Method and system for synchronized distributed display over multiple client devices

摘要

Portable interactive devices of audience members are remotely operated to substantially “simultaneously” respond to a signal from an origin, e.g., a central server, despite variation in latencies among the devices in order to produce a shared experience. The audience members are reached through varying communication links. Latencies vary among portable interactive devices and among carriers. A firing time for the portable interactive devices is selected to occur at a time in the future. An execution time at which a respective portable interactive device is commanded to operate is a function of the firing time minus the latency control signal reaches clients in a venue in an audience or at a remote location simultaneously despite the varying latencies.

主权项

1. A system for operating a plurality of portable interactive devices to perform a commanded function at a firing time in order to produce a shared experience in an event, comprising:
a server producing a command signal comprising information to command performance of the function by a portable interactive device at an execution time; a communications link for communicating outputs from said server to a set of portable interactive devices; a program to issue command signals via the server to the set of portable interactive devices; a time protocol measuring circuit including a time-tagged signal generator coupled to transmit signals to portable interactive devices and a comparator to compare time-tagged signals to a computer clock time and produce a latency for a respective portable device; a latency register coupled to store the measured latencies; and the server including an arithmetic unit arranged to calculate an execution time for each respective portable interactive device as a function of the firing time minus value of a respective latency.