Patents Examined by Sabrina Diaz
  • Patent number: 11882405
    Abstract: Aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatuses for determining a nozzle of an audio device is, at least partially blocked. More specifically, based on a measured transfer function between the driver and a microphone and an expected transfer function between the driver and the microphone, a blockage is detected. In response to the detected blockage, the user is notified.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 23, 2024
    Assignee: BOSE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Liam Robert Kelly, Peter McPhillips Moriarty, Ryan terMeulen
  • Patent number: 11856365
    Abstract: A transducer includes a base, beams, and a coupler. The beams each include a piezoelectric layer, a first electrode layer, and a second electrode layer. The coupler is fitted in slits between adjacent beams to define a connection between the beams. The coupler extends from an upper portion of the base into each of the slits without a break. A Young's modulus of the material of the coupler is lower than a Young's modulus of the material of the piezoelectric layer. A maximum thickness of the coupler in the upper portion of the base in the direction of the central axis of the base is greater than a thickness of each of the beams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: MURATA MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shinsuke Ikeuchi, Seiji Umezawa, Masayuki Suzuki, Fumiya Kurokawa
  • Patent number: 11853644
    Abstract: An example embodiment may involve determining that a client device (such as a smartphone, tablet, or in-automobile audio device) is in an automobile and that the client device has access to a playlist of audio content. Possibly based on the client device being in the automobile and having access to the playlist of audio content, the client device may request a stream of the audio content. As a consequence of making the request, the client device may receive the stream of the audio content and begin audible playout of the audio content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Gracenote Digital Ventures, LLC
    Inventor: Venkatarama Anilkumar Panguluri
  • Patent number: 11856371
    Abstract: Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatus for own-voice sensing in hearing assistance devices. One aspect of the present subject matter includes an in-the-ear (ITE) hearing assistance device adapted to process sounds, including sounds from a wearer's mouth. According to various embodiments, the device includes a hollow plastic housing adapted to be worn in the ear of the wearer and a differential sensor mounted to an interior surface of the housing in an ear canal of the wearer. The differential sensor includes inlets located within the housing and the differential sensor is configured to improve speech intelligibility of sounds from the wearer's mouth, in various embodiments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2023
    Assignee: Starkey Laboratories, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Howard Burns, Lars Tuborg Jensen
  • Patent number: 11838736
    Abstract: An electrodynamic actuator for a speaker or an electrodynamic acoustic transducer in general is disclosed, which comprises at least one voice coil, a magnet system and an arm arrangement of a plurality of arms connecting the at least one voice coil and the magnet system or at least a movable part thereof so that a relative movement between these parts is allowed. The arms are made of a metal core, which at least partly is coated with a coating structure having at least one coating metal layer consisting of a different material than the metal core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Sound Solutions International Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Gustav Otto, Markus Trampert, Stefan Gebhardt, Andreas Hintennach, Manuel Mefleh, Ernst Tomas
  • Patent number: 11832075
    Abstract: A double-sided vibrating speaker includes a magnet member, a first vibration member and a second vibration member. The magnet member has a main magnetic unit, a first magnetic unit and a second magnetic unit, the main magnetic unit has a main magnetic plate and two side magnetic plates, the main magnetic plate has air vents, each the side magnetic plate is provided on two sides of the main magnetic plate, the main magnetic unit forms an H-shape. The first vibration member is disposed on one surface of the magnet member, the second vibration member is disposed on another surface of the magnet member.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 23, 2022
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: FORTUNE GRAND TECHNOLOGY INC.
    Inventors: Jian Lv, Ming-Jun Zeng, Yi-Yong Li, Zan-Hua Liu
  • Patent number: 11832426
    Abstract: The present disclosure describes thermal mitigation for an electronic speaker device and associated systems and methods. The thermal mitigation includes monitoring several thermal zones to determine or estimate thermal conditions in corresponding parts of the electronic speaker device. The thermal zones may include a System-on-Chip (SoC) integrated circuit (IC) component, audio components including power-dissipating IC components, and a temperature of an exterior surface of a housing component of the electronic speaker device. To mitigate thermal runaway, different throttling schemes may be triggered based on the thermal zones exceeding certain thermal limits. The throttling schemes may include reducing the amount of power supplied to the SoC, reducing audio power of the audio components to a lower wattage, or manipulating SoC cores such as by disabling one or more of the cores or adjusting utilization of the SoC cores.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 28, 2023
    Assignee: Google LLC
    Inventors: Emil Rahim, Chintan Trehan, Ihab A. Ali, Wilson Tang
  • Patent number: 11825256
    Abstract: Provided is an electronic apparatus including a display, a frame supporting the display, and at least one actuator disposed at a rear side of the frame, the display vibrates based on driving of the at least one actuator to emit an acoustic signal to an outside, the frame includes a first portion and the and a second portion surrounding at least a part of the first portion, and the first portion and the second portion are formed of different materials. Various other embodiments are possible.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2023
    Assignee: LG ELECTRONICS INC.
    Inventor: Janghwan Shim
  • Patent number: 11805364
    Abstract: Disclosed is a method and a hearing device for audio transmission. The hearing device is configured to be worn by a user. The hearing device comprises a first earphone comprising a first speaker. The hearing device comprises a second earphone comprising a second speaker. The hearing device comprises a virtual sound processing unit connected to the first earphone and the second earphone. The virtual sound processing unit is configured for receiving and processing an audio sound signal for generating a virtual audio sound signal. The virtual audio sound signal is forwarded to the first and second speakers, where the virtual audio sound appears to the user as audio sound coming from two virtual speakers in front of the user. The hearing device further comprises a first primary microphone for capturing surrounding sounds to provide a first surrounding sound signal based on a first primary input signal from the first primary microphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: GN AUDIO A/S
    Inventor: Jesper Udesen
  • Patent number: 11800304
    Abstract: A hearing assistance device, including a housing, a receiver, and a cable, is provided. The housing has an ear hook and a first contour arc. The cable faces the ear hook, penetrates the housing, and connects to a receiver.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 8, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: COMPAL ELECTRONICS, INC.
    Inventors: Dai-Yun Tsai, Ting-Wei Wu, Wei-Chih Hsu
  • Patent number: 11800298
    Abstract: A micro-electro mechanical device includes a casing, a vibration sensor, a vibration membrane assembly, and a micro-electro mechanical microphone. The casing has a sound-receiving hole, and the vibration sensor is disposed in the casing. The vibration membrane assembly is disposed in the casing and corresponds to the vibration sensor. The micro-electro mechanical microphone is disposed in the casing and corresponds to the sound-receiving hole, and a back cavity of the micro-electro mechanical microphone is formed in the casing. The back cavity at least partially overlaps with areas corresponding to a vertical projection of the vibration membrane assembly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Merry Electronics(Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Jen-Yi Chen, Yueh-Kang Lee, Chao-Sen Chang
  • Patent number: 11765507
    Abstract: Some disclosed systems and methods include assigning channel streams to satellite playback devices, delaying initial transmission of surround sound content to satellite playback devices to accumulate audio samples for transmission in individual frames of surround sound content, and taking advantage of configured playback delays for different channels of surround sound content to prioritize transmission of channels of surround sound content having shorter configured playback delays over transmission of channels of surround sound content having longer configured playback delays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
    Inventor: Steven Beckhardt
  • Patent number: 11765538
    Abstract: A method assists in playing sound of a graphical representation for an electronic communication between a first person with a first portable electronic device (PED) to a second person with a second PED. The method displays a first visual indication that when selected plays the sound of the graphical representation in stereo or mono sound and a second visual indication that when selected plays the sound of the graphical representation in binaural sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: Pelagic Concepts LLC
    Inventor: Philip Scott Lyren
  • Patent number: 11758332
    Abstract: A biodegradable microphone has a housing fabricated from a biodegradable ferromagnetic filament. The ferromagnetic filament is based on a biodegradable polymer having embedded magnetic materials. The housing has a body portion, an open first end and an opposite second end having a central opening. A permanent magnet is removably lodged within the central opening. The ferromagnetic filament and the magnet cooperate to produce a magnetic field within the housing interior. A biodegradable diaphragm is joined to the open first end of the housing. The diaphragm has an interior side facing the housing interior. A biodegradable coil is joined to the interior side and extends downward into the housing interior and is in proximity to the permanent magnet. Vibrations of the diaphragm cause a reciprocating motion of the coil within the magnetic field thereby inducing an electrical current in the coil.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2022
    Date of Patent: September 12, 2023
    Assignee: United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventors: Joshua M Kogot, April M Hirsch
  • Patent number: 11743656
    Abstract: In at least one embodiment, a multi-stage sound and vibration sensor is provided. The multi-stage sound and vibration sensor includes a housing, a first piezo-diaphragm and a second piezo diaphragm. The first piezo-diaphragm and the second piezo-diaphragm are positioned in the housing to detect an input signal including audio or vibrations. The first piezo-diaphragm and the second piezo-diaphragm provide a first resonance frequency and a second resonance frequency in response to detecting the audio or the vibrations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Harman International Industries, Incorporated
    Inventors: Darin Krajewski, Yu Du, Péter Atilla Kardos, Flórián Czinege
  • Patent number: 11741973
    Abstract: A schematic block diagram of an audio encoder for encoding a multichannel audio signal is shown. The audio encoder includes a linear prediction domain encoder, a frequency domain encoder, and a controller for switching between the linear prediction domain encoder and the frequency domain encoder. The controller is configured such that a portion of the multichannel signal is represented either by an encoded frame of the linear prediction domain encoder or by an encoded frame of the frequency domain encoder. The linear prediction domain encoder includes a downmixer for downmixing the multichannel signal to obtain a downmixed signal. The linear prediction domain encoder further includes a linear prediction domain core encoder for encoding the downmix signal and furthermore, the linear prediction domain encoder includes a first joint multichannel encoder for generating first multichannel information from the multichannel signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Sascha Disch, Guillaume Fuchs, Emmanuel Ravelli, Christian Neukam, Konstantin Schmidt, Conrad Benndorf, Andreas Niedermeier, Benjamin Schubert, Ralf Geiger
  • Patent number: 11696067
    Abstract: An electronic device including a holder, a first buffer element, a second buffer element and a loudspeaker is provided. The holder includes a first section and a second section perpendicular to the first section. The first section and the second section are respectively provided with a first opening and a second opening. The first buffer element is disposed in the first opening of the first section. The second buffer element is disposed in the second opening of the second section. The loudspeaker is supported on the housing by the holder. The first buffer element is connected to the loudspeaker, and the second buffer element is connected to the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Qisda Corporation
    Inventors: Jun-Ming Shen, Jin-Fu Lee, Min-Wen Hong
  • Patent number: 11671769
    Abstract: A method of personalizing one or more parameters of a processing algorithm for use in a hearing aid of a specific user comprises Performing a predictive test for estimating a hearing ability of the user when listening to signals having different characteristics; Analyzing results of said predictive test for said user and providing a hearing ability measure for said user; Selecting a specific processing algorithm of said hearing aid, Selecting a cost-benefit function related to said user's hearing ability in dependence of said different characteristics for said algorithm; and Determining, for said user, one or more personalized parameters of said processing algorithm in dependence of said hearing ability measure and said cost-benefit function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Oticon A/S
    Inventors: Thomas Lunner, Gary Jones, Lars Bramsløw, Michael Syskind Pedersen, Pauli Minnaar, Jesper Jensen, Michael Kai Petersen, Peter Sommer, Hongyan Sun, Jacob Schack Larsen
  • Patent number: 11671768
    Abstract: A hearing aid, in particular a BTE hearing aid, includes a base part and an ear hook which can be attached to the base part. In an assembled state, the base part and the ear hook are connected by a nozzle and a receptacle. A sound channel runs through the nozzle. The nozzle has a circumferential outer wall and the receptacle has a circumferential inner wall. In the assembled state, a circumferential sealing ring having a thickness is disposed between the outer wall and the inner wall. The sealing ring lies in particular in an annular groove and the inner wall preferably has two reduction sections which compress the sealing ring.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: Sivantos Pte. Ltd.
    Inventors: Elson Lim, Ravikumar Badiger, Trung Le
  • Patent number: 11665490
    Abstract: An auditory device includes an electronics module, a receiver and a cable connecting the electronics module to the receiver. The electronics module includes an enclosure shaped to be positioned behind an outer portion of either a left ear or a right ear of a user and circuitry within the enclosure. The receiver is configured for being located in either a left or a right ear canal of the user. When inserted into the left ear canal, the receiver occupies a left ear canal insertion position, and when inserted into the right ear canal, the receiver occupies a right ear canal insertion position. The cable and the receiver are shaped and configured such that the receiver is presented in a neutral position when no external force other than gravity is acting upon the receiver, the neutral position being between the left ear canal insertion position and the right ear canal insertion position.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignees: Helen of Troy Limited, NantSound Inc.
    Inventors: John D. Gundlach, Stavros P. Basseas