Local social conference calling

• US 9,007,416 B1
• Filed: 03/08/2012
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Audience Corporation
• Inventors: Murgia, Carlo, Skup, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): El-Zoobi, Maria
• Application Number:
  US13/415,535
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 348/14.01
• 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

Abstract

Provided are systems and methods for communicating between mobile devices. Such methods involve establishing a communication session between the mobile devices using a local network, such as a Wi-Fi network. The methods also involve transmitting data streams from one mobile device in the group to all other mobile devices using this local network. The data streams may include audio and/or video data generated by the mobile devices. For example, mobile device users may conduct a teleconference through the local network and/or share media. The mobile devices may be interconnected using a star or ring topology, which may depend on distances between participants and/or alarm features that reflect connection losses between the mobile devices. Each mobile device may be equipped with one or more microphones for collecting audio signals from its user. A mobile device may also include an audio processing system for noise suppression and/or echo cancellation.

Claims

1. A method for communicating between a plurality of mobile devices, the method comprising:

establishing a communication session between mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices using a local communication network,

each mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices comprising a communication link for connecting to one or more other mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices,

each mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices further comprising at least one microphone and an audio processing system configured to perform one or more functions selected from the group consisting of noise suppression and echo cancellation, the one or more functions comprising transforming at least one acoustic signal into sub-band frequencies,

each mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices configured to produce a data stream for communicating to the one or more other mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices; and

transmitting the data stream from one mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices to remaining mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices using the local communication network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the local communication network is a Wi-Fi network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices are interconnected according to a ring topology.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices are interconnected according to a star topology; and

establishing the communication session between the mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices using the local communication network comprises selecting a master device from the plurality of mobile devices to establish the star topology.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein selecting the master device from the plurality of mobile devices is performed by a user.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying connections between the mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising sending an alarm to the plurality of mobile devices if any mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices is found to be disconnected;

wherein any mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices is configured to determine that any other mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices is disconnected and is further configured to generate and transmit the alarm.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising repeating the connection verification operation at predetermined intervals.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of mobile devices comprises one or more mobile phones, at least one of the mobile phones having at least two microphones.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices is connected to at least two other mobile devices using the local communication network.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices performs noise suppression and echo cancellation.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the data stream transmitted from the one mobile device to the remaining mobile devices comprises data packets generated by a microphone and the audio processing system of the one mobile device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the data stream transmitted from the one mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices to the remaining mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices comprises data packets generated by a media player of the one mobile device.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the data stream transmitted from the one mobile device in the plurality of mobile devices to the remaining mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices comprises data packets generated by the one mobile device based on data packets received from at least one of the remaining mobile devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the data stream corresponds to at least one of:

an audio signal, and both an audio signal and a video signal.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating physical locations of the mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices to all mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising rearranging the communication session based on the physical locations of mobile devices in the plurality of mobile devices.

18. A method for communicating among at least three mobile devices, the method comprising:

establishing a communication session between the at least three mobile devices using a local communication network, one mobile device of the at least three mobile devices having at least two microphones and being configured to perform one or more functions selected from the group consisting of noise suppression and echo cancellation;

receiving, by the one mobile device, raw data packets representing at least one captured sound;

processing the raw data packets with the one or more functions selected from the group consisting of noise suppression and echo cancellation to form processed data packets; and

communicating the processed data packets from the one mobile device to at least one other of the at least three mobile devices using the local communication network, the communicating using the local communication network being via a wireless protocol other than a wireless cellular network protocol.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein:

the one mobile device of the at least three mobile devices is configured to perform both noise suppression and echo cancellation; and

the processing of the raw data packets to form processed data packets uses both noise suppression and echo cancellation.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one of the other of the at least three mobile devices has only one microphone.