Patents Examined by Lun-See Lao
  • Patent number: 11284181
    Abstract: An electronic device for charging earphones includes a housing, a processor, a power supply, a wireless communication device, and a hardware storage device in data communication with the processor. The housing is configured to couple with the earphones. The power supply is in electrical communication with the processor and with an electrical contact to provide electrical communication with earphones. The wireless communication device is in data communication with the processor and configured to be in wireless data communication with the earphones. The hardware storage device is in data communication with the processor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Kaitlyn Marley Schoeck, Ralf Groene, Panos Costa Panay, Young Soo Kim, Woo Ram Lee, Juha Eero Olavi Kuosmanen
  • Patent number: 11277678
    Abstract: A handle assembly for an electronic device, such as an audio device, is described herein. In some implementations, the handle assembly includes a flexible fabric, rope handle that attaches at the side and near the top of the device. The attachment assembly utilizes an eyelet that slides onto the rope handle prior to attaching an endpiece to the rope. The endpiece is inserted into a device housing opening that receives the handle attachment assembly. The eyelet is then inserted into that housing opening to secure the eyelet and endpiece into the opening. A sealing member, such as an O-ring, is utilized to secure the eyelet into the opening, and to provide other benefits, such as preventing or reducing acoustic buzz that would otherwise occur between the eyelet and the casing during audio playback.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 15, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventor: Brenton Harry Eva
  • Patent number: 11270711
    Abstract: In general, techniques are described by which to provide priority information for higher order ambisonic (HOA) audio data. A device comprising a memory and a processor may perform the techniques. The memory stores HOA coefficients of the HOA audio data, the HOA coefficients representative of a soundfield. The processor may decompose the HOA coefficients into a sound component and a corresponding spatial component, the corresponding spatial component defining shape, width, and directions of the sound component, and the corresponding spatial component defined in a spherical harmonic domain. The processor may also determine, based on one or more of the sound component and the corresponding spatial component, priority information indicative of a priority of the sound component relative to other sound components of the soundfield, and specify, in a data object representative of a compressed version of the HOA audio data, the sound component and the priority information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorproated
    Inventors: Moo Young Kim, Nils Günther Peters, Shankar Thagadur Shivappa, Dipanjan Sen
  • Patent number: 11265640
    Abstract: A headphone assembly, including: a switching element for controlling a switch of at least one functional element in a headphone; a pressure sensor accommodated in a groove of a speaker board; and an ear pad covering the groove, when the ear pad is pressed, a trigger element may be moved to press against the pressure sensor, when detecting that pressure applied by the trigger element reaches a predetermined range, the pressure sensor switches on the switching element, otherwise, the pressure sensor switches off the switching element.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: TYMPHANY ACOUSTIC TECHNOLOGY (HUIZHOU) CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Thomas Pieter J. Peeters, Hung-Fen Chen, Hung-Wei Lee, Chia-Hsin Hung
  • Patent number: 11259115
    Abstract: A spatial-audio recording system includes a processor, and instructions stored in a computer-readable medium that, when read by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations. The operations include retrieving audio data recorded at a number of microphones, determining a recorded signal vector based on the audio data, and initializing values for an operator. The operations further include determining a plurality of waves from directions by performing operations comprising iteratively, until an exit condition is satisfied: initializing or incrementing an index “i”; determining an ith direction using the operator; and updating the operator to correspond to the ith iteration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: VisiSonics Corporation
    Inventors: Nail A. Gumerov, Bowen Zhi, Ramani Duraiswami
  • Patent number: 11259134
    Abstract: Systems and methods for using auditorily-induced vection (AIV) to enhance a person's attitude awareness are provided herein. In at least one embodiment, an auditory object is projected based on the orientation of the person or a vehicle and the projected auditory is provided to the person. By projecting the auditory object, the attitude of the person or the vehicle can be conveyed to the person to enhance the person's attitude awareness.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Assignee: Raytheon BBN Technologies Corp.
    Inventor: Scott E. Ritter
  • Patent number: 11240603
    Abstract: A speaker apparatus includes a measuring unit configured to measure a first distance to a detection object, the detection object existing on one side in a vertical direction substantially orthogonal to a sound radiation direction, and a second distance to a detection object, the detection object existing on another side in the vertical direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 1, 2022
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Fumito Yoshida
  • Patent number: 11234064
    Abstract: This invention relates to microphone accessories, particularly microphone flags, for use with a hand-held microphone having a bulbous head and elongate stalk extending therefrom. The accessory has at least one body having at least one display face for displaying at least a first communication; at least one attachment formation for attaching the body to the microphone; and at least one display member for displaying at least a second communication, wherein the at least one display member is permanently or removably attachable to the body and/or the microphone, and wherein the at least one display member is configured to extend and/or supplement the at least one display face of the body, in use. The invention also relates to a method of using a microphone and to a microphone accessory apparatus.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Inventor: Steven Mark Levinsohn
  • Patent number: 11231902
    Abstract: Volume limiting systems and methods are operable to limit volume output from media presentation devices. An exemplary embodiment detects a sound using a microphone, wherein the sound corresponds to an audio output of at least one controlled media presentation device, and wherein the microphone is remotely located from the at least one controlled media presentation device; compares a level of the detected sound with a predefined maximum volume limit; generates a volume output limit command in response to the detected sound exceeding the predefined maximum volume limit; and communicates the volume output limit command to the media presentation device. The media presentation device then reduces a volume level of its audio output. In some instances, volume may be limited during user specified periods.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: DISH TECHNOLOGIES L.L.C.
    Inventor: Bernard A. McCarthy
  • Patent number: 11191456
    Abstract: A device is used to monitor, in real-time, one or more environment conditions of an environment in which a user is located. Based on the monitoring, an alert condition relating to the environment is detected. Based on detecting the alert condition, on-demand testing of a sensory component of the user is initiated. The on-demand testing tests for a selected condition relating to the health of the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2021
    Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION
    Inventors: John S. Werner, Byron S. Green, William L. Brodsky, Robert K. Mullady, Jeffrey A. Newcomer, Arkadiy O. Tsfasman
  • Patent number: 11184725
    Abstract: A method includes detecting, by a speaker system including a microphone, one or more boundaries within a proximity to the speaker system. The speaker system adjusts an output of the speaker system based on the one or more detected boundaries. A sound quality of the speaker system is improved based on adjusting the output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Adrian Celestinos Arroyo
  • Patent number: 11184699
    Abstract: Some disclosed systems may include a microphone system having two or more microphones, an interface system and a control system. In some examples, the control system may be capable of receiving, via the interface system, audio data from two or more microphones of the microphone system, of determining a gesture location based, at least in part, on the audio data and of controlling one or more settings of the system based on the gesture location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated
    Inventors: Feng Han, Jin Won Lee, Xinzhou Wu, Rashid Ahmed Akbar Attar
  • Patent number: 11175879
    Abstract: An information processing method includes storing, in a memory, a sound signal transmitted from the outside by using a first transmission method in which a bandwidth is guaranteed and timing is restricted, and processing, using a processor, the sound signal stored in the memory upon a predetermined data size of the sound signal being stored in the memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATION
    Inventor: Takashi Ito
  • Patent number: 11172282
    Abstract: An earphone has a housing, a sound output hole, a first touch sensor, a second touch, a third touch sensor, and a microprocessor. The microprocessor is coupled to the first touch sensor, the second touch sensor and the third touch sensor for determining whether the earphone is worn on an ear according to the sensing result of the first touch sensor, determining whether the earphone is held in hand according to the sensing result of the second touch sensor, and providing a corresponding control function according to the sensing result of the third touch sensor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 9, 2021
    Assignee: ITE Tech. Inc.
    Inventors: Chia-Shen Hsu, Ping-Yuan Wang
  • Patent number: 11166098
    Abstract: In some examples, an acoustic input device includes a housing comprising a plurality of acoustic ports, and a plurality of single-port acoustic transducers within the housing to receive respective acoustic waves from an environment outside the acoustic input device through corresponding acoustic ports of the plurality of acoustic ports, where a first acoustic port of the plurality of acoustic ports is located on a first surface of the housing, and a second acoustic port of the plurality of acoustic ports is located on a second surface of the housing that is opposite the first surface. The acoustic input device further includes a controller within the housing to receive outputs of the plurality of acoustic transducers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Wensen Liu, HyunWoo Choi
  • Patent number: 11164550
    Abstract: The subject matter discloses a system implemented on in a mobile electronic device, the system comprising a processing system of the device; and a memory that contains instructions comprising: detecting ambient sounds in the vicinity of the mobile electronic device; determining at least one property selected from a group consisting of a relative direction and relative distance of the ambient sounds relative to the mobile electronic device; analyzing the detected ambient sounds; outputting audio Interactive Music data based on the analysis of the ambient sounds and based on at least one of a relative direction and relative distance of the ambient sounds relative to the mobile electronic device; wherein said outputting is performed on the mobile electronic device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2021
    Assignee: HISEP TECHNOLOGY LTD.
    Inventors: Yariv Erad, Gad Vered, Uri Vered, Menachem Erad
  • Patent number: 11158334
    Abstract: In a case where two microphones are used, sound source direction estimation of a plurality of sound sources can be performed with high accuracy. For this purpose, an inter-microphone phase difference is calculated for every frequency band in a microphone pair including two microphones that are installed apart from each other by a predetermined distance. Furthermore, for every frequency band in the microphone pair, a single sound source mask indicating whether or not a component of the frequency band is a single sound source is calculated. Then, the calculated inter-microphone phase difference and the calculated single sound source mask are input as feature quantities to a multi-label classifier, and a direction label associated with a sound source direction is output to the feature quantities.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventor: Atsuo Hiroe
  • Patent number: 11159873
    Abstract: A wireless headphone system, a wireless headphone, and a base. The wireless headphone system includes the wireless headphone and the base. The base includes a base RXD wire, a base TXD wire, a base connection wire, and a base triode; and the wireless headphone includes a wireless headphone RXD wire, a wireless headphone TXD wire, a wireless headphone connection wire, and a wireless headphone transistor. The base RXD wire and the base TXD wire are connected together through the base transistor and led out through the base connection wire. The wireless headphone RXD wire and the wireless headphone TXD wire are connected together through the wireless headphone transistor and led out through the wireless headphone connection wire. When the headphone is charged on the base, two-way communication between the headphone and the base can still be implemented while maintaining the existing three-wire design.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: YEALINK (XIAMEN) NETWORK TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Chaofan Zeng, Xiaosheng Lin, Rongfu Lu
  • Patent number: 11153678
    Abstract: A method including establishing, at a first wireless audio device, a first communication channel with a second wireless audio device, receiving, at the first wireless audio device, audio data corresponding to a user utterance, determining that the audio data includes a wake word, transmitting at least a portion of the audio data from the first wireless audio device to a mobile device via a second communication channel, receiving an indication to establish a third communication channel with a second wireless audio device, and establishing the third communication channel with the second wireless audio device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 19, 2021
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Milos Jorgovanovic, Hans Edward Birch-Jensen
  • Patent number: 11137979
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for establishing a metadata exchange channel between a media playback system and a networked microphone system, wherein the networked microphone system comprises a networked microphone device and a networked microphone server. After establishing the metadata exchange channel, the media playback system experiences a metadata exchange triggering event. In response to experiencing the metadata exchange triggering event, the media playback system provides metadata to the networked microphone system via the metadata exchange channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2021
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventors: Mark Plagge, Simon Jarvis, Christopher Butts