Audio-on-demand communication system
US5793980A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Nov 30, 1994 |
| Grant date | Aug 11, 1998 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 30, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04H60/51
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An audio-on-demand communication system provides real-time playback of audio data transferred via telephone lines or other communication links. One or more audio servers include memory banks which store compressed audio data. At the request of a user at a subscriber PC, an audio server transmits the compressed audio data over the communication link to the subscriber PC. The subscriber PC receives and decompresses the transmitted audio data in less than real-time using only the processing power of the CPU within the subscriber PC., According to one aspect of the present invention, high quality audio data compressed according to lossless compression techniques is transmitted together with normal quality audio data. According to another aspect of the present invention, metadata, or extra data, such as text, captions, still images, etc., is transmitted with audio data and is simultaneously displayed with corresponding audio data. The audio-on-demand system also provides a table of contents indicating significant divisions in the audio clip to be played and allows the user immediate access to audio data at the listed divisions. According to a further aspect of the present invention, ser…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.