Apple Inc.

Gary P Geaves

Martin E Johnson

Michael B Howes

Tom-Davy William Jendrik Saux

Gordon R Dix

Erik L Wang

Afrooz Family

Matthew Irvine Brown

Tomlinson M Holman

Sylvain J Choisel

Anthony P Bidmead

Justin Derry Crosby

Nikolas T Vitt

Tom-Davy William Jendrick Saux

An audio system is described that includes one or more speaker arrays that emit sound corresponding to one or more pieces of sound program content into associated zones within a listening area. Using parameters of the audio system (e.g., locations of the speaker arrays and the audio sources), the zones, the users, the pieces of sound program content, and the listening area, one or more beam pattern attributes may be generated. The beam pattern attributes define a set of beams that are used to generate audio beams for channels of sound program content to be played in each zone. The beam pattern attributes may be updated as changes are detected within the listening environment. By adapting to these changing conditions, the audio system is capable of reproducing sound that accurately represents each piece of sound program content in various zones.

Audio system with configurable zones

A multi-way speaker array is disclosed that includes rings of transducers of different types. The rings of transducers may encircle the cabinet of the speaker array such that the speaker array is rotationally symmetric. The distance between rings of transducers may be based on a logarithmic scale. By separating rings of transducers using logarithmic spacing, denser transducer spacing at short wavelengths is achieved while limiting the number of transducers needed for longer wavelengths by spacing them in larger and larger logarithmic increments. Transducers with overlapping frequency ranges may be used in the speaker array to avoid initial dips or shortfalls in directivity for corresponding beam patterns.

Rotationally symmetric speaker array

A first electronic device includes a first coil that is operative in at least two modes. In a first mode, the first coil may be utilized to moves a membrane to produce one or more sound waves, register movement of a membrane to detect one or more sound waves, or generates one or more haptic outputs. In the second mode, the first coil may be used to inductively transmit power to and/or inductively receive power from a second coil included in a second electronic device. In various cases, the second coil may be a dedicated inductive power transmission coil. In other cases, the second coil may be capable of multimode operation similar to the first coil.

Inductive power transfer using acoustic or haptic devices

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Gary P Geaves