Purposeful receive-path audio degradation for providing feedback about transmit-path signal quality
View Patent ↗A technique applicable to a telecommunications system is disclosed that provides quality-related information in a receive path, in which the information serves as feedback about the call quality that is present in the corresponding transmit path. It is recognized that when a first party on a call hears degradation, he tends to change the way that he speaks or reacts to a second party. Based upon this recognition, the present invention addresses the problem of one-way degradation by providing a feedback signal to the first party, in the form of intentional degradation of the voice signals that he is receiving from the second party. The degradation that is introduced by the disclosed data-processing system is based on the current quality of the voice path from the first party to the second party (i.e., the transmit path), instead of the other way around (i.e., the receive path).
1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a data-processing system, a bitstream that represents a media signal originating from a first telecommunications terminal being used by a first user, at least some of the bits in the bitstream being transmitted to a second telecommunications terminal being used by a second user;
generating a quality statistic that is based on at least a portion of the bitstream received; and
transmitting, to the first telecommunications terminal, a feedback signal that conveys information perceivable by the first user in the form of degradation being introduced to a pre-existing signal originating from the second telecommunications terminal, the feedback signal being based on the quality statistic, whereby the information conveyed provides the first user with feedback on the signal quality being experienced by the second user.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal is based on the value of the quality statistic generated.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal occurs only when the value of the quality statistic exceeds a predetermined threshold.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the quality statistic is related to quality of service.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the quality statistic is related to media waveform quality.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the feedback signal is audio, and wherein the audio level of the feedback signal is based on the quality statistic.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting whether the second user is speaking, wherein the feedback signal is also based on the detecting.
8. The method of claim 7 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal begins only after detecting that the second user is not speaking.
9. The method of claim 1 further comprising detecting whether the first user is speaking, wherein the feedback signal is also based on the detecting.
10. The method of claim 9 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal begins only after detecting that the first user has begun speaking.
11. A method comprising:
receiving, at a data-processing system, an audio bitstream that represents an audio signal originating from a first telecommunications terminal being used by a first user, at least some of the bits in the bitstream being transmitted to a second telecommunications terminal;
generating a quality statistic that is based on at least a portion of the audio bitstream received;
detecting that the first user has begun speaking; and
transmitting, to the first telecommunications terminal, a feedback signal that conveys information perceivable by the first user in the form of degradation being introduced to a pre-existing signal originating from the second telecommunications terminal, the feedback signal being based i) on the quality statistic and ii) on detecting that the first user has begun speaking.
12. The method of claim 11 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal begins only after detecting that the first user has been speaking for at least a predetermined time interval.
13. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
detecting, after the transmitting has begun, that the first user has stopped speaking; and
ceasing the transmitting of the feedback signal after detecting that the first user has stopped speaking.
14. The method of claim 11 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal is based on the value of the quality statistic generated.
15. The method of claim 14 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal occurs only when the value of the quality statistic exceeds a predetermined threshold.
16. A method comprising:
receiving, at a data-processing system, an audio bitstream that represents an audio signal originating from a first telecommunications terminal being used by a first user, at least some of the bits in the audio bitstream being transmitted to a second telecommunications terminal being used by a second user;
generating a quality statistic that is based on at least a portion of the audio bitstream received;
detecting that the second user, who had been speaking, has stopped speaking; and
transmitting, to the first telecommunications terminal, a feedback signal that conveys information perceivable to the first user in the form of degradation being introduced to a pre-existing signal originating from the second telecommunications terminal, the feedback signal being based i) on the quality statistic and ii) on detecting that the second user has stopped speaking.
17. The method of claim 16 wherein the feedback signal conveys crackling.
18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:
detecting, after the transmitting has begun, that the first user has begun speaking; and
ceasing the transmitting of the feedback signal after detecting that the first user has begun speaking.
19. The method of claim 16 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal is based on the value of the quality statistic generated.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein the transmitting of the feedback signal occurs only when the value of the quality statistic exceeds a predetermined threshold.