Patents Examined by Qin Zhu
  • Patent number: 11627428
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems and methods for presenting audio content in mixed reality environments. A method may include receiving a first input from an application program; in response to receiving the first input, receiving, via a first service, an encoded audio stream; generating, via the first service, a decoded audio stream based on the encoded audio stream; receiving, via a second service, the decoded audio stream; receiving a second input from one or more sensors of a wearable head device; receiving, via the second service, a third input from the application program, wherein the third input corresponds to a position of one or more virtual speakers; generating, via the second service, a spatialized audio stream based on the decoded audio stream, the second input, and the third input; presenting, via one or more speakers of the wearable head device, the spatialized audio stream.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Inventors: Jean-Marc Jot, Michael Minnick, Dmitry Pastouchenko, Michael Aaron Simon, John Emmitt Scott, III, Richard St. Clair Bailey, Shivakumar Balasubramanyam, Harsharaj Agadi
  • Patent number: 11617052
    Abstract: An apparatus for optimizing a binaural beat according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a binaural beat generator that generates a binaural beat; and a binaural beat controller that optimizes the binaural beat in consideration of a hearing state of left and right ears of a listener. A method for optimizing a binaural beat according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: generating a binaural beat; and optimizing the binaural beat in consideration of a hearing state of left and right ears of a listener.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 8, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 28, 2023
    Inventor: Min Joo Choi
  • Patent number: 11611829
    Abstract: Power supply units e.g. in network operated loudspeakers are tailored to peak values that are reached only relatively rarely and then in pulses. With an intermediate storage of electrical energy in an intermediate circuit energy storage element it is possible to provide a significantly higher amount of power at least for a short period of time. The intermediate circuit energy storage element may be a capacitor or accumulator, for example, which is connected to an intermediate circuit voltage that is higher than the input voltage, and that is generated by an upconverter. A downconverter generates the output voltage of the power supply unit from the energy stored in the intermediate circuit storage element. The output voltage of the power supply unit is used as power supply for an audio amplifier. The power supply unit may provide for a short period of time a higher current or more energy respectively than the actual energy source, for example the network node.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Stephan Leschka, Johannes Storch
  • Patent number: 11611841
    Abstract: An audio processing method includes: M first audio signals are obtained by processing a to-be-processed audio signal by M first virtual speakers; N second audio signals are obtained by processing the to-be-processed audio signal by N second virtual speakers; M first head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) centered at a left ear position and N second HRTFs centered at a right ear position are obtained; a first target audio signal is obtained based on the M first audio signals and the M first HRTFs; and a second target audio signal is obtained based on the N second audio signals and the N second HRTFs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 21, 2023
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Cal Armstrong, Gavin Kearney, Bin Wang, Zexin Liu
  • Patent number: 11606662
    Abstract: The description relates to modeling acoustic effects in scenes with dynamic portals. One implementation includes obtaining a representation of a scene having a plurality of portals and simulating sound travel in the scene using a plurality of probes deployed in the scene. The implementation also includes determining acoustic parameters for initial sound traveling between respective probes based at least on the simulating. The implementation also includes identifying one or more intercepted portals in the scene that are intercepted by a particular initial sound path from a particular source location to a particular listener location, using particular acoustic parameters for the particular source location and the particular listener location.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventor: Nikunj Raghuvanshi
  • Patent number: 11606660
    Abstract: Electronic glasses track head movement of a user with respect to a location in empty space on top of a physical object. One or more processors process sound that externally localizes as binaural sound to the location in empty space on top of the physical object. Speakers in the electronic glasses provide the binaural sound to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: March 14, 2023
    Inventors: Glen A. Norris, Philip Scott Lyren
  • Patent number: 11601776
    Abstract: An example device for processing one or more audio streams includes a memory configured to store the one or more audio streams and one or more processors implemented in circuitry coupled to the memory. The one or more processors are configured to determine a listener position. The one or more processors are also configured to determine one or more clusters of the one or more audio streams. The one or more processors are also configured to determine a rendering mode based on the listener position and the one or more clusters. The device also includes a renderer configured to render at least one of the one or more clusters of audio streams based on the rendering mode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 7, 2023
    Assignee: Qualcomm Incorporated
    Inventors: Siddhartha Goutham Swaminathan, S M Akramus Salehin, Nils Günther Peters, Isaac Garcia Munoz
  • Patent number: 11595775
    Abstract: Embodiments relate to binaural spatialization of more than two sound sources on two audio channels of an audio system. Sound signals each emitted from a corresponding sound source are collected, and a respective virtual position within an angular range of a sound scene is assigned to each sound source. Multi-source audio signals are generated by panning each sound signal according to the respective virtual position. A first multi-source audio signal is spatialized to a first direction to generate a first left signal and a first right signal. A second multi-source audio signal is spatialized to a second direction to generate a second left signal and a second right signal. A binaural signal is generated using the first left signal, the second left signal, the first right signal, and the second right signal. The binaural signal is such that each sound source appears to originate from its respective virtual position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventors: Philip Robinson, Sebastian Elliot Chafe
  • Patent number: 11589147
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media are disclosed for display devices with transverse planar microphone arrays. In one embodiment, an example voice-activated device may include a housing, and a display assembly coupled to the housing, where a first vertical axis associated with the display assembly is at an acute angle relative to a second vertical axis associated with the housing. Example devices may include a number of microphone openings disposed in a front face of the display assembly, a speaker coupled to the housing and oriented to direct a portion of sound towards a rear portion of the device, and a fabric disposed over the housing, the fabric comprising an aperture disposed along the rear portion of the device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 15, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2023
    Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Anurupa Rao, Paul Drucker, Subum Park, Jiger Patel, Sanditi Khandelwal, Amita Pawar, Kei Yamamoto, Wentao Cheng
  • Patent number: 11582571
    Abstract: According to one embodiment, a method, computer system, and computer program product for modulating external sounds to reflect the acoustic effects of virtual objects in a mixed-reality environment is provided. The present invention may include creating a knowledge corpus, recording a sound effect occurring externally to a mixed-reality environment experienced by a user operating the mixed-reality device; identifying one or more objects within the mixed-reality environment, including at least one virtual object; modulating the sound effect based on the knowledge corpus to simulate one or more acoustic effects of the one or more objects within the MR environment; and playing the modulated sound effect to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Dinesh Kumar B, Sarbajit K. Rakshit
  • Patent number: 11576005
    Abstract: A system reduces sound coloration caused by rendering of a 3D audio signal. The system renders the 3D audio signal including a plurality of channels using the input audio signal. Input spectra data defining spectral information of the input audio signal is computed. 3D spectra data defining spectral information of a single channel representation of the 3D audio signal is computed. The system generates a tonal balance filter based on the input spectral data and the 3D spectral data. The tonal balance filter, when applied to the 3D audio signal, reduces sound coloration caused by the rendering of the 3D audio signal. The tonal balance filter is applied to the 3D audio signal to generate an output audio signal and the output audio signal is presented via a speaker array.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Assignee: Meta Platforms Technologies, LLC
    Inventor: Pablo Francisco Faundez Hoffmann
  • Patent number: 11575986
    Abstract: Disclosed is a wearable apparatus configured for monitoring a user's environment and items in a user's environment. The wearable apparatus comprises a plurality of communication circuits configured to communicate using a plurality of communication protocols. The wearable device is configured to use sensors to automatically detect organisms in a user's environment and issue and warnings related to a detected organism. The wearable device is configured to communicate with a plurality of health sensors that may be separate modules using a plurality of communication protocols and combine the health reading into user health status data. The user status data may be transmitted along with verification tags to remote devices.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2023
    Inventor: Lloyd Douglas Manning
  • Patent number: 11570568
    Abstract: An illustrative audio processing system identifies an experience location with which an augmented reality presentation device is associated. The experience location is included within a multizone augmented reality space that is presented by the augmented reality presentation device. The audio processing system determines that the experience location is within both a first sound zone and a second sound zone of the multizone augmented reality space, and, based on the determining that the experience location is within both the first and second sound zones, generates a binaural audio stream for presentation by the augmented reality presentation device. The binaural audio stream includes an environmental audio component implemented by a mix of a first environmental audio stream associated with the first sound zone and a second environmental audio stream associated with the second sound zone. Corresponding methods and systems are also disclosed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.
    Inventors: Samuel Charles Mindlin, Kunal Jathal, Shan Anis
  • Patent number: 11568881
    Abstract: Methods and audio processing units for generating an object based audio program including conditional rendering metadata corresponding to at least one object channel of the program, where the conditional rendering metadata is indicative of at least one rendering constraint, based on playback speaker array configuration, which applies to each corresponding object channel, and methods for rendering audio content determined by such a program, including by rendering content of at least one audio channel of the program in a manner compliant with each applicable rendering constraint in response to at least some of the conditional rendering metadata. Rendering of a selected mix of content of the program may provide an immersive experience.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignees: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation, Dolby International AB
    Inventors: Sripal S. Mehta, Thomas Ziegler, Stewart Murrie
  • Patent number: 11564050
    Abstract: An audio output apparatus is disclosed. The audio output apparatus that outputs a multi-channel audio signal through a plurality of speakers disposed at different locations, the audio output apparatus includes an input interface, and a processor configured to, based on the multi-channel audio signal input through the inputter being received, obtain scene information on a type of audio included in the multi-channel audio signal and sound image angle information about an angle formed by sound image of the type of audio included in the multi-channel audio signal based on a virtual user, and generate an output signal to be output through the plurality of speakers from the multi-channel audio signal based on the obtained scene information and sound image angle information, wherein the type of audio includes at least one of sound effect, shouting sound, music, and voice, and a number of the plurality of speakers is equal to or greater than a number of channels of the multi-channel audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Inwoo Hwang, Sunmin Kim, Kibeom Kim
  • Patent number: 11562752
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus to perform audio watermarking and watermark detection and extraction are disclosed. Example apparatus disclosed herein are to select frequency components to be used to represent a code, different sets of frequency components to represent respectively different information, respective ones of the frequency components in the sets of frequency components located in respective code bands, there being multiple code bands and spacing between adjacent code bands being equal to or less than the spacing between adjacent frequency components in the code bands. Disclosed example apparatus are also to synthesize the frequency components to be used to represent the code, combine the synthesized frequency components with an audio block of an audio signal, and output the audio signal and a video signal associated with the audio signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
    Inventors: Alexander Pavlovich Topchy, Arun Ramaswamy, Venugopal Srinivasan
  • Patent number: 11558708
    Abstract: An apparatus including circuitry configured for receiving a spatial media content file including a plurality of viewpoints; circuitry configured for determining a first viewpoint from the plurality of viewpoints for a first user consuming the spatial media content file; circuitry configured for receiving an indication that affects an audio rendering of the first viewpoint for the first user, wherein the indication is associated with one or more actions of at least one second user consuming the spatial media content file; and circuitry configured for controlling the audio rendering of the first viewpoint for the first user in response to the receiving of the indication based on at least one of: a position and/or orientation of the first user, and the one or more actions of the second user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy
    Inventors: Lasse Laaksonen, Sujeet Shyamsundar Mate, Kari Jarvinen
  • Patent number: 11546704
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a system and method for establishing a bond for allowing secure communication between a hearing aid and an external device. Especially, the system and method allows for establish the bond without one of the device present during the bonding process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 3, 2023
    Assignee: OTICON A/S
    Inventor: Bjarne Klemmensen
  • Patent number: 11533578
    Abstract: At a collaboration computing device, a method for selecting a subset of audio streams for delivery to a client device includes receiving a plurality of audio streams from a plurality of source devices, each source device associated with a different spatial position within a virtual environment. For each audio stream, the collaboration computing device determines a source audio energy value and computes a client-centric audio energy value by modifying the source audio energy value using a corresponding source attenuation value associated with the source device that transmitted the audio stream. The collaboration computing device generates a source prioritization list by sorting the plurality of source devices by their client-centric audio energy values. A subset of the audio streams are selected and delivered to the client device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 25, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Ashutosh Vidyadhar Tatake, Noel Richard Cross
  • Patent number: 11528577
    Abstract: A method of obtaining a head-related transfer function for a user is provided. The method comprises generating an audio signal for output by a handheld device and outputting the generated audio signal at a plurality of locations by moving the handheld device to those locations. The audio output by the handheld device is detected at left-ear and right-ear microphones. A pose of the handheld device relative to the user's head is determined for at least some of the locations. One or more personalised HRTF features are then determined based on the detected audio and corresponding determined poses of the handheld device. The one or more personalised HRTF features are then mapped to a higher-quality HRTF for the user, wherein the higher-quality HRTF corresponds to an HRTF measured in an anechoic environment. This mapping may be learned using machine learning, for example. A corresponding system is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 15, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.
    Inventors: Fabio Cappello, Marina Villanueva-Barreiro, Oliver Hume