Amazon Technologies, Inc.

International Business Machines Corporation

Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc.

Michael Alan Pogue

Philip Ryan Hilmes

Preethi Narayanan

Vikram Kumar Gundeti

Fred Torok

Dharini Sundaram

Kurt W Piersol

Robert Ayrapetian

Tony David

Kavitha Velusamy

Yuwen Su

Arnaud Jean-Louis Charton

Shao-Cheng Wang

Kenneth Edgar Hild, Ii

Kyle Haight

Gabe Beddingfield

Amit Singh Chhetri

Edward Dietz Crump

Frederic Johan Georges Deramat

Guotong Feng

Apoorv Naik

Yong Zhang

James Andrew Clark

Maxim Spivak

Samer A Sarhan Hussein

Ali Tootoonchian

Nitin Arora

Joveen Joseph Thomas

Victor Daniel Bazan

Brice William Tebbs

Eric Matthew Hansen

Pratima Gupta

Ralf I Pfeiffer

Igor Serikov

Laura Allison Werner

Juraj Svec

Stephan Wen-Guang Burroughs

Prachi Choudhary

Samuel Keith McDowell

Shubhashri Mohanty

Hanoch Freund

Amit Dubey

Systems and methods for data transmission protocols are disclosed. For example, a receiving device is selected to send retransmission requests when data packet loss occurs, and then a unicast transmission of data packets may be sent to that selected receiving device. Other receiving devices may be configured to receive the unicast transmission as sent to the selected receiving device and to process the transmission as a multicast transmission. Alternatively, a multicast transmission may be sent to all of the receiving devices, and the selected receiving device may be configured to process the multicast transmission as a unicast transmission for the purpose of sending retransmission requests indicating packet loss. Backup packets may be generated and sent to all of the receiving devices to improve content output quality.

Data transmission protocol

A distributed voice controlled system has a primary assistant and at least one secondary assistant. The primary assistant has a housing to hold one or more microphones, one or more speakers, and various computing components. The secondary assistant is similar in structure, but is void of speakers. The voice controlled assistants perform transactions and other functions primarily based on verbal interactions with a user. The assistants within the system are coordinated and synchronized to perform acoustic echo cancellation, selection of a best audio input from among the assistants, and distributed processing.

Voice controlled system

Synchronized output of audio on a group of devices can comprise sending audio data from an audio distribution master device to one or more slave devices in the group. Scores can be assigned to respective audio playback devices, the scores being indicative of a performance level of the respective audio playback devices acting as a master device. The device with the highest score is designated as a candidate master device and one or more remaining devices are designated as a candidate slave(s). A throughput test is conducted with the highest scoring device acting as the candidate master device. The results of the throughput test are used to determine a master device for a group of devices. Latency of the throughput test can be reduced by using a prescribed time period for completion of the throughput test, and/or by selecting a first group configuration to passes the throughput test.

Selection of master device for synchronized audio

A speech-based audio device may be configured to detect a user-uttered wake expression. For example, the audio device may generate a parameter indicating whether output audio is currently being produced by an audio speaker, whether the output audio contains speech, whether the output audio contains a predefined expression, loudness of the output audio, loudness of input audio, and/or an echo characteristic. Based on the parameter, the audio device may determine whether an occurrence of the predefined expression in the input audio is a result of an utterance of the predefined expression by a user.

Detecting self-generated wake expressions

Systems and methods for device time synchronization by networking devices are disclosed. For example, a networking device may be configured to perform one or more operations to synchronize time as between the networking device and one or more computing devices in an environment. The networking device may be selected from multiple networking devices to be the time master based on one or more factors and/or operations, such as the number of devices in communication with the networking devices, the device types of those devices, device-communication amounts, communication abilities of the devices, and/or which networking device has a wired connection to a modem, for example.

Device time synchronization by networking device

Systems and methods for clock drift estimation are disclosed. For example, sensor data may be received that indicates occurrence of one or more environmental conditions that have been predetermined to impact clock crystal frequencies of a device clock. Predictive filters and/or machine learning models may be utilized to determine the impact of the environmental condition on clock drift, and clock drift values may be generated based at least in part on the sensor data. Corrections to content processing, such as the changing of resampling rates, may be applied to compensate for the clock drift value change, which may allow for the time-synchronous output of content as between two or more devices, including while the environmental condition is present.

Clock drift estimation

Systems and methods for a wireless data protocol are disclosed. For example, a sending device may generate data packets to be sent to a receiving device. The sending device may also generate packet representations to append to the data packets. For example, for a given packet, a representation of two other packets may be generated, such as by utilizing an exclusive or logical operation, and added to the content portion of the given packet. These packets may be sent to the receiving device, which may utilize the packet representations to reconstruct lost packets.

Wireless data protocol

Systems and methods for low latency audio data pipelines are disclosed. For example, a software enabled access point is established for direct wireless communication between a microphone device and an electronic device. Additionally, an audio data processing pipeline that bypasses default data processing of an operating system stack of the electronic device is utilized. The audio data processing pipeline includes minimal audio data processing that writes audio data directly to hardware components for output of corresponding audio.

Low latency audio data pipeline

Systems and methods for adaptive information packet transmission are disclosed. For example, one or more backup packets may be generated for a given data packet and a packet-spacing value and/or packet-sending order may be determined based at least in part on packet-loss data and/or other factors. The data packets and backup packets may be sent according to the packet-spacing value and packet-sending order, and feedback data may be provided by the receiving device. The feedback data may be utilized by the sending device to adapt the packet transmission parameters.

Multiple device audio-video synchronization

A user can utter a voice command in an environment where multiple audio playback devices are located to have audio output on a single device, or a predefined group of devices in a synchronized manner. In instances when the voice command uttered by the user does not specify a target for audio output, an implicit target selection algorithm can evaluate one or more criteria to determine an appropriate target for output of the audio corresponding to the voice command. An example criterion is met if a predetermined time period has lapsed since a last utterance was detected by a device in the environment. However, other criteria can be evaluated for determining a target output device(s).

Implicit target selection for multiple audio playback devices in an environment

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Michael Alan Pogue