GAMING HEADSET AND CHARGING METHOD

• US 20090252344A1
• Filed: 04/07/2008
• Published: 10/08/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Luisi, Seth C.H., Mao, Xiadong, Chen, Ruxin
• Granted Patent: US 8,355,515 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/74
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1025 Accumulators or arrangements for charging secondary cells per se H01M10/00; charging in general H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1041 Mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements switches in general H01H
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/107 Monophonic and stereophonic headphones with microphone for two-way hands free communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/021 Aspects relating to docking-station type assemblies to obtain an acoustical effect, e.g. the type of connection to external loudspeakers or housings, frequency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/03 Connection circuits to selectively connect loudspeakers or headphones to amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An audio headset may comprise a case, near field microphone and far field microphone. A speaker, processor, memory, battery, charging interface and cradle detection circuit may be mounted to the case. Processor-executable instructions embodied in the memory, may be configured to implement a battery charging method. The headset may be shut off in response to placement of the headset in a charging cradle. The far-field microphone is turned on but not the near-field microphone. The battery may then be charged from the cradle. A headset having near-field and far-field microphones may be used to distinguish between user speech and competing sounds by generating signals from the sounds detected by each microphone and comparing the strengths of the signals. The signals may be processed as user speech if they are of comparable strength. Otherwise, the near-field signal may be processed as user speech and the far-field signal as competing sounds.

Claims

1. A method for charging an audio headset having a near-field microphone, a far-field microphone, a headset speaker and a battery, the method comprising:

a) detecting placement of the headset in a charging cradle;

b) shutting off the headset including the headset speaker, near-field microphone and far-field microphone in response to detecting placement of the headset in the charging cradle;

c) turning on the far-field microphone but not the near-field microphone; and

d) charging the battery with the charging cradle.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising after a) disabling any charging source coupled to the headset other than the charging cradle.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising, after b) routing audio signals for the headset speaker to a remote speaker that is not part of the headset.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the remote speaker is a television speaker.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the headset and remote speaker are coupled to a system console.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the system console is a video game system console.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a) includes using a circuit on the headset to detect whether the headset is placed in the charging cradle.

8. An audio headset, comprising:

a case;

a processor mounted to the case;

a memory mounted to the case and coupled to the processor;

a near-field microphone mounted to the case and coupled to the processor;

a far-field microphone mounted to the case and coupled to the processor;

a headset speaker mounted to the case and coupled to the processor;

a battery mounted to the case and coupled to the processor, memory, near-field microphone, far-field microphone and headset speaker;

a cradle detection circuit mounted to the case and coupled to the processor;

a charging interface mounted to the case and coupled to the battery and the processor; and

a set of processor-executable instructions embodied in the memory, wherein the instructions are configured, when executed to implement a method for charging the battery, wherein the method comprises;

a) shutting off the headset including the headset speaker, near-field microphone and far-field microphone in response to detecting placement of the headset in the charging cradle with the cradle-detection circuit;

c) turning on the far-field microphone but not the near-field microphone; and

d) charging the battery from the charging cradle through the charging interface.

9. The audio headset of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further configured to disable any charging source coupled to the headset other than the charging cradle in response to detecting placement of the headset in the charging cradle with the cradle-detection circuit.

10. The audio headset of claim 8, further comprising an audio signal interface coupled to the near-field microphone.

11. The audio headset of claim 8, further comprising an audio signal interface coupled to the far-field microphone.

12. The audio headset of claim 8, further comprising an audio signal interface coupled to the processor and the headset speaker.

13. The audio headset of claim 12, wherein the instructions are further configured to route audio signals for the headset speaker to a remote speaker that is not part of the headset after a).

14. The audio headset of claim 8, further comprising a manual power switch coupled to the battery, wherein the manual power switch is configured to permit a user to turn on the headset after a).

15. An audio headset, comprising:

a case;

a near-field microphone mounted to the case; and

a far-field microphone mounted to the case.

16. The audio headset of claim 15, further comprising a battery mounted to the case and coupled to the, near-field microphone and the far-field microphone.

17. The audio headset of claim 15, further comprising a cradle detection circuit mounted to the case, wherein the cradle detection circuit is configured to detect placement of the headset into a charging cradle.

18. The audio headset of claim 15, further comprising a headset speaker mounted to the case.

19. In an audio headset having a near-field microphone and a far-field microphone a method for distinguishing between user speech and competing sounds, the method comprising:

a) detecting sound at the near-field microphone and the far-field microphone;

b) generating a first audio signal from the sound detected by the near-field microphone;

c) generating a second audio signal from the sound detected by the far-field microphone;

d) comparing a strength of the first audio signal to a strength of the second audio signal;

e) processing the first and second audio signals as user speech if the first and second audio signals are of comparable strength;

or

f) processing the first audio signal as user speech and the second audio signal as competing sounds if the first and second audio signals are not of comparable strength.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein f) includes subtracting a signal proportional to the second audio signal from a signal proportional to the first audio signal.