Local Synchronization of Web Applications with Audio Markings

Synchronization is about providing coherent orchestration of events or resources involved in a multimedia application. In a synchronized application, the user has the notion that his device's content is directly connected with others. In this paper we discuss the existing synchronization techniques, their advantages and disadvantages, and the current implementations and usage. We also present our open source solution for local synchronization of Web applications, the Audio Markings API, detailing its usage, components and functionalities. The focus of this paper is on smart devices such as smartphones, tablets and laptops since they often have built-in microphones and speakers - resources that we intend to explore. In addition to that, those devices are perfectly capable of running full-featured web browsers, something that we also need to take advantage of. Our goal is to give developers an alternative for synchronization of Web applications, using the Web browser as a platform and the sound as a bridge.

[1]  Gustavo M. Calixto,et al.  Effectiveness analysis of audio watermark tags for IPTV second screen applications and synchronization , 2014, 2014 International Telecommunications Symposium (ITS).

[2]  Ton Kalker,et al.  A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System , 2002, ISMIR.

[3]  Celso A. S. Santos,et al.  Timeline Alignment of Multiple TV Contents , 2014, WebMedia.

[4]  R. Bhavani,et al.  A robust QR-Code video watermarking scheme based on SVD and DWT composite domain , 2013, 2013 International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Informatics and Mobile Engineering.

[5]  Myung J. Lee,et al.  Noncoherent Low-Frequency Ultrasonic Communication System with Optimum Symbol Length , 2016, Int. J. Distributed Sens. Networks.

[6]  Xiao-Ming Chen,et al.  A Phase-Based Audio Watermarking System Robust to Acoustic Path Propagation , 2014, IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security.

[7]  Frank Hartung,et al.  Multimedia watermarking techniques , 1999, Proc. IEEE.

[8]  Alan César Belo Angeluci,et al.  QRcode, hashtag or audio watermark? A case study on second screening , 2016, Multimedia Tools and Applications.

[9]  Jaap Haartsen,et al.  BLUETOOTH—The universal radio interface for ad hoc, wireless connectivity , 1998 .

[10]  Michael Hanspach,et al.  On Covert Acoustical Mesh Networks in Air , 2014, J. Commun..

[11]  Christopher Howson,et al.  Fast second screen TV synchronization combining audio fingerprint technique and generalized cross correlation , 2012, 2012 IEEE Second International Conference on Consumer Electronics - Berlin (ICCE-Berlin).

[12]  CoskunVedat,et al.  A Survey on Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology , 2013 .

[13]  Richard Sharp,et al.  Audio networking: the forgotten wireless technology , 2005, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[14]  Busra Ozdenizci,et al.  A Survey on Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology , 2012, Wireless Personal Communications.

[15]  Igor Bisio,et al.  Fast audio fingerprint comparison for real-time TV-channel recognition applications , 2013, 2013 9th International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference (IWCMC).