Patents Examined by David L Ton
  • Patent number: 10984815
    Abstract: Techniques for non-linear acoustic echo cancellation are described herein. In an embodiment, a system comprises a loudspeaker, a microphone array, a spatial filtering logic with a spatial filter, an acoustic echo canceller (AEC) logic and an adder logic block. The spatial filtering logic is configured to generate a spatially-filtered signal by applying the spatial filter using a reference signal sent to the loudspeaker and a multi-channel microphone signal from the microphone array. The generated spatially-filtered signal carries both linear echo and non-linear echo that are included in the multi-channel microphone signal. The AEC logic is configured to apply a linear adaptive filter using the spatially-filtered signal to generate a cancellation signal that estimates both the linear echo and the non-linear echo of the multi-channel microphone signal. The adder logic block is configured to generate an output signal based on the cancellation signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Cypress Semiconductor Corporation
    Inventors: Ashutosh Pandey, Ted Wada
  • Patent number: 10984776
    Abstract: Aspects are generally directed to headphone systems that adjust Active Noise Reduction operations based on measurements of environmental conditions. In one example, a headphone system includes an earpiece having an interior volume, the earpiece configured to couple to an ear and define an acoustic volume including the interior volume and a volume within the ear, a speaker to provide acoustic energy to the acoustic volume based on a received driver signal, a feedback microphone to detect at least residual noise within the acoustic volume and generate a feedback audio signal indicative of the residual noise, and a control circuit including a sensor interface configured to receive an atmospheric pressure signal, the control circuit coupled to the feedback microphone to receive the feedback audio signal, and the control circuit configured to adjust the driver signal based at least in part on the feedback audio signal and the atmospheric pressure signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 20, 2021
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventor: Paul G. Yamkovoy
  • Patent number: 10959031
    Abstract: A loudspeaker assembly includes L loudspeakers, each being substantially the same size and having a peripheral front surface, and an enclosure having a hollow cylindrical body and end closures, the cylindrical body and end closures being made of material that is impervious to air. The cylindrical body comprises L openings therein. The L openings are sized and shaped to correspond with the peripheral front surfaces of the L loudspeakers, and have central axes. The central axes of the L openings are contained in a radial plane, and the angles between adjacent axes are identical. The L loudspeakers are disposed in the L openings and hermetically secured to the cylindrical body. L is equal to or greater than 2. A higher-order loudspeaker system comprising such a loudspeaker assembly and a beamforming module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH
    Inventor: Markus Christoph
  • Patent number: 10959037
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to a headset that filters sounds according to a direction of a gaze of a user wearing the headset. The user wears the headset including an eye tracking unit and one or more microphones. The eye tracking unit tracks an orientation of an eye of the user to determine the direction of the gaze of the user. The direction of the gaze may be different from a facing direction of the headset. According to the determined direction of the gaze of the user, input sound signals generated by the microphones can be beamformed to amplify or emphasize sound originating from the direction of the gaze.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Ravish Mehra
  • Patent number: 10952008
    Abstract: Systems and methods for audio communication are disclosed. The system includes a plurality of transducer units and plurality of three dimensional sensor modules (TDSMs) adapted to be located in a plurality of sites/spaces to which service should be provided by the system. The plurality of transducer units are capable of emitting/directing and focusing ultra-sonic signals to respective coverage zones in the sites, such that localized (confined) sound field can be formed at selected spatial position in the coverage zones by utilizing sound from ultrasound technique. The TDSMs are associated with respective sensing volumes in the sites and are operable to obtain sensory data indicative of the 3D arrangement of elements in a within the sites.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: NOVETO SYSTEMS LTD.
    Inventors: Silviu Zilberman, Tomer Shani, Noam Babayoff
  • Patent number: 10951973
    Abstract: A headset includes a connector configured to couple to a terminal, where the connector of the headset includes at least one functional pin. The headset further includes a sensor circuit and a logic control circuit. The sensor circuit is coupled to a functional pin of the connector of the headset using the logic control circuit. The sensor circuit is configured to sense a wearing status of the headset, and output a trigger signal to the logic control circuit when the wearing status changes. A sensor is added to the headset, and sensor information is fed back to the terminal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Guang He, Xiaojin Zhu, Zhengjin Zhang, Silong Chen, Peitao Xi
  • Patent number: 10943577
    Abstract: The present disclosure includes solid-state transducers, a system, and a method. In one embodiment, a solid-state transducer includes a housing, a first end portion, a second end portion, a plurality of electrical conductors, and a thin-film resistive material. The thin-film resistive material is disposed between and in electrical communication with a plurality of electrical conductors. The thin-film resistive material is configured to receive one or more electrical signals from the plurality of electrical conductors, and generate thermal oscillations to create pressure waves in a medium in response to receiving the one or more electrical signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
    Inventor: Andrew Robert Barnard
  • Patent number: 10945070
    Abstract: An unmanned aircraft includes: a sensor that includes at least a microphone that generates sound data; and a processor. The processor determines the quality of a target sound by use of the sound data generated by the microphone, identifies a sound source direction from the unmanned aircraft to the sound source of the target sound by use of data generated by the sensor, and controls an unmanned aircraft state that is a state of the unmanned aircraft such that a direction of a sound pickup area is aligned with the sound source direction, in accordance with the determined quality. The sound pickup area is a range in which sound pickup quality of the microphone is higher than that of another area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Stephen William John, Kazunobu Konishi, Katsuhiko Asai, Kazuo Inoue
  • Patent number: 10939220
    Abstract: The invention discloses rendering sound field signals, such as Higher-Order Ambisonics (HOA), for arbitrary loudspeaker setups, where the rendering results in highly improved localization properties and is energy preserving. This is obtained by rendering an audio sound field representation for arbitrary spatial loudspeaker setups and/or by a a decoder that decodes based on a decode matrix (D). The decode matrix (D) is based on smoothing and scaling of a first decode matrix {circumflex over (D)} with smoothing coefficients. The first decode matrix {circumflex over (D)} is based on a mix matrix G and a mode matrix {tilde over (?)}, where the mix matrix G was determined based on L speakers and positions of a spherical modelling grid related to a HOA order N, and the mode matrix {tilde over (?)} was determined based on the spherical modelling grid and the HOA order N.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation
    Inventors: Johannes Boehm, Florian Keiler
  • Patent number: 10928244
    Abstract: Disclosed are methods and systems for detection of a discharge of a projectile from a firearm. An example method for detection of a discharge of a projectile from a firearm may commence with recording environmental audio by at least one microphone associated with at least one electronic device. The method may continue with triggering, by a processing unit associated with the at least one electronic device, based on predetermined triggering criteria, a frequency analysis of the environmental audio. The analysis may be performed to determine a likelihood of the projectile being discharged from the firearm. The method may further include transferring, by a data transfer unit associated with the at least one electronic device, results of the frequency analysis from the at least one electronic device to a data storage unit for post-processing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 23, 2021
    Assignee: HDWB, LLC
    Inventors: John Myrl Warren, Eric William Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 10924076
    Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for changing a distributed mode loudspeaker's fundamental frequency. One of the systems includes a distributed mode loudspeaker comprising an actuator that includes: a supported portion, and a cantilevered portion having a length, a first fundamental frequency, and adapted to create a force to cause vibration of a load to generate sound waves using the first fundamental frequency; a support element connected to the supported portion of the actuator and adapted to adjust, based on a change to a shape of the support element, a size of the length of the cantilevered portion to change the first fundamental frequency to a second fundamental frequency with which the load will generate sound waves; and a frequency selection module that provides a signal to the support element to cause the support element to change shape.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Graham Landick, Neil John Harris
  • Patent number: 10911749
    Abstract: Display device ON/OFF detection methods and apparatus are disclosed. Example display activity detectors disclosed herein are to extract regions from respective ones of captured video frames, the regions corresponding to a depiction of a display of a monitored media device Disclosed example display activity detectors are also to compute a distance metric that is to represent an amount a first one of the regions of a first one of the captured video frames differs from a corresponding second one of the regions of a second one of the captured video frames. Disclosed example display activity detectors are further to compare the distance metric to a threshold to determine whether the monitored media device is ON or OFF.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, Dan Nelson
  • Patent number: 10897671
    Abstract: A 5 GHz multichannel lossless wireless audio system, having a transmitter (1) and multiple receivers (2), the transmitter (1) consists of a main signal processing portion (11), a 5G wireless transmitting portion (12), a first single chip portion (13), a LED indicating and displaying portion (14), and a first power supply portion (15). Each receiver (2) consists of a a 5G wireless receiving portion (21), a digital/analog conversion and power amplifying portion (22), a second single chip portion (23), a LED indicating panel portion (24), and a second power supply portion (25).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Inventor: Fengshuo Wang
  • Patent number: 10896668
    Abstract: A signal processing apparatus is provided which can suppress external noise without degrading an audio characteristic.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 19, 2021
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshinori Tamori, Kohei Asada, Tetsunori Itabashi, Shinpei Tsuchiya
  • Patent number: 10893364
    Abstract: A speaker system is provided having a primary speaker module configured to communicate with an external audio device and having a speaker output face and a back surface, and a secondary speaker module in signal communication with the primary speaker module and having a speaker output face and a back surface. The primary speaker module and the secondary speaker module combine in at least two configurations, a first configuration in which the primary speaker module and the secondary speaker module are connected at their back surfaces and their respective speaker output faces face opposite directions, and a second configuration in which the primary speaker module and the secondary speaker module are side by side and their respective speaker output faces face substantially the same direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: DGL GROUP LTD.
    Inventors: Marc Liniado, Andrew Kohlsmith
  • Patent number: 10891933
    Abstract: An audio processing system is described including an amplifier configured to receive a first audio signal and output the first audio signal to an acoustic transducer comprising a voice coil. A sensor detects a signal corresponding to voice coil current of the acoustic transducer. A controller compares the first audio signal and the detected signal and determines a second audio signal from the comparison. The second audio signal is representative of an external sound source detected via the acoustic transducer. The audio processing system may simultaneously output the first audio signal and receive the second audio signal using the same acoustic transducer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: NXP B.V.
    Inventors: Fre Jorrit Jorritsma, Quino Sandifort, Albertus de Man, Mattheus Johan Koerts
  • Patent number: 10891936
    Abstract: Engine order cancellation (EOC) systems generate feed forward noise signals based on the engine or other rotating shaft RPM and use those signals and adaptively configured W-filters to reduce the in-cabin SPL by radiating anti-noise through speakers. An EOC system may include a signal analysis controller for detecting non-stationary events, such as speech, based on parameters sampled from a current frame of error signals output from microphones positioned in various locations of a vehicle passenger cabin. Upon detection, the signal analysis controller may mitigate the effects of the non-stationary event to prevent the EOC system from boosting noise or contributing to a speech-like post-echo in the passenger cabin. For example, if speech is detected in a frame, then the adaptation can be frozen for that frame. Alternatively, the signal analysis controller may adaptively subtract voice signals out of the error microphone signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 12, 2021
    Assignee: Harman International Industries, Incorporated
    Inventor: Kevin J. Bastyr
  • Patent number: 10887717
    Abstract: A method for simulation of movement of a sound source comprising convolving a source wave form with at least an Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) to generate a point sound source at a simulated first distance from the listener, generating a spherical harmonic representation of the source waveform at a simulated second distance from the listener, crossfading the sound level of the point sound source and the spherical harmonic representation of the source waveform at a simulated second distance from the listener and driving a speaker with the cross-faded spherical harmonic representation of the source waveform and the point sound source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2021
    Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Scott Wardle, Robert Pullman
  • Patent number: 10880648
    Abstract: A loudspeaker assembly comprising: a first loudspeaker configured to receive a first electrical signal, and to produce sound along a first principal radiating axis based on the first electrical signal; a second loudspeaker configured to receive a second electrical signal, and to produce sound along a second principal radiating axis based on the second electrical signal; a third loudspeaker configured to receive a third electrical signal, and to produce sound along a third principal radiating axis based on the third electrical signal; and a control unit configured to produce each of the first, second and third electrical signals based on an input signal representative of audio. There is a first angular offset between the first and second principal radiating axes and a second angular offset between the first and third principal radiating axes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 24, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: PSS BELGIUM NV
    Inventor: Stefan Willems
  • Patent number: 10880667
    Abstract: A method for generating an individualized audio output response for a headset based on a representation of a user's ear. One or more images of a portion of a user's head including at least the user's ear are received. A representation of the user's ear is generated based in part on the one or more images. A simulation of sound propagation from an audio source to the user's ear is performed based on the representation. An individualized audio output response is generated for the user based on the simulation, the individualized audio output response configured to adjust one or more acoustic parameters of audio content provided to the user by the headset.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 29, 2020
    Assignee: Facebook Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Sang-Ik Terry Cho, Vamsi Krishna Ithapu, Pablo Francisco Faundez Hoffmann, Majid Mirbagheri