METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NEAR REAL-TIME SYNCHRONIZATION OF VOICE COMMUNICATIONS

• US 20090103689A1
• Filed: 10/17/2008
• Published: 04/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Voxer IP LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rebelvox LLC (Voxer, Inc.)
• Inventors: Katis, Thomas E., Panttaja, Mary G., Ranney, Matthew J., Panttaja, James T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,699,383 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/88.130
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1083 In-session procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1094 Inter-user-equipment sessions transfer or sharing
• 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 65/4053 without floor control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/752 adapting media to network capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355

Abstract

A method and system for synchronizing in real-time the voice media of a conversation conducted over a network between a first communication device and a second communication. The method includes at each of the first and second communication devices progressively storing in first and second storage elements and transmitting the voice media created using the first and second communication devices to the other communication device respectively. Both the first and second communication devices store in the first and second storage elements the progressively received media from the other device respectively. A mechanism to continually review, ascertain and request the media stored in the first storage element, but not the second storage element, and vice-versa is provided to ensure that the two storage elements contain the same voice media. As a result, the first and second storage elements each maintain real-time synchronized copies of the voice media of the conversation respectively.

Claims

1. A method to synchronize in real-time the voice media of a conversation conducted over a network, the method comprising:

progressively storing in a first storage element voice media created using a first communication device as the voice media is being created using the first communication device;

progressively transmitting the voice media created using the first communication device to a second communication device over the network;

progressively receiving and storing in the first storage element voice media pertaining to the conversation generated at the second communication device, stored in a second storage element associated with the second communication device, and transmitted from the second communication device to the first communication device over the network;

ascertaining any voice media pertaining to the conversation stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element;

generating at the first communication device and sending to the second communication device one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element; and

storing in the first storage element the voice media received at the first communication device from the second communication device in response to the requests for transmission,

whereby the voice media in the first storage element is synchronized in real-time with the voice media in the second storage element as the requests for transmission of voice media not already stored in the first communication device are satisfied.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media includes an ongoing request for transmission of future voice media pertaining to the conversation generated at the second communication device and stored in the second storage element but not the first storage element.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the progressive storing in the first storage element and the progressively transmitting of the voice media created using the first communication device to the second communication device occurs in one of the following sequences:

(i) progressively storing the voice media in the first storage element before progressively transmitting the voice media;

(ii) progressively transmitting the voice media before progressively storing the voice media in the first storage element;

or

(iii) progressively transmitting the voice media at substantially the same time the voice media is progressively stored in the first storage element.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the first storage element at the first communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing the first storage element on the network at a location remote from the first communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein progressively transmitting the voice media created using the first communication device to a second communication device over the network further comprises:

(i) defining a transmission loop;

(ii) ascertaining the available voice media created using the first communication device during the defined transmission loop;

(iii) ascertaining the usable bit rate available on the network during the defined transmission loop;

(iv) determining if the ascertained usable bit rate available on the network during the transmission loop is sufficient to transmit a full bit rate representation of the ascertained available voice media as originally encoded; and

either;

(v) transmitting the available full bit rate presentation of the available media if the ascertained available bit rate is sufficient;

or

(vi) generating a reduced bit rate version of the available voice media when the ascertained available bit rate on the network is not sufficient to transmit a full bit rate representation of the available voice media, the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media enhancing the ability for the first communication device and the second communication device to engage in the conversation in real-time; and

(vii) transmitting the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media when the ascertained usable bit rate available on the network during the transmission loop is not sufficient.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

defining successive transmission loops; and

performing (i) through (iii) and either (v) or (vi) and (vii) depending on if the ascertained usable bit rate on the network is sufficient or not for each defined successive loop respectively.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reduced bit rate version of the available voice media further comprises using fewer bits per unit of time when packetizing the available voice media for transmission.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media comprises using (a) one or more different codec settings, (b) one or more different codecs, (c) a compression algorithm;

or (d) any combination of (a) through (c) when packetizing the available voice media for transmission.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media comprises increasing the packetization interval used to transmit the available voice media.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media further comprises adjusting the transmission rate at which packets containing the available voice media are transmitted.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media further comprises performing one or more of the following:

(i) using fewer bits per unit of time when packetizing the reduced bit rate representation of the available voice media relative to the full bit rate representation;

(ii) increasing the packetization interval when transmitting the available voice media;

(iii) adjusting the rate at which packets containing the available voice media are transmitted;

or

(iv) any combination of (i) through (iii).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein progressively transmitting the voice media created using the first communication device to the second communication device further comprises:

ascertaining if the voice media created using the first communication device is either time-sensitive or not time-sensitive as the media is being created, the time-sensitivity of the voice media ascertained as;

(i) time-sensitive if a user of the second communication device has an intent to progressively render the voice media immediately upon receipt;

or

(ii) not time-sensitive if the intent the user of the second communication device has no intent to render the voice media immediately upon receipt.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

(iii) transmitting the voice media ascertained as not time-sensitive to the second communication device using a first transmission technique, the first transmission technique relying on packets having a first packetization interval;

or

(iv) progressively transmitting the voice media ascertained as time-sensitive to the second communication device using a second transmission technique, the second transmission technique relying on packets having a second packetization interval, where the first packetization interval is larger than the second packetization interval.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the intent of the second communication device is either a declared intent by the user of the second communication device or an implied intent inferred from the behavior of the user of the second communication device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprises maintaining a data quality store associated with the first communication device.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein ascertaining any voice media pertaining to the conversation stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element further comprises (i) noting any missing, corrupted or reduced bit rate versions of the voice media created using the second communication device and transmitted to the first communication device over the network;

18. The method of claim 17, wherein generating at the first communication device and sending to the second communication device one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media stored in the second storage element but not in the first storage element, further comprises (ii) generating one or more requests for transmission for any voice media noted in the data quality store and (iii) removing the notation for the voice media noted in the data quality store as the corresponding one or more requests for transmission are satisfied.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising optionally rendering the voice media of the conversation on the first communication device in a time-shifted mode by:

selecting a previous point in time of the conversation;

retrieving from the first storage element the media of the conversation corresponding to the selected previous point in time during the conversation; and

progressively rendering the retrieved media starting from the selected previous point in time of the conversation.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the media of the conversation includes one or more of the following types of media besides voice media:

video, photo, still pictures or photos, audio, text, sensor data, position or GPS information, radio signals, or any combination thereof.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the first communication device comprises one of the following:

land-line phone, wireless phone, cellular phone, satellite phone, computer, radio, server, satellite radio, tactical radio or tactical phone.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice media of the conversation is indexed using one of the following indexing schemes:

(i) time-based indexing;

(ii) bit or byte based indexing;

(iii) hashing type indexing;

(iv) binary-tree type indexing;

(v) file directory based indexing;

or

(vi) any combination of (i) through (v).

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

progressively indexing and storing in the second storage element voice media created using the second communication device as the voice media is being created using the second communication device;

progressively transmitting the voice media created using the second communication device to the first communication device over the network;

progressively receiving and storing in the second storage element voice media pertaining to the conversation generated at the first communication device, stored in the first storage element associated with the first communication device, and transmitted from the first communication device to the second communication device over the network;

ascertaining any voice media pertaining to the conversation stored in the first storage element but not in the second storage element;

generating at the second communication device and sending to the first communication device one or more requests for transmission of the ascertained voice media stored in the first storage element but not in the second storage element; and

storing in the second storage element the voice media received at the second communication device from the first communication device in response to the requests for transmission,

whereby the voice media in the second storage element is synchronized in real-time with the voice media in the first storage element as the requests for transmission of voice media not already stored in the second communication device are satisfied.

19. The method of claim 19, wherein storing in the first storage element the media received at the first communication device from the second communication device in response to the requests for transmission further comprises (iv) storing the transmitted voice media in the first storage element in response to the one or more transmissions and (v) repeating (i) through (iv) until a complete copy of the voice media generated by the second communication device and stored in the second storage element is received and stored in the first storage element, wherein the complete copy is a full bit rate representation of the voice media as it was originally encoded at the second communication device.