Voice conference apparatus, voice conference system and method for realizing a voice conference

• US 7,505,424 B1
• Filed: 02/05/2007
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Original Assignee: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forsching E.V.
• Inventors: Strum, Roland, Hupp, Jurgen, Kauppert, Thomas, Tittel, Martin, Hu, Xuelei
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PATRICIA T
• Application Number:
  US11/702,778
• Publication Number:
  US 20090052643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 370/260, 370/261, 370/270, 379/205.01
• US Class Current: 370/260
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/562 where the conference facilities are distributed
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A voice conference apparatus consists of at least one base conference block having three or more signal ports, each including an input for a digitalized voice signal and an output for a digitalized voice signal, wherein a base conference block is configured such that, at a signal port, optionally a terminal or another base conference block may be coupled up using a coupler for the realization of a voice conference apparatus extended with respect to the number of participants or in terms of space, and wherein a base conference block is configured to enable a voice conference among the terminals or base conference blocks coupled thereto, and a remote coupler configured to couple a base conference block with at least one other spatially remote base conference block in order to enable a spatially extended voice conference. A voice conference system may be composed of at least two spatially separate voice conference apparatuses and is structured in a decentralized and modular way and is flexibly extensible.

Claims

1. A voice conference apparatus comprising:

at least one base conference block comprising three or more signal ports, each including an input for a digitalized voice signal and an output for a digitalized voice signal,

wherein a base conference block is formed such that, at a signal port, optionally a terminal or another base conference block may be coupled using a coupler for realizing a voice conference apparatus extended with respect to the number of participants or in terms of space, and

wherein a base conference block is formed to enable a voice conference among the terminals or base conference blocks coupled thereto; and

a remote coupler formed to couple a base conference block with at least one other spatially remote base conference block in order to enable a spatially extended voice conference,

wherein the remote coupler is further formed for a transmission of synchronization information in order to synchronize transmitting cycles of mobile units in contact with various voice conference apparatuses.

2. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the remote coupler is formed to couple a base conference block with at least two other spatially remote base conference blocks to which terminals are coupled in order to enable a voice conference among the terminals coupled to a total of at least three spatially distributed base conference blocks.

3. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a base conference block is formed such that, at each output of a signal port, a digitally created sum signal of the input signals at the inputs of the respective other signal ports is present in digital form.

4. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the couplers includes a radio coupler formed such that a terminal can be coupled to a base conference block via a wireless connection.

5. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the radio coupler is formed such that it enables a wireless connection between the voice conference apparatus and a terminal according to the DECT standard or a standard based thereon.

6. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a talk-listen unit is coupled to the base conference block via a converter of analog signals to digital signals and a converter of digital signals to analog signals.

7. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the remote coupler is formed such that at least one other base conference block may be coupled to a first base conference block via a wireless connection.

8. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the remote coupler is formed such that at least one other base conference block may be coupled to a first base conference block via a wire bus.

9. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the wire bus is formed for a transmission of several voice channels in time-division multiplex.

10. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the base conference block is realized by a processor in connection with suitable operational software.

11. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the processor is simultaneously used for at least one of the following tasks:

provision of a user interface,

coding of data,

realization of a transmission protocol.

12. The voice conference apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a base conference block with a predetermined number of signal ports is formed by coupling several sub-conference blocks, each comprising less than the predetermined number of signal ports,

wherein a sub-conference block is formed such that, at a signal port, optionally a terminal, another sub-conference block, or a base conference block may be coupled using a coupler.

13. A voice conference system comprising:

at least two spatially separate base conference blocks comprising three or more signal ports, each including an input for a digitalized voice signal and an output for a digitalized voice signal,

wherein a base conference block is formed such that, at a signal port, optionally a terminal or another base conference block may be coupled using a coupler for the realization of a voice conference apparatus extended with respect to the number of participants or in terms of space; and

a remote coupler via which the base conference blocks are coupled to one another,

wherein the remote coupler is further formed for a transmission of synchronization information in order to synchronize transmitting cycles of mobile units in contact with various base conference blocks.

14. The voice conference system according to claim 13, including at least three base conference blocks that are separated in terms of space.

15. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein at least two of the base conference blocks are coupled via a wireless connection.

16. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein at least two of the base conference blocks are coupled via a wire bus.

17. The voice conference system according to claim 16, wherein the wire bus is formed for the transmission of several voice channels in time-division multiplex.

18. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein the voice conference system has at least two terminals, wherein a duplex voice link exists among all terminals.

19. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein one or more of the terminals are coupled to a base conference block via a wireless connection.

20. The voice conference system according to claim 19, wherein the wireless connection to one or more terminals is effected according to the DECT standard or a standard based thereon.

21. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein one or more of the base conference blocks are part of a DECT base station.

22. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein one or more of the terminals are DECT mobile units.

23. The voice conference system according to claim 21, wherein the DECT base stations and the DECT mobile units match in hardware.

24. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein a talk-listen unit is coupled to a base conference block via a converter of analog signals to digital signals and a converter of digital signals to analog signals.

25. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein a base conference block is formed such that, at each output of a signal port, a digitally created sum signal of the input signals of the respective other signal ports is present in digital form.

26. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein a base conference block is realized by a processor in connection with suitable operational software.

27. The voice conference system according to claim 26, wherein the processor is used simultaneously for at least one of the following tasks:

provision of a user interface,

coding of data,

realization of a transmission protocol.

28. The voice conference system according to claim 13, wherein a base conference block with a predetermined number of signal ports is formed by coupling several subconference blocks, each comprising less than the predetermined number of signal ports;

wherein a subconference block is formed such that, at each signal port, optionally a terminal, another subconference block or a base conference block may be coupled using a coupler.

29. A method for operating a distributed voice conference system with two base conference blocks coupled to each other via a signal port each according to claim 13, comprising:

reading the digitalized voice signals from the inputs of the two or more signal ports of a first base conference block which are coupled to the terminals;

reading the digitalized voice signals from the inputs of the two or more signal ports of a second base conference block which are coupled to the terminals;

calculating a first sum value from the read digitalized voice signals of the first base conference block;

calculating a second sum value from the read digitalized voice signals of the second base conference block;

outputting the first sum value at the output of the signal port of the first base conference block, which is coupled to a signal port of the second base conference block;

outputting the second sum value at the output of the signal port of the second base conference block, which is coupled to a signal port of the first base conference block;

reading the second sum value from the input of the signal port of the first base conference block, which is coupled to a signal port of the second base conference block;

reading the first sum value from the input of the signal port of the second base conference block, which is coupled to a signal port of the first base conference block;

calculating output values at the outputs of the signal ports of the first base conference block connected to a terminal by the summation of the values read from the inputs of the respective other signal ports of the first base conference block including the second sum value transmitted from the second base conference block;

calculating output values at the outputs of the signal ports of the second base conference block connected to a terminal by the summation of the values read from the inputs of the respective other signal ports of the second base conference block including the first sum value transmitted from the first base conference block; and

outputting the output values at the outputs of the signal ports of the two base conference blocks, which are coupled to terminals.