DYNAMIC MASTER ASSIGNMENT IN DISTRIBUTED WIRELESS AUDIO SYSTEM FOR THERMAL AND POWER MITIGATION

    公开(公告)号:US20190045301A1

    公开(公告)日:2019-02-07

    申请号:US16033020

    申请日:2018-07-11

    Applicant: APPLE INC.

    Abstract: A method for operating a distributed wireless audio system including several loudspeaker cabinets all of which can communicate with each other as part of a computer network. The method receives temperature data that is indicative of temperature of a first loudspeaker cabinet, which has a network master responsibility of obtaining an audio signal from an audio source and wirelessly transmitting some of the audio signal to a second loudspeaker cabinet of several loudspeaker cabinets, for playback by the second loudspeaker cabinet, while playing back some of the audio signal by the first loudspeaker cabinet. The method determines whether a thermal threshold of the first loudspeaker cabinet has been reached, based on the temperature data. The method, in response to the thermal threshold being reached, gives up the network master responsibility from the first loudspeaker cabinet to the second loudspeaker cabinet, where doing so reduces temperature in the first loudspeaker cabinet.

    Binaural sound reproduction system having dynamically adjusted audio output

    公开(公告)号:US10028071B2

    公开(公告)日:2018-07-17

    申请号:US15465544

    申请日:2017-03-21

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: A binaural sound reproduction system, and methods of using the binaural sound reproduction system to dynamically re-center a frame of reference for a virtual sound source, are described. The binaural sound reproduction system may include a head-mounted device, e.g., headphones, having a device sensor to provide device orientation data corresponding to a direction of the head-mounted device. The system may use the orientation data to determine whether the head-mounted device has moved over an angle within a range of movement, and may adjust an audio output to render the virtual sound source in an adjusted source direction based on the range of movement. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

    Multi-channel loudspeaker matching using variable directivity

    公开(公告)号:US09900723B1

    公开(公告)日:2018-02-20

    申请号:US14300120

    申请日:2014-06-09

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    CPC classification number: H04S7/305 H04S7/302

    Abstract: An audio system that maintains an identical or similar direct-to-reverberant ratio for sound produced from a first speaker array and sound produced by a second speaker array at the location of a listener is described. The audio system may determine characteristics of the first and second speaker arrays, including the distance between the first speaker array and the listener and the second speaker array and the listener. Based on these characteristics, beam patterns are selected for one or more of the speaker arrays such that sound produced by each of the speaker arrays maintains a preferred direct-to-reverberant ratio at the location of the listener.

    Efficient system and method for generating an audio beacon

    公开(公告)号:US09749747B1

    公开(公告)日:2017-08-29

    申请号:US14933990

    申请日:2015-11-05

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An audio emission device and an audio capture device that may respectively emit and capture sound within a listening area is described. The audio emission device may produce one or more primary audio beams in the listening area. Each of the primary audio beams may be formed by weighting a set of modal beam patterns. Separate orthogonal test signals may be injected into each modal beam pattern. Based on these separate orthogonal test signals, the individual modal beam patterns may be extracted from a detected sound signal, produced by the audio capture device, such that the contribution from each of these modal patterns in the detected sound signal may be determined. Utilizing the contributions from each modal beam pattern in the detected sound signal, the spatial relationship (e.g., distance and/or orientation/angle) between the audio emission device and the audio capture device may be determined.

    OPTIMIZING THE PERFORMANCE OF AN AUDIO PLAYBACK SYSTEM WITH A LINKED AUDIO/VIDEO FEED

    公开(公告)号:US20170230776A1

    公开(公告)日:2017-08-10

    申请号:US15499829

    申请日:2017-04-27

    Applicant: Apple Inc.

    Abstract: An audio system is provided that efficiently detects speaker arrays and configures the speaker arrays to output sound. In this system, a computing device may record the addresses and/or types of speaker arrays on a shared network while a camera captures video of a listening area, including the speaker arrays. The captured video may be analyzed to determine the location of the speaker arrays, one or more users, and/or the audio source in the listening area. While capturing the video, the speaker arrays may be driven to sequentially emit a series of test sounds into the listening area and a user may be prompted to select which speaker arrays in the captured video emitted each of the test sounds. Based on these inputs from the user, the computing device may determine an association between the speaker arrays on the shared network and the speaker arrays in the captured video.

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