WIRELESS CONFERENCE CALL TELEPHONE

• US 20120184337A1
• Filed: 07/15/2011
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jawbone Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: JAWB Acquisition LLC
• Inventors: Goertz, Michael, Jing, Zhinian, Burnett, Gregory C., Petit, Nicolas Jean, Forestieri, Steven Foster, Donaldson, Thomas Alan
• Granted Patent: US 10,218,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/569.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02082 the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02165 Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/509 Microphone arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/62 user interface aspects of conference calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/568 audio processing specific to telephonic conferencing, e.g. spatial distribution, mixing of participants echo suppression in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/02; sound field processing per se H04S7/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1083 Reduction of ambient noise active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/16 Communication-related supplementary services, e.g. call-transfer or call-hold
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 88/16 Gateway arrangements

Abstract

A wireless conference call telephone system uses body-worn wired or wireless audio endpoints comprising microphones and, optionally, speakers. These audio-endpoints, which include headsets, pendants, and clip-on microphones to name a few, are used to capture the user'"'"'s voice and the resulting data may be used to remove echo and environmental acoustic noise. Each audio-endpoint transmits its audio to the telephony gateway, where noise and echo suppression can take place if not already performed on the audio-endpoint, and where each audio-endpoint'"'"'s output can be labeled, integrated with the output of other audio-endpoints, and transmitted over one or more telephony channels of a telephone network. The noise and echo suppression can also be done on the audio-endpoint. The labeling of each user'"'"'s output can be used by the outside caller'"'"'s phone to spatially locate each user in space, increasing intelligibility.

Claims

1-44. -44. (canceled)

45. A system comprising:

at least one wireless communication device (WCD) worn by at least one near-end participant during a telephone call with a far-end participant; and

a telephony gateway remote to the at least one WCD and including an audio processor coupled to at least one wireless radio that forms at least one audio channel with the at least one WCD, wherein the audio processor generates an integrated audio signal from signals received from the at least one WCD, wherein the telephony gateway comprises a connection component coupled to the audio processor and to a network carrying the telephone call, wherein the connection component couples the integrated audio signal to the network for transmission to the far-end participant.

46. A system comprising:

a plurality of wireless communication devices (WCDs) worn by a plurality of near-end participants during a telephone call with a far-end participant; and

a telephony gateway remote to the plurality of WCDs and including an audio processor coupled to at least one wireless radio that forms a dedicated audio channel with each WCD of the plurality of WCDs, wherein the audio processor generates an integrated audio signal from the plurality of signals received from the plurality of WCDs, wherein the telephony gateway comprises a connection component coupled to the audio processor and to a network carrying the telephone call, wherein the connection component couples the integrated audio signal to the network for transmission to the far-end participant.

47-48. -48. (canceled)

49. A system comprising:

a plurality of wireless communication devices (WCDs), wherein, each WCD is worn by a near-end participant during a telephone call with a far-end participant; and

,

a telephony gateway including,

a plurality of radios, wherein each radio is electronically paired with a corresponding WCD of the plurality of WCDs and provides a dedicated channel with the corresponding WCD;

a processor coupled to the plurality of radios, wherein the processor integrates signals received from the plurality of WCDs into a first audio signal;

a telephony component coupled to the processor and to a network carrying the telephone call, wherein the telephony component couples the first audio signal to the network for transmission to the far-end participant, wherein the telephony component receives a second audio signal from the far-end participant;

a telephone interface coupled to the telephony component, wherein the telephone interface is used to control parameters of the telephone call.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the WCD includes at least one microphone.

51. The system of claim 50, wherein the at least one microphone comprises an omnidirectional microphone.

68. The system of claim 49, wherein each WCD includes a detector, wherein the detector of a WCD electronically detects at least one WCD within a pre-specified range of the WCD.

69. The system of claim 49, wherein the processor integrates signals received from the plurality of WCDs by calculating a dynamic gain for each dedicated channel corresponding to each WCD.

76. The system of claim 49, wherein the plurality of radios comprise a plurality of Bluetooth radios.

77. The system of claim 49, wherein the telephony gateway electronically labels each incoming signal from, each WCD.

79. The system of claim 49, wherein at least one WCD includes a pairing mode, wherein in the pairing mode the at least one WCD searches for at least one of the telephony gateway and at least one other WCD with which to electronically pair.

80. The system of claim 49, wherein the telephony gateway includes a pairing mode, wherein in the pairing mode the telephony gateway searches for at least one WCD with which to electronically pair.

81. The system of claim 49, wherein the electronic pairing between a WCD of the plurality of WCDs and the telephony gateway is classified as transient, wherein the pairing classified as transient is subsequently erased by the telephony gateway.

82. The system of claim 49, wherein the processor comprises an audio processing subsystem.

83. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs demultiplexing on each incoming signal from each WCD.

84. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs echo cancellation on each incoming signal from each WCD.

85. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs noise suppression on each incoming signal from each WCD.

86. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs voice activity detection on each incoming signal from each WCD.

87. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs spatialization on each incoming signal from each WCD.

88. The system of claim 82, wherein the audio processing subsystem performs equalization on each incoming signal from each WCD.

89. The system of claim 49, wherein the processor comprises a connection management subsystem that manages the dedicated channels with the plurality of WCDs.

52-67. -67. (canceled)

70-75. -75. (canceled)

78. (canceled)

90-123. -123. (canceled)