Features and optimizations for personal communication device based public addressing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016142453-A1
Application number	US-201514831800-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Aug 20, 2015
Priority date	Mar 14, 2014
Publication date	May 19, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods are described herein, a method including, but not limited to, receiving, by a client, audio data and uplink data simultaneously from one of a plurality of Personal Communication Devices (PCDs) connected to the client. The uplink data includes at least one of device information and session identifier. The client sends downlink data to each of the plurality of PCDs based on the uplink data. The client further sends the audio data to the PA system for sounding.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for data communication in a Public Address (PA) system, comprising:
receiving, by a client, host, or server, audio data and uplink data simultaneously from one of a plurality of Personal Communication Devices (PCDs) connected to the client, wherein the uplink data comprises at least one of device information and session identifier; sending, by the client, host, or server, downlink data to each of the plurality of PCDs based on the uplink data; and sending, by the client, host, or server, the audio data to the PA system for sounding.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the PA system is at least one of (1) a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system without a centralized server or host, or (2) a system with centralized control by the server or the host.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
establishing, by the client, host, or server, an active participant session with a first PCD of the plurality of PCDs; receiving, by the client, host, or server, a request to share from a second PCD of the plurality of PCDs; negotiating, by the client, host, or server with the first and second PCDs, access parameters after receiving the request to share; and receiving, by the client, host, or server, the audio data based on the negotiated access parameters from both the first PCD and the second PCD.

4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
sending, by the client to a host, a request for permission to share in response to receiving the request to share from the second PCD; negotiating the access parameters in response to receiving, by the client, an indication indicating permission from the host to share the client; accepting, by the client, a request for permission to share from a third PCD without negotiating the access parameters based on user input or automatically.

5 . The method of claim 4 , further comprising updating, by the client with the host, a session status, wherein the audio data from the first PCD and the second PCD is received by the client in response to sessions status being updated.

6 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
combining, by the client, host, or server, the audio data received from both the first PCD and the second PCD; outputting the combined audio data to the PA system for sounding; and scaling, by the client, host, or server, the audio data received from both the first PCD and the second PCD before combining the audio data.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
selecting, by the client, host, or server, the one of the plurality of PCDs from the plurality of PCDs; starting, by the client, host, or server, a data inactivity timer that counts down when energy associated with the audio data of the selected PCD is below a predetermined threshold; notifying, by the client, host, or server, that the data inactivity timer is about to expire; selecting, by the client, host, or server, another one of the plurality of PCDs, automatically or based on user input, when the data inactivity timer expires; and continuing to receive, by the client, host, or server, the audio data of the selected PCD when time on the data inactivity timer is unexpired.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
notifying, by the client, host, or sever, the one of the plurality of PCDs to disconnect from the active participant session when the energy is below a predetermined threshold; and either of: requesting, by the client, host, or server, the one of the plurality of PCDs to mute a microphone of the one of the plurality of PCDs when the energy is below a predetermined threshold; or muting, by the one of the plurality of PCDs, the microphone without any indication from the client, host, or server.

9 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
increasing, by the client, host, or sever, a time left on the data inactivity timer when the energy associated with the audio data is above a predetermined threshold; and freezing, by the client, host, or sever, the time left on the data inactivity timer when the energy associated with the audio data is above a predetermined threshold.

10 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising dropping, by the client, host, or sever, audio data from another one of the plurality of PCDs before the data inactivity timer expires.

11 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving, by the client, host, or sever, an indication from the selected PCD to release a floor; and selecting another one of the plurality of PCDs in response to receiving the indication either automatically or based on user input.

12 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
assigning, by the client, host, or sever, a unique code for each of the plurality of PCDs, the unique codes indicate approved devices; receiving, by the client, host, or sever, the audio data and the uplink data with the unique code associated with the one of the plurality of PCDs; and processing, by the client, host, or sever, the audio data and the uplink data when the received unique code is determined to be associated with one of the approved devices.

13 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the client, host, or sever, an Internet Protocol (IP) address for each of the plurality of PCDs, the IP address indicate approved devices; receiving, by the client, host, or sever, the audio data and the uplink data with the IP address with the one of the plurality of PCDs; and processing, by the client, host, or sever, the audio data and the uplink data when the received IP address is determined to be associated with one of the approved devices.

14 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising redirecting the audio and the uplink data from one port to another port of the client.

15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the client from a host, a request to reset; and resetting the client in response to the request to reset.

16 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving, by the client from a host, a request to modify configurations; and modifying the configurations of the client in response to the request to modify, wherein the configurations modified comprise opening a socket with a different port number.

17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the downlink data comprises at least one of a presenter's biography, presentation material, reference sites, advertisement based on the presenter's information, or advertisement based on the presentation content, wherein the presenter is a user of the one of the plurality of PCDs.

18 . The method of claim 17 , further comprising receiving, by the client, host, or sever from the one of the plurality of PCDs, the uplink data stored on the one of the plurality of PCDs, wherein the uplink data received by the client correspond to the downlink data.

19 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the uplink data comprises at least one of audio message, live questions, instance messages, user profile information, profile picture, or biography.

20 . The method of claim 18 , wherein the uplink data comprise at least one of a maker of the one of the plurality of PCDs, model of the one of the plurality of PCDs, name of a user of the one of the plurality of PCDs, affiliation of the user of the one of the plurality of PCDs, or audio speech converted into text.

21 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the client comprises a plurality of client devices, each client device associated with a separate geographical location, the

Assignees

• Qualcomm Inc

Inventors

• Paladugu Karthika
• Sheth Soham Vikrambhai
• Mahendran Arungundram Chandrasekaran

Classifications

• H04R27/00

  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) · CPC title

• H04R2420/07

  Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones · CPC title

• H04R2499/11

  Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's · CPC title

• H04L65/1066

  Session management · CPC title

• H04R3/005

  for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407) · CPC title