Audio themes

• US 10,149,077 B1
• Filed: 10/04/2012
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/04/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Adams, Jeffrey P., Weber, Frederick V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Yogeshkumar
• Application Number:
  US13/644,446
• Time in Patent Office: 2,252 Days
• Field of Search: 345158, 345419, 704270, 704275, 704243, 704254, 382103, 700 94
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/003 Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/005 Audio distribution systems for home, i.e. multi-room use
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A home interface comprises one or more audio interfaces within the premises of users. The audio interfaces are connected to an assistant service that detects conditions within rooms of user premises and that generates simulated audio themes for the rooms. The audio themes may be changed depending on detected conditions, and subthemes of a given audio theme may be implemented in different rooms.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory containing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform actions comprising;

obtaining an identification of an audio theme, wherein the audio theme specifies at least one audio characteristic of a simulated situation;

selecting first background audio having a first characteristic of the audio theme;

sending the first background audio to a device within a user environment, wherein the first background audio is played on a first speaker of the device within the user environment;

receiving audio from one or more regions of the user environment, the audio at least including a spoken request from a user within the one or more regions of the user environment;

determining a response to the spoken request;

selecting foreground audio based at least in part on the response, the foreground audio including the response and having a second characteristic of the audio theme that is determined based at least in part on the simulated situation and that is different from the first characteristic;

sending the foreground audio to the device within the user environment for output on the first speaker of the device within the user environment;

selecting second background audio having a third characteristic of the audio theme, wherein the second background audio is different than the first background audio; and

sending the second background audio to at least one of the device within the user environment for output on a second speaker of the device within the user environment or a second device for output on a third speaker of the second device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein obtaining the identification of the audio theme comprises receiving a selection of the audio theme from the user.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein selecting the foreground audio comprises using a text-to-speech engine to generate the foreground audio from text associated with the response.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, the actions further comprising detecting one or more conditions within the one or more regions of the user environment, the one or more conditions comprising at least one of a background noise level within one of the one or more regions of the user environment, a number of users within one of the one or more regions of the user environment, a temperature of one of the one or more regions of the user environment, or light levels of one of the one or more regions of the user environment.

23. The apparatus of claim 1, the actions further comprising detecting one or more characteristics of the user, the one or more characteristics comprising at least one of a mood of the user, a gender of the user, a relative age of the user, or an activity level of the user;

and

wherein the one or more characteristics of the user are determined using user voice analysis.

25. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein a first output of the foreground audio is concurrent with a second output of the background audio.

26. The apparatus of claim 1, the actions further comprising:

selecting second foreground audio having a fourth characteristic of the audio theme; and

sending the second foreground audio to the device within the user environment for output on the second speaker of the device within the user environment.

5. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory containing instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to perform actions comprising;

selecting background audio corresponding to an audio theme and having a first characteristic of the audio theme;

sending the background audio to a first device within a user environment, wherein the background audio is played on a first speaker of the first device within the user environment;

determining an identity of a user in a room of the user environment;

receiving a spoken request from the user of the user environment;

determining a response to the spoken request based at least in part on the identity of the user;

selecting first foreground audio, the first foreground audio including the response and having at least a second, different characteristic that is determined based at least in part on the audio theme;

sending the first foreground audio to the first device within the user environment for output on the first speaker of the first device within the user environment;

selecting second foreground audio having a third characteristic of the audio theme; and

sending the second foreground audio to a second device within the user environment for output on a second speaker of the second device within the user environment.

6. The system of claim 5, the actions further comprising:

selecting the second foreground audio in response to receiving information from a second room of the user environment; and

determining a second response based at least in part on the information, the second foreground audio including the second response.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein determining the response to the user request is further based at least in part on one or more conditions within the room of the user environment, and wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on characteristics of the user.

8. The system of claim 5, the actions further comprising selecting the audio theme based at least in part on the identity of the user.

9. The system of claim 5, wherein:

determining the response to the user request comprises performing speech recognition on the spoken request; and

selecting the first foreground audio comprises using a text-to-speech engine to generate first foreground audio from text associated with the response.

10. The system of claim 9, the actions further comprising:

receiving second information from a second room of the user environment;

wherein determining the response to the spoken request is based at least in part on the second information.

11. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the first foreground audio corresponds to a first subtheme of the audio theme; and

the second foreground audio corresponds to a second subtheme of the audio theme.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the audio theme comprises sounds from a cruise ship, the first subtheme comprises sounds from a swimming pool of the cruise ship, and the second subtheme comprises sounds from an engine room of the cruise ship.

13. The system of claim 5, wherein the second characteristic is one of:

a language;

an accent;

a gender;

a mood;

or

a personality.

24. The system of claim 5, wherein determining the identity of the user comprises determining that the user is an authorized user.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions,

selecting background audio having a first characteristic of an audio theme;

sending the background audio to a device within a user environment, wherein the background audio is played on a speaker of the user environment;

receiving information from a room of the user environment, the information comprising at least a spoken instruction representing a user request;

determining a response to the user request;

selecting first foreground audio, the first foreground audio including the response and having a second characteristic that is determined based at least in part on the audio theme and that is different from the first characteristic, the first foreground audio corresponding to a first subtheme of the audio theme;

sending the first foreground audio to the device within the user environment for output on the speaker of the device within the user environment;

selecting second foreground audio corresponding to a second subtheme of the audio theme; and

sending the second foreground audio to the device within the user environment for output on a second speaker of the device within the user environment.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising selecting the audio theme based at least in part on the information.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein:

determining the response to the user request comprises performing speech recognition on the user request, and further comprising;

selecting at least one of the first foreground audio or the second foreground audio using a text-to-speech engine to generate the foreground audio from text associated with the response.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the first subtheme comprises sounds from a first setting of a fictional environment and the second subtheme comprises sounds from a second setting of the fictional environment.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein selecting the background audio comprises at least one of:

selecting music;

selecting nature sounds;

selecting sounds of people gatherings;

selecting city sounds;

or

selecting entertainment sounds.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein determining the response to the user request is based at least in part on one or more conditions, wherein the one or more conditions are based at least in part on the information, and wherein the one or more conditions comprise at least one of:

presence of the user;

identity of the user;

mood of the user;

age of the user;

gender of the user;

time of day;

day of week;

weather;

or

user activity level.

20. A computer-implemented method comprising:

under control of one or more processors configured with executable instructions,

receiving first information from a first room of a user environment, the first information comprising an identity of a person present in the first room;

selecting, by a remote device located remotely from the user environment, first audio corresponding to an audio theme based at least on the first information, the first audio having a first characteristic that is determined based at least in part on the audio theme;

sending, by the remote device, the first audio to a first device, wherein the first audio is played on a first speaker of the first device within a second room of the user environment and wherein the second room is different from the first room;

receiving second information from the second room, the second information comprises at least audio representing a user request;

selecting, by the remote device, first foreground audio corresponding to the audio theme, the first foreground audio including a response to the user request and having a second characteristic that is determined based at least in part on the audio theme that is different from the first characteristic;

sending, by the remote device, the first foreground audio to a second device, wherein the second audio is played on a second speaker of the second device within a third room of the user environment;

selecting, by the remote device, second foreground audio that corresponds to the audio theme and that has a third characteristic that is different than the second characteristic; and

sending, by the remote device, the second foreground audio to at least one of the second device within the user environment for output on a third speaker of the second device within the user environment or a third device for output on a fourth speaker of the third device.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the third room is the first room.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the first audio is background audio.