Patents Examined by Simon King
  • Patent number: 12382209
    Abstract: Disclosed is a headset for audio communication, a software application for an electronic device associated with a headset, and a method for controlling a headset feature. The headset is configured to be worn by a user. The headset comprises a speaker for sound transmission into the user's ear, a transceiver or a radio communication unit for communication with an external device, a connection to a location-based service software, the location-based service software is configured for controlling at least one headset feature based on location data of the headset, and a processing unit. The processing unit is configured for enabling the location-based service software to detect if the current location data of the headset indicates a change in location data corresponding to a certain change criterion and changing the at least one headset feature, if a change criterion associated with the change in location data is satisfied.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2024
    Date of Patent: August 5, 2025
    Assignee: GN AUDIO A/S
    Inventor: Kevin A. Batson
  • Patent number: 12375843
    Abstract: Provided is a sound output device including a drive unit that has a sound output section inside and that is formed in an annular shape and an electric unit that has a drive control section inside and that is coupled to the drive unit. A space inside the drive unit is formed as an intake hole that takes in an external sound. The sound output device is attached to an ear with the drive unit inserted into a cavum concha. Accordingly, in a state in which the electric unit is coupled to the drive unit and the drive unit is inserted into the cavum concha to be attached to the ear, an external sound taken in from the intake hole that is the space inside the drive unit goes to the external auditory canal. Therefore, a stable and favorable wearing state on the ear can be ensured, and at the same time, a state in which an external sound is taken in naturally can be ensured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: SONY GROUP CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroaki Fujii, Kentaro Kato, Tomohiro Ito
  • Patent number: 12375841
    Abstract: Introduced here is a wearable audio system including modular ear-cup and ear-bud that can be attached and detached to the user together, or independently of each other. Further, the modular ear-cup and ear-bud can operate together, or independently of each other. The wearable audio system can perform active noise cancellation by measuring noise inside the ear-cup and/or the ear-bud, computing the noise canceling sound, and forwarding the noise canceling sound to a speaker inside the ear-cup and/or the ear-bud. The wearable audio system can be wirelessly charged while operating, thus allowing the user to continuously listen to music more than previously possible. The wearable audio system can optimize power consumption by redistributing power intensive tasks to power sources with the highest amount of power. Further, the ambient sound outside the ear-cup can be measured and played by the speakers in the earbud allowing the user to hear the surrounding environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2024
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2025
    Assignee: Nura Holdings Pty Ltd
    Inventors: Luke John Campbell, Dragan Petrovic
  • Patent number: 12368989
    Abstract: A headset includes a first through hole and a second through hole disposed in a housing. In this configuration, when the headset is worn on a left ear, the first through hole communicates with an auditory canal, the second through hole is partially or completely shielded by the ear, and the first through hole can propagate sound to the left ear, when the headset is worn on a right ear, the second through hole communicates with an auditory canal, the first through hole is partially or completely shielded by the ear, and the second through hole can propagate sound to the auditory canal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2025
    Assignee: HUAWEI TECHNOLOGIES CO., LTD.
    Inventor: Guoqing Liu
  • Patent number: 12356143
    Abstract: The present disclosure is a method for optimizing a working state of a bone conduction earphone. The bone conduction earphone includes an earphone core and at least one vibration sensor. The method includes: obtaining a vibration signal through the at least one vibration sensor, the vibration signal being at least partially derived from vibration generated by the earphone core in response to an audio signal, and the vibration of the earphone core being transmitted to a user wearing the bone conduction earphone through bone conduction; determining a vibration response feature of the earphone core based on the vibration signal and the audio signal; and feeding back a working state of the bone conduction earphone based on the vibration response feature of the earphone core.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 6, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2025
    Assignee: SHENZHEN SHOKZ CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Zhen Wang, Lei Zhang
  • Patent number: 12356133
    Abstract: A method and device for adjusting a position of an earphone, equipment and storage medium are disclosed. The earphone is provided with a TOF sensor. The method comprises: acquiring position information of an ear using the TOF sensor, wherein the position information of the ear includes positions of points describing the ear in morphology; determining a position of a center point of an ear canal of the ear according to the position information of the ear; acquiring a position of a center point of the earphone; and outputting an adjustment vector of the position of the earphone according to the position of the center point of the ear canal and the position of the center point of the earphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 8, 2025
    Assignee: GOERTEK INC.
    Inventors: Lei Chen, Shaoqian Zhang, Bin Jiang, Xiaoyu Chi
  • Patent number: 12348926
    Abstract: An audio device includes one or more earcups, at least one of the earcups including a boom connector port, a connection detector connected to the boom connector port and configured to detect a connection state at the boom connector port, one or more first microphones positioned in the one or more earcups, audio processing circuitry, and a microphone switch controller connected to the connection detector and configured to connect audio processing circuitry to one of the one or more first microphones or the boom connector port based on the detected connection state of the boom connector port.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2023
    Date of Patent: July 1, 2025
    Assignee: New Audio LLC
    Inventors: Thomas C. Wilson, Clayton J. Pipkin, Marten Wallby, Zachary Hellman, Jonathan Levine
  • Patent number: 12335693
    Abstract: Computer technology for determining a possibility of an emerging hearing issue in a user based on the user's auditory interactions with a mobile device (for example, a smartphone), a wearable computer device (for example, a smart watch) and/or a virtual assistant (for example, an internet of things (IoT) enabled doorbell).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 17, 2025
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Phani Kumar V. U. Ayyagari, Manish Anand Bhide, Purnachandra Rao Jasti, Madan K Chukka, Sai Prasanth Vuppala
  • Patent number: 12323756
    Abstract: The disclosure relates to an in-ear wearable device, including: a customized housing having a housing wall and an inner cavity, the customized housing comprising a first portion for being inserted into an user's acoustic meatus and a second portion for being exposed to the external when in use; a panel mounted to the customized housing; a ventilation hole at least partially disposed in the customized housing and partially formed in the housing wall; and a ventilation rate adjusting device mounted in the ventilation hole. The ventilation hole and the ventilation rate adjusting device constitute at least a part of a ventilation channel which is isolated from the inner cavity. The ventilation channel fluidly connects the acoustic meatus to the external when the user wears the in-ear wireless earphone. The ventilation rate of the ventilation channel can be electrically adjusted to adjust audio characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2023
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2025
    Assignee: Listening Wisdom (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventor: Chunhong Yu
  • Patent number: 12316806
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method and system for response-time-reduction in emergency incident events can include an artificial intelligent agent (AI Agent) that can monitor an emergency environment in real-time upon an occurrence or change in one or more emergency incident information values. The AI Agent can analyze if one or more emergency incident information values occurs and/or reaches across one or more predefined thresholds. One or more first responders can then be automatically dispatched if the analysis has shown that this is necessary. The AI Agent can be rewarded based on its performance of monitoring and/or dispatching and can adjust the one or more predefined thresholds according to the reward.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2023
    Date of Patent: May 27, 2025
    Assignee: ATOS Public Safety, LLC
    Inventors: Ioannis Kolaxis, Gavriil Papadopoulos
  • Patent number: 12301767
    Abstract: In one example, a communications platform provides data communications services over a communication network and involving different communications systems respectively associated with respectively different formats to a plurality of communication user-operable devices each of which has a user interface for communicating information. The data communications services are used with a browser and facilitate: establishing an electronic meeting between multiple individuals, the electronic meeting providing access to a plurality of different types of content, or of different format types; and generating, in response to the electronic meeting being established, a status message that is associated with the electronic meeting, that provides an update message to at least a subset of the plurality of communications systems, and that provides information regarding possible availability of an individual for participating in the electronic meeting.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 3, 2024
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: 8x8, Inc.
    Inventor: Ramprakash Narayanaswamy
  • Patent number: 12301769
    Abstract: In an example, an audio system, which may comprise an integrated circuit, comprises an amplifier and a combiner. The amplifier is configured to output a first amplified audio signal to a speaker. The combiner is configured to: receive the first amplified audio signal from the amplifier, receive a second audio signal, combine the first amplified audio signal and second audio signal into a combined signal, and output the combined signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic Inc.
    Inventors: Robert D. Rand, Jon E. Eklund, Pradeep Saminathan, Peter Horsfall
  • Patent number: 12297100
    Abstract: Electronic acoustic devices and methods of operating the same include a microphone having a frequency response including a resonance frequency, a reference microphone having a frequency response including a resonance frequency, the microphone and the reference microphone configured to substantially simultaneously receive a common acoustic signal to produce a transduced signal of the microphone and a transduced signal of the reference microphone, the resonance frequency of the reference microphone being different than the resonance frequency of the microphone, and an equalization module configured to equalize the frequency response of the microphone based on the transduced signal of the microphone and the transduced signal of the reference microphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 12, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2025
    Assignee: SKYWORKS SOLUTIONS, INC.
    Inventors: Humberto Campanella-Pineda, Michael Jon Wurtz, Rakesh Kumar, You Qian, Guofeng Chen
  • Patent number: 12294828
    Abstract: Provided is to achieve high call quality and improve wearability. A wireless earphone 1 includes a driver unit (50), a first microphone (80), a second microphone (90), and a housing (10) that accommodates the driver unit (50), the first microphone (80), and the second microphone (90). The housing (10) includes a first accommodating portion (13) that accommodates the first microphone (80), a second accommodating portion (14) that accommodates the second microphone (90), and a main body (11) that is connected to each of the first accommodating portion (13) and the second accommodating portion (14). The first accommodating portion (13) is projectingly provided from the main body (11). The second accommodating portion (14) is projectingly provided from the main body (11) in a direction different from a projecting direction of the first accommodating portion (13).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 19, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 6, 2025
    Assignee: Audio-Technica Corporation
    Inventor: Yosuke Takubo
  • Patent number: 12273677
    Abstract: The present disclosure relates to a wireless listening device, which includes a housing adapted to be wearable and a top cover. The top cover closes the housing at an end of the device and is provided with a central bumped portion that includes: a substantially planar panel portion; and a raised portion, which is connected around an outer periphery of the panel portion and at least partially extends toward the housing in a direction perpendicular to a plane where the panel portion is located. The panel portion and the raised portion form an accommodating groove that at least partially accommodate a charging device, a manipulation device and an antenna. In the plane where the panel portion is located, a diameter of a minimum circumscribed circle of orthographic projections of the charging device, the manipulation device, and the antenna as a whole is in a range of 8 to 16 mm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 28, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Listening Wisdom (Nanjing) Technology Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yingwei Wang, Chunhong Yu
  • Patent number: 12272370
    Abstract: Implementations of the subject technology provide systems and methods for providing audio source separation for audio input, such as for audio devices having limited power and/or computing resources. The subject technology may allow an audio device to leverage processing and/or power resources of a companion device that is communicatively coupled to the audio device. The companion device may identify a noise condition of the audio device, select a source separation model based on the noise condition, and provide the source separation model to the audio device. In this way, the audio device can provide audio source separation functionality using a relatively small footprint source separation model that is specific to the noise condition in which the audio device is operated.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 3, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Apple Inc.
    Inventors: Carlos M. Avendano, John Woodruff, Jonathan Huang, Mehrez Souden, Andreas Koutrouvelis
  • Patent number: 12273679
    Abstract: A method for processing an audio signal involves receiving sound waves at a microphone, converting them into a first audio signal, and extracting a second audio signal from an electromagnetic signal received at a receiver. The first audio signal is correlated with the second audio signal to calculate a correlation value. If the correlation value exceeds a threshold, the first audio signal is processed using the second audio signal to reduce unwanted sound contributions, resulting in a processed audio signal. Further processing is then performed on the processed audio signal to determine a characteristic of the desired sound.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2024
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Inventor: Karl Stahl
  • Patent number: 12273481
    Abstract: A service interruption manager function, SIMF, receives information that indicates that lawful interception, LI, service interruption associated with an LI task has occurred. Based on the received information, a determination is made of a status regarding the LI service interruption associated with the LI task, for example a determination whether the LI service interruption associated with the LI task has a current status that is any of: terminated, ongoing or initiated. A message is then transmitted, to a delivery function, DF, via an HI2 interface, the message comprising at least the determined status regarding the LI service interruption.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 8, 2025
    Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (publ)
    Inventors: Antonio Giorgio Gaggia, Mariano Russo, Dario Scudiero, Daniele Gaito, Chiara Santella, Carmine Galotto
  • Patent number: 12262165
    Abstract: Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for detecting a wearing state of an earphone, an earphone, and a storage medium. The method includes: obtaining a request for detecting the wearing state of the earphone; performing audio collection by a feedback microphone of the earphone to obtain a feedback audio signal; determining a frequency of the audio, and determining a target frequency with a power meeting a preset condition in the feedback audio signal based on the frequency and an audio collection parameter of the feedback microphone; performing a power spectrum analysis on the feedback audio signal to obtain a power spectrum of the feedback audio signal; determining target power information of the target frequency from the power spectrum; and in response to the target power information being not less than a maximum power threshold value set for the target frequency, determining that the wearing state is in-ear state.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 2024
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: SHENZHEN TONLY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT CO., LTD
    Inventors: Liechao Huang, Yucheng Zhao, Guanghui Han, Jinhui Li, Hua Yan, Xinwen Chen
  • Patent number: 12262164
    Abstract: A wearable device, comprising: one or more processors configured to: detect a wear status of the wearable device; and in response to the wear status, allocate resources of the wearable device to one or more functions of the wearable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2025
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic Inc.
    Inventors: Nigel Burgess, Andrew I. Bothwell