SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN MOBILE DEVICES USING DIGITAL/ACOUSTIC TECHNIQUES
First Claim
1. A method of acoustically communicating information from a first portable device toward a second, the method comprising:
- encoding the information in a signal that, when converted into acoustic energy at an acoustic transducer of the first portable device, is characterized in that the acoustic energy is discernable to a human ear yet the encoding of the information therein is generally not perceivable by the human;
transmitting the acoustic energy from the acoustic transducer of the first portable device toward the second portable device across an air gap that constitutes a substantially entirety of the distance therebetween.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques have been developed for transmitting and receiving information conveyed through the air from one portable device to another as a generally unperceivable coding within an otherwise recognizable acoustic signal. For example, in some embodiments in accordance with the present invention(s), information is acoustically communicated from a first handheld device toward a second by encoding the information in a signal that, when converted into acoustic energy at an acoustic transducer of the first handheld device, is characterized in that the acoustic energy is discernable to a human ear yet the encoding of the information therein is generally not perceivable by the human. The acoustic energy is transmitted from the acoustic transducer of the first handheld device toward the second handheld device across an air gap that constitutes a substantially entirety of the distance between the devices. Acoustic energy received at the second handheld device may then be processed using signal processing techniques tailored to detection of the particular information encodings employed.
90 Citations
33 Claims
-
1. A method of acoustically communicating information from a first portable device toward a second, the method comprising:
-
encoding the information in a signal that, when converted into acoustic energy at an acoustic transducer of the first portable device, is characterized in that the acoustic energy is discernable to a human ear yet the encoding of the information therein is generally not perceivable by the human; transmitting the acoustic energy from the acoustic transducer of the first portable device toward the second portable device across an air gap that constitutes a substantially entirety of the distance therebetween. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
-
-
28. A method of receiving acoustically communicated information from a first portable device, the method comprising:
-
receiving acoustic energy at an acoustic transducer of a second portable device, the received acoustic energy transmitted from the first portable device across an air gap that constitutes a substantially entirety of the distance between the first and second portable devices, wherein the received acoustic energy is characterized in that the acoustic energy is itself discernable to a human ear yet an encoding of information therein is generally not perceivable by the human; sampling a signal transduced from the received acoustic energy; and processing the sampled signal at the second portable device to extract the information encoded therein. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31)
-
-
32. A portable device comprising:
-
one or more acoustic transducers capable of converting a first signal into outgoing acoustic energy and capable of converting into a second signal incoming acoustic energy received from across an air gap that constitutes a substantially entirety of the distance between the portable device and a second portable device; a transmit path that encodes in the first signal, first information destined for one or more remote receivers, wherein the first signal is characterized in that acoustic energy converted therefrom is discernable to a human ear yet the encoding of the first information therein is generally not perceivable by the human; and a receive path that extracts second information from the second signal transduced from the incoming acoustic energy, wherein the incoming acoustic energy is discernable to the human ear yet the second information encoded therein is generally not perceivable by the human. - View Dependent Claims (33)
-
Specification