Apple Inc.

Other

Christopher T Eubank

Tomlinson M Holman

Neal D Evans

Jonathan D Sheaffer

Nikolas T Vitt

Robert Denton Silfvast

Matthew S Connolly

Martin E Johnson

Stephen E Pinto

Joshua D Atkins

Daniel K Boothe

James W VanDyke

Soenke Pelzer

Dirk Schroeder

Ian M Richter

Shai Messingher Lang

Andrew M Hulva

Jeremy C Franklin

Carlos M Avendano

Rahul Nair

Sean Anthony Ramprashad

Devin William Chalmers

Jae Hwang Lee

Thomas G Salter

Symeon Delikaris Manias

Kirill Kalinichev

Peter Victor Jupin

Paul Meade

Miquel Espi Marques

Ronald J Guglielmone, Jr

Ryan S Carlin

Daniel P Patterson

Lance Jabr

Paul Xiaopeng Wang

Emery Artemus Sanford

David Michael Cole

Juha O Merimaa

Ian P Colahan

Stuart John Wood

Samir Gehani

James William Vandyke

Danvin Ruangchan

Patrick T Ryan

Travis W Brown

Joshua J Taylor

Christopher K Ewy

Camellia G Boutros

Deepak Natarajan

A display system includes a head-mounted display unit and a detachable speaker unit. The head-mounted display unit outputs visual content to a user and provides a visual pass-through of a real environment to the user. The detachable speaker unit is detachably coupleable to the head-mounted display unit for providing aural content to the user. At least one of the visual content or the aural content is changed according to a position of the detachable speaker unit relative to the head-mounted display unit.

Display system having an audio output device

An audio device can sense sound in a physical environment using a plurality of microphones to generate a plurality of microphone signals. Clean speech can be extracted from microphone signals. Ambience can be extracted from the microphone signals. The clean speech can be encoded at a first compression level. The ambience can be encoded at a second compression level that is higher than the first compression level. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

Audio encoding with compressed ambience

In some implementations, a method includes: obtaining user movement information characterizing real-world body pose and trajectory information of the user; generating a predicted virtual interaction time for a virtual interaction based at least in part on a placement of the CGR item in the CGR environment and the user movement information prior to the virtual interaction occurring; determining a first initiation time for a first feedback device among the one or more feedback devices based at least in part on the predicted virtual interaction time and a first predetermined latency period associated with the first feedback device; and initiating at the first initiation time, by the device, first feedback from the first feedback device in order to satisfy a performance criterion that corresponds to the virtual interaction with the CGR item.

Feedback coordination for a virtual interaction

A method performed by a programmed processor of an electronic device. The device obtains an audio signal, obtains, using one or more microphones, a microphone signal that includes audio of an environment in which the electronic device is located. The device determines a context of the device, and selects a volume compensation model from several models based on the determined context. The device processes the audio signal according to the selected volume compensation model and the microphone signal, and uses the processed audio signal to drive one or more speakers of the device.

Method and system for context-dependent automatic volume compensation

Processing sound in an enhanced reality environment can include generating, based on an image of a physical environment, an acoustic model of the physical environment. Audio signals captured by a microphone array, can capture a sound in the physical environment. Based on these audio signals, one or more measured acoustic parameters of the physical environment can be generated. A target audio signal can be processed using the model of the physical environment and the measured acoustic parameters, resulting in a plurality of output audio channels having a virtual sound source with a virtual location. The output audio channels can be used to drive a plurality of speakers. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

Processing sound in an enhanced reality environment

Various implementations disclosed herein include devices, systems, and methods that provide video content (e.g., a TV show, a recorded sporting event, a movie, a 3D video, etc.) within a 3D environment using parameters selected based on one or more contextual factors. Such contextual factors may be determined based on an attribute of the content (e.g., its intended purpose or viewing environment), the user (e.g., the user's visual quality, interpupillary distance, etc.), the 3D environment (e.g., current lighting conditions, spatial considerations, etc.), or other context attributes.

Parameter selection for media playback

A method performed by an audio system comprising a headset. The method sends a playback signal containing user-desired audio content to drive a speaker of the headset that is being worn by a user, receives a microphone signal from a microphone that is arranged to capture sounds within an ambient environment in which the user is located, performs a speech detection algorithm upon the microphone signal to detect speech contained therein, in response to a detection of speech, determines that the user intends to engage in a conversation with a person who is located within the ambient environment, and, in response to determining that the user intends to engage in the conversation, adjusts the playback signal based on the user-desired audio content.

Method and system for adjusting sound playback to account for speech detection

A method for self-calibrating a sound pickup process that uses a microphone array in a wearable device that also includes a loudspeaker, where the microphone array being in a physical arrangement with respect to the loudspeaker. The method obtains, for each of several microphones of the microphone array, one or more transfer functions that each represent a response of the microphone to sound from a position in an acoustic space. The method determines whether a physical arrangement of the microphone array with respect to the loudspeaker has changed and adjusts the transfer function, for at least one of the microphones of the several microphones, in response to determining that the current physical arrangement of the microphone array with respect to the loudspeaker has changed.

Self-calibrating microphone and loudspeaker arrays for wearable audio devices

In various implementations, a method comprises: identifying a plurality of data items, each of the plurality of data items having at least a first metadata field or a second metadata field; displaying a volumetric environment including a first plurality of SR objects corresponding to a first plurality of data items among the plurality of data items, wherein the first plurality of data items includes the first metadata field with first metadata field values; detecting a first user input indicative of the second metadata field; and in response to detecting the first user input, replacing the first plurality of SR objects within the volumetric environment with a second plurality of SR objects corresponding to a second plurality of data items among the plurality of data items, wherein each of the second plurality of data items includes the second metadata field with second metadata field values.

Method and device for presenting a synthesized reality user interface

A method performed by a first electronic device that includes a first speaker, the method includes, receiving, via a network, a representation of audio content, while a second electronic device is playing back the audio content through a second speaker, determining that the first electronic device is moving away from the second electronic device, and, in response to determining that the first electronic device is moving away from the second electronic device, using the representation of audio to play back the audio content through the first speaker.

Method and system for audio bridging with an output device

A method performed by a portable media player device. The method receives a microphone signal that includes audio content output by an audio playback device via a loudspeaker. The method determines identification information regarding the audio content, wherein the identification information is determined through an acoustic signal analysis of the microphone signal. In response to determining that the audio playback device has ceased outputting the audio content, the method retrieves from local memory of the portable media player device or a remote device with which the portable media player device is communicatively coupled, an audio signal that corresponds to the audio content and drives a speaker that is not part of the audio playback device using the audio signal to continue outputting the audio content and any additional audio content related to the audio content.

Method and system for seamless media synchronization and handoff

A system may include an electronic device such as a head-mounted device and a handheld controller for controlling the electronic device. The handheld controller may have a housing with an elongated shaft extending between first and second tip portions. The handheld controller may have power receiving circuitry configured to receive power from a power source. The power source may be incorporated into an electronic device such as a wireless charging dock or stick, a battery case, or a head-mounted device. The power source may supply power through terminals that form ohmic contacts with mating terminals in the finger device or may transmit power wirelessly using capacitive coupling or inductive charging arrangements. Magnets may be used to hold and align the elongated shaft of the handheld controller on the power source.

Handheld controllers with charging and storage systems

In a method for reproducing sound of a data object, a voice signal of a data object is split into a first sub-band signal and a second sub-band signal, and speaker driver signals are generated to produce sound of the object by a two-way speaker system in which the first sub-band signal drives a tweeter or high frequency driver and the second sub-band signal drives a woofer or low frequency driver. In another aspect, the first and second sub-band signals are spatialized as virtual sources that are in different locations. Other aspects are also described and claimed.

Splitting a voice signal into multiple point sources

A method performed by a processor of a computer system including a headset that is to be worn on a head of a user. The method drives a speaker of the headset with an input audio signal to output sound into an environment. The method determines that the speaker is at least partially covered with a cupped hand. In response to determining that the speaker is at least partially covered with the cupped hand, applying a gain to the input audio signal to reduce an output sound level of the speaker.

Privacy with extra-aural speakers

An audio asset library containing audio assets formatted in accordance with a file format for spatial audio includes asset metadata that enables simulated reality (SR) application developers to compose sounds for use in SR applications. The audio assets are formatted to include audio data encoding a sound capable of being composed into a SR application along with asset metadata describing not only how the sound was encoded, but also how a listener in SR environment experiences the sound. A SR developer platform is configured so that developers can compose sound for SR objects using audio assets stored in the audio library, including editing the asset metadata to include transformation parameters that support dynamic transformation of the asset metadata in the SR environment to alter how the SR listener experiences the composed sound. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

File format for spatial audio

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Christopher T Eubank