Determining user perceived delays in voice conferencing systems and video conferencing systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9628525-B2
Application number	US-201414520323-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 21, 2014
Priority date	Oct 22, 2013
Publication date	Apr 18, 2017
Grant date	Apr 18, 2017

Abstract

The determination of user perceived delay in audio and video conferencing systems/services is described. Example embodiments consistent with the present invention measure delays in audio and/or video conferencing systems and services, by treating such systems and services as black boxes, thereby providing end-to-end delays as they would be perceived by users. For example, the user perceived round-trip delay in a video conference system/service may include time delays from each of video capture, video encoding, video transmission, video decoding and video rendering.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for measuring a user perceived one-way delay in a video conferencing system, the method comprising:
a) running a stopwatch program on a receiving unit at a first location to generate a source stopwatch video (“SV”) displayed on a display device associated with the receiving unit;
b) capturing, with a video camera associated with a sending unit at the first location, video of the displayed SV (“DSV”);
c) sending, via the video conferencing system, the captured DSV (“CDSV”) from the sending unit to the receiving unit;
d) receiving, by the receiving unit, the sent CDSV (“SCDSV”);
e) displaying, by the receiving unit, the received SCDSV (“RCDSV”) on a display device associated with the receiving unit, thereby generating a display screen including both (1) a current stopwatch video, and (2) the RCDSV;
e) capturing a snapshot of the display screen including both (1) an image of the current stopwatch video, and (2) an image of the RCDSV;
f) converting, using a processor, (1) the image of the current stopwatch video in the captured snapshot to a first stopwatch value, and (2) the image of the RCDSV in the captured snapshot to a second stopwatch value; and
g) determining the user perceived one-way delay in the video conferring service based on a time difference between the first stopwatch value and the second stopwatch value.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user perceived one-way delay includes time delays from each of video capture, video encoding, video transmission, video decoding and video rendering.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the each of the units is one of (A) a personal computer, (B) a tablet, or (C) a smart phone.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the stopwatch video includes at least two digits corresponding to a fraction of a second.

5. A method for measuring a user perceived delay in a video conferencing system, the method comprising:
a) running a stopwatch program on a first unit at a first location to generate on a display device associated with the first unit, a source stopwatch video (“SV”);
b) capturing, with a video camera associated with the first unit, video of the displayed SV (“DSV”);
c) sending, via the video conferencing system, the captured DSV (“CDSV”) from the first unit to a second unit at a second location remote from the first location;
d) receiving, by the second unit, the sent CDSV (“SCDSV”);
e) displaying, on a display device associated with the second unit, the received SCDSV (“RCDSV”);
f) capturing, with a video camera associated with the second unit, video of the displayed RCDSV (“DRCDSV”);
g) sending, via the video conferencing system, the captured DRCDSV (“CDRCDSV”) from the second unit back to the first unit;
h) receiving, by the first unit, the sent CDRCDSV (“SCDRCDSV”);
i) displaying, by the first unit, the received SCDRCDSV (“RCDRCDSV”) on the display device associated with the first unit, thereby generating a display screen including both (1) a current source stopwatch video, and (2) the RCDRCDSV;
j) capturing a snapshot of the display screen including both (1) an image of a current source stopwatch video, and (2) an image of the RCDRCDSV;
k) converting, using a processor, (1) the image of the current source stopwatch video in the captured snapshot to a first stopwatch value, and (2) the image of the RCDRCDSV in the captured snapshot a second stopwatch value; and
l) determining a user perceived round-trip delay in the video conferring service based on a time difference between the first stopwatch value and the second stopwatch value.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the user perceived round-trip delay includes time delays from each of video capture, video encoding, video transmission, video decoding and video rendering.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the each of the units is one of (A) a personal computer, (B) a tablet, or (C) a smart phone.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising:
m) determining a user perceived one-way delay based on the determined user perceived round-trip delay.

9. The method of claim 5 wherein the stopwatch video includes at least two digits corresponding to a fraction of a second.

10. A method for measuring a user perceived one-way delay in a mobile video conferencing system, the method comprising:
a) running a stopwatch program on a receiving unit at a first location;
b) generating on a display device associated with the receiving unit, a source video (“SV”) including both (1) a standard test video and (2) a source stopwatch video from the stopwatch program;
c) capturing, with a video camera associated with a mobile sending unit at the first location, the displayed SV (“DSV”);
d) sending, via the video conferencing system, the captured DSV (“CDSV”) from the mobile sending unit to the receiving unit;
e) receiving, by the receiving unit, the sent CDSV (“SCDSV”);
f) displaying, by the receiving unit, the received SCDSV (“RCDSV”) on the display device, thereby generating a display screen including both (1) a current source video, including both (i) a current standard test video and (ii) a current source stopwatch video, and (2) the RCDSV;
g) capturing a snapshot of the display screen including both (1) an image of the current source video, and (2) an image of the RCDSV;
h) converting, using a processor, (1) a portion of the image of the current source video in the captured snapshot to a first stopwatch value, and (2) a portion of the image of the RCDSV in the captured snapshot to a second stopwatch value; and
i) determining the user perceived one-way delay in the mobile video conferring service based on a time difference between the first stopwatch value and the second stopwatch value.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the user perceived one-way delay includes time delays from each of video capture, video encoding, video transmission, video decoding and video rendering.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the each of the units is one of (A) a personal computer, (B) a tablet, or (C) a smart phone.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the stopwatch video includes at least two digits corresponding to a fraction of a second.

14. A method for measuring a user perceived round-trip delay in a mobile video conferencing system, the method comprising:
a) running a stopwatch program on a stopwatch unit at a first location, to generate on a display device associated with the stopwatch unit, a display including a source stopwatch video (“SV”) from the stopwatch program;
b) capturing, with a video camera associated with a mobile unit at the first location, video of the displayed SV (“DSV”);
c) displaying, on a display device associated with the mobile unit, the captured DSV (“CDSV”);
d) sending, via the video conferencing system, the CDSV from the mobile unit to a second unit;
e) receiving, by the second unit, the sent CDSV (“SCDSV”);
f) displaying, by the second unit, the received SCDSV (“RCDSV”);
g) capturing, by a video camera of the second unit, video of the displayed RCDSV (“DRCDSV”);
h) sending, via the video conferencing system, the captured DRCDSV (“CDRCDSV”) from the second unit to the mobile unit;
i) receiving, by the mobile unit, the sent CDRCDSV (“SCDRCDSV”);
j) generating, by the mobile unit, a display screen including both (1) a current source stopwatch video, and (2) the received SCDRCDSV (“RCDRCDSV”);
k) capturing a snapshot of the display screen of the mobile unit including both (1) an image of the current source stopwatch video, and (2) an image of the RCDRCDSV;
l) converting, using a processor, (1) a portion of the image of the current source stopwatch video to a fir

Assignees

• Liu Yong
• Xu Yang
• Yu Chenguang
• Polytechnic Inst Of New York Univ

Inventors

• Liu Yong
• Xu Yang
• Yu Chenguang

Classifications

• H04L65/403 Primary

  Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences (data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15) · CPC title

• H04N7/147

  Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals (selecting H04Q) · CPC title

• H04N7/152

  Multipoint control units therefor · CPC title

• H04M3/568

  audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants (echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30) · CPC title

• H04M3/2236

  Quality of speech transmission monitoring · CPC title