Patents by Inventor Darren Torrie

Darren Torrie has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11966261
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Nelson Castro, Carl Alexander Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Maria Hui Hong Kwee, Rex Pinegar Price
  • Publication number: 20230122155
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 20, 2022
    Publication date: April 20, 2023
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Nelson Castro, Carl Alexander Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Maria Hui Hong Kwee, Rex Pinegar Price
  • Patent number: 11606632
    Abstract: This document describes textile assemblies for speakers, including textile assemblies with inlaid tensioning yarns, and associated apparatuses and methods. The textile assembly includes a textile body (106) with inlaid tensioning yarns (302, 304). The textile assembly (102) may be a fully-fashioned textile swatch. The tensioning yarns are inlaid at intervals in the textile body but can slide within or be pulled through the textile body. Further, the tensioning yarns have ends (306, 308, 402, 404) that are accessible near the edges of the textile body for various reasons. First, pulling on them while the textile assembly is on an acoustic device (104) tensions the tensioning yarns such that they limit movement of the textile assembly and break up vibration modes. Second, their ends can be tied directly to, formed into loops to hook over, or wound around, features (208) on the acoustic device to removably secure the textile assembly to the acoustic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Laura Charlotte Shumaker, Siddhartha Hegde, Anuja Bagul, Darren Torrie, Myrrhia R. Resneck, Adam Duckworth Mittleman, Aditya Narayanan
  • Publication number: 20230046444
    Abstract: This document describes textile assemblies for speakers, including textile assemblies with inlaid tensioning yarns, and associated apparatuses and methods. The textile assembly includes a textile body (106) with inlaid tensioning yarns (302, 304). The textile assembly (102) may be a fully-fashioned textile swatch. The tensioning yarns are inlaid at intervals in the textile body but can slide within or be pulled through the textile body. Further, the tensioning yarns have ends (306, 308, 402, 404) that are accessible near the edges of the textile body for various reasons. First, pulling on them while the textile assembly is on an acoustic device (104) tensions the tensioning yarns such that they limit movement of the textile assembly and break up vibration modes. Second, their ends can be tied directly to, formed into loops to hook over, or wound around, features (208) on the acoustic device to removably secure the textile assembly to the acoustic device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 2, 2022
    Publication date: February 16, 2023
    Inventors: Laura Charlotte Shumaker, Siddhartha Hegde, Anuja Bagul, Darren Torrie, Myrrhia R. Resneck, Adam Duckworth Mittleman, Aditya Narayanan
  • Patent number: 11481005
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Nelson Castro, Carl Alexander Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Maria Hui Kwee, Rex Pinegar Price
  • Publication number: 20220272430
    Abstract: This document describes textile assemblies for speakers, including textile assemblies with inlaid tensioning yarns, and associated apparatuses and methods. The textile assembly includes a textile body (106) with inlaid tensioning yarns (302, 304). The textile assembly (102) may be a fully-fashioned textile swatch. The tensioning yarns are inlaid at intervals in the textile body but can slide within or be pulled through the textile body. Further, the tensioning yarns have ends (306, 308, 402, 404) that are accessible near the edges of the textile body for various reasons. First, pulling on them while the textile assembly is on an acoustic device (104) tensions the tensioning yarns such that they limit movement of the textile assembly and break up vibration modes. Second, their ends can be tied directly to, formed into loops to hook over, or wound around, features (208) on the acoustic device to removably secure the textile assembly to the acoustic device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2021
    Publication date: August 25, 2022
    Inventors: Laura Charlotte Shumaker, Siddhartha Hegde, Anuja Bagul, Darren Torrie, Myrrhia R. Resneck, Adam Duckworth Mittleman, Aditya Narayanan
  • Publication number: 20220188475
    Abstract: The present document describes techniques associated with a textile-material model for vibroacoustic structural simulation. The techniques described herein provide a nontrivial methodology to test a textile and simplify its representation, which can enable prediction of acoustic performance (e.g., rub and buzz) of an electronic-speaker device having a textile mounted thereon. The textile is modeled as a textile-material model based on an elongation stiffness obtained from a time-temperature superposition curve of the textile, which is based on a dynamic mechanical analysis test of the textile in each of course and wale directions. The textile-material model is then applied to an assembly model of the electronic-speaker device to simulate a vibroacoustic response of the textile relative to the assembly model to predict a likelihood of rub and buzz.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 15, 2020
    Publication date: June 16, 2022
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: Laura Charlotte Shumaker, Arun Prakash Raghupathy, Ayyana Mori Chakravartula, Darren Torrie, Janet P. Ho, Liang Cheng, Neha Ravi Dixit, Paul L. Briant, Kaitlin S. Spak, Gunjan Agarwal, Daniel Mennitt
  • Publication number: 20210191456
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 9, 2021
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Applicant: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Nelson Castro, Carl Alexander Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Maria Hui Kwee, Rex Pinegar Price
  • Patent number: 10996717
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: James Castro, Carl Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Kwee, Rex Price
  • Publication number: 20200112786
    Abstract: In a display assistant device, a speaker is mounted in a waveguide structure which is at least partially disposed beneath a display screen. The waveguide structure is mounted in an exterior housing which includes speaker grills distributed on a plurality of surfaces of the exterior housing, permitting sound waves from the speaker to be projected outside the exterior housing. A cover structure is disposed on top of the waveguide structure to conceal the waveguide structure and speaker within the exterior housing. The cover structure has a tilted bottom surface configured to be suspended above the waveguide structure and to be separated by a first space. Sound waves projected from an upper portion of the speaker are reflected by the tilted bottom surface and are guided through the first space to exit the device from a speaker grill portion located on a rear side of the exterior housing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 9, 2019
    Publication date: April 9, 2020
    Inventors: James Castro, Carl Cepress, Liang Ching Tseng, Darren Torrie, Frances Kwee, Rex Price