MECHANISM FOR RETRIEVAL OF PREVIOUSLY CAPTURED AUDIO

• US 20160357508A1
• Filed: 10/16/2015
• Published: 12/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Moore, Jeffrey C., Powell, Richard M., Powers, Alexander C., Guetta, Anthony J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,452,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/20 for access to input/output bus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10666 Ring buffers, e.g. buffers wherein an iteratively progressing read or write pointer moves back to the beginning of the buffer when reaching the last storage cell

Abstract

In one embodiment, a device-side audio handling input/output unit (DIO) of a microphone writes audio data generated by the microphone into a ring buffer. A system-side audio handling I/O unit (SIO) receives a request from a software program to consume past audio data from the ring buffer. The SIO provides the past audio data from the ring buffer to the software program. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer system, comprising:

writing, by a device-side audio handling input/output unit (DIO) of a hardware device, audio data generated by the hardware device into a ring buffer;

receiving, by a system-side audio handling input/output unit (MO), a request from a software program to consume past audio data from the ring buffer; and

providing, by the SIO, the past audio data from the ring buffer to the software program.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

seamlessly providing, by the SIO, real-time audio data from the ring buffer to the software program after providing the past audio data and catching up to real-time audio data being written into the ring buffer.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the SIO, an amount of past audio data available in the ring buffer to the software program in response to receiving a request from the software program to determine how much past audio data is available in the ring buffer.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing, by the SIO, an indication to the software program of whether past audio data can be accessed in response to receiving a request from the software program to determine whether past audio data can be accessed.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the request to consume past audio data from the ring buffer specifies a time value, wherein the time value corresponds to a position in the ring buffer from which to start providing the past audio data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware device is a microphone and the audio data is sound captured by the microphone.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the software program is a voice command application or a music recognition application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the software program and the SIO is executed by a main processor of the computer system and the DIO of the hardware device is executed by an auxiliary processor of the computer system, wherein the auxiliary processor is active while the main processor is deactivated.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the DIO is executed in a kernel space of an operating system and wherein the ring buffer is in the kernel space of the operating system.

10. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, the instructions when executed by the one or more processors causes the computer system to

write, by a device-side audio handling input/output unit (DIO) of a hardware device, audio data generated by the hardware device into a ring buffer, wherein the DIO enables higher layer programs to access hardware functions of the hardware device without needing to know details of the hardware functions,

receive, by a system-side audio handling input/output unit (SU), a request from a software program executed by the computer system to consume past audio data from the ring buffer, and

provide, by the SU, the past audio data from the ring buffer to the software program.

11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors include a main processor and an auxiliary processor, wherein the main processor is operable to execute the software program and the SU, and the auxiliary processor is operable to execute the DIO of the hardware device, and wherein the auxiliary processor is operable to execute the DIO of the hardware device when the main processor is deactivated.

12. A computer system having audio-based user input capability, comprising:

a ring buffer;

a microphone; and

one or more processors to execute a device-side audio handling input/output unit (DIO) and a system-side audio handling input/output unit (SIO),

the DIO being a device driver of the microphone that is to write digital audio data produced by the microphone into the ring buffer in real-time, as the microphone is picking up sound,

the SIO is to receive a request from a software program to consume past audio data from the ring buffer, wherein the SIO is to provide the past audio data from the ring buffer to the software program while the DIO continues to write to the ring buffer in real-time, the audio data being produced by the microphone.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the SIO is to seamlessly provide real-time audio data from the ring buffer to the software program after providing the past audio data and catching up to real-time audio data being written into the ring buffer.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the SIO is to provide an amount of past audio data available in the ring buffer to the software program in response to receiving a request from the software program to determine how much past audio data is available in the ring buffer.

15. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the SIO is to provide an indication to the software program of whether past audio data can be accessed in response to receiving a request from the software program to determine whether past audio data can be accessed.

16. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the request to consume past audio data from the ring buffer specifies a time value, wherein the time value corresponds to a position in the ring buffer from which to start providing the past audio data.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the software program is a voice command application or a music recognition application.

18. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the software program and the SIO are executed by a main processor of the computer system and the DIO of the hardware device is executed by an auxiliary processor of the computer system, wherein the auxiliary processor is active while the main processor is deactivated.

19. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the DIO is executed in a kernel space of an operating system and wherein the ring buffer is in the kernel space of the operating system.

20. The computer system of claim 12 wherein the ring buffer, the microphone and a processor that is to execute the DIO are part of an in-vehicle infotainment unit, and another processor that is to execute the software program which is requesting to consume past audio data and the SIO is in a handheld portable that is to be communicatively linked to the in-vehicle infotainment unit.