External roundtrip latency measurement for a communication system
View Patent ↗An external capability for measuring roundtrip latency in a conferencing system is provided. The external capability for measuring roundtrip latency in a communication system may include functions of generating a content event, detecting the content event in a received content stream including the content event, determine a first time associated with generation of the content event and a second time associated with detection of the content event, and computing a roundtrip latency based on a difference between the second time and the first time. The content event may be a visual event or an aural event. These functions may be implemented using one or more modules or elements. A computing device may be used to generate and detect the content event and to compute the roundtrip latency. Various other arrangements of modules or elements may be used to provide the functions.
1. An apparatus, comprising:
at least one module configured to:
generate a content event, wherein the content event is a visual event, wherein the visual event comprises a depiction of at least one of a shape or an object; and
detect the content event in a received content stream including the content event; and
a processor and a memory configured to:
determine a first time associated with generation of the content event and a second time associated with detection of the content event; and
compute a roundtrip latency based on a difference between the second time and the first time.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module comprises at least one set of software instructions stored in the memory and executed by the processor.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module comprises a content presentation mechanism configured to present the generated content event and a content capture mechanism configured to capture the content stream including the content event.
4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the content presentation mechanism comprises a video presentation mechanism and the content capture mechanism comprises a video capture mechanism.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a computing device.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the computing device is a tablet computer or a smartphone.
7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module comprises:
a light generating device communicatively connected to the processor and configured to generate a second content event; and
a light detecting device communicatively connected to the processor and configured to detect the second content event.
8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is configured to generate a time-based visual event, the apparatus further comprising:
an image capture device configured to capture an image including a first depiction of the time-based visual event and a second depiction of the time-based visual event.
9. The apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the time-based visual event comprises at least one of:
a running timer; or
a changing Quick Response (QR) code changing in a manner representing a running timer.
10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module is configured to generate an aural event.
11. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the at least one module comprises an audio output mechanism configured to output the aural event and audio capture mechanism configured to capture the content stream including the aural event.
12. The apparatus of claim 10 , wherein the at least one module is configured to detect the aural event in the content stream including the aural event.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the generated aural event has associated therewith a first set of aural characteristics and the detected aural event has associated therewith a second set of aural characteristics different than the first set of aural characteristics.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the aural event comprises a burst of pseudorandom noise.
15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the at least one module is configured to generate the burst of pseudorandom noise based on a maximum length sequence.
16. The apparatus of claim 14 , the at least one module is configured to detect the burst of pseudorandom noise based on cross-correlation of the aural event with received audio content.
17. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the at least one module is configured to detect the visual event based on an image recognition mechanism.
18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:
generating a content event, wherein the content event is a visual event, wherein the visual event comprises a depiction of at least one of a shape or an object;
detecting the content event in a received content stream including the content event;
determining a first time associated with generation of the content event and a second time associated with detection of the content event; and
computing a roundtrip latency based on a difference between the second time and the first time.
19. An apparatus configured to process an aural event, the apparatus comprising:
a processor and a memory communicatively connected to the processor, the processor configured to:
receive an audio stream including the aural event, the received aural event having a first set of aural characteristics;
detect, within the received audio stream, the received aural event having the first set of aural characteristics;
process the received aural event having the first set of aural characteristics for modifying the first set of aural characteristics to produce a second set of aural characteristics, wherein processing the received aural event having the first set of aural characteristics for modifying the first set of aural characteristics to produce the second set of aural characteristics modifies the aural event for preventing filtering of the aural event; and
output the processed aural event having the second set of aural characteristics.