Patents Examined by Regina N. Holder
  • Patent number: 10809970
    Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computing system for obtaining encounter information of a patient encounter, wherein the encounter information includes machine vision encounter information; processing the machine vision encounter information to identify one or more humanoid shapes; and steering one or more audio recording beams toward the one or more humanoid shapes to capture audio encounter information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc.
    Inventors: Daniel Paulino Almendro Barreda, Dushyant Sharma, Joel Praveen Pinto, Uwe Helmut Jost, Patrick A. Naylor
  • Patent number: 10812899
    Abstract: A drainage system includes an inlet defined between a housing of a device and a first edge of a cover coupled to the housing. The cover protects an audio assembly disposed beneath the cover from an environment external to the device. The drainage system includes an outlet defined between the housing and a second edge of the cover and a drainage channel extending from the inlet to the outlet between an interior surface of the cover and an exterior surface of the housing. The drainage channel is configured to drain moisture from the audio assembly, and the inlet is configured to allow ambient audio to pass through the drainage channel to the audio assembly at a predetermined time period after the image capture device emerges from a liquid.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: GoPro, Inc.
    Inventors: Eric Penrod, Nicholas Vitale
  • Patent number: 10812921
    Abstract: A computer implemented method includes receiving multiple channels of audio from three or more microphones detecting speech from a meeting of multiple users, localizing speech sources to determine an approximate direction of arrival of speech from a user, using a speech unmixing model to select two channels corresponding to a primary and a secondary microphone, and sending the two selected channels to a meeting server for generation of a speaker attributed meeting transcript.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: William Isaac Hinthorn, Lijuan Qin, Nanshan Zeng, Dimitrios Basile Dimitriadis, Zhuo Chen, Andreas Stolcke, Takuya Yoshioka, Xuedong Huang
  • Patent number: 10805740
    Abstract: An apparatus, system, and method for selectively enhancing a desired sound while suppressing noise is provided. An apparatus comprises a plurality of microphones situated at spatially diverse locations to provide microphone signals, a spatial filter coupled to the microphones, the spatial filter configured to spatially filter the microphone signals, a noise suppressor coupled to the spatial filter, the noise suppressor for suppressing noise, and an audio amplifier, the audio amplifier coupled to the noise suppressor, the audio amplifier for amplifying an audible output signal. In accordance with at least one embodiment, the noise suppressor comprises a voice activity detector coupled to the spatial filter, the voice activity detector for detecting voice activity and for selecting an updated spatial parameter value for the spatial filter to use for performing further spatial filtering.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Inventor: Ross Snyder
  • Patent number: 10798505
    Abstract: A multi-zone media system and method for providing multi-zone media. As a non-limiting example, various aspects of this disclosure provide a system and method that flexibly presents media content (e.g., audio content) to a user as the user moves throughout a premises.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Sound United, LLC.
    Inventors: Bradley M. Starobin, Matthew Lyons, Stuart W. Lumsden, Michael DiTullo, Paul O'Connor
  • Patent number: 10789927
    Abstract: The invention relates to a structure-borne sound actuator for a motor vehicle, which comprises an electro-dynamic excitation unit, and the excitation unit is formed with an excitation side configured to excite an acoustic body, wherein an acoustically rigid intermediate element is secured to the excitation side and the intermediate element has a coupling side, which faces away from the excitation side, and is configured for coupling to the acoustic body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: Continental Automotive GmbH
    Inventors: Dimitrios Patsouras, Robert Joest, Johannes Kerkmann, Jens Friedrich, Roland Bock, Thomas Gallner
  • Patent number: 10791407
    Abstract: Examples described herein involve configuring a playback device based on distortion, such as that caused by a barrier. One implementation may involve causing the playback device to play audio content according to an existing playback configuration, determining an existing frequency response of the playback device in a given system, and determining whether a difference between the existing frequency response of the playback device in the given system and a predetermined frequency response for the playback device is greater than a predetermined distortion threshold. If it is determined that the difference between the existing frequency response of the playback device and the predetermined frequency response for the playback device is greater than the predetermined distortion threshold, then the existing playback configuration of the playback device is changed to an updated playback configuration of the playback device and the playback device plays audio content according to the updated playback configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: Sonon, Inc.
    Inventors: Tetsuro Oishi, William H Bush
  • Patent number: 10783870
    Abstract: An audio playback device having a noise-cancelling mechanism is provided that includes an external sound-receiving circuit that receives external noise, a fixed-coefficient filtering circuit, an operation circuit, an audio playback circuit, an internal sound-receiving circuit and an adjusting circuit. The fixed-coefficient filtering circuit generates an inverted signal including a main and an auxiliary inverted components having the same amplitude and phases orthogonal to each other according to the external noise. The operation circuit multiplies the inverted signal by adjusting parameters to generate an adjusted inverted signal. The audio playback circuit receives and playbacks an audio signal and the adjusted inverted signal to generate a playback result. The internal sound-receiving circuit receives the playback result to generate a received sound signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2020
    Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Wei-Hung He, Chun-Ming Cho
  • Patent number: 10779082
    Abstract: A method of processing an audio signal is disclosed. According to embodiments of the method, magnitude response information of a prototype filter is determined. The magnitude response information includes a plurality of gain values, at least one of which includes a first gain corresponding to a first frequency. The magnitude response information of the prototype filter is stored. The magnitude response information of the prototype filter at the first frequency is retrieved. Gains are computed for a plurality of control frequencies based on the retrieved magnitude response information of the prototype filter at the first frequency, and the computed gains are applied to the audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
    Inventors: Remi Samuel Audfray, Jean-Marc Jot, Samuel Charles Dicker
  • Patent number: 10779104
    Abstract: A method for compressing a HOA signal being an input HOA representation with input time frames (C(k)) of HOA coefficient sequences comprises spatial HOA encoding of the input time frames and subsequent perceptual encoding and source encoding. Each input time frame is decomposed (802) into a frame of predominant sound signals (XPS(k?1)) and a frame of an ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)). The ambient HOA component ({tilde over (C)}AMB(k?1)) comprises, in a layered mode, first HOA coefficient sequences of the input HOA representation (cn(k?1)) in lower positions and second HOA coefficient sequences (cAMB,n(k?1)) in remaining higher positions. The second HOA coefficient sequences are part of an HOA representation of a residual between the input HOA representation and the HOA representation of the predominant sound signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Sven Kordon, Alexander Krueger, Oliver Wuebbolt
  • Patent number: 10771883
    Abstract: A device is discussed, such as the hearing assistance device itself and/or an electrical charger cooperating with the hearing assistance device. The device can have one or more accelerometers and a power control module to receive input data indicating a change in acceleration of the device over time from the one or more accelerometers in order to make a determination to autonomously change a power mode for the hearing assistance device based on at least whether the power control module senses movement of the hearing assistance device as indicated by the accelerometers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Eargon, Inc.
    Inventors: Jonathan Sarjeant Aase, Hardik Ruparel, Beau Polinske, Gints Valdis Klimanis
  • Patent number: 10771899
    Abstract: A display apparatus includes: a display panel configured to display an image by emitting light, a rear structure configured to support the display panel, a vibration generator configured to vibrate the display panel, and a supporting member between the display panel and the vibration generator, the supporting member being configured to maintain a distance between the display panel and the vibration generator.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: LG Display Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Sungtae Lee, SeYoung Kim, Kwangho Kim, Hogeol Lim
  • Patent number: 10757492
    Abstract: There is provided a speaker apparatus that includes a pair of speaker boxes attached on both ends of an attached band having a curved surface, the pair of speaker boxes substantially facing each other, a pair of speaker units attached on one surface of the respective speaker boxes in such a way that an axial direction is directed inward or outward and a sound guiding unit that converts a radiation direction of a sound reproduced from each of the speaker units.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 8, 2017
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Takashi Tsurumoto, Yoshikazu Ohura
  • Patent number: 10743103
    Abstract: An electronic device comprising: a microphone array including at least three microphones; and at least one processor configured to: identify a kind of an application that is executed; activate one or more of the microphones in the array based on each microphone's respective position within the electronic device and the type of the application; and capture audio using the activated microphones.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jong Mo Keum, Min Ho Bae, Jung Yeol An, Gang Youl Kim, Jun Tai Kim, Jae Mo Yang, Nam Il Lee, Ho Chul Hwang
  • Patent number: 10743100
    Abstract: In an example, the present invention provides an UWB and FMCW sensor apparatus, with an audio module and inertial motion module. The apparatus has at least three transceiver modules. Each of the transceiver modules has an antenna array to be configured to sense a back scatter of electromagnetic energy from spatial location of a zero degree location in relation to a mid point of the device through a 360 degrees range where each antenna array is configured to sense a 120 degree range. In an example, each of the antenna array has a support member, a plurality of receiving antenna, a receiver integrated circuit coupled to the receiving antenna and configured to receive an incoming rf signal and covert the incoming rf signal into a base band signal, and a plurality of transmitting antenna.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: Totemic Labs, Inc.
    Inventors: Bradley Michael Eckert, Luca Rigazio, Neal Khosla, Kiran Joshi, Lenin Patra
  • Patent number: 10726862
    Abstract: A system for removing noise from an audio signal is described. For example, noise caused by content playing in the background during a voice command or phone call may be removed from the audio signal representing the voice command or phone call. By removing noise, the signal to noise ratio of the audio signal may be improved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
    Inventor: George Thomas Des Jardins
  • Patent number: 10728662
    Abstract: A method, apparatus and computer program product enhance audio quality during a voice communication session, enhancing audio quality for a device of a remote user. The apparatus can comprise a processor, a memory, and a computer program code, and can be configured to receive and weight audio signals based on signal attributes such that audio signals can be adjusted and adjusted signals mixed to form a composite audio signal. In a method, a processor receives audio signals from audio sensors around a room, selects one or more audio signals based on audio signal attributes, and adjusts or causes the adjustment of the one or more audio signals based on the audio signal attributes. The method can also include causing the adjusted audio signals to be mixed to form a composite signal, and causing the composite signal to be communicated to a device of a remote user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 28, 2020
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventor: Ian Davis
  • Patent number: 10708706
    Abstract: A shared communication channel allows for the transmitting and receiving audio content between multiple users. Each user is associated with a headset configured to transmit and receive audio data to and from headsets of other users. After the headset of a first user receives audio data corresponding to a second user, the headset spatializes the audio data based upon the relative positions of the first and second users such that when the audio data is presented to the first user, the sounds of the audio data appear to originate at a location corresponding to the second user. The headset reinforces the audio data based upon a deviation between the location of the second user and a gaze direction of the first user, allowing for the first user to more clearly hear audio data from other users that they are paying attention to.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 7, 2019
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: William Owen Brimijoin, II, Philip Robinson, Andrew Lovitt
  • Patent number: 10694287
    Abstract: Disclosed is a waterproof sound-transmitting sheet, which includes a waterproof layer of a nonporous material and a support layer of a porous material, and maintains waterproof performance and sound transmission performance at a water pressure of about 10 atm. The disclosed waterproof sound-transmitting sheet includes a waterproof layer formed of a film shape of a nonporous material, a first adhesive layer having one surface adhered to one surface of the waterproof layer, and a support layer formed of a film shape of a porous material, and having one surface adhered to the other surface of the adhesive layer; and the support layer can be composed of metal mesh or nonwoven fabric.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: AMOGREENTECH CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kang-Sik Shin, In-Yong Seo, Ba-Wool Yoo
  • Patent number: 10694281
    Abstract: Various implementations include loudspeakers. In some particular cases, a loudspeaker includes: a high frequency (HF) driver; a low frequency (LF) driver coaxially arranged with the HF driver; and a waveguide overlying a sound radiating surface of the LF driver, the waveguide having a hole pattern such that a sound radiation pattern of the LF driver matches a sound radiation pattern of the HF driver at a reference location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 23, 2020
    Assignee: BOSE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Greg Joseph Zastoupil, Joseph J. Kutil, III, Gabriel Lloyd Murray