Patent Abstract:
Conferences are a popular way to hold meetings and presentations when the participants are not required to be physically together. However, the quality of a conference can vary based on a particular user&#39;s endpoint configuration, connection, network, conference content, and other factors. Providing a user with the ability to indicate a quality issue, as determined by the user, allows other users and systems to become aware that a user is experiencing quality issues and optionally take action to correct the issue.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present application claims the benefit of Provisional Patent Application No. 61/953,483, filed on Mar. 14, 2014, and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE 
       [0002]    The present disclosure is generally directed toward electronic communications and more specifically for electronic communications utilized for conferencing parties. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Video and audio quality in a conference ultimately impacts the user&#39;s overall experience and, therefore, whether the conference was successful. The real-time nature of audio and video traffic in a live conference make their management important. Video requires more data and, therefore, is more likely to be impacted by poor quality, especially when bandwidth becomes constrained. 
         [0004]    While users may tolerate portions of a video with poor quality, such as video comprising a single person speaking (e.g., a broadcast), other videos require high quality for successfully interactive participation. For example, a video of a surgical procedure may be incomprehensible if fine detail is omitted or if the frame rate drops to the point that subtle actions are omitted. It is also common for a conference to include images of a live presentation, which may include a screen receiving projected images. If those images include graphs, reports, documents, or other finely detailed information, the content may be of little value if the video quality is not sufficient to convey the images in a usable form. 
         [0005]    Conference quality can be affected by a number of factors. One of the most important factors is the connection speed of each participant&#39;s system and codecs used by each participant. When packets of video conference data drop, the quality of the conference decreases, and the process of resending the packets is not always error-free. However, other areas of creating, transmitting, and receiving teleconferencing can be subject to failure, overloading, misconfiguration, or other issue that resulting in a poor quality conference for one or more participants. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0006]    It is with respect to the above issues and other problems that the embodiments presented herein were contemplated. 
         [0007]    In one embodiment, a user&#39;s device is provided with an input, from the user, during a video, audio, or multimedia conference. The user&#39;s input triggers a quality signal that, among other things, may provide an indication to the other participants of the conference that the user is experiencing quality issues. In one embodiment, a button or user input may be presented to a user on their endpoint device that allows the participant to indicate that the quality of the received audio, video, or both is sub-optimal, unintelligible, or otherwise negatively impacting the participant&#39;s overall conference experience. The threshold of quality that results in the user&#39;s input is user determined and may be based, in whole or in part, on the content of the presentation, the participant&#39;s tolerance, the specific channel in which this problem exists, and so on. For example, a poor video signal may be acceptable to a user if the video is of a speaker talking and if the audio signal remains of acceptable quality. As another example, a conference where the participants are engaged in a discussion and, much like many in-person conferences, interrupt or talk over other participants, may be determined by a user to be of poor quality if the audio signal is delayed, even slightly, if the delay puts the participant at a disadvantage during more lively and interactive portions of the conference. 
         [0008]    The quality feedback of the present disclosure may be provided as an indicator to other participants in the conference, a system administrator, and/or the conference bridge/server itself. With the knowledge that one or more participants are having quality issues, actions can be taken to correct and/or mitigate the issues. For example, a conference server may perform one or more of the following:
       Begin recording media at the source, media server, and/or recipient, such as for troubleshooting and/or later playback;   Multiple recipient recordings, such as for fault isolation;   Assess where the problem might exist (e.g., if all or any participants indicate quality issues, the problem may be with the media server or source);   Begin or continue annotation of the conference transcript; and   Begin or continue with real time transcription via speech-to-text, which may be delivered on the same or alternate data channel to only those participants having issues, all participants, self-selected participants, or other subset of participants.       
 
         [0014]    The foregoing may be fully automated remedial measures performed by the conference server to initiate a quality management action without requiring any human input or, alternatively, suggesting an action for confirmation and approval by a human user (e.g., system administrator, conference host, conference participant(s), etc.). 
         [0015]    The quality feedback, when provided to other participants, enables those other participants to understand the extent of quality problems for the conference as a whole. Instead of prior art systems that just provided quality feedback to the specific user reporting quality issues, the present invention provides a simple and effective user interface (UI) that can inform all participants as to whether or not other participants have reported quality issues and, if so, the extent of those quality issues. 
         [0016]    In one embodiment, a conferencing system is disclosed, comprising: a network interface configured to receive a quality signal from a first endpoint involved in a conference, the quality signal being sent by the first endpoint in response to a user input received at the first endpoint during or immediately after the conference; a conference server configured to receive the quality signal from the first endpoint via the network interface and; upon receiving the quality signal, causing each of a number of secondary endpoints involved in the conference to present indicia of the quality signal, and at least one of the secondary endpoints to execute a quality management action that causes (i) the conference to be recorded, (ii) launching a service level agreement monitor application, and (iii) rerouting at least a portion of the conference. 
         [0017]    In another embodiment, a server is disclosed, comprising: a network interface configured to receive a quality signal from a first endpoint involved in a conference, the quality signal being sent by the first endpoint in response to a user input received at the first endpoint during or immediately after the conference; a processor configured to, upon receiving the quality signal, causing each of a number of secondary endpoints involved in the conference to present indicia of the quality signal and execute a quality management action that includes at least one of: (i) recording the conference, (ii) launch a service level agreement monitor application, and (iii) reroute at least a portion of the conference. 
         [0018]    In yet another embodiment a method of managing a conference for a number of endpoints, comprising: receiving, at a conferencing server, a quality signal from a first endpoint of the number of endpoints involved in a conference, the quality signal being sent by the first endpoint in response to a user input received at the first endpoint during or immediately after the conference; and upon receiving the quality signal causing the number of endpoints to present indicia of the quality signal and executing, by the teleconferencing server, a quality management action that includes at least one of: (i) recording the conference, (ii) launching a service level agreement monitor application, and (iii) rerouting at least a portion of the conference. 
         [0019]    The phrases “at least one,” “one or more,” and “and/or” are open-ended expressions that are both conjunctive and disjunctive in operation. For example, each of the expressions “at least one of A, B and C,” “at least one of A, B, or C,” “one or more of A, B, and C,” “one or more of A, B, or C” and “A, B, and/or C” means A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, or A, B and C together. 
         [0020]    The term “a” or “an” entity refers to one or more of that entity. As such, the terms “a” (or “an”), “one or more” and “at least one” can be used interchangeably herein. It is also to be noted that the terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” can be used interchangeably. 
         [0021]    The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be “material.” 
         [0022]    The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any tangible storage that participates in providing instructions to a processor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, NVRAM, or magnetic or optical disks. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, magneto-optical medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, a solid state medium like a memory card, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read. When the computer-readable media is configured as a database, it is to be understood that the database may be any type of database, such as relational, hierarchical, object-oriented, and/or the like. Accordingly, the disclosure is considered to include a tangible storage medium and prior art-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the software implementations of the present disclosure are stored. 
         [0023]    The terms “determine,” “calculate,” and “compute,” and variations thereof, as used herein, are used interchangeably and include any type of methodology, process, mathematical operation or technique. 
         [0024]    The term “module” as used herein refers to any known or later developed hardware, software, firmware, artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, or combination of hardware and software that is capable of performing the functionality associated with that element. Also, while the disclosure is described in terms of exemplary embodiments, it should be appreciated that other aspects of the disclosure can be separately claimed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0025]    The present disclosure is described in conjunction with the appended figures: 
           [0026]      FIG. 1  depicts a conference system in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0027]      FIG. 2  depicts a packet reception graph in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0028]      FIG. 3  depicts an endpoint display in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; 
           [0029]      FIG. 4  depicts a first quality management timeline in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure; and 
           [0030]      FIG. 5  depicts a second quality management timeline in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0031]    The ensuing description provides embodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the claims. Rather, the ensuing description will provide those skilled in the art with an enabling description for implementing the embodiments. It being understood that various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. 
         [0032]    Any reference in the description comprising an element number, without a subelement identifier when a subelement identifiers exist in the figures, when used in the plural is intended to reference any two or more elements with a like element number. When such a reference is made in the singular form, it is intended to reference one of the elements with the like element number without limitation to a specific one of the elements. Any explicit usage herein to the contrary or providing further qualification or identification shall take precedence. 
         [0033]    The exemplary systems and methods of this disclosure will also be described in relation to analysis software, modules, and associated analysis hardware. However, to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure, the following description omits well-known structures, components and devices that may be shown in block diagram form, and are well known, or are otherwise summarized. 
         [0034]    For purposes of explanation, numerous details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It should be appreciated, however, that the present disclosure may be practiced in a variety of ways beyond the specific details set forth herein. 
         [0035]      FIG. 1  depicts conference system  100  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, users  108  use endpoints  106  to connect to network  102  over their associated connections  110 . Endpoints  106  are electronic devices operable to present at least a portion of a conference to at least one user  108 . Endpoints  106  may also provide teleconferencing input from users  108  such that at least one endpoint  106  may provide video, audio, files, etc. for inclusion in the conference. In another embodiment, endpoints  106  comprise a display (video, audio, and/or tactile) operable to present indicia of a quality signal associated with another user  108  and their respective endpoint  108 . Endpoints  106  include, but are not limited to, a telephone, smart phone/cellular phone, computer (desktop, notebook, tablet, etc.), and composite devices (e.g., headset and base station). 
         [0036]    Connection  110  may be determined, in whole or in part, by the type of device embodied by a particular endpoint  108 . For example, when endpoint  106 A is embodied as a cellular phone, connection  110 A may comprise a cellular connectivity and network  102  may then further comprise a cellular network. As can be appreciated, the user of one particular communication  110  (e.g., WiFi, infrared, Bluetooth, cellular, Ethernet, etc.) may further incorporate other or alternative types of network  102  (e.g., Internet, WAN, LAN, etc.). In other embodiments, the use of a particular communication  110  and, at least a particular portion of network  102 , may be a matter of implementation choice. For example, endpoint  106 A may be a smart phone capable of receiving a conference over a cellular communication network portion of network  102 , however, endpoint  106 A may be configured to utilize WiFi connectivity  110 A to access network  102  and thereby omit cellular portions while endpoint  106 A is configured to access the conference via WiFi portion of network  102 . 
         [0037]    Network  102 , as introduced above, is variously embodied. Embodiments, of network  102  include, but are not limited to Internet, VPN, WAN, LAN, cellular, and wired and/or wireless networks operable to convey electronic communication data between endpoints  106  and/or server  104 . In one embodiment, server  104  provides connectivity and/or content with respect to a conference. For example, server  104  may provide administration functions (e.g., invite, add, remove, floor control, etc.), content creation (e.g., camera control, audio control, insertion of previously created content such as presentation decks, videos, etc.), and/or content presentation (e.g., encoding/compression, streaming, etc.). Server  104  may be embodied as a dedicated or shared device having at least one microprocessor and include, without limitation, a stand-alone server, multiple servers, and shared computing platform. For example, server  104  and a particular endpoint  106  may both operate on the same computing device. 
         [0038]    In another embodiment, connection  110 D (illustrated as a dashed line) is at least partially compromised such that the conference presented on endpoint  106 D is problematic as determined by user  108 D. One or more users  108 A- 108 C may infer a meaning, typically negative, to the lack of engagement from user  108 D (e.g., user D is uninterested, user D is asleep, etc.). However, if users  108 A- 108 C are made aware that user  108 D is having quality issues associated with the conference any lack of response or delayed response by user  108 D will be better understood by users  108 A- 108 C as a conference limitation. Communication errors in the presentation of the conference may also be mitigated. For example, user  108 A may assume users  108 B,  108 C heard and/or saw a particular portion of the conference (e.g., “We need to move next week&#39;s meeting up an hour.”) but, seeing indicia associated with user  108 D indicating quality issues, seek confirmation from user  108 D that the portion was received (e.g., “User D, did you catch that?”). 
         [0039]      FIG. 2  depicts packet reception graph  200  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, graph  200  represents the packet reception of user  108 D. Graph  200  may represent other quality indicators and/or combination of quality indicators in addition to packets received, such as timeliness, packets received versus packets dropped, etc. 
         [0040]    Graph  200  comprises a user determined acceptable quality line  204 . If the packets received fall below this line, whether or not the user is aware of the number of packets received, the user finds the conference problematic. The line  204  is illustrated as straight for the portion illustrated by graph  200 , however, line  204  may vary, such as by comprising a number of stair-steps. For example, a conference presentation requiring fine visual detail (e.g., documents projected on a screen and captured by a camera for the conference) may be associated with line  204  being higher than if the conference does not require a high level of visual detail (e.g., a presenter stands at a podium and speaks). Each of users  108  may have their own preference as to acceptability and their own line  204  which may be the same or different from any other user  108 . 
         [0041]    A service level agreement (SLA) may be in place that specifies a minimum threshold, such as SLA acceptable line  206 . A SLA monitoring application may be running or launched, such as one potential quality management actions. Systems are well known to address data streams that fall below an SLA threshold and may be independently operated along with the embodiments disclosed herein. For example, if packet count line  202  falls below SLA line  206 , which would also be below user acceptable line  204 , a network administrator could be notified in accordance with an SLA. Additionally, and in accordance with certain embodiments disclosed herein, other users  108  participating in the conference could be notified that the particular user associated with packet count line  202  is having difficulties. 
         [0042]    In another embodiment, user  108 D causes a quality signal to be sent at point  208 , as will be disclosed in more detail with respect to  FIGS. 3-5 . Users  108 A- 108 C receive an indication of user  108 D and the quality issues associated with that particular user. Additionally, a first quality management action is launched which is designed to improve quality of the conference as observed at by user  108 D at endpoint  106 D. For example, server  104  may stop sending conference status updates (e.g., who is speaking, who joined, who dropped, etc.) to user  108 D in an effort to reduce packet traffic associated with non-conference content. 
         [0043]    In another embodiment, user  106 D causes a second quality signal  210  to be sent. A second quality management action is launched, such as re-routing of some or all of the conference content. 
         [0044]      FIG. 3  depicts an endpoint display  300  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, status panel  302  displays participants  306  in the conference and statuses of participants  306 . In another embodiment, quality signal panel  304  displays button  312  whereby a user  108  may report a quality issue and trigger a quality signal. In other embodiments, button  312  may be used as a confirmation and/or used affirmatively for the reporting of good quality, whereby the absence of the quality signal is understood to indicate poor quality. When a quality signal is sent, button  312  may automatically reset after a period of time and User D  108 D is then promoted to again select button  312  or asked to confirm if they are still having issues. Quality panel  304  and button  312  are provided on endpoints  106  so that users  108  may report quality issues with the conference. 
         [0045]    Status panel  302  may be provided to endpoints  106  by default, as a matter of user choice (e.g., user determined hide, display, minimize, etc.), upon an update event (e.g., user D recently sent a quality signal), periodically, and/or other event. In one embodiment, icon  314  is associated with user  306 F to indicate a quality issue being reported by user  306 F (e.g., “User D”  108 D). Additionally, status panel  302  may be provided to non-participants (e.g., system administrators). Status panel  302  may include other indicators such as the presence of video/camera icon  308  and the presence of audio/microphone icon  310 . For example user  306 C presence indicates no camera or no operational camera icon  308 B. User  306 D is indicating no microphone or sound icon  310 C. However users  306 C,  306 D are grouped with group panel  306 B indicating commonality of location (e.g., “Conference Room A”). Therefore, observers of panel  302  may conclude that users  306 C,  306 D, between the two of them, have an operational camera/video and speaker/microphone. In other embodiments, the system may infer that two or more users, (e.g., users  306 C and  306 D) share a camera and/or microphone and conclude that their common location (e.g., Conference Room A) has audio and/or video problems. As a further embodiment, icon  314  maybe audible (e.g., tone, computer generated/playback spoken message, etc.) and/or tactile (e.g., vibration, vibration pattern, Braille, etc.) 
         [0046]    Icon  314  may be a visual indicator, such as the illustrated exclamation mark or other indicator that may be interpreted as a quality signal by an observer of status panel  302 . For example, icon  314  may be a color, flash of text (e.g., the user&#39;s identifier (“User D”), the status (“poor quality reception”)), gradient, or other indicator associated with a quality issue perceived by user  306 F. Icon  314  may be further implemented into a channel icon. For example, user  306 F having audio problems and triggering a quality signal associated with audio, may cause icon  310 E to flash, change color, or other symbol to indicate user  306 F is having audio-specific quality issues. 
         [0047]      FIG. 4  depicts first quality management timeline  400  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, at time  402  a conference starts and at some point thereafter, at time  404 , user 1 reports a quality issue. In response to user 1 reporting a quality issue at time  404 , first remedial action is launched at time  406 . 
         [0048]    The quality management action launched at time  406  is variously embodied and includes, but is not limited to, causing endpoints  108  to present indicia of the quality signal reported at time  404 , trigger a recording of the conference by server  104 , trigger recording of conference by at least one endpoint  106  not associated with the endpoint reporting at time  404 , cause a speech-to-text application to be launched which may be recorded and/or inserted in to a video portion of the conference, and/or launch a SLA monitoring application. Once recorded, the problematic endpoint  108  may retrieve the recorded conference utilizing a lossless or less-loss protocol or retrieve the recorded conference at a time in which the quality issue is no longer a factor. 
         [0049]    In another embodiment, user 2 reports a quality issue at time  408  and at some point thereafter, second quality management action is launched at time  410 . The second quality management action may be the same as that launched at time  406 , an extension of the first quality management action launched at time  406 , and/or the same but specific to the user 2. For example, causing endpoints  108  to present indicia of the quality signal reported at time  404  and then include indicia of the quality signal reported at time  408 . 
         [0050]    In another embodiment, the second quality management action initiated at time  410  may be different from the first quality management action launched at time  406 . For example, the second quality management action taken at time  410  may be specific to the occurrence of a plurality of reported quality issues. For example, if users  108 A and  108 B each report a quality issue and common to users  108 A and  108 B is a portion of network  102  (e.g., same type of network (e.g., cellular), usage of the WiFi in building C, etc.), same version of the conference software, and/or other commonality that is not common to users  108 C and  108 D who are not reporting quality issues, then the commonality may be a target of resolution of the quality issue and the second quality management action taken at time  410 . 
         [0051]    It should be appreciated that a single individual user  108  who reports a quality issue may cause network fault isolation or other or similar action, however, as can be further appreciated, having two or more users experiencing quality issue may more readily lead to the culprit of the quality issue. Furthermore, if a certain number or percentage of users  108 , up to and including all users  108 , report quality issues the second quality management action taken at time  410  may be targeted at the source, such as the conference server or other communication and/or presentation component of network  102 . Second quality management action taken at time  410  may also include one or more of notifying a system administrator, launching a troubleshooting application, or, if not already launched, launching a SLA monitoring application. The second quality management action take at time  410  may additionally or alternatively include terminating and optionally restarting the conference. As a further option, restarting the conference may occur upon a changing of a state or setting of server  104 , selection or configuration of network  102 , and/or a setting associated with endpoints  106  designed to remedy the quality issue experienced by the plurality of users  108 . 
         [0052]    Although timeline  400  illustrates a series of events wherein only two users report issues, one at time  404  and the other at time  408 , which result in two quality management actions, one at time  406  and the other at time  410 , additional user reports and/or more, the same, or fewer quality management actions may be taken in response thereto without departing from the disclosure provided herein. For example, three or more users  108  may report quality issues resulting in each causing indicia of their quality to be displayed, such as on status panel  302 . Three or more users may each cause separate quality management actions to be initiated. A number of users  108  above a previously determined threshold may cause a different quality management action to be initiated, such as launching of the SLA, notification of a system administrator application and/or human, or other action. Additionally, the participants, upon seeing icon  314  displayed with respect to a number of users  108 , may mutually agree to terminate the conference or take other action. 
         [0053]    In another embodiment, at least one of first quality management action  406  and second quality management action  410  may comprise, or continue, a speech-to-text application. The resulting transcript produced by the speech-to-text application may be placed (e.g., overlaid) on a portion of the video stream. As a further option, the transcript may be sent via a channel not utilized by the conference, including but not limited to, a series of live blog posts on a website or text messages, emails, etc. sent to one or more endpoints  106  having quality issues or, optionally, to endpoints  106  not having quality issues. 
         [0054]      FIG. 5  depicts second quality management timeline  500  in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Often quality issues are temporary. A component causing the quality issue may be identified action taken to repair, replace, and/or reconfigure the component, often automatically. Load on network  102  and/or server  104  may be strained to accommodate other tasks and once those tasks end, quality of the conference improves. Quality may also improve due to one or more quality management action launched at time  406  and/or  410  or the content of the conference requiring lower quality. In one embodiment, a conference continues at time  502 . At some point thereafter user 1 stops reporting quality issues at time  504 . It should be noted that user 1 of timeline  500  may or may not be the user 1 of timeline  400 , and well as the similarities with user 2, first quality management action, and/or the second quality management action may or may not exist. In another embodiment, at time  504  the user may indicate that conference is of sufficient quality or terminate the reporting of insufficient quality. In response, at time  506  the first quality management action may be discontinued. For example, if endpoints  108  are presenting indicia of the quality signal reported at time  404  and  408 , then the indicia may be removed, replaced, or altered to indicate sufficient quality or the lack of insufficient quality. 
         [0055]    In another embodiment, user 2 stops reporting quality issues at time  508 . Accordingly, at least one second quality management action may be discontinued at time  510 . The second quality management action may be similar to the action taken at time  506  (e.g., stop reporting indicia of low quality to users  108  with respect to user 2). In another embodiment, the action taken at time  510  may be any one or more quality management actions still in place immediately prior to time  510 . 
         [0056]    In another embodiment, timelines  400  and  500  are mixed, such that various combinations of quality issues are reported by a number of users  108  and following or interspersed therein, a number of quality management actions may be taken and, if successful, terminated. For example, a user reports a quality issue at time  404  and first quality management action is taken at time  406 , after some time user 1 may stop reporting quality issues at time  504  and at time  506  the first quality management action terminated. Other orders, additions, and subtractions of the combination of timelines  400  and  500  may be implemented without departing from the disclosure provided herein. 
         [0057]    In the foregoing description, for the purposes of illustration, methods were described in a particular order. It should be appreciated that in alternate embodiments, the methods may be performed in a different order than that described. It should also be appreciated that the methods described above may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in sequences of machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a machine, such as a general-purpose or special-purpose processor (GPU or CPU) or logic circuits programmed with the instructions to perform the methods (FPGA). These machine-executable instructions may be stored on one or more machine readable mediums, such as CD-ROMs or other type of optical disks, floppy diskettes, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, flash memory, or other types of machine-readable mediums suitable for storing electronic instructions. Alternatively, the methods may be performed by a combination of hardware and software. 
         [0058]    Specific details were given in the description to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiments. However, it will be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. For example, circuits may be shown in block diagrams in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. In other instances, well-known circuits, processes, algorithms, structures, and techniques may be shown without unnecessary detail in order to avoid obscuring the embodiments. 
         [0059]    Also, it is noted that the embodiments were described as a process which is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. A process is terminated when its operations are completed, but could have additional steps not included in the figure. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination corresponds to a return of the function to the calling function or the main function. 
         [0060]    Furthermore, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description languages, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium. A processor(s) may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc. 
         [0061]    While illustrative embodiments of the disclosure have been described in detail herein, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed, and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations, except as limited by the prior art.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7