Speaker discovery and assignment

• US 10,158,946 B2
• Filed: 09/04/2015
• Issued: 12/18/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PWV Inc
• Original Assignee: PWV Inc
• Inventors: Hammer, Jeremy Adam, Hammer, James Andrew, Baker, Ryan, Welter, Michael, Foxley, Austin
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): FAHNERT, FRIEDRICH
• Application Number:
  US14/846,727
• Publication Number:
  US 20160073197A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,201 Days
• Field of Search: 381 12, 381 14, 381 16, 381 17, 381 18, 381 19, 381 77, 381 80, 381300, 381310, 381311, 381334, 700 94, 455 306, 455 412, 4554561, 455 661, 34053913
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/024 Positioning of loudspeaker enclosures for spatial sound reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/30 Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/04 Key management, e.g. using generic bootstrapping architecture [GBA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/50 Secure pairing of devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/65 Environment-dependent, e.g. using captured environmental data

Abstract

Described herein are systems, devices, and methods for discovering and assigning wireless speakers to one or more devices capable of providing audio content. In some embodiments, the speakers may receive one or more channels of multi-channel audio content. In some embodiments, one or more wireless speakers are discovered, a prompt identifying at least one speaker location is provided at an output device, a list of wireless speakers is provided to the output device, wherein the list of wireless speakers corresponds to the discovered one or more wireless speakers, a selection of a wireless speaker from the list of wireless speakers is received; and the selected wireless speaker is associated to the at least one speaker location.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, wherein the memory contains one or more processor executable instructions that when executed, cause the one or more processors to;

create a first speaker group;

discover one or more wireless speakers in communication with the device;

output to a display device, a prompt indicating at least one speaker location;

output to the display device, a list of wireless speakers, wherein the list of wireless speakers corresponds to the discovered one or more wireless speakers;

receive a selection of a wireless speaker from the list of wireless speakers, wherein the selected wireless speaker has been previously assigned to a second speaker group;

assign the selected wireless speaker to the first speaker group such that the selected wireless speaker is assigned to the first speaker group and the second speaker group at a same time, wherein the first speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers, and wherein the second speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers at least one of which is not included in the first speaker group;

associate the selected wireless speaker to the at least one speaker location;

receive audio content from an audio source; and

transmit the received audio content to the plurality of wireless speakers of the first speaker group over a wireless communication network.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to output to the display device a speaker diagram illustrating a speaker configuration, wherein the speaker configuration includes a plurality of speaker locations.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to receive a selection of a speaker location from the plurality of speaker locations, wherein the at least one speaker location is the selected speaker location.

4. The device of claim 3, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to:

receive a selection of a second speaker location from the plurality of speaker locations;

output, to the display device, the list of wireless speakers;

receive a selection of a second wireless speaker from the list of wireless speakers; and

associate the selected second wireless speaker to the selected second speaker location.

5. The device of claim 4, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to:

receive multi-channel audio content from an audio source;

transmit a first channel of the multi-channel audio content to a first wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers; and

transmit a second channel of the multi-channel audio content to a second wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers.

6. The device of claim 2, wherein the speaker configuration is based on a number of discovered wireless speakers.

7. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to cause an audio tone to be emitted from the selected wireless speaker.

8. The device of claim 1, wherein the one or more processor executable instructions cause the one or more processors to turn on and off at least one visual indicator located on the selected wireless speaker.

9. The device of claim 1, wherein the at least one speaker location assigned to the selected wireless speaker in the first speaker group is different from a speaker location assigned to the selected wireless speaker in the second speaker group.

10. A method comprising:

discovering one or more wireless speakers in communication with an audio processing device;

outputting to a display device, a prompt identifying at least one speaker location;

outputting to the display device, a list of wireless speakers, wherein the list of wireless speakers corresponds to the discovered one or more wireless speakers;

receiving a selection of a wireless speaker from the list of wireless speakers, wherein the selected wireless speaker is assigned to a first speaker group;

associating the selected wireless speaker to the at least one speaker location;

assigning the selected wireless speaker to a second speaker group such that the selected wireless speaker is simultaneously assigned to the first and second speaker group, wherein the first speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers, and wherein the second speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers at least one of which is not included in the first speaker group;

receiving, by the audio processing device, audio content from an audio source; and

transmitting, by the audio processing device, the received audio content to the plurality of wireless speakers of the first speaker group over a wireless communication network.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising outputting to the display device a speaker diagram illustrating a speaker configuration, wherein the speaker configuration includes a plurality of speaker locations.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving a selection of a speaker location from the plurality of speaker locations, wherein the at least one speaker location is the selected speaker location.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

receiving a selection of a second speaker location from the plurality of speaker locations;

outputting, to the display device, the list of wireless speakers;

receiving a selection of a second wireless speaker from the list of wireless speakers; and

associating the selected second wireless speaker to the selected second speaker location.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving multi-channel audio content from an audio source;

transmitting a first channel of the multi-channel audio content to a first wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers; and

transmitting a second channel of the multi-channel audio content to a second wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the speaker configuration is based on a number of discovered wireless speakers.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising causing an audio tone to be emitted from the selected wireless speaker.

17. The method of claim 10, further comprising turning on and off at least one visual indicator located on the selected wireless speaker.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one speaker location assigned to the selected wireless speaker in the first speaker group is different from a speaker location assigned to the selected wireless speaker in the second speaker group.

19. A computer program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage devices having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that are executable by one or more processors of a computer system to perform the method of claim 10.

20. A method comprising:

creating a first speaker group;

discovering one or more wireless speakers in communication with an audio processing device;

causing at least one of (i) an audio tone to be emitted from at least one wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers and/or (ii) at least one visual indicator to turn on and off for at least one wireless speaker of the one or more wireless speakers;

outputting to a display device, at least one of (i) a speaker diagram illustrating a speaker configuration and/or (ii) a list of wireless speakers;

receiving a selection of a speaker location from the at least one of (i) the speaker diagram and/or (ii) the list of wireless speakers;

associating the selected speaker location to the at least one wireless speaker;

assigning the at least one wireless speaker to the first speaker group such that the at least one wireless speaker is assigned to the first speaker group and a second speaker group at a same time, wherein the first speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers, and wherein the second speaker group includes a plurality of wireless speakers at least one of which is not included in the first speaker group;

receiving, by the audio processing device, audio content from an audio source; and

transmitting, by the audio processing device, the received audio content to the plurality of wireless speakers of the first speaker group over a wireless communication network.