STTR Phase I: MusicianLink Platform for Audio Collaboration and Real-time Distributed Audio Processing

This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase I project is to develop a low-latency network-based quality of service (QoS) framework, for hosting a new class of distributed audio signal processing algorithms. The technique reveals connection quality using high-quality audio streaming as a closed-loop resonant probe. Users pluck a bidirectional stream much as if it were a guitar string in which sound waves travel in a recirculating manner. Network round-trip time is the natural pitch of the string while jitter and packet loss cause vibrato and interferences in the sound. Any path supporting any application consisting of low-latency interactive flows can be tuned according to qualities revealed by the resulting tone. Immediate and intuitive, the sound is a complement to graphical and statistical techniques for monitoring connection quality. The proposed technique is one example of a wider class of applications involving real-time distributed signal processing over the Internet. This Phase I STTR proposal addresses the technology transfer aspect of the technology, and initiates a joint university/small business research venture. The intended outcome puts into broad use the first commercially-available example of this class of applications in music collaboration, telepresence, and teleconferencing.