Patents Examined by David L Ton
  • Patent number: 11910143
    Abstract: Display panel and display apparatus including the same. A display panel includes a first substrate including a display portion configured to display an image, a second substrate attached to the first substrate by an adhesive member, and a vibration generating module within the adhesive member to overlap the display portion. The vibration generating module is surrounded by the second substrate and the adhesive member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2023
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: LG DISPLAY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: YongGyoon Jang, Yong-Su Ham, YongWoo Lee, Kyungyeol Ryu
  • Patent number: 11909387
    Abstract: A digital microphone or other sensor assembly includes a transducer and an electrical circuit including a slew-rate controlled output buffer configured to reduce propagation delay and maintain output rise and fall time independent of PVT variation and load capacitance. In some embodiments, the portions of the output buffer are selectably disabled to reduce power consumption without adversely substantially increasing propagation delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: KNOWLES ELECTRONICS, LLC.
    Inventors: Satya Sai Evani, Sudheer Gutta, Sreenath Pariyarath, Gururaj Ghorpade, Sruthi Panangavil
  • Patent number: 11908444
    Abstract: An apparatus for providing active noise control, includes: one or more microphones configured to detect sound entering through an aperture of a building structure; a set of speakers configured to provide sound output for cancelling or reducing at least some of the sound; and a processing unit communicatively coupled to the set of speakers, wherein the processing unit is configured to provide control signals to operate the speakers, wherein the control signals are independent of an error-microphone output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 20, 2024
    Assignee: GN HEARING A/S
    Inventors: Willem Bastiaan Kleijn, Daan Ratering
  • Patent number: 11895468
    Abstract: In at least one embodiment, a system for synchronizing an audio stream is provided. The system includes a first loudspeaker and an audio controller. The first loudspeaker plays back a first audio output signal including first signature information. The audio controller provides a first audio input signal and superimpose the first signature information on the first audio input signal. The audio controller receives the first audio output signal including the first audio packets and the first signature information and to detect the first signature information. The audio controller determines a delay attributed to a transmission of the first audio input signal and the first audio output signal based on the first signature information and synchronizes the transmission of a second audio input signal from the audio controller to the first loudspeaker with the playback of another audio output signal from a second loudspeaker based at least on the delay.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2022
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: Harman International Industries, Incorporated
    Inventors: Hussnain Ali, Srinath Arunachalam, Kadagattur Gopinatha Srinidhi
  • Patent number: 11895459
    Abstract: The present invention includes: a housing that includes an arrangement case in which an internal space is formed, and a sound guide tube in which a sound conduction space is formed; a feedback microphone to which an external sound is input; a first speaker unit that outputs a sound; and a second speaker unit that outputs a sound in an output band different from an output band of the sound output from the first speaker unit. The housing has inside a first space and a second space, the feedback microphone and the first speaker unit are arranged in the first space, the second speaker unit is arranged in the second space, and an equalizer that partitions the first space and the second space is disposed between the first speaker unit and the second speaker unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 6, 2024
    Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
    Inventor: Masayoshi Hasegawa
  • Patent number: 11886996
    Abstract: An input of a first observation signal corresponding to an incoming signal from a first direction is received, an angular rotation operation of the first observation signal is performed to obtain a second observation signal corresponding to an incoming signal from a second direction that is different from the first direction and the second observation signal is added to a set of training data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Masahiro Yasuda, Yuma Koizumi, Noboru Harada
  • Patent number: 11881200
    Abstract: An extraction unit extracts sound pressure information from a spectrogram. A binarization unit carries out binarization on the extracted sound pressure information in order to generate an event mask indicating a time period in which an audio event exists.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: NEC CORPORATION
    Inventor: Sakiko Mishima
  • Patent number: 11862138
    Abstract: A hearing device comprises a forward path comprising an input transducer providing at an electric input signal representative of environment sound, a signal processor for processing said at least one electric input signal and providing a processed signal, and a loudspeaker connected to a speaker sound outlet providing an output sound to an eardrum of the user in dependence of said processed signal. The hearing device comprises an ITE-part adapted for being located in an ear canal of the user, an active emission canceller providing an electric sound cancelling signal, and an environment facing loudspeaker providing an output sound to the environment. The electric sound cancelling signal is determined in dependence of said processed signal to attenuate sound leaked from the speaker sound outlet to the environment when played by the environment facing loudspeaker. The environment facing loudspeaker has a sound outlet on an environment facing surface of the ITE-part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: January 2, 2024
    Assignee: OTICON A/S
    Inventors: Bernhard Kuenzle, Meng Guo
  • Patent number: 11849061
    Abstract: The disclosure herein provides a mobile system including a mobile base station and a wireless earbud. The base station comprising a connection hole, a user input button, at least one processor, at least one memory, and circuitry. The wireless earbud is configured for plugging into the connection hole of the base station to form an integrated body with the base station. The system establishes a wireless Bluetooth pairing between a smartphone and the wireless earbud using two-way wireless communication to produce Bluetooth communication between the smartphone and the wireless earbud.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2023
    Date of Patent: December 19, 2023
    Assignee: Pinn, Inc.
    Inventor: Seung Jin Kim
  • Patent number: 11841033
    Abstract: An electric powered work machine according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes a first and a second digital filters, a control sound source, an error sensor, and a characteristics adjustor. The first digital filter includes a series of taps and generates a control signal. The control sound source produces an artificial noise in accordance with the control signal. The error sensor converts a synthesized sound of the artificial noise and a target noise at a canceling location to an error signal. The second digital filter includes N taps and generates a filtered reference signal. The characteristics adjustor uses the error signal and the filtered reference signal to adjust a coefficient of each tap of M taps in the series of taps. Each of M and N is a positive integer satisfying M<N.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 12, 2023
    Assignee: MAKITA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Hideaki Takano
  • Patent number: 11831863
    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 30, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Christen V. Nielsen, Dan Nelson
  • Patent number: 11832081
    Abstract: An example method of operation includes identifying a loudspeaker array profile defining characteristics of a loudspeaker array stored in memory, identifying a three-dimensional venue geometry value stored in the memory, defining virtual receivers to simulate acoustic characteristics within the venue geometry, defining a number of passive acoustic filter permutations to perform within a range of passive acoustic filter settings, and each passive acoustic filter setting is unique and has one or more passive acoustic filters to apply to one or more loudspeakers in the loudspeaker array, selecting performance criteria to apply to the loudspeaker array to represent its sound coverage uniformity at a given location throughout the venue geometry, calculating the performance criteria of the loudspeaker array via a passive acoustic filter setting selected from one or more of the passive acoustic filter permutations by performing a simulation with the passive acoustic filter settings, identifying an optimized passive
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 24, 2023
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Biamp Systems, LLC
    Inventor: Xian Yu
  • Patent number: 11824507
    Abstract: Apparatus, systems, articles of manufacture, and methods for volume adjustment are disclosed herein. An example method includes collecting data corresponding to a volume of an audio signal as the audio signal is output through a device, when an average volume of the audio signal does not satisfy a volume threshold for a specified timespan, determining a difference between the average volume and a desired volume, and applying a gain to the audio signal to adjust the volume of the audio signal to the desired volume, the gain determined based on the difference between the average volume and the desired volume.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: Gracenote, Inc.
    Inventors: Robert Coover, Jeffrey Scott, Markus K. Cremer, Aneesh Vartakavi
  • Patent number: 11817076
    Abstract: A playback device is configured to: produce a first channel audio output of a first channel of audio content; produce a second channel audio output of a second channel of the audio content; receive captured audio content comprising (i) a first portion corresponding to the first channel audio output, (ii) a second portion corresponding to the second channel audio output, and (iii) a third portion corresponding to a voice command, wherein the captured audio content has a first signal-to-noise ratio; determine a set of signal components from at least one of the first channel or the second channel of the audio content; perform acoustic echo cancellation on a subset of signal components; determine an acoustic echo cancellation output; and apply the acoustic echo cancellation output to the captured audio content and thereby increase the first signal-to-noise ratio to a second signal-to-noise ratio that is greater than the first signal-to-noise ratio.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventors: Saeed Bagheri Sereshki, Romi Kadri
  • Patent number: 11792569
    Abstract: The application describes a switched driver (401) for outputting a drive signal at an output node (402) to drive a load such as a transducer. The driver receives respective high-side and low-side voltages (VinH, VinL) defining an input voltage at first and second input nodes and has connections for first and second capacitors (403H, 403L). A network of switching paths is configured such that each of the first and second capacitors can be selectively charged to the input voltage, the first input node can be selectively coupled to a first node (N1) by a path that include or bypass the first capacitor, and the second input node can be selectively coupled to a second node (N2) by a path that includes or bypasses the second capacitor. The output node (402) can be switched between two switching voltages at the first or second nodes. The driver is selectively operable in different operating modes, where the switching voltages are different in each of said modes.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 26, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic Inc.
    Inventors: Anthony S. Doy, Eric J. King
  • Patent number: 11785382
    Abstract: Various aspects include active noise reduction (ANR) devices and approaches, one approach including: receiving an input signal representing audio captured by a feedforward microphone of an ANR headphone; receiving an error signal representing audio captured by an error measurement sensor; generating an anti-noise signal configured to reduce a noise signal over a frequency range; and applying a gain to at least one of the input signal or the anti-noise signal over the frequency range based on the error signal, wherein the applied gain is configured to enhance noise reduction for a plurality of users having distinct fits for the ANR headphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Inventors: Michael P. O'Connell, Joseph H. Cattell, Dale Ian McElhone
  • Patent number: 11782673
    Abstract: An apparatus, method and computer program for controlling audio output is disclosed. The apparatus may comprise means for receiving data from one or more sensors representing one or more motion characteristics of a user and determining, based on the received data, one or more time instances associated with a sound event. The apparatus may also comprise means for controlling an active hear-through system of a wearable audio output device so as to temporarily modify, at a time of the one or more time instances, sound received by one or more input transducers associated with the active hear-through system that are output to an output transducer associated with the active hear-through system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 9, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Lasse Juhani Laaksonen, Jussi Leppänen, Miikka Vilermo, Arto Lehtiniemi
  • Patent number: 11776525
    Abstract: A wave control system includes a substrate with a plurality of beams spaced apart from each other, a plurality of sensors disposed on the plurality of beams, a plurality of actuators disposed on the plurality of beams, a processor, and a memory communicably coupled to the processor. The memory stores machine-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine a frequency of a fundamental incident wave propagating within and/or incident on the plurality of beams based on a plurality of signals from the plurality of sensors, and control the plurality of actuators to generate at least one of a cancellation wave, a subharmonic wave, and a superharmonic wave, based on the frequency of the fundamental incident wave. In addition, a reflected fundamental wave, the sub harmonic wave, and/or the superharmonic wave can be steered to a desired direction or path along the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiaopeng Li, Ziqi Yu, Danil V. Prokhorov, Taehwa Lee
  • Patent number: 11776523
    Abstract: In the sound insulation apparatus, a sound wave transmitter configured to transmit sound waves with frequencies including the frequencies of propagation sound waves from a sound source and a sound wave receiver configured to receive the sound waves transmitted from the sound wave transmitter are coupled such that the orientation of a sound wave transmission surface of the sound wave transmitter and the orientation of a sound wave receiving surface of the sound wave receiver intersect each other and one pair set is formed. The one pair set is disposed in plurality such that the sound wave transmission surface of one set is spaced from and opposed to the sound wave receiving surface of another set and a space surrounding the sound source is formed. The sound waves transmitted from each of the sound wave transmitters are mixed with the propagation sound waves.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Inventor: Katsunori Suetsugu
  • Patent number: 11778380
    Abstract: Various implementations include speaker systems. In one implementation, a self-powered speaker system includes: a self-powered speaker system, having: a first module, including: a processor; an audio signal and control connector coupled with the processor and enabling audio signal and control communication between the processor and another module in the speaker system; a dedicated power supply for the speaker system; a front end backup power supply; and a power connector coupled with the dedicated power supply and the front end backup power supply, where the first module and another module in the speaker system each include an amplifier module.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 3, 2023
    Assignee: BOSE CORPORATION
    Inventors: David Charles Gill, Benjamin Grant Karnavas, Jeffrey Alan Rocha, Curtis Rex Reed, Richard Gerald Ireland, Jr., James Kurt Mahan, Jeremy Lynn Garff