Audio Difficulty Target for Conference Impairment Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio and video conferencing systems face challenges in efficiently identifying and addressing audio quality impairments, which can lead to prolonged issues due to social pressures and difficulty in determining the source of the problem among participants with different devices and network conditions.
Innovation Solution
A conferencing system terminal device with processors that present an audio difficulties user actuation target on the display, allowing participants to silently indicate audio issues during conferences, and a server complex that transmits messages to identify and remediate impairments by determining if the issue is with the speaker's or recipient's device.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If participants verbally report audio issues during conferences, then the source of the problem can be identified through direct communication, but social pressures and participant tension prolong the issue resolution time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an automated audio monitoring system that acts as an intermediary between participants and the conferencing system. This system continuously monitors audio quality metrics, automatically detects impairments, and identifies the source without requiring participants to verbally report issues. The intermediary system eliminates social pressures and participant tension by handling problem identification automatically, thus resolving the contradiction between reliable problem detection and quick resolution.
2Loss of time
If the system monitors audio quality continuously to quickly identify impairments, then the time to detect issues is reduced, but the complexity of the conferencing system increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a self-service audio monitoring mechanism where the conferencing system automatically monitors its own audio quality without requiring external intervention or complex additional hardware. The system uses existing audio processing capabilities to continuously assess audio quality metrics, detect impairments, and identify sources autonomously. This self-service approach enables rapid detection while minimizing the increase in system complexity by leveraging existing system resources.
3Adaptability or versatility
If participants use different devices with varying capabilities, then the system achieves versatility and wide compatibility, but determining the source of audio issues becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a feedback-based audio quality assessment system that continuously monitors audio streams from all participants regardless of their device types. The system collects audio quality metrics from each participant's device, compares them against expected thresholds, and uses this feedback to automatically identify which device is causing audio impairments. This feedback mechanism enables accurate source identification across diverse device platforms while maintaining versatility and compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A conferencing system terminal device includes a display, an audio output, a user interface, a communication device, and one or more processors. The one or more processors present an audio difficulties user actuation target upon the display during an audio or video conference occurring across a network and concurrently with a presentation of conference content. Actuation of the audio difficulties user actuation target indicates that audio content associated with the audio or video conference being delivered by the audio output is impaired.