Patents by Inventor Andreas Franck

Andreas Franck has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11792596
    Abstract: There is provided a method of controlling an array of loudspeakers. The method comprises: receiving a plurality of input audio signals to be reproduced, by the array, at a respective plurality of control points in an acoustic environment; and generating a respective output audio signal for each of the loudspeakers in the array by applying a set of filters to the plurality of input audio signals. The set of filters is based on: a first plurality of filter elements based on a first approximation of a set of transfer functions, each transfer function in the set of transfer functions being between an audio signal applied to a respective one of the loudspeakers and an audio signal received at a respective one of the control points from the respective one of the loudspeakers; and a second plurality of filter elements based on a second approximation of the set of transfer functions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: AUDIOSCENIC LIMITED
    Inventors: Filippo Maria Fazi, Eric Hamdan, Andreas Franck, Marcos Simón
  • Publication number: 20230276186
    Abstract: There is provided a computer-implemented method of generating audio signals for an array of loudspeakers positioned in a listening environment, the method comprising: receiving at least one input audio signal; determining at least one of: a number of users in the listening environment, or a respective position of each of one or more users in the listening environment; based on the at least one of the number of users or the respective position of each of the one or more users in the listening environment, selecting a sound reproduction mode from a set of predetermined sound reproduction modes of the array of loudspeakers, wherein the set of predetermined sound reproduction modes comprises one or more user-position-independent modes and one or more user-position-dependent modes; and generating a respective output audio signal for each of the loudspeakers in the array of loudspeakers based on at least a portion of the at least one input audio signal, wherein the output audio signals are generated according to th
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 27, 2023
    Publication date: August 31, 2023
    Inventors: Marcos Simón, Ioseb Laghidze, Tyler Ward, Andreas Franck, Filippo Fazi, Daniel Wallace
  • Publication number: 20230007424
    Abstract: There is provided a computer-implemented method of generating audio signals for an array of loudspeakers, the method comprising: receiving a plurality of input audio signals, wherein a respective one of the plurality of input audio signals is to be reproduced, by the array, at each of a plurality of control points in an acoustic environment, and wherein each of the plurality of control points is associated with a respective one of a plurality of loudspeaker groups; receiving an estimate of a position of each of the plurality of control points; assigning, using the received estimate of the position of each of the plurality of control points, each of the loudspeakers in the array to at least one of the plurality of loudspeaker groups, wherein the assigning of a particular loudspeaker to a particular loudspeaker group is based on a relative position of the particular loudspeaker with respect to one or more of the at least one control points associated with the particular loudspeaker group; and generating a respe
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2022
    Publication date: January 5, 2023
    Inventors: Filippo Maria Fazi, Andreas Franck, Marcos Simón
  • Publication number: 20210385605
    Abstract: There is provided a method of controlling an array of loudspeakers. The method comprises: receiving a plurality of input audio signals to be reproduced, by the array, at a respective plurality of control points in an acoustic environment; and generating a respective output audio signal for each of the loudspeakers in the array by applying a set of filters to the plurality of input audio signals. The set of filters is based on: a first plurality of filter elements based on a first approximation of a set of transfer functions, each transfer function in the set of transfer functions being between an audio signal applied to a respective one of the loudspeakers and an audio signal received at a respective one of the control points from the respective one of the loudspeakers; and a second plurality of filter elements based on a second approximation of the set of transfer functions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Publication date: December 9, 2021
    Inventors: Filippo Maria Fazi, Eric Hamdan, Andreas Franck, Marcos Simón
  • Patent number: 10419849
    Abstract: The effectiveness of calculating FIR filter coefficients for beam-forming filters for transducer arrays such as arrays of microphones or loudspeakers, for example, is increased in that the calculation is performed in two stages; namely, on the one hand, by calculating frequency domain filter weights of the beam-forming filters, i.e., coefficients describing the transfer functions of the beam-forming filters within the dimension of the frequency so as to obtain target frequency responses for the beam-forming filters, so that applying the beam-forming filters to the array approximates a desired directional selectivity, and followed by calculating the FIR filter coefficients for the beam-forming filters, i.e., of coefficients describing the impulse response of the beam-forming filters within the time domain, such that the frequency responses of the FIR beam-forming filters approximate the target frequency responses in an optimum manner in accordance with defined criteria.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 17, 2019
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Christoph Sladeczek, Albert Zhykhar
  • Patent number: 10347268
    Abstract: A device for calculating loudspeaker signals for a plurality of loudspeakers while using a plurality of audio sources, an audio source including an audio signal, includes a forward transform stage for transforming each audio signal, block-by-block, to a spectral domain so as to obtain for each audio signal a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra, a memory for storing a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra for each audio signal, a memory access controller for accessing a specific short-term spectrum among the plurality of short-term spectra for a combination consisting of a loudspeaker and an audio signal on the basis of a delay value, a filter stage for filtering the specific short-term spectrum for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker by using a filter provided for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker, so that a filtered shot-term spectrum is obtained for each combination of an audio signal and a loudspeaker, a summing stage for summing
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 24, 2017
    Date of Patent: July 9, 2019
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Michael Rath, Christoph Sladeczek
  • Patent number: 10257640
    Abstract: A device for processing a signal includes a processor stage configured to filter the signal present in a frequency-domain representation by a filter with a filter characteristic in order to obtain a filtered signal, to provide the filtered or a signal derived from the filtered signal with a frequency-domain window function, in order to obtain a windowed signal, wherein providing has multiplications of frequency-domain window coefficients of the frequency-domain window function by spectral values of the filtered signal or the signal derived from the filtered signal in order to obtain multiplication results, and summing up the multiplication results. Further, the device has a converter for converting the windowed signal or a signal determined using the windowed signal to a time domain in order to obtain the processed signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Andreas Franck
  • Patent number: 10187741
    Abstract: A device for processing a signal includes a processor stage configured to filter the signal present in a frequency-domain representation by a filter with a filter characteristic in order to obtain a filtered signal, to provide the filtered or a signal derived from the filtered signal with a frequency-domain window function, in order to obtain a windowed signed, wherein providing has multiplications of frequency-domain window coefficients of the frequency-domain window function by spectral values of the filtered signal or the signal derived from the filtered signal in order to obtain multiplication results, and summing up the multiplication results. Further, the device has a converter for converting the windowed signal or a signal determined using the windowed signal to a time domain in order to obtain the processed signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: January 22, 2019
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventor: Andreas Franck
  • Publication number: 20180358029
    Abstract: A device for calculating loudspeaker signals for a plurality of loudspeakers while using a plurality of audio sources, an audio source including an audio signal, includes a forward transform stage for transforming each audio signal, block-by-block, to a spectral domain so as to obtain for each audio signal a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra, a memory for storing a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra for each audio signal, a memory access controller for accessing a specific short-term spectrum among the plurality of short-term spectra for a combination consisting of a loudspeaker and an audio signal on the basis of a delay value, a filter stage for filtering the specific short-term spectrum for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker by using a filter provided for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker, so that a filtered shot-term spectrum is obtained for each combination of an audio signal and a loudspeaker, a summing stage for summing
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2017
    Publication date: December 13, 2018
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Michael Rath, Christoph Sladeczek
  • Publication number: 20180199145
    Abstract: A device for processing a signal includes a processor stage configured to filter the signal present in a frequency-domain representation by a filter with a filter characteristic in order to obtain a filtered signal, to provide the filtered or a signal derived from the filtered signal with a frequency-domain window function, in order to obtain a windowed signal, wherein providing has multiplications of frequency-domain window coefficients of the frequency-domain window function by spectral values of the filtered signal or the signal derived from the filtered signal in order to obtain multiplication results, and summing up the multiplication results. Further, the device has a converter for converting the windowed signal or a signal determined using the windowed signal to a time domain in order to obtain the processed signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 14, 2018
    Publication date: July 12, 2018
    Inventor: Andreas Franck
  • Publication number: 20180012612
    Abstract: A device for calculating loudspeaker signals for a plurality of loudspeakers while using a plurality of audio sources, an audio source including an audio signal, includes a forward transform stage for transforming each audio signal, block-by-block, to a spectral domain so as to obtain for each audio signal a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra, a memory for storing a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra for each audio signal, a memory access controller for accessing a specific short-term spectrum among the plurality of short-term spectra for a combination consisting of a loudspeaker and an audio signal on the basis of a delay value, a filter stage for filtering the specific short-term spectrum for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker by using a filter provided for the combination of the audio signal and the loudspeaker, so that a filtered shot-term spectrum is obtained for each combination of an audio signal and a loudspeaker, a summing stage for summing
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 24, 2017
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Michael Rath, Christoph Sladeczek
  • Patent number: 9854363
    Abstract: A loudspeaker system for a vehicle includes a loudspeaker array including a plurality of electroacoustic sound transducers that can be controlled individually, such that a user-specific audio signal can be reproduced for different users at different listening positions in a vehicle interior of the vehicle via the plurality of electroacoustic sound transducers. Here, the loudspeaker array or a sound outlet of the loudspeaker array is arranged in particular between at least two of the listening positions in the vehicle interior, i.e. for example between the driver and the passenger seat.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 26, 2017
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Christoph Sladeczek, Daniel Beer, Andreas Franck
  • Patent number: 9813804
    Abstract: A more clear-cut separation of a first audio signal within a first region of a sonication area of a plurality of loudspeakers is achieved in that a calculator calculates that version of the audio signals which results from the spatially selective reproduction of the audio signals at this first region, in that a masking threshold is calculated as a function of the version of that audio signal which is to be separated from the one or more other audio signals at this region, and in that the emission of the audio signals for spatially selective reproduction to the outputs of the plurality of loudspeakers is influenced as a function of a comparison of the masking threshold with the version of the one or more other, i.e. spurious, audio signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 7, 2017
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Christoph Sladeczek, Thomas Sporer
  • Patent number: 9807534
    Abstract: A device for generating a multitude of loudspeaker signals based on a virtual source object which has a source signal and a meta information determining a position or type of the virtual source object. The device has a modifier configured to time-varyingly modify the meta information. In addition, the device has a renderer configured to transfer the virtual source object and the modified meta information to form a multitude of loudspeaker signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2017
    Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
    Inventors: Martin Schneider, Walter Kellermann, Andreas Franck
  • Publication number: 20170164100
    Abstract: The effectiveness of calculating FIR filter coefficients for beam-forming filters for transducer arrays such as arrays of microphones or loudspeakers, for example, is increased in that the calculation is performed in two stages; namely, on the one hand, by calculating frequency domain filter weights of the beam-forming filters, i.e., coefficients describing the transfer functions of the beam-forming filters within the dimension of the frequency so as to obtain target frequency responses for the beam-forming filters, so that applying the beam-forming filters to the array approximates a desired directional selectivity, and followed by calculating the FIR filter coefficients for the beam-forming filters, i.e., of coefficients describing the impulse response of the beam-forming filters within the time domain, such that the frequency responses of the FIR beam-forming filters approximate the target frequency responses in an optimum manner in accordance with defined criteria.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 17, 2017
    Publication date: June 8, 2017
    Inventors: Andreas FRANCK, Christoph SLADECZEK, Albert ZHYKHAR
  • Patent number: 9666203
    Abstract: A device for calculating loudspeaker signals using a plurality of audio sources, an audio source including an audio signal, includes a forward transform stage for transforming each audio signal to a spectral domain to obtain a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra, a memory for storing a plurality of temporally consecutive short-term spectra for each audio signal, a memory access controller for accessing a specific short-term spectrum for a combination consisting of a loudspeaker and an audio signal based on a delay value, a filter stage for filtering the specific short-term spectrum by using a filter, so that a filtered short-term spectrum is obtained for each audio signal and loudspeaker combination, a summing stage for summing up the filtered short-term spectra for a loudspeaker to obtain summed-up short-term spectra, and a backtransform stage for backtransforming summed-up short-term spectra for the loudspeakers to a time domain to obtain the loudspeaker signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 11, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FOERDERUNG DER ANGEWANDTEN FORSCHUNG E.V.
    Inventors: Andreas Franck, Michael Rath, Christoph Sladeczek
  • Publication number: 20170085990
    Abstract: A loudspeaker system for a vehicle includes a loudspeaker array including a plurality of electroacoustic sound transducers that can be controlled individually, such that a user-specific audio signal can be reproduced for different users at different listening positions in a vehicle interior of the vehicle via the plurality of electroacoustic sound transducers. Here, the loudspeaker array or a sound outlet of the loudspeaker array is arranged in particular between at least two of the listening positions in the vehicle interior, i.e. for example between the driver and the passenger seat.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2016
    Publication date: March 23, 2017
    Inventors: Christoph SLADECZEK, Daniel BEER, Andreas FRANCK
  • Publication number: 20170048641
    Abstract: A device for processing a signal includes a processor stage configured to filter the signal present in a frequency-domain representation by a filter with a filter characteristic in order to obtain a filtered signal, to provide the filtered or a signal derived from the filtered signal with a frequency-domain window function, in order to obtain a windowed signed, wherein providing has multiplications of frequency-domain window coefficients of the frequency domain window function by spectral values of the filtered signal or the signal derived from the filtered signal in order to obtain multiplication results, and summing up the multiplication results. Further, the device has a converter for converting the windowed signal or a signal determined using the windowed signal to a time domain in order to obtain the processed signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2016
    Publication date: February 16, 2017
    Inventor: Andreas Franck
  • Publication number: 20160198280
    Abstract: A device for generating a multitude of loudspeaker signals based on a virtual source object which has a source signal and a meta information determining a position or type of the virtual source object. The device has a modifier configured to time-varyingly modify the meta information. In addition, the device has a renderer configured to transfer the virtual source object and the modified meta information to form a multitude of loudspeaker signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 11, 2016
    Publication date: July 7, 2016
    Inventors: Martin SCHNEIDER, Walter KELLERMANN, Andreas FRANCK
  • Publication number: 20160088388
    Abstract: A more clear-cut separation of a first audio signal within a first region of a sonication area of a plurality of loudspeakers is achieved in that a calculator calculates that version of the audio signals which results from the spatially selective reproduction of the audio signals at this first region, in that a masking threshold is calculated as a function of the version of that audio signal which is to be separated from the one or more other audio signals at this region, and in that the emission of the audio signals for spatially selective reproduction to the outputs of the plurality of loudspeakers is influenced as a function of a comparison of the masking threshold with the version of the one or more other, i.e. spurious, audio signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2015
    Publication date: March 24, 2016
    Inventors: Andreas FRANCK, Christoph SLADECZEK, Thomas SPORER