ADJUSTING ACOUSTIC SPEAKER OUTPUT BASED ON AN ESTIMATED DEGREE OF SEAL OF AN EAR ABOUT A SPEAKER PORT

• US 20090116666A1
• Filed: 11/02/2007
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/02/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Craig Eric Ranta
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: RANTA, Craig Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,144,897 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/107
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response

Abstract

A degree of seal of an ear about a speaker port may be estimated by detecting touch contact between the ear and at least one touch sensor in fixed relation to the speaker port. The degree of seal is estimated based on the detected touch contact. Based upon the estimated degree of seal, the acoustic output of the speaker may be adjusted. The adjustment may compensate for perceived changes to the quality of the acoustic output resulting from the degree of seal. The at least one touch sensor may be a plurality of touch sensors spaced around the speaker port. Each sensor may have a truncated wedge shape, with a narrow end closest to the speaker port. Upon receipt of user input indicative of a high degree of ear seal, a sample of the sensor(s) may be taken and stored for using during future estimation of the degree of seal.

Claims

1. A method of adjusting the acoustic output of a speaker, comprising:

detecting touch contact between an ear and at least one touch sensor in fixed relation to a speaker port for the speaker;

based on said detecting, estimating a degree of seal of said ear about said speaker port; and

based on the estimated degree of seal, adjusting the acoustic output of the speaker.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when the totality of said touch contact is substantially continuous over an arc of a notional circle that is concentric with the speaker port, and the size of said arc is less than a threshold size T1.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when the detected touch contact fails to occur on opposite sides of said speaker port.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when, in a notional circle that is concentric with said speaker port, two directly opposing sectors, each said sector spanning a degrees, cannot be rotated about the center of the circle such that said touch contact occurs within the opposing sectors.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when the totality of said touch contact is substantially continuous over an arc of a notional circle that is concentric with the speaker port, and the size of said arc exceeds a threshold size T2.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when the detected touch contact is on opposite sides of said speaker port.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when, in a notional circle that is concentric with said speaker port, two directly opposing sectors, each said sector spanning a degrees, can be rotated about the center of the circle such that said touch contact occurs within the opposing sectors.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said adjusting comprises amplifying low frequencies of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is low or attenuating low frequencies of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is high.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said adjusting comprises increasing the volume of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is low or decreasing the volume of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is high.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising periodically repeating said detecting, said estimating and said adjusting during a period of contact between said ear and said at least one touch sensor.

11. An electronic device comprising:

a housing having a speaker port;

a speaker within said housing for providing acoustic output through said speaker port;

at least one touch sensor in fixed relation to said speaker port; and

a processor operable to;

receive data representing touch contact between an ear and said at least one touch sensor;

based on the received data, estimate a degree of seal of said ear about said speaker port; and

based on the estimated degree of seal, adjust the acoustic output of the speaker.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the at least one touch sensor substantially surrounds said speaker port.

13. The device of claim 11 wherein the at least one touch sensor comprises a plurality of sensors.

14. The device of claim 13 wherein the plurality of sensors is evenly spaced around the speaker port.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein each sensor of the plurality of sensors has a truncated wedge shape with a narrow end closest to the speaker port.

16. A method of operating an electronic device, the device comprising:

a housing having a speaker port;

a speaker within said housing for providing acoustic output through said speaker port;

at least one touch sensor in fixed relation to said speaker port;

a memory; and

a processor in communication with said memory operable to;

receive data representing touch contact between an ear and said at least one touch sensor;

based on the received data, estimate a degree of seal of said ear about said speaker port; and

based on the estimated degree of seal, adjust the acoustic output of the speaker, the method comprising;

causing said speaker to provide acoustic output through said speaker port;

during or subsequent to said providing of said acoustic output, receiving user input indicating that the degree of seal of said ear about said speaker port is currently high;

upon said receiving, sampling a degree of touch contact with the at least one touch sensor, said sampling resulting in a generated sample; and

storing said generated sample in said memory for use during said estimating.

17. A machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processor of an electronic device having a speaker and at least one touch sensor in fixed relation to a speaker port for the speaker, causes said processor to:

receive data representing touch contact between an ear and said at least one touch sensor;

based on the received data, estimate a degree of seal of said ear about said speaker port; and

based on the estimated degree of seal, adjust the acoustic output of the speaker.

18. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when the totality of said touch contact is substantially continuous over an arc of a notional circle that is concentric with the speaker port, and the size of said arc is less than a threshold size T1.

19. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when the detected touch contact fails to occur on opposite sides of said speaker port.

20. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a low degree of seal when, in a notional circle that is concentric with said speaker port, two directly opposing sectors, each said sector spanning α

degrees, cannot be rotated about the center of the circle such that said touch contact occurs within the opposing sectors.

21. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when the totality of said touch contact is substantially continuous over an arc of a notional circle that is concentric with the speaker port, and the size of said arc exceeds a threshold size T2.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when the detected touch contact is on opposite sides of said speaker port.

23. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said estimating estimates a high degree of seal when, in a notional circle that is concentric with said speaker port, two directly opposing sectors, each said sector spanning a degrees, can be rotated about the center of the circle such that said touch contact occurs within the opposing sectors.

24. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said adjusting comprises amplifying low frequencies of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is low or attenuating low frequencies of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is high.

25. The machine-readable medium of claim 17 wherein said adjusting comprises increasing the volume of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is low or decreasing the volume of the acoustic output when the estimated degree of seal is high.