Localised audio data delivery

Localized audio data delivery

The present invention relates to services provided to users of electronic devices and methods for implementing such services. Specifically, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to the delivery of audio data to users of mobile communication devices, such as portable phones and appropriately equipped PDAs (personal personal computers). Digital Assistant) users.

In recent years, it can be seen that there has been a great increase in the number of users of mobile phone networks around the world. Through technological advancement and increased functionality, cellular phones have become personally reliable devices. As a result, the mobile information society continues to develop, and personalized and localized services are becoming more and more important. This "Context-Aware" (CA) mobile phone is used in combination with low-power, short-range base stations in places like shopping malls to provide location-specific information. Such information may include local maps, information about nearby shops and restaurants, and so on. The user's CA terminal can be equipped to filter the received information according to pre-stored user preferences, and only remind the user when a data item of particular interest is received.

In an example of a CA terminal, HP posted an article about their "Cooltown" theme on the following URL: <http://www.cooltown.hp.com/papers/webpres/WebPresenee .htm>. The convergence of Web technology, wireless networks, and portable customer devices provides design opportunities for computer/communication systems. In the Cooltown theme, a location-aware system can be created by using URLs for addressing, actual URLs for passing through beacons and URLs for sensing discovery, and web servers for localization of directories . In order to support mobile users, systems exist everywhere. On top of this infrastructure, Internet connectivity can be leveraged to support communication services. The existence of a web page connects the 3W network (WWW) with the actual world where users live in order to provide a model for supporting mobile users without a central control point.

The Cooltown Museum and Bookstore provides visitors with enhanced experiences on the Web. When visitors visit the museum, their portable digital assistants (PDAs) can receive Web URLs via wireless "beacons." These beacons are small infrared transceivers located near pictures or sculptures; URLs link to the Web of information about exhibits. By using the PDA's Web browser, visitors can read or hear the content of related artists or works and related works of art in the museum. URLs are also stored as bookmarks for further research, or they can be used to select copies of works of art from the museum's online store.

In terms of transmitting audio data, unlike broadcast television and radio services, there are many examples of one-way voice services in daily life applications: there are dial-up information services, such as talking clocks and recorded weather forecasts, as well as in multiple museums and The public address system and display and explanation system used in art galleries. Each of these services has different characteristics, but they are basically one-way non-interactive services.

Communication protocols such as the Bluetooth (Bluetooth) standard can be used to access such audio-based services in a traditional way, allowing portable terminals to join the piconet and request to be sent on it. Point-to-point link for audio streaming. However, as will be appreciated, the broadcast mechanism has multiple advantages for terminals and base stations or beacons. First of all, since no portable device is needed to transmit (adding Piccolo), the battery power of the portable device can be saved. Second, the broadcast beacon can communicate with many portable devices at the same time, which is particularly important in crowded environments. According to security considerations for the user, since the portable device is not required to send, there is no need for the portable device to publish its identity. Finally, it is easier to implement broadcast data through a single broadcast channel instead of selectively routing on several point-to-point links.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a system for transferring audio data with the above advantages.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for enabling a user of a portable communication device to receive broadcast audio messages, wherein at least one beacon device broadcasts a series of messages, each message having a plurality of messages arranged according to a first communication protocol. A form of a predetermined data field in which the beacon adds each such message before sending an additional data field carrying broadcast audio message data, and in which the portable device receives the transmitted message and extracts audio from the additional data field Broadcast data and reproduce audio to users. By attaching audio data to the broadcast message as a packet, the mobile phone or terminal does not need to broadcast in order to obtain the audio data.

Preferably, although not necessarily, the first communication protocol includes Bluetooth message transmission, and the broadcast message sequence is an inquiry message for establishing two-way communication.

And according to the present invention, an audio data communication system is provided. The system includes at least one beacon device capable of wireless message transmission; and also includes at least one portable device capable of receiving such message transmission, wherein the beacon is Used to broadcast a series of messages, each of which has the form of a plurality of predetermined data fields arranged in accordance with the first communication protocol, wherein the beacon is also arranged to be added before sending the additional data field carrying the broadcast audio message data Each such message, and at least one of the portable devices therein, is arranged to receive the sent message, read audio data from the additional data field, and reproduce the audio data to the user.

Suitably, the beacon is arranged to include an indication in one of said predetermined data fields, said indication indicating the presence of audio data in said additional data field. As before, the first communication protocol may include Bluetooth messaging.

And according to the present invention, there is provided a mobile communication device used in the above-mentioned system, the device comprising: a receiver capable of receiving short-range wireless messages, including multiple data fields according to a first communication protocol; Means for determining when the additional data field is added to the plurality of data fields; means for reading out audio data from such additional data fields; and for reproducing audio data to the user Device.

In the co-pending and co-assigned UK (United Kingdom) patent application No. 0020099.8 entitled "Data Delivery Through Beacons", in addition to the additional grouping added to the inquiry message for establishing contact In addition, methods and appropriate infrastructure for downloading audio data are also given.

Now referring to the accompanying drawings, only as an example, the preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of a beacon and a portable device implementing the present invention; Data flow; and Figure 3 shows a sample configuration of broadcast audio packets.

In the following description, we specifically consider the CA application, which uses the Bluetooth protocol to transmit audio messages from beacons to portable devices (phones, or MP3 players, etc.). As will be appreciated, as part of the message delivery procedure, the general concept of the present invention includes audio broadcast channels. The present invention is not limited to Bluetooth devices and interrogation procedures. It can be applied to other communication devices, especially frequency hopping systems .

The following CA application based on the Bluetooth protocol and suitable for this audio delivery process is described in more detail in the jointly assigned patent application entitled "Data Delivery Through Beacons" cited above , Its disclosure content is quoted here for reference. For the sake of explanation, a summary of the disclosure is given below.

Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of a CA mobile phone 10 used in conjunction with one or more low-power, short-range base stations or beacons 12,14. Such devices can be used in places like shopping malls to provide location-specific information, such as audio advertising messages from nearby shops and restaurants, community information, etc., and beacons download audio data carried on information keywords To mobile devices. An information keyword is a small data object that provides a reference to a complete information source, and it has the form of multiple predetermined domains, one of which contains a short descriptive text presented to the user. The other domain is some form of indicator or address, such as a URL or phone number. Other supplementary fields can control how the data is presented to the user and how to use the address. Beacons usually broadcast multiple such keywords periodically, each of which is typically related to a different service.

The user's CA terminal 10 includes an antenna 16 coupled to a transceiver stage 18 for receiving and sending messages. The outgoing message is input by the user to the phone, or is an audio input through the microphone 20 and the A/D converter 22, or other data input through a keyboard or other input device 24. These inputs are processed by the signal and data processing stage 26 into a message data format and converted into a transmission format by the encoder 28 before being provided to the transceiver stage 18.

Messages received through the antenna 16 and the transceiver stage 18 are passed through the decoding stage 30 to the filtering and signal processing stage 32. If the data carried by the message is intended for presentation on the display screen of the phone, the data will optionally be transferred to the display driver 36 after passing through the buffer stage 38, which will format the displayed image. In the case that the message carries audio data from any of the beacons 12 and 14, the phone has the ability to filter the received information according to the users preference content stored in advance 40, and only the stored preference data and When the comparison result of the topic indicator in the message indicates that the data item of particular interest has been received, the user is reminded (that is, the information is only replayed or kept in the buffer 38 for later replay).

For the carried and traditional audio messages, the audio data is output to the earphone or speaker 46 by the filtering and processing stage 32 through the DA converter 42 and the amplifier 44. The reception of such a message from the telephone network 48 is indicated by the arrow 50: the telephone network 48 may also provide a link from the telephone 10 through a WAN (wide area network) 54 (which may be the Internet) to the wide area network server 52 One or more remote service providers 56 provide data sources for the telephone 10.

The communication between the CA terminal (telephone 10) and the CA base station (beacon 12) takes two forms: "push" and "pull" modes. In the "push" mode, information is broadcast to all portable terminals 10 by the beacons 12, 14 in the form of short "keywords" (it is represented as 60). The keyword can take various forms according to the application, but usually it includes a clear description of the information sent and an indicator (such as a URL) for more complete information used to identify one of the service providers 56.

The keyword is received "unconsciously" by the terminal 10, that is, without direct intervention by the user, and is automatically filtered according to the user's pre-set preferences. Some will be discarded, some will be kept for further research, and other content may result in an immediate reminder to the user. Sometimes users want more information than the keywords contained. Here, the "pull" mode allows the user to establish a connection with the server 56 (which is not necessarily specifically configured for the use of the CA), and actively request that the information be pulled down to the terminal 10. Therefore, this model is typically interactive.

As mentioned above, Bluetooth is a good candidate technology at least for the wireless link necessary for the "push" mode of the CA system described above, and it is expected to become a component of a large number of mobile phones 10. After analyzing the application of the Bluetooth protocol or "push" mode for CA audio broadcasting, a problem can be seen. In an ideal situation, the terminal 10 will detect the fixed beacons 12 and 14 and extract basic information from them, without the terminal 10 needing to transmit at all. However, due to the frequency hopping feature of the Bluetooth beacon system, the current Bluetooth technical specifications do not support this type of broadcast operation. This frequency hopping feature means that in order for a current terminal to receive broadcast messages (or in fact, any Message), the terminal must be synchronized to the beacon in time and frequency.

The Bluetooth inquiry procedure has been specifically proposed to solve the problem of placing broadcast stations (beacons) and portable devices (slave devices) together: Applicants have described how this is possible in their co-pending applications cited above The broadcast channel is carried on the inquiry message issued by the host. Only the CA terminal needs to read the broadcast channel messages, and only the CA base station or beacon sends them. Therefore, on the air interface, this mechanism is fully compatible with the traditional (non-CA) Bluetooth system. In this case, it provides the total transmission rate for broadcasting when an inquiry message of about 64 kB is sent per cycle: if the beacon continuously executes the inquiry cycle, that is, it only broadcasts and never establishes a pico Net, we have a total bit rate of 50kB/s.

Current codecs can provide acceptable speech quality at rates as low as 8kB/s or lower. Therefore, four or five consecutive parallel voice broadcast services can operate within this bandwidth. Alternatively, the compressed power of a wideband audio codec (such as MPEG II Layer 3 (MP3), RealNetwork RealSystem G2, and Microsoft MS Audio) can be used to transmit broadcast stereo FM quality audio. If the information keyword format is used, but the information field is replaced by audio voice or music data, and the title is used by the portable device filtering mechanism to identify keywords of interest and irrelevant keywords, it may further include the possibility of continuous streaming audio . Although some form of header is required to distinguish parallel data streams, it should still be possible to multiplex several intermittent audio services in the broadcast bandwidth. Such services can include short voice announcements or automatic SMS (short message) services. Service) in the case of audio update ("sound bit"), or paging information service.

For the embodiment of Fig. 1, a typical embodiment includes a GSM, UMTS or other cellular phone equipped with Bluetooth; it has the advantage that an appropriate audio codec has been provided, although it will be seen that there may obviously be Other platforms. In addition to audio-equipped PDAs and notebook computers, other audio devices can be made Bluetooth compatible and further configured to implement the present invention. Such devices may include personal wireless devices, tape and or CD players, MP3 storage and playback devices, wireless headsets, and so on. For these devices, the Bluetooth capability allows audio to be sent (real-time or non-real-time) via a point-to-point wireless link to another equally equipped device, or audio data storage or server. The ability to receive broadcast audio data carried on Bluetooth also greatly expands the usability of personal audio equipment.

Figure 2 schematically shows in a simplified form the data flow of a system supporting the present invention. In the configuration shown, the voice data from the microphone 70 is converted into digital samples by the A/D converter 72 before the digital stream is passed to the codec 74. The low-rate data stream from the codec 74 is transmitted to the Bluetooth base station 76, from which it is broadcast in the manner described in the co-pending application and detailed below. The transmitted data is received by the Bluetooth receiver 78 and transmitted to the codec 80 and the DA converter 82, and then the received audio is output through the speaker 84. As indicated by 86 and 88, data storage can be added to store messages in clear or encoded form locally. There are many possible variations of this scheme, including the use of pre-set messages, messages synthesized from sampled words or allophones and voice synthesis. Readers in the field know that there will be other variations.

At the base station or beacon, the voice data is packaged before being sent over the air; as described in the co-pending application, user information up to 64kB can be transmitted in the broadcast domain in the interrogation domain lasting 10.24 seconds. The broadcast audio packet can include multiple fields as appropriate, as shown in Figure 3, where the incomplete list is as follows: Title: PD packet protocol discriminator (set to be used for "broadcast audio")

·PL packet length indicator·CH audio channel number·LA language·MN message number·CT codec type·SE indicator for start/end/middle/entire packet·PN packet number body:·DATA audio data The protocol discriminator PD distinguishes broadcast audio packets from other packet types. The packet length indicator PL indicates the total length of the packet (that is, not only the audio data part). The audio channel number CH distinguishes the provided audio channels and is the main search item for the terminal filter. The language indicator LA allows the search message to be supplemented in a language that the user understands. The message number MN allows the message to be sent more than once in order to improve the error performance. The codec type CT specifies the speech codec and bit rate used. The start/end indicator SE specifies whether the carried audio segment is the beginning, the end, the middle segment, or the entire message of the audio message. Continuous audio streams use the "middle" indicator, while intermittent audio streams (sound bits) use all four indicators. Finally, for example, the packet number PN allows the ordering of several packets that make up a long message. In the main body, the audio data includes any number of voice data encoded in the CT domain of the codec type.

Packets are sent at a rate that matches the size of the subject's payload and the required throughput. As a general rule, what is required is that the portable terminal can listen to all packets: in the case that the broadcasting capacity is not fully utilized, the copy of the packet can be allowed to replace the incorrectly received packet, or the terminal can be allowed to involve other packets. In the case of a Bluetooth link, all necessary audio packets are still received.

If the interrogation mode is run continuously, for a continuous audio stream, 10.24 seconds of valuable audio per channel must be delivered in each interrogation period. For a codec operating at 8kbit/s, this corresponds to 10k bytes of data. This can be carried in a single packet, or divided into smaller packets: as will be seen, the additional overhead caused by the repeated headers of the smaller packets and the reduction of the larger packets There is a compromise between reliability.

Since not all query time intervals are dedicated to broadcast information, the query time interval is treated as a single large frame with a length of 10.24 seconds. For any audio channel, if it is sent earlier, up to 0.24 seconds of data needs to be buffered in the transmitter before the start of the frame: similarly, the new data for this channel is very late in the frame. In the case of receiving, sufficient data must be buffered in the receiver. As a result, a total hysteresis of about 20 seconds can be expected. In this example, an 8kbit/s codec is used, and the implementation can use 20k bytes of buffer space in the receiver. For a higher rate codec, more space is required (for example, for a high bandwidth running at 48 kbit/s, 120 kbytes are required).

For intermittent (voice bit) services, such a delay is usually irrelevant, and most continuous services that are one-way can also tolerate this delay. Continuous operations (such as those that provide live explanations) may have to be limited to dramas and operas, etc., because their actions are easy to predict. The real delay and buffer size in the master and slave devices depend on the format selected for the broadcast query service and how it is used. Error correction and masking strategies will also be affected.

When the user selects the service of interest, his request will cause the filter in the phone to be set in such a way that it will search for the appropriate channel number in the broadcast audio packet header, or it will cause a contact with the server. Negotiation between (over the air or through some other connection). In the first case, the mobile phone will pay careful attention to whether the broadcast audio data packet has a title that matches any one of the several sets of filters (that is, several intermittent channels can be selected at the same time), and will broadcast the received Any such grouping. As a development of this function, a specific index listing the available audio information streams can be broadcast periodically to facilitate the selection process. In the second case, the audio stream broadcast is selected through negotiation with a fixed network. Different cells in the CA location can broadcast different audio streams according to the dynamic wishes of the users who receive the services of each cell. A user who moves to another cell will make his audio stream follow him. This solution has the potential to make better use of valuable broadcast time, especially if a large number of audio streams of particular interest are available. Through these two methods, the user can actively select the channels he particularly wants to listen to, that is, those channels that contain the information he wants to "pull" from the broadcast channel. The typical use of this method is advertising and emergency information services. In any case, with the exception of the emergency channel, the user can eliminate all such "push" channels midway.

Further considering the application of low-rate audio broadcasting provided in accordance with the present invention, it will be seen that continuous and intermittent broadcasting services can be provided. The continuous broadcasting service will carry the usual voice of about 1 to 6 channels, but this is mostly good-quality stereo. The user will mainly listen to one of these channels. Intermittent broadcast channels allow short bits of sound to be delivered to users who may be listening to other content. Therefore, a sound bit may interrupt or mix with locally generated audio signals. Many such channels are available because each channel only works for a portion of the total time. Of course, continuous and intermittent channels can be mixed with each other.

The following applications are intended as examples only. There are many applications that are obvious to those skilled in the art. Although it is possible to use speakers to reproduce the received audio, for most applications, it is assumed that headphones are used as the audio data presentation device, so as not to disturb other people around.

Dial-up information service: In addition to the current time and weather forecast, users may be interested in information about financial trends or selection of sports events. In many cases, information needs to be updated in near real-time as the stock price changes up or down or the score of the selected sports team. By selecting the data stream of interest, the user can keep getting information updates with short wireless announcements (a few seconds in duration), freeing the user from the hassle of having to retrieve his terminal in order to read the displayed content. These sound bits can be combined with audio generated locally from tape, optical disc, or other sources.

Public address system: Large public institutions, such as airports or train stations, can use public address systems to keep customers up-to-date on information such as arrival time and departure time. Voice bits can also be used here. By dialing to query specific flight or train numbers of interest, users can listen to music on headphones or wander in quiet areas (such as airline concession lounges or restaurants) without losing departure or arrival announcements. Supplementary information can be provided in the form of local guidance to the terminal or platform, or the information can be announced in different languages.

Explanation system: Museums are usually accompanied by vocal explanations while exhibiting. The cellular feature of Bluetooth can add specific explanatory broadcasts in multiple different languages to this display, or broadcast in a single language staggered in time, so that users dont have to wait too long to wait for the beginning of the explanation. . In a theater (or, imaginatively in a movie theater), supplemental audio channels can provide information for new or blind listeners. After setting a certain length of system delay, the explanation can be sent dozens of seconds earlier than the actions related to it, so this service is best suited to the anticipated (or scripted) event.

Tour guides and information points: Tour guide services are also possible, and audio tour guides on tour buses are a well-known example. Although there are dedicated tourist buses in many cities, the present invention provides such a device by which it is possible to provide tourist explanations in multiple languages on a common bus or tram that travels on a route through a place of interest . There is also a more modern function that can be added to the previous or provided in its own right is to deliver announcements about stops.

City guides can use the beacon system to provide information and navigation assistance in multiple languages. Road beacons can provide static or dynamic traffic information ("cannot turn left" or "traffic jam ahead"). In the case that the user registration request is directed to a specific location, the beacon can also support personal navigation, and these instructions ("turn left at the end of the street") can be delivered on the most effective channel for the user's personal audio channel. In addition, as a means of attracting other visitors, places of interest (parks, gardens, historical buildings, etc.) can use audio beacons with "push" channels for tourist information.

Advertising and music services: Although the aforementioned services can utilize high-quality audio coding, some services will require it. Advertisers want to be able to play music jingles related to them and their products, while shopping malls may use the system to provide optional background music, and music or video providers may use the system to broadcast the latest music or Sound tracks to attract the masses to visit an MP3 download station. In order to allow these characteristics, it is necessary to have audio quality above the mono AM broadcasting quality (16 kbit/s), and it is expected that there will be a trade-off between quality and the number of channels.

By reading this disclosure, other modifications will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Such modifications may involve other characteristics known in the design, manufacture, and use of fixed and portable communication systems and systems and components in which they are combined, and these characteristics may replace or add to the characteristics described herein. on.