System and method for voice transmission over network protocols
View Patent ↗A system and method for voice transmission over high level network protocols. On the Internet and the World Wide Web, such high level protocols are HTTP/TCP. The restrictions imposed by firewalls and proxy servers are avoided by using HTTP level connections to transmit voice data. In addition, packet delivery guarantees are obtained by using TCP instead of UDP. Variable compression based on silence detection takes advantage of the natural silences and pauses in human speech, thus reducing the delays in transmission caused by using HTTP/TCP. The silence detection includes the ability to bookend the voice data sent with small portions of silence to insure that the voice sounds natural. Finally, the voice data is transmitted to each client computer independently from a common circular list of voice data, thus insuring that all clients will stay current with the most recent voice data. The combination of these features enables simple, seamless, and interactive Internet conferencing.
1. A method for transmitting voice input from a presenting computer to one or more client computers over a computer network, comprising the steps of:
providing audio data input though an incoming audio capable device directly to the presenting computer, wherein the presenting computer establishes and maintains an open HTTP connection with a server through the Internet, wherein audio data input voice buffers are created and transmitted to the server via the open HTTP connection;
monitoring the audio data to distinguish between periods of sound and periods of silence based on a threshold, preferably determined prior to the start of an internet conference, which is dependant on a particular speaker providing the audio data, determined by measuring the energy of a speaker's sample audio data over a fixed interval and calculating a predetermined fraction of that energy;
merging a frame buffer with a framed audio data and storing the audio data associated with the periods of silence and sound; and
transmitting the audio data from said storing step to the client computers.