Harman International Industries, Inc.

Digital Theater Systems, Inc.

Bradley J Plunkett

Mark Edward Trainer

Michael Giffin

A vehicle media system for use in conjunction with a portable media device is set forth. The vehicle media system includes an input module that is mountable, for example, at a console between the driver's seat and front passenger seat of the vehicle cabin, so that it may be manipulated by a user pursuant to input of system commands. A display module is mountable at a different location within the vehicle cabin, such as on the dashboard. A main module is connected to cooperate with the display module and the input module to facilitate user interaction with the portable media device.

Vehicle media system

In a motion picture subtitle system a shutter such as a mechanical dowser, LCLV, or E/O diffuser is inserted in the optical path between the supplemental projector and the motion picture screen and synchronized to the projection of the subtitles to reduce visual artifacts and enhance the cinematic presentation. A controller is arranged to receive the subtitles from a storage medium, to provide the subtitles to the supplemental projector in synchronism with the projection of the motion picture, and to alternately cause the shutter to pass the modulated light beam during an &ldquo;on&rdquo; state in synchronism with the motion picture so the subtitles are superimposed at desired times on desired portions of the motion picture and cause the shutter to attenuate the light beam during an &ldquo;off&rdquo; state.

Motion picture subtitle system and method

Automatic closed loop adjustment of a stereo sound system optimizes the sound quality at a particular listening location as sensed there by a microphone in a hand-held remote control unit. Such automatic capability is particularly beneficial for asymmetrical locations and may be applied to optimization of perceived channel balance with regard to various parameters such as gain, equalization and time delay, and which are thus inconvenient to set up manually. A hand-held remote control capable of adjusting the stereo system, typically via an infrared link, is additionally equipped with a microphone which senses sound from each stereo loudspeaker at the listening location. The stereo unit is equipped to generate special test signals that are picked up by the microphone and analyzed to provide adjustment information via the remote control link to automatically adjust various parameters in each channel so as to optimize the sound quality as perceived at the particular current listening location where the remote control is located. The remote control's infrared link is utilized as part of a closed loop of an automatic control system in which acoustic information gathered by the microphone is analyzed to control compensatory adjustments.

Sound system remote control with acoustic sensor

An automatic method for optimizing coil/gap centering in the manufacture of an electro-magnetic actuator or transducer such as a loudspeaker or microphone eliminates the use of shims. Capacitance measurements between the coil and adjacent magnet poles are utilized to evaluate and optimize concentricity of the coil and its bobbin in the magnetic gap prior to finally affixing the flexible suspension member(s) such as the spider and/or surround to the actuator mainframe, typically by adhesive bonding around the outer edge of the suspension member(s). Optimal concentricity corresponds with the minimum capacitance reading found from a series of capacitance measurements at different locations of the coil assembly within the constraints of interference between the coil with its bobbin and the pole pieces. This principle may be utilized in a work station that constrains the mainframe portion while automatically moving the coil assembly laterally in a search pattern to acquire the concentric location corresponding to minimum capacitance so that the suspension can be affixed to a portion of the mainframe, typically by adhesive bonding, with the coil concentricity thus optimized. Capacitance measurement can further serve as a valuable quality control test: requiring the minimized capacitance to fall below a statistically based limit provides assurance that the coil is correctly shaped and oriented and is optimally centered.

Apparatus for centering an actuator coil

A filter circuit for reducing power line noise to audio reproduction equipment. Audio reproduction equipment requires a power source without excessive line noise; however, power sources, particularly in the automotive environment, often generate a substantial amount of noise which can degrade audio reproduction quality. The present invention utilizes a filter circuit which regulates and smooths the power in line between the power source and the audio equipment. The regulation and degree of filtering is further controlled by feedback from the power output and/or from the audio output to provide a sufficient quantity of filtering at various audio levels without affecting the power transmission to the audio equipment through excessive power loss. The power output after filtering is sampled and compared to a reference voltage to create an error signal. The degree of filtering is then adjusted in response to the value of the error signal to provide appropriate filtering without excessive power loss. The audio feedback is utilized to regulate the amount of filtering to decrease the filtering and decrease the voltage loss during high audio output, and to increase filtering during low audio output to provide the necessary line noise conditioning for various audio conditions.

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Granada Hills, CA, United States of America

Bradley J Plunkett