Abstract: Technology for dynamic characterization of a communication device is disclosed. One method comprises sending an acoustic characterization excitation signal to be output by an acoustic transducer in the communication device. A received acoustic coupling signal that is received by a microphone of the communication device in response to the output of the acoustic transducer is measured. An acoustic signal conditioning algorithm is applied to at least one of the microphone or the acoustic transducer to reduce an amplitude of the acoustic signal or the received acoustic coupling signal to a level below a selected threshold.

Abstract: An impulse response between a sound-producing source and a listening point in an acoustic space is measured. A frequency characteristic serving as the processing target of sound field correction is derived from the impulse response. A level difference at a boundary frequency between a level representing a low frequency band and a level representing middle and high frequency bands is calculated for the low frequency band equal to or lower than the boundary frequency and the middle and high frequency bands higher than the boundary frequency in the frequency characteristic. The level of a target characteristic in the low frequency band in the frequency characteristic is decided to set the level difference after sound field correction to be equal to or smaller than a predetermined value.

Abstract: Provided is a surround component generation device capable of generating surround components for multichannel reproduction based on two-channel audio signals with a small amount of arithmetic operation. The surround component generation device includes: multipliers for changing amplitudes of audio input signals; subtractors for subtracting outputs of the multipliers from the input signals; coefficient updaters for updating coefficients of the multipliers; subtractors for generating surround components based on the input signals and the output signals of the multipliers; output switches for switching and outputting the output signals of the subtractors; and output switching controllers for controlling the output switches. Each of the coefficient updaters updates the coefficient of the multiplier based on the output of the subtractor, and each of the output switching controllers switches the output switch based on the coefficient updated by the coefficient updater.

Abstract: Testing I/O (input/output) eye width for an interface with an inverted modulated strobe or clock signal. An I/O interface includes multiple signal lines, each with a hardware I/O buffer with timing characteristics. A system generates a strobe signal with a triggering edge that triggers a write, and a trailing edge that is modulated by adjusting the duty cycle of the strobe signal. The system inverts the modulated strobe signal to generate an inverted strobe signal, wherein the inverted strobe signal has a modulated triggering edge generated from inverting the modulated trailing edge. The device under test writes test data based on the triggering edge of the original strobe signal and reads test data based on the triggering edge of the inverted strobe signal.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an encoding device and method, and a decoding device and method, and a program which enable music signals to be played with higher sound quality by expanding a frequency band. A band pass filter divides an input signal into multiple subband signals, a feature amount calculating circuit calculates feature amount using at least any one of the divided multiple subband signals and the input signal, a high-frequency subband power estimating circuit calculates an estimated value of high-frequency subband power based on the calculated feature amount, and a high-frequency signal generating circuit generates a high-frequency signal component based on the multiple subband signals divided by the band pass filter and the estimated value of the high-frequency subband power calculated by the high-frequency subband power estimating circuit.

Abstract: A method may include forming a plurality of beams to receive and spatially filter audible sounds from a first microphone and a second microphone. The plurality of beams may include a first unidirectional beam to receive audible sounds from the first microphone and the second microphone, a second unidirectional beam to receive audible sounds from the first microphone and the second microphone, the second unidirectional beam having a spatial null in a direction different from that of the first unidirectional beam, and an omnidirectional beam to receive audible sounds from the first microphone and the second microphone. The method may also include determining a first energy of audible sounds filtered by the first unidirectional beam and a second energy of audible sounds filtered by the second unidirectional beam and, based on the first energy and the second energy, selecting one of the plurality of beams as a selected beam.

Abstract: A method of estimating a steering vector of a sensor array of M sensors according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes estimating a steering vector of a noise source located at an angle ? degrees from a look direction of the array using a least squares estimate of the gains of the sensors in the array, defining a steering vector of a desired sound source in the look direction of the array, and estimating the steering vector by performing element-by-element multiplication of the estimated noise vector and the complex conjugate of steering vector of the desired sound source. The sensors may be microphones.

Abstract: A magnetic field antenna that provides high efficiency and a compact form factor. Electromagnetic shielding of electrical components used in the antenna is provided, and one embodiment of the invention is a wireless battery-free communications earplug.

Abstract: A computing device is configured to compute a function of one or more inputs, comprising look-up tables mapping input values to output values, wherein the inputs values have a bit size equal to a first code word bit size of a first error correcting code, such that any two input values that each differ at most by a first error threshold of bits with a same code word of the first error correcting code are mapped to respective output values that each differ at most by a second error threshold number of bits with a same code word of a second error correcting.

Abstract: A method and device are disclosed for determining an inter-channel time difference of a multi-channel audio signal having at least two channels. A determination is made at a number of consecutive time instances, inter-channel correlation based on a cross-correlation function involving at least two different channels of the multi-channel audio signal. Each value of the inter-channel correlation is associated with a corresponding value of the inter-channel time difference. An adaptive inter-channel correlation threshold is adaptively determined based on adaptive smoothing of the inter-channel correlation in time. A current value of the inter-channel correlation is then evaluated in relation to the adaptive inter-channel correlation threshold to determine whether the corresponding current value of the inter-channel time difference is relevant. Based on the result of this evaluation, an updated value of the inter-channel time difference is determined.

Abstract: A transmitter for transmitting a signal including an interleaved symbol stream includes a convolutional interleaver including a plurality of delay portions, each of which is arranged to delay symbols from an uninterleaved symbol stream from an input to an output by a different amount, the delay portions being arranged in a sequence. An input selector inputs the symbols from the uninterleaved symbol stream to the delay portions so that successive symbols are input in accordance with the sequence of the delay portions. An output selector reads the symbols from the delay portions by successively selecting the symbols from the outputs of the delay portions in accordance with the sequence of the delay portions to form an interleaved symbol stream.

Abstract: A grounding switch is described which operates properly even in the presence of negative voltages on a signal line. The grounding switch uses isolated field effect transistors that have their substrates tied to different voltages. The isolated field effect transistor has a gate voltage and substrate voltage which can be pulled down to a negative voltage when the signal line has a negative voltage allowing the switch to remain open even with a negative voltage.

Abstract: An improved wireless communications earplug for use with a magnetic field transmitter. The wireless earplug has a receiver made of a coil of wire on a magnetic bobbin, mounted in close proximity or in contact with a magnetic case of a speaker. The magnetic case of the speaker serves to increase the magnetic flux through the receiver and improves the efficiency of the earplug. The speaker is acoustically coupled to an eartip, and the earplug may be molded into a custom earplug body.

Abstract: In general, techniques are described for grouping audio objects into clusters. In some examples, a device for audio signal processing comprises a cluster analysis module configured to, based on a plurality of audio objects, produce a first grouping of the plurality of audio objects into L clusters, wherein the first grouping is based on spatial information from at least N among the plurality of audio objects and L is less than N. The device also includes an error calculator configured to calculate an error of the first grouping relative to the plurality of audio objects, wherein the error calculator is further configured to, based on the calculated error, produce a plurality L of audio streams according to a second grouping of the plurality of audio objects into L clusters that is different from the first grouping.

Abstract: An ultrasonic audio system includes a location sensor includes a location tracking module configured to receive information from the location sensor and to determine a location of a listener in a listening environment; a time delay module configured to receive audio content and to generate a plurality of audio content signals, the generated audio content signals comprising a plurality of individual instances of the audio content signal each instance delayed in time relative to the other instances of the audio content signals; and an ultrasonic emitter comprising a plurality of electrically isolated sections, each section having an input electrically coupled to receive one of the individual instances of the audio content signal, and configured to emit an audio-modulated ultrasonic signal from each of the plurality of electrically isolated sections.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, an encoder generates a write data parity from write data to memory elements. A decoder corrects an error of read data from the memory elements using a read data parity for the read data and a check matrix. An inverter maintains or inverts all bits of a received input. Calculation by the decoder using the read data, the read data parity, and the check matrix produces a first result when an error is not included in the read data, a second result when an error is included in the read data, a third result when an error is not included in the read data and all bits of the read data are inverted, and a fourth result when an error is included in the read data and all bits of the read data are not inverted.

Abstract: Example apparatus and methods combine erasure coding with data deduplication to simultaneously reduce the overall redundancy in data while increasing the redundancy of unique data. In one embodiment, an efficient representation of a data set is produced by deduplication. The efficient representation reduces duplicate data in the data set. Redundancy is then added back into the data set using erasure coding. The redundancy that is added back in adds protection to the unique data associated with the efficient representation. How much redundancy is added back in and what type of redundancy is added back in may be controlled based on an attribute (e.g., value, reference count, symbol size, number of symbols) of the unique data. Decisions concerning how much and what type of redundancy to add back in may be adapted over time based, for example, on observations of the efficiency of the overall system.

Abstract: A semiconductor memory device includes: a memory array; a data-maintaining component, maintaining data read from the memory array or maintaining data used for writing to the memory array; an external input/output terminal; an error correction component, coupling the data-maintaining component and performing error-detection or correcting the data input to the data-maintaining component or output data from the data-maintaining component; a compressing component, coupling between the external input/output terminal and the error correction component and compressing or extending data. The compressing component compresses data provided by the external input/output terminal, provides the compressed data to the error correction component, extends the data provided by the error correction component, and provides the extended data to the external input/output terminal.

Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for protecting data with an error correction code (ECC). The data is accessed by a processing unit and stored in an external memory, such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Application data and related ECC data are advantageously stored in a common page within a common DRAM device. Application data and ECC data are transmitted between the processor and the external common DRAM device over a common set of input/output (I/O) pins. Eliminating I/O pins and DRAM devices conventionally associated with transmitting and storing ECC data advantageously reduces system complexity and cost.

Abstract: Provided is a headphone driver including a yoke that has a bottom surface and an erected surface that is erected in a perpendicular direction with respect to the bottom surface, and that is formed using a magnetic material, and a bonded magnet unit consisting of a bonded magnet that is provided on the bottom surface of the yoke. The magnetic flux of the bonded magnet unit is concentrated on the side surface of the bonded magnet unit facing the erected surface of the yoke.