Avnera Corporation

Intel Corporation

Other

Manpreet Singh Khaira

Eric Sorensen

Shawn O'Connor

Patrick A Quinn

Michael Jon Wurtz

Amit Kumar

Thomas Irrgang

David B Wurtz

Frank Prestrelski

Richard Andrew Sorensen

Mandar S Joshi

Shankar Rathoud

Jiajin An

James E Scanlan

Erik M Seligman

Jeremy S Casas

Sydney Newton

Steve W Otto

Nitin Y Borkar

Thomas P Thomas

Camron B Rust

Nigel Waites

Meenakshi Barjatia

Robert C Proebstel

Colin Doolittle

Ian J Myles

Honghua H Yang

David McNeill

David Finan

Nigel D Waites

Many headsets include automatic noise cancellation (ANC) which dramatically reduces perceived background noise and improves user listening experience. Unfortunately, the voice microphones in these devices often capture ambient noise that the headsets output during phone calls or other communication sessions to other users. In response, many headsets and communication devices provide manual muting circuitry, but users frequently forget to turn the muting on and/or off creating further problems as they communicate. To address this, the present inventors devised, among other things, an exemplary headset that detects the absence or presence of user speech, automatically muting and unmuting the voice microphone without user intervention. Some embodiments leverage relationships between feedback and feedforward signals in ANC circuitry to detect user speech, avoiding the addition of extra hardware to the headset. Other embodiments also leverage the speech detection function to activate and deactivate keyword detectors, and/or sidetone circuits, thus extending battery.

User voice activity detection

An apparatus can include an audio playback device configured to provide an audio output to a user, and a controller configured to: receive an initial playback position within the audio output; determine that an off-ear event has occurred; identify a time corresponding to the off-ear event; instruct the audio playback device to pause the audio output at the identified time; and calculate a new playback position within the audio output based at least in part on the identified time.

Automatic playback time adjustment

The disclosure includes a headset including one or more earphones and a connector configured to couple data and charge between the headset and a user equipment (UE). The headset also includes a charge node. The charge node includes a charge port for receiving UE charge from a charge source. The charge node also includes a downstream port for coupling audio data toward the earphones. The charge node further includes an upstream port for coupling the audio data toward the earphones via the downstream port and coupling UE charge from the charge port toward the UE via the connector.

Headset charger node

Many headsets include automatic noise cancellation (ANC) which dramatically reduces perceived background noise and improves user listening experience. Unfortunately, the voice microphones in these devices often capture ambient noise that the headsets output during phone calls or other communication sessions to other users. In response, many headsets and communication devices provide manual muting circuitry, but users frequently forget to turn the muting on and/or off, creating further problems as they communicate. To address this, the present inventors devised, among other things, an exemplary headset that detects the absence or presence of user speech, automatically muting and unmuting the voice microphone without user intervention. Some embodiments leverage relationships between feedback and feedforward signals in ANC circuitry to detect user speech, avoiding the addition of extra hardware to the headset. Other embodiments also leverage the speech detection function to activate and deactivate keyword detectors, and/or sidetone circuits, thus extending battery.

User voice activity detection methods, devices, assemblies, and components

An audio speaker system for a home theater including a number of microphones, a number of speakers, each speaker located at a different location in a room, and a processor electrically connected to the plurality of microphones and wirelessly connected to the plurality of speakers. The processor is configured to generate an audio signal to send to each speaker of the plurality of speakers, output audio from each speaker of the plurality of speakers based on the audio signal, receive the audio at each microphone from each speaker of the plurality of speakers, determine a location of each speaker relative to the plurality of microphones based on the received audio at each microphone, and assign an audio channel to each speaker based on the determined location.

Automatic speaker relative location detection

A speaker system includes a case, an audio input, speakers, an accelerometer, and a computer processor. The audio input is structured to receive a program audio signal from an audio device. The speakers are configured to play an audio output based on the program audio signal, the audio output causing a vibration of the case. The accelerometer is configured to detect the vibration of the case as well as a user tap on the case. The computer processor is configured to identify a user gesture that includes the tap on the case, to identify the tap apart from the case vibration by processing the detected vibration of the case and the detected user tap on the case based on information from the program audio signal to separate the detected user tap from the detected vibration, and to commence a particular function associated with the user gesture.

Gesture-controlled tabletop speaker system

A case having a recessed holding, an acoustic waveguide, and at least one audio transducer device. The recessed holding well is configured to receive and captively hold a stand-alone keyboard within the recessed holding well. The acoustic waveguide is integrated with a bottom cover of the case and between a bottom surface of the case and the recessed holding well. The at least one audio transducer device is coupled to a signal processing device and the acoustic waveguide. The at least one audio transducer device is configured to generate an audible audio output in response to an audio signal output from the signal processing device. The acoustic waveguide is configured to receive the audible audio output and generate an enhanced bass audio output.

Audio layer in keyboard device providing enhanced audio performance

An acoustic layer is added to a keyboard-type device including: enclosing walls, optionally&#x2014;one or more microphones, a signal processing device, at least one audio transducer, and an acoustic waveguide. The acoustic layer adjoins one or more internal areas of a keyboard-type device. The signal processing device receives an internal signal from an electronic device either through wires or wirelessly. The signal processing device provides a directive sound enhancement of the audio input signals based on room acoustics, such as reverberation, echo, noise, delay, frequency response, and/or speaker-positional information that is determined by the signal processing device. The audio transducer device generates an audible audio output in response to an audio signal output from the signal processing device. The acoustic waveguide receives the audible audio output and generates an enhanced bass audio output from the acoustic waveguide.

An acoustic layer is added to a laptop-type personal computing device, comprising: enclosing walls, optionally&#x2014;one or more microphones, a signal processing device, at least one audio transducer, and an acoustic waveguide. The acoustic layer adjoins one or more internal areas of a laptop-type device. The signal processing device receives an internal signal from a laptop-type device. The signal processing device provides a directive sound enhancement of the audio input signals based on room acoustics, such as reverberation, echo, noise, delay, frequency response, and/or speaker-positional information that is determined by the signal processing device. The audio transducer device generates an audible audio output in response to an audio signal output from the signal processing device. The acoustic waveguide receives the audible audio output and generates an enhanced bass audio output from the acoustic waveguide.

Acoustic layer in media device providing enhanced audio performance

A tabletop speaker system includes an amplifier, proximity and acceleration detectors, and a processor. The processor is operatively coupled to receive signals from the proximity and accelerometer detectors, and in response to the proximity and acceleration signals, activate various functions local to the tabletop speaker system to operate and control various behaviors or features of the tabletop speaker system. In this way, the tabletop speaker system can respond to user gestures for a very natural control interface.

A method and apparatus for performing distributed simulation is presented. According to an embodiment of the present invention, simulators are interfaced to a simulation backplane via simulator-dependent interfaces (SDI's). The simulators exchange messages via the simulation backplane and the SDI's. The SDI's convert the exchanged messages between a data format supported by the backplane and a data format supported by the simulator to which the interface is connected. By interfacing the simulators with the backplane via SDI's, the validation environment may be changed without reconfiguring the backplane.

Method and apparatus for performing distributed simulation utilizing a simulation backplane

A method of preparing a circuit model for simulation comprises decomposing the circuit model having a number of latches into a plurality of extended latch boundary components and partitioning the plurality of extended latch boundary components. Decomposing and partitioning the circuit model may include decomposing hierarchical cells of the circuit model, and using a constructive bin-packing heuristic to partition the plurality of extended latch boundary components. The partitioned circuit model is compiled, and simulated on a uni-processor, a multi-processor, or a distributed processing computer system.

Logic verification in large systems

A first-come-first-serve ('FCFS') scheduler that routes requests from two or more clients to a single resource. The FCFS scheduler contains a time stamp mechanism which provides a time stamp for each request. The scheduler provides resource access to the client with the oldest generated request and under a predetermined priority scheme in the event of simultaneous requests. The time stamps are generated by adders which add the current value of a time stamp counter with the number of client requests. The time stamp counter is incremented by the output of the adders. The updated value of the counter is decoded into a time stamp output value stored within time stamp registers. A hifind circuit reads the registers and generates an output signal associated with the set of registers, and corresponding client request, with the lowest time stamp. The output signal allows the client to access the resource.

Fast first-come, first-served time stamp arbitration mechanism

The first-in/first-out (FIFO) buffer includes a first bank of individual storage elements for storing even data and a second bank of individual storage locations for storing odd data. Precharge elements are provided for precharging the even array while data is read from the odd array during one clock cycle and for precharging the odd array while data is read from the even array during a next subsequent clock cycle. Hence, only half of the array is precharged during any one clock cycle. The FIFO buffer is driven by a clock signal having a clock period equal to a minimum precharge time. A 3-input multiplexer is provided with 3 inputs connected, respectively, to an output line of the even array, an output line of the odd array, and an overall input line. In circumstances where data needs to be written to and read from the same storage element in one clock cycle, the multiplexer selects the input line thereby allowing the input data to bypass the storage array for immediate output. The FIFO buffer includes a FIFO read pointer circuit and a FIFO write pointer circuit, each configured as a matrix of individual 2-input AND gates. Each of the gates of the read pointer circuit are connected to a pair of linear feedback shift registers which operate to enable only one of the gates during any clock cycle for selecting only one of the storage locations for reading a bit from. The write pointer circuit has a similar configuration. Alternative embodiments are described wherein the FIFO buffer includes rows split into three or more sub-rows, rather than merely a pair of even and odd rows.

Growing community of inventors

Portland, OR, United States of America

Manpreet Singh Khaira