Apple Inc.

Brooke L Bunney

Robert D Zupke

Todd K Moyer

Jonathan Robert Peterson

Jason Joseph LeBlanc

Tian Shi Li

Cuneyt Bakan

Rohan Gupta

Lionel B Barrow

Jeff A Kalt

Justin T Ng

Marc-Angelo P Carino

Paul S Van Wieren

A detachable headband for a headphone system can incorporate a headband identification circuit that stores or encodes a headband identification parameter value. When the headband becomes attached to an ear cup, the headband can transmit the headband identification parameter value to the ear cup.

Device identification for a system of electronic devices

Headband identification for a headphone system

Some embodiments of the disclosure provide systems and methods of detecting headphone rotation to properly process user input to the headphones. The systems and methods described herein may be used, for example, to detect a gesture (e.g., a swipe) received as user input on a touch interface of the headphones, such as a touch interface integrated into an ear piece. The gesture may be made in a particular direction, such as down toward Earth. However, headphones may be worn in a plurality of configurations, such as upright with the headband around the top of the head, downward with the headband around the back of the neck, or anywhere in between. Thus, the systems and methods described herein may be used to determine the rotation of the headphones in order to properly ascertain the intended gesture and perform an intended result.

Detection of headphone rotation

Some embodiments of the disclosure provide systems and methods of detecting headphone orientation. The systems and methods described herein may be used, for example, to determine which ear cup of a pair of headphones is positioned on which ear of a user. By making this determination, stereophonic audio signals may be divided into their left audio channel signal and right audio channel signal components and transmitted to the proper ear cup. In another example, the systems and methods described herein may be used to determine when a pair of headphones are being worn on a user's head and/or are removed from a user's head. By determining when the headphones are being worn, the headphones may be able to automatically pause an audio signal and/or power off when a transition from on-head to off-head is detected.

Detection of headphone orientation

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Brooke L Bunney