Google Inc.

Vitali Lovich

Jeffrey Kuramoto

A system and method for automatically connecting an accessory with a host device are disclosed. The accessory may include a private key and a public key, wherein the public key is associated with an account. The same account may be associated with the host device. The accessory may transmit an encrypted message, including a key, to the host device, wherein the key may be the public key. Upon decryption and validation of the key, the accessory and host device may automatically connect via short-range wireless pairing.

Automatically paired devices

The present disclosure provides an audio playback system adapted to automatically switch an active microphone back and forth between two or more devices. For example, where the system is a pair of earbuds, where each earbud is worn by a separate user, the system may switch the active microphone to the device worn by the user that is speaking at a given time. While that device holds the active microphone, the other device may wait until a particular event that frees up the microphone, such as if the user wearing the device with the active microphone stops talking. According to some examples, a notification may be provided through one or more of the devices in the system to let the user know, for example, that he does not have the active microphone, that the active microphone is free, that the active microphone has been switched, etc.

Automatically switching active microphone for wireless headsets

The present disclosure provides for power conservation in truly wireless earbuds or other paired wireless devices, by switching a secondary device into a power save mode when the devices are not receiving traffic from the host. In this power-save mode the devices are put into a lower duty cycle than conventional configuration. The primary and secondary devices communicate over a backchannel communication link at a very low duty cycle, in some examples below lower bounds specified for standard communication with other devices. The primary earbud may be responsible for letting the secondary earbud know when to leave power-save mode and resume regular operation.

Method for power-saving for wirelessly paired devices

An audio playback system may be adaptable to various situations for improved user experience and audio playback quality. For example, earbuds may be both worn by a same user, worn by two different users within audio range of one another, worn by two different users outside of audio range of one another, etc. A second earbud with a secondary microphone operates in a second mode in which it captures audio and encodes it for transmission to the first earbud having a primary microphone. The first earbud with the primary microphone operates in a first mode in which it mixes the audio received from the second earbud with audio received through its own microphone for playback. The first earbud in the first mode may also delay its own microphone stream to compensate for wireless transmission delay and correlate the two audio streams to improve audio quality in case there are sounds that can be picked up by both microphones.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Vitali Lovich