Google Inc.

Motorola Mobility LLC

Google Technology Holdings LLC

Joseph C Dwyer

Robert A Zurek

Giles T Davis

Jincheng Wu

Joel A Clark

Snehitha Singaraju

Sanjay N Kadiwala

Daniel C Chisu

Plamen A Ivanov

Adrian M Schuster

Rivanaldo S Oliveira

Robert Murdock

Seungho L Kim

Juan C Garcia

John R Meloney

An earpiece includes a portion that seals the earpiece in the user's ear, preventing or reducing sounds from an external environment (e.g., the outside world) from entering the user's ear canal and being heard by the user. The earpiece also includes a duct from the user's ear canal to the external environment, which may be open or closed. Whether the duct is open or closed is automatically determined, such as based at least in part on audio measurements at a microphone of the earpiece. When the duct is open, sounds can pass from the external environment to the user's ear canal, active noise cancellation (ANC) is disabled, and an appropriate equalization (EQ) setting is used. When the duct is closed, sounds from the external environment are prevented from passing through to the user's ear canal (or are reduced), ANC is enabled, and an appropriate EQ setting is used.

Automatically detecting an earpiece mode based on whether a duct is sealed or unsealed

A voice call is established between two or more computing devices. The voice call may be, for example, audio only or audio and video. One computing device, referred to as a near-end device, receives a digital representation of background noise captured at another computing device, referred to as a far-end device. The near-end device captures voice audio from the user of the near-end device and adjusts the voice audio based at least in part on the digital representation of the background noise at the far-end device. The near-end device then transmits the adjusted voice audio to the far-end device for playback at the far-end device.

Adjusting transmit audio at near-end device based on background noise at far-end device

An adaptive echo cancellation system introduces an acoustic reference signal to audio content being transmitted to the speaker for playback. The acoustic reference signal is an out-of-band signal, such as an ultrasonic signal, which is typically not audible to humans. The microphone of the mobile device receives the audio content played back by the speaker as well as audio content introduced by the user (e.g., the speech of the user). The adaptive echo cancellation system detects the acoustic reference signal and determines a time delay between when the acoustic reference signal was introduced to the audio content and when the audio content including the acoustic reference signal was received by the mobile device. Echo is cancelled from the received audio content based on this determined time delay.

Adaptive echo delay determination using an out-of-band acoustic reference signal

A method includes cycling through a plurality of microphone and speaker combinations in a mobile device in response to the mobile device being placed in speakerphone mode. The mobile device includes a plurality of microphones and at least one speaker. The method obtains acoustic echo data from an echo canceller for each microphone and speaker combination, calculates an acoustic isolation value for each combination and then selects a microphone and speaker combination based on the acoustic isolation value. The method may also include determining an echo spectrum for each microphone and speaker combination using the obtained acoustic echo data, and select an echo control profile based on a characteristic of the echo spectrum. The echo control profile is selected to further improve acoustic isolation for the selected microphone and speaker combination.

Apparatus with adaptive acoustic echo control for speakerphone mode

An electronic device digitally combines a single voice input with each of a series of noise samples. Each noise sample is taken from a different audio environment (e.g., street noise, babble, interior car noise). The voice input/noise sample combinations are used to train a voice recognition model database without the user having to repeat the voice input in each of the different environments. In one variation, the electronic device transmits the user's voice input to a server that maintains and trains the voice recognition model database.

Method and apparatus for training a voice recognition model database

A method and apparatus for adapting acoustic processing in a communication device, and capturing at least one acoustic signal using acoustic hardware of the communication device, characterizing an acoustic environment external to the communication device using the at least one captured acoustic signal, adapting acoustic processing within the communication device based on the characterized acoustic environment.

Method and apparatus for acoustically characterizing an environment in which an electronic device resides

A method is performed in an electronic device for orienting an audio beam generated by the device. The method includes: detecting that the device is coupled to a docking station; and determining a geographic location of the device. The method further includes determining, based on the geographic location of the device, an orientation for an audio beam relative from the docking station; and generating the audio beam by the device.

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Downers Grove, IL, United States of America

Joseph C Dwyer