;

a presenter audio stream and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

capturing the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

canceling the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.

28. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a viewer to listen to a conference call via a speaker and to speak to the conference call via a microphone;

capturing, mixing, and outputting, using a computer audio engine and without accessing a voice conference bridge, a mix of a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material and an conference audio stream to the speaker, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

transmitting, using a voice audio engine, a clean audio stream of the viewer to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from an output of the sound mixing component, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

accepting and outputting the conference audio stream from the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call.

30. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

capturing via the microphone one or more of;

an audio stream of the viewer and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

capturing the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

canceling the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.

31. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a viewer to listen to a conference call via a speaker and to speak to the conference call via a microphone;

capturing and outputting, using a computer audio engine and without accessing a voice conference bridge, an audio stream of an application or a presentation material, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

transmitting, using a voice audio engine, a clean audio stream of the viewer to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from the captured audio stream, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

capturing and mixing both the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream;

outputting the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream.

33. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

capturing via the microphone one or more of;

the audio stream of the viewer and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

capturing a mix of the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream;

canceling the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.

34. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

enabling a viewer to listen to a conference call via a speaker and to speak to the conference call via a microphone;

capturing and outputting, using a computer audio engine and without accessing a voice conference bridge, a mix of a computer audio stream of an application or a presentation material and a conference audio stream, wherein the computer audio engine is coupled to one or more sound capturing devices of the presenter host and invokes application programming interfaces (APIs) to communicate with the one or more sound capturing devices;

transmitting, using a voice audio engine, a clean audio stream of the viewer to the voice conference bridge hosting the conference call by cancelling, from the captured audio stream, audio from participants in the conference different from the viewer.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

capturing the mix of the computer audio stream and the conference audio stream from the voice conference bridge;

outputting the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream.

36. The method of claim 34, further comprising:

capturing via the microphone one or more of;

the audio stream of the viewer and the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream leaked from the speaker;

capturing from the receiving component a mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream;

canceling the mix of the conference audio stream and the computer audio stream from the one or more audio streams captured by the microphone.