Open-Air Conferencing Device Privacy Modes and Echo Cancellation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conferencing devices that allow open-air communication with multiple local participants face challenges in acoustic echo cancellation and privacy modes, particularly when used in portable settings, leading to orientation issues and inadequate audio quality.
Innovation Solution
The development of conferencing products that incorporate acoustic echo cancellation using finite impulse response filters and multiple coefficients, along with privacy modes such as coaching and mediation, to ensure clear audio communication and prevent echo while allowing selective audio routing and microphone/speaker configurations for improved usability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If open-air communication is enabled with multiple local participants, then ease of operation is improved, but acoustic echo cancellation becomes difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
The conferencing device is divided into multiple functional ports, each capable of independent audio processing with separate echo cancelers. This segmentation allows each port to handle echo cancellation independently while maintaining overall system functionality for multiple participants in open-air settings.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically routes audio signals between multiple ports and participants based on active conference configurations. Audio from distant parties is selectively routed to appropriate local participants, and echo cancellation is applied dynamically to active audio streams, enabling flexible open-air conferencing with adaptive echo management.
2Productivity
If audio is routed to all distant parties for full audio communication, then productivity is improved, but privacy control deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The audio routing is made dynamic and configurable, allowing the system to switch between full-audio mode (where all parties hear all participants) and privacy modes (where audio routing is restricted). This dynamic routing capability enables the system to adapt to different conference requirements, providing both full productivity and privacy control as needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The conferencing device provides multiple operational modes including full-audio mode for maximum productivity and privacy modes for selective communication. The same hardware infrastructure supports both collaborative full-audio conferences and private one-on-one conversations, making the system universally applicable to diverse conferencing needs.
3Reliability
If multiple coefficients and echo cancelers are used for different audio streams, then acoustic echo cancellation is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The echo cancellation system is segmented into multiple independent echo cancelers, each dedicated to a specific audio stream or port. This modular approach allows each echo canceler to be optimized for its specific audio path while maintaining manageable complexity through clear separation of functions.
Solution Approach 2:
The multiple echo cancelers and coefficients serve multiple functions: they handle echo cancellation for different audio streams, support multiple conference configurations, and enable both full-audio and privacy modes. This multi-functionality justifies the increased complexity by providing versatile echo cancellation across diverse operational scenarios.
4Ease of operation
If privacy modes are implemented for one-on-one conversations, then privacy control is improved, but adaptability to different conference configurations deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides dynamic switching between privacy modes and full-audio mode, allowing conference configurations to be changed during operation. Users can transition from private one-on-one conversations to inclusive multi-party conferences as needed, with the audio routing and echo cancellation parameters adapting dynamically to the current conference structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The conferencing device is designed to universally support multiple conference types including private conversations, one-on-one coaching sessions, and full-group conferences. The same device infrastructure and control mechanisms handle all these configurations, providing adaptability across different meeting formats while maintaining privacy control capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
Conferencing products for conducting a conference between a local and two or more distant parties through an electronic channel, wherein distant party audio is routed to the distant parties to provide full audio. These conferencing products are capable of open-air interaction with participants in the locality of a product. Acoustic echo cancellation is applied, which may be accomplished through a single set of coefficients or by a plurality of coefficients and/or echo cancelers on different incoming audio streams and speaker combinations. Privacy modes are provided, whereby one distant party cannot hear the communications of another distant party; those modes including a coaching mode where the privacy is one-way and a mediation mode where the privacy is two-way. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.