Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Jani Samuli Kuivalainen

Eric Lee Middleton

Gregory Nielsen

Kevin Juho Venalainen

Chun Beng Goh

Christopher Ian Borowski

Benjamin Francis Walker

Tuomas Erkki Niemi

Sneha Rajeev Sondur

Dana William Bourke

Ergo Esken

Systems and methods are described for reducing high tonality sounds by controlling the speed of a fan to avoid a range of fan speeds. A target speed of the fan is determined. When the target speed is in a lower portion of the range, a signal is transmitted to the fan to operate at a speed below the range. When the target speed is an upper portion of the range, a signal is transmitted to the fan to operate at a speed above the range. When the target speed transitions from the lower portion to the upper portion, or vice versa, a signal is transmitted to the fan to progressively transition between the speed below the range and the speed above the range, or vice versa. When the target speed is outside the range, a signal is transmitted to the fan to operate at the target speed.

Fan speed control for high tonality avoidance

A frequency-dependent signal limiter using a paired combination of a bandpass filter (or 'selection filter') and an attenuating equalizing filter (or “cutting filter”) limit the amount of distortion generated by an audio output device in an acoustic rendering system. A bank of one or more of these pairs in series can be used to limit selected frequencies identified as primary causes of distortion in the audio output device to specified levels that avoid distortion.

Limiting distortion of acoustic rendering

Techniques are described herein that are capable of adaptively modulating audio content based on background noise. For instance, a loudness difference between a loudness of the audio content and a loudness of the background noise is determined. The loudness of the audio content is compared to an upper loudness threshold. A modulation is selected from multiple modulations based on the loudness difference and/or the comparison. Subsequent outputted audio content is modulated using the selected modulation.

Adaptive modulation of audio content based on background noise

Examples are disclosed herein that relate to avoiding mechanical noise from operation of a vibrational output device. One example provides a computing device including a processor and a storage device storing instructions executable by the processor to vary a drive voltage applied to a vibrational output device, receive acoustic data, and from the acoustic data detect a noise signal from the vibrational output device as the drive voltage is varied. The instructions are further executable to, based upon the detected noise signal, select an operational drive voltage for the vibrational output device, and operate the vibrational output device using the operational drive voltage.

Calibrating a vibrational output device

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Redmond, WA, United States of America

Jani Samuli Kuivalainen