Patents Examined by Alexander Jamal
  • Patent number: 10524072
    Abstract: An apparatus for generating a sound field description having a representation of sound field components, including a direction determiner for determining one or more sound directions for each time-frequency tile of a plurality of time-frequency tiles of a plurality of microphone signals; a spatial basis function evaluator for evaluating, for each time-frequency tile of the plurality of time-frequency tiles, one or more spatial basis functions using the one or more sound directions; and a sound field component calculator for calculating, for each time-frequency tile of the plurality of time-frequency tiles, one or more sound field components corresponding to the one or more spatial basis functions evaluated using the one or more sound directions and a reference signal for a corresponding time-frequency tile, the reference signal being derived from one or more microphone signals of the plurality of microphone signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 31, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Emanuel Habets, Oliver Thiergart, Fabian Küch, Alexander Niederleitner, Affan-Hasan Khan, Dirk Mahne
  • Patent number: 10506329
    Abstract: At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to a communication device that includes a microphone configured to detect an acoustic signal from an acoustic environment, and a processor, configured to detect an acoustical dampening between the acoustic environment and the microphone, based on a change in a characteristic of the acoustic signal and, responsive to the acoustical dampening, apply a compensation filter to the acoustic signal to form a compensated acoustic signal that is reproduced. Other embodiments are disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Staton Techiya, LLC
    Inventors: John Usher, Steve Goldstein
  • Patent number: 10506349
    Abstract: Provided are an electroacoustic transducer in which deterioration and variation in frequency characteristics are suppressed, a method of manufacturing an electroacoustic transducer, and an electroacoustic transducing device. An electroacoustic transducer 3 includes a diaphragm 34, a housing 33 accommodating the diaphragm, an elastic member 37 being accommodated in the housing, and a pressing member 31 pressing the elastic member. The elastic member is annular. The diaphragm includes a dome portions 341 and 342, and an attaching portion 343 disposed on an outer rim of the dome portion. The housing includes a stepped portion 331. The stepped portion includes a mounting surface 331a on which the attaching portion is mounted, and a wall surface 331b extending in a direction separating from the mounting surface. The elastic member 37 has an inner circumference, and an outer circumference. The pressing member presses the elastic member against the attaching portion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: AUDIO-TECHNICA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Maiko Komatsu
  • Patent number: 10506352
    Abstract: A microphone unit includes a housing having a first main surface and a second main surface disposed opposite each other. The housing surrounds an inner chamber which includes a resonance chamber. The first main surface includes a concave indentation facing toward the inner chamber. A hearing aid, including a substantially cylindrical battery and a microphone unit is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Sivantos Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Marco Steffen, Thomas Naether
  • Patent number: 10497376
    Abstract: A decoder for generating an audio output signal having one or more audio output channels is provided. The decoder includes a receiving interface for receiving an audio input signal including a plurality of audio object signals, for receiving loudness information on the audio object signals, and for receiving rendering information indicating whether one or more of the audio object signals shall be amplified or attenuated. Moreover, the decoder includes a signal processor for generating the one or more audio output channels of the audio output signal. The signal processor is configured to determine a loudness compensation value depending on the loudness information and depending on the rendering information. Furthermore, the signal processor is configured to generate the one or more audio output channels of the audio output signal from the audio input signal depending on the rendering information and depending on the loudness compensation value. Moreover, an encoder is provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Jouni Paulus, Sascha Disch, Harald Fuchs, Bernhard Grill, Oliver Hellmuth, Adrian Murtaza, Falko Ridderbusch, Leon Terentiv
  • Patent number: 10481857
    Abstract: An auditory optimization system that provides a plurality of acoustic arrangements that can specify a plurality of acoustic parameters implementable by respective acoustic control systems of one or more vehicles. The acoustic parameters can be implemented by a controller of the vehicle(s) to control an audio characteristic of a sound emitted through the speaker(s) of the vehicle, such as a volume range, based on the acoustic category associated with the sound. Operation of the system can include the selection of one of the plurality of acoustic arrangements, as well as a selection of the vehicle(s) to receive the acoustic parameter(s) associated with the selected acoustic arrangement. The acoustic parameters of the selected acoustic arrangement can be transmitted via a telematics network to a controller of the identified vehicle(s), which can implement the transmitted acoustic parameters.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 19, 2019
    Assignee: Club Car, LLC
    Inventor: Robert H. Edwards
  • Patent number: 10469972
    Abstract: A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventor: Lars Villemoes
  • Patent number: 10462304
    Abstract: A system for managing customer-to-business voice communication has a network-connected communications device and instructions executable on the communications device from a non-transitory physical medium, the instructions providing a first function for determining if a destination asserted requires treatment, a second function for sending data from the communications device to a network-connected server, a third function for receiving alternative destination information from the server, and a fourth function for establishing communication with the business based on the returned destination information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Inventor: Vyacheslav Zhakov
  • Patent number: 10440469
    Abstract: A microphone module comprises a housing, an audio bus, and a first plurality of microphones in communication with the audio bus. The microphone module further comprises a module processor in communication with the first plurality of microphones and the audio bus. The module processor is configured to detect the presence of an array processor in communication with the audio bus, detect the presence of a second microphone module in communication with the audio bus, and configure the audio bus to pass audio signals from both the first plurality of microphones and the second microphone module to the array processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: Shure Acquisitions Holdings, Inc.
    Inventors: Zachery Barnett, Brent Robert Shumard, David Grant Cason, Andrey Ash, Jordan Schultz, Mathew T. Abraham, Avinash K. Vaidya
  • Patent number: 10433788
    Abstract: An earpiece includes an earpiece housing, at least one biometric sensor disposed within the earpiece, a wireless transceiver disposed within the earpiece for voice communications, an intelligent control operatively connected to the at least one biometric sensor and the wireless transceiver, a speaker operatively connected to the intelligent control, and at least one microphone operatively connected to the intelligent control. The earpiece is configured to monitor biometrics of a user using the at least one biometric sensor, communicate biometric data to the user, detect a crisis level event, and communicate occurrence of the crisis level event using the wireless transceiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignee: BRAGI GmbH
    Inventor: Peter Vincent Boesen
  • Patent number: 10424309
    Abstract: An apparatus for encoding a multi-channel signal including at least two channels includes a time-spectral converter for converting sequences of blocks of sampling values of the at least two channels into a frequency domain representation having sequences of blocks of spectral values for the at least two channels; a multi-channel processor for applying a joint multi-channel processing to the sequences of blocks of spectral values to obtain at least one result sequence of blocks of spectral values including information related to the at least two channels; a spectral-time converter for converting the result sequence of blocks of spectral values into a time domain representation including an output sequence of blocks of sampling values; and a core encoder for encoding the output sequence of blocks of sampling values to obtain an encoded multi-channel signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 24, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Guillaume Fuchs, Emmanuel Ravelli, Markus Multrus, Markus Schnell, Stefan Doehla, Martin Dietz, Goran Markovic, Eleni Fotopoulou, Stefan Bayer, Wolfgang Jaegers
  • Patent number: 10412524
    Abstract: A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventor: Lars Villemoes
  • Patent number: 10412525
    Abstract: A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventor: Lars Villemoes
  • Patent number: 10412526
    Abstract: A multi-channel decoder for generating a binaural signal from a downmix signal using upmix rule information on an energy-error introducing upmix rule for calculating a gain factor based on the upmix rule information and characteristics of head related transfer function based filters corresponding to upmix channels. The one or more gain factors are used by a filter processor for filtering the downmix signal so that an energy corrected binaural signal having a left binaural channel and a right binaural channel is obtained.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: Dolby International AB
    Inventor: Lars Villemoes
  • Patent number: 10401919
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, an electronic device includes a first housing including an antenna for wireless communication, and a second housing including a speaker for audio output configured to be used in a state where the second housing overlaps the first housing. When the antenna and the speaker are seen through from an upper surface side of the first housing, a location of the antenna and a location of the speaker do not relatively overlap each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignee: Toshiba Client Solutions CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Yusuke Sugiura, Tomofumi Miyamoto
  • Patent number: 10405089
    Abstract: An audio signal processing apparatus for processing an input audio signal is provided, the apparatus comprising a plurality of filters, each filter configured to filter the input audio signal to obtain a plurality of filtered audio signals, each filter designed according to an extended mode matching beamforming applied to a surface of a half revolution, the surface partially characterizing a loudspeaker enclosure shape, a plurality of scaling units, each scaling unit configured to scale the plurality of filtered audio signals using a plurality of gain coefficients to obtain a plurality of scaled filtered audio signals, and a plurality of adders, each adder configured to combine the plurality of scaled filtered audio signals, thereby providing an output audio signal for producing a sound field having a beam directivity pattern defined by the plurality of gain coefficients.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 3, 2019
    Assignees: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., University of Southampton
    Inventors: Simone Fontana, Yue Lang, Filippo Fazi, Mincheol Shin, Ferdinando Oliveri
  • Patent number: 10396730
    Abstract: A signal processing chain, such as an audio chain, produces an analog output signal from a digital input signal. The signal processing chain is operated by generating a first flag signal for the analog output signal and one or more second flag signals for the digital input signal. Each flag signal assumes a first level or a second level and is set to the first level when a signal from which the flag is generated has a value within an amplitude window. An amount the first flag signal for the analog output signal and the second flag signal for the digital input signal match each other may be calculated for issuing an alert flag which indicates an impaired operation of the signal processing chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: STMICROELECTRONICS S.R.L.
    Inventor: Carmelo Burgio
  • Patent number: 10397728
    Abstract: Apparatus comprising a processor configured to: determine a first orientation value of a head (101) of a user (100) of the apparatus relative to a further body part (111) of the user (100) using at least one orientation sensor (105); and control a 3D audio reproduction function of the apparatus based on the first orientation value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 27, 2019
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Leo Kärkkäinen, Asta Kärkkäinen, Jussi Virolainen
  • Patent number: 10375251
    Abstract: A gain control system for dynamically tuning an echo canceller, the echo canceller being configured to estimate an echo of a far-end signal and subtract that estimate from a microphone signal to output an echo cancelled signal, the system comprising an echo measurement unit configured to calculate a ratio of the microphone signal to the far-end signal, an attenuation unit configured to attenuate at least one of the microphone signal and the far-end signal to output a second microphone signal and a second far-end signal to the echo canceller, the ratio of the second microphone signal to the second far-end signal being different from the calculated ratio, and an attenuation controller configured to control the attenuation unit, in dependence on the calculated ratio, so as to alter the ratio of the second microphone signal to the second far-end signal and control the echo-cancelled signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Imagination Technologies Limited
    Inventors: Senthil Kumar Mani, Ghandhi Namani, Srinivas Akella, Sai Ravi Teja Pulugurtha
  • Patent number: 10373600
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to an active noise control (ANC) system. In accordance with one aspect of the invention, the ANC system includes a plurality of microphones and a plurality of loudspeakers. Each microphone is configured to provide an error signal that represents a residual noise signal. Each loudspeaker is configured to receive a loudspeaker signal and to radiate a respective acoustic signal. The ANC system further includes an adaptive filter bank, which is supplied with a reference signal and configured to filter the reference signal to provide the loudspeaker signals as filtered signals. The filter characteristics of the adaptive filter bank are adapted such that a cost function is minimized. The cost function thereby represents the weighted sum of the squared error signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2014
    Date of Patent: August 6, 2019
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventors: Markus Christoph, Michael Wurm