INTELLIGIBILITY OF OVERLAPPING AUDIO

• US 20150147990A1
• Filed: 11/22/2013
• Published: 05/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: KREITZER, STUART S., CORRETJER, JESUS F.
• Granted Patent: US 9,214,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/132
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 1/16 Circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4061 Push-to services, e.g. push-to-talk or push-to-video
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/16 Sequence circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/02 Calling substations, e.g. by ringing selective calling H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/50 Centralised arrangements for answering calls; Centralised arrangements for recording messages for absent or busy subscribers H04M3/487 takes precedence; centralised dictation systems H04M11/10; Centralised arrangements for recording messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/51 Centralised call answering arrangements requiring operator intervention , e.g. call or contact centers for telemarketing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/10 Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-On-Call services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/90 Services for handling of emergency or hazardous situations, e.g. earthquake and tsunami warning systems [ETWS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 68/12 Inter-network notification
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/45 for Push-to-Talk [PTT] or Push-to-Talk over cellular [PoC] services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 76/50 for emergency connections
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/02 Terminal devices

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided by which a radio communication device with multi-watch receivers improves the comprehension of a high-priority message when the high-priority message is overlapped in time with a normal-priority message. A first receiver of the radio communication device receives a first incoming message over a first channel, and a second receiver of the radio communication device receives a second incoming message over a second channel. The radio communication device, upon receiving the first and second incoming messages, detects that a portion of the first incoming message overlaps in time with a portion of the second incoming message. The radio communication device further determines whether at least one of the first or the second incoming message is a high-priority message and repeats the determined high-priority message when at least one of the first or second incoming messages is a high-priority message.

Claims

1. A method for communicating using a radio communication device comprising a plurality of receivers, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first receiver of the plurality of receivers of the radio communication device, a first message over a first channel;

receiving, by a second receiver of the plurality of receivers of the radio communication device, a second message over a second channel;

detecting, by the radio communication device, that a portion of the first message overlaps in time with a portion of the second message;

determining, by the radio communication device, whether at least one of the first message or the second message is a priority message; and

repeating, by the radio communication device, the determined priority message.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by a third receiver of the plurality of receivers of the radio communication device, a third message over a third channel; and

repeating, by the radio communication device, the third message when the third message is determined as the priority message by the radio communication device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and the second messages are audio messages or audio video messages.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the audio and video generated as a part of the audio video message is repeated when the determined priority message is an audio video message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein detecting whether the portion of the first message overlaps with the portion of the second message comprises detecting whether the portion of the first message and the portion of the received second message is being played simultaneously at the radio communication device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the priority of the message is determined based one or more of:

information content of the message, a channel on which the message is received, talk group of the message, audio quality of the message, sender of the message, type of message, and volume of audio in the message.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the received first and second messages are played in real-time starting from a time period the first and second messages are received and the priority message is repeated after both the first message and the second message complete playing in real-time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein both the first and second messages are determined to have a same priority and further wherein both the first and second messages are repeated sequentially by the radio communication device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein repeating the determined priority message is enabled by a manual input to the radio communication device.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

repeating non-priority messages through manual input to the radio communication device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a side tone is superimposed on the repeated priority message to distinguish the repeated priority message from a real-time message.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein different side tones are superimposed during the repeating of the first message and the second message.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising side tones to identify a source of the first message and a source of the second message.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the side tones comprise different continuous tones superimposed on the first and second message.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the repeating of the determined priority message is ceased when a new incoming message is received by the radio communication device.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

repeating a non-priority message sequentially after the repetition of the determined priority message wherein the non-priority message is at least one of the received first and second message.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the determined priority message is not repeated when the overlapped portion of the first message and the second message is less than a predetermined overlap time threshold.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a plurality of channels are busy receiving messages; and

suppressing the repetition of the determined priority message until all of the plurality of channels are determined to be idle.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a first channel is busy receiving high priority messages; and

suppressing an audio of the non-priority message received on other channels until the first channel is determined to be idle.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of channels are determined to be idle based on one or more of measure of traffic and lack of voice activity on each of the plurality of channels.

21. A radio communication device, comprising:

a plurality of receivers receiving incoming messages;

a detector for determining overlapping messages;

a memory for storing the received overlapping messages;

a controller for determining a priority message within the overlapping messages; and

at least one speaker for replaying the priority message and non-priority messages.

22. The radio communication device of claim 21, further comprising the controller superimposing a side tone on the replayed priority message.

23. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the at least one speaker replays the received incoming messages sequentially after replaying the priority message.

24. The radio communication device of claim 21, further comprising a user selectable interface for selectively repeating the incoming messages separately.

25. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the controller determines the priority of the message based one or more of:

information content of the message, channel on which the message is received, talk group of the message,

audio quality ratio of the message, sender of the message, type of message, and volume of the audio in the message.

26. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the at least one speaker plays each received incoming message in real time starting from a time period the incoming message is received and replays the priority message after the received incoming messages are played in the real-time.

27. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the controller superimposes different side tones on different incoming messages.

28. The radio communication device of claim 21, wherein the replaying of the priority message is ceased when a new incoming message is received by the radio communication device.

29. A method for operating a radio communication device, the method comprising:

receiving a plurality of incoming audio messages over different channels at a plurality of receivers of the radio communication device, wherein the incoming audio messages are overlapped by a predetermined time threshold;

playing the plurality of incoming audio messages over one or more speakers of the radio communication device;

determining a priority of the plurality of incoming audio messages; and

selectively replaying the incoming audio messages based on the determined priority at one or more speakers.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein incoming audio messages of different priorities are replayed sequentially on a single speaker of the radio communication device.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein incoming audio messages of the same priority are replayed sequentially on a single speaker of the radio communication device.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein the determined priority message is replayed over a single speaker.

33. The method of claim 29, wherein the determined priority message is replayed over one or more of the plurality of the speakers of the radio communication device.

34. The method of claim 29, further comprising:

superimposing different side tones on the replayed incoming messages when being played out at the one or more speakers.

35. The radio communication device of claim 29, further comprising:

halting the replaying of the incoming audio messages in response to receiving a new incoming audio message; and

playing the new incoming audio message.