Patent ID: 6771768
Filing Date: 2004-08-03
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
A telephone handset for dynamically buffering a real-time audio signal stream, the telephone handset including a microphone and a speaker connected to a telephone network interface, comprising:a proximity sensor located near the speaker; means, connected to the proximity sensor, for measuring a capacitive coupling between the handset and an ear of a user; a buffer connected to the speaker configured to record real-time audio signals from said stream when the proximity sensor decouples from the ear; means for playing back the recorded signals as time-compressed audio signals, after the handset is first decoupled from the ear of the user, and second recoupled with the ear of the user until a time-compressed audio signal is resynchronized with a real-time audio signal of said stream to enable loss-less telephone communications; and wherein the buffer further comprises a record pointer and a play back pointer, the record pointer and the playback pointer being synchronized while the handset is coupled to the ear of the user, and the record pointer being greater than the playback pointer when the handset is decoupled, and where the playback pointer advances at a greater rate when the handset is recoupled the ear of the user until the playback pointer is resynchronized with the record pointer.