Speaker Latency Correction via Network-Synchronized Timing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Speakers in multi-speaker systems often experience non-standard latencies, leading to desynchronization with audio and video signals due to varying latency times across different speakers and manufacturers.
Innovation Solution
A method and system where a user device communicates a sound indication to a speaker synchronized with a computer network clock, records the sound detection time, calculates the latency, and adjusts the speaker's timing using adjustment data to correct for latency, optionally accounting for sound propagation time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If speakers are manufactured with different latency characteristics, then each speaker can be optimized for its specific design, but synchronization between multiple speakers and with video displays deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary latency measurement by playing test tones and recording their arrival times at microphones before actual audio playback. This advance characterization allows the system to pre-calculate compensation values that are stored and applied during normal operation, ensuring synchronization without affecting real-time performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where latency measurements from microphone recordings are used to generate compensation values that are fed back to the audio processing system. This closed-loop approach continuously ensures that speakers operate with corrected timing information, maintaining synchronization across the audio-visual system.
2Reliability
If latency correction is implemented for each speaker, then audio-visual synchronization is improved, but system complexity increases due to additional measurement and calculation requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the device's own built-in microphone to measure speaker latency, eliminating the need for external specialized measurement equipment. The processor leverages existing audio playback capabilities and timing mechanisms to perform self-diagnosis and self-correction, reducing additional hardware requirements while maintaining measurement accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system measures and adjusts the timing parameter of audio signals based on detected latency characteristics. By dynamically changing the playback time parameter compensating for measured delays, the system achieves synchronization without requiring complex hardware modifications, simply adjusting temporal parameters through software control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Effectively synchronizes speaker latency with other audio or video components, ensuring synchronized audio-visual playback by accurately determining and correcting for latency in real-time.
Implementation Method 1
a microphone on the user device detects the sound
Data Source
AI summary
A user device can be used to correct for a latency of a speaker. The user device can communicate an indication to the speaker to play a sound at a first time. The user device can record a second time at which a microphone on the user device detects the sound. The first and second times can be synchronized to a clock of a computer network. The user device can compare the first and second times to determine a latency of the speaker. The user device can communicate adjustment data corresponding to the determined latency to the speaker. The speaker can use the adjustment data to correct for the determined latency. In some examples, the user device can display instructions to position the user device a specified distance from the speaker, and can account for a time-of-flight of sound to propagate along the specified distance.