Systems and methods of sonic communication
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- receiving a sonic signal at an electronic device using a microphone, the sonic signal including a sequence of sonic tones, the receiving resulting in a received sonic signal; and
determining, by the electronic device, the sequence of sonic tones from the received sonic signal, thereby enabling wireless communication between the electronic device and another device, wherein each sonic tone in the sequence of sonic tones has a predefined duration, wherein the sequence of sonic tones includes a predefined silent interval between each successive sonic tone, and wherein the determining comprises analyzing the sequence of sonic tones at times that are based on the predefined durations and the predefined silent intervals.
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Abstract
In one embodiment the present invention includes a method of wireless communication. The method comprises receiving a sonic signal and determining a sequence of sonic tones from a received sonic signal. The receiving includes receiving the sonic signal at an electronic device using a microphone. The sonic signal includes a sequence of sonic tones. The receiving results in the received sonic signal. The sequence of sonic tones contains predefined timing. The timing includes the duration of each sonic tone and a set of intervals between successive sonic tones.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
- receiving a sonic signal at an electronic device using a microphone, the sonic signal including a sequence of sonic tones, the receiving resulting in a received sonic signal; and
determining, by the electronic device, the sequence of sonic tones from the received sonic signal, thereby enabling wireless communication between the electronic device and another device, wherein each sonic tone in the sequence of sonic tones has a predefined duration, wherein the sequence of sonic tones includes a predefined silent interval between each successive sonic tone, and wherein the determining comprises analyzing the sequence of sonic tones at times that are based on the predefined durations and the predefined silent intervals.
- receiving a sonic signal at an electronic device using a microphone, the sonic signal including a sequence of sonic tones, the receiving resulting in a received sonic signal; and
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2. The method of claim 1 further comprising filtering the received sonic signal according to a set of frequency bands corresponding to the sonic tones of the sequence of sonic tones, the filtering resulting in a plurality of tone signals corresponding to the sonic tones.
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3. The method of claim 2 further comprising temporally synchronizing the tone signals corresponding to the sonic signal,
wherein the synchronizing utilizes a synchronizing signal embedded within the sequence of sonic tones.
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4. The method of claim 3 wherein the synchronizing signal is one of the tone signals.
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5. A method of claim 3 further comprising integrating the tone signals over a known receiving time based on the predefined durations and the predefined silent intervals.
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6. A method of claim 5 further comprising removing noise elements from at least one tone signal by using the predefined silent intervals in the sequence of sonic tones.
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7. A method of claim 5 wherein the determining includes the use of probability sets,
wherein the probability sets include sums corresponding to allowed tone combinations.
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8. A method of claim 7 wherein the synchronizing signal synchronizes a transmission having the synchronizing signal,
wherein the receiving utilizes a pipeline of data which is evaluated after the synchronization signal has been detected.
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9. A method of claim 8 wherein the allowed tone combinations do not include identical adjacent tones in the sequence of sonic tones.
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10. A method of claim 5 wherein the determining includes disqualifying combinations having a tone signal with a power less than a threshold.
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11. The method of claim 1 wherein each sonic tone in the sequence of sonic tones corresponds to a frequency band selected from a plurality of predefined frequency bands, and wherein the determining further comprises, for each frequency band in the plurality of predefined frequency bands:
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determining a power level of background noise for the frequency band; and determining whether a sonic tone corresponding to the frequency band has been received based on whether a power level of a signal received within the frequency band exceeds the power level of background noise for the frequency band by a predetermined amount.
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12. A method comprising:
- encoding, by a first electronic device, digital information corresponding to a command into a sequence of sonic tones; and
transmitting, by the first electronic device, a cadence of sonic signals corresponding to the sequence of sonic tones from a speaker coupled to the first electronic device, thereby enabling wireless communication between the first electronic device and a second electronic device, wherein each sonic signal has a predefined duration, and wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the cadence of sonic signals at timed intervals with a predefined silent portion between each successive sonic signal.
- encoding, by a first electronic device, digital information corresponding to a command into a sequence of sonic tones; and
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13. The method of claim 12 wherein no more than a single sonic tone is transmitted at any time.
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14. The method of claim 12 further comprising embedding synchronization signals within the sequence of sonic tones.
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15. The method of claim 12 wherein the sequence of sonic tones carries redundant information.
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16. The method of claim 15 wherein the sequence of sonic tones does not include adjacent tones having the same frequencies.
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17. The method of claim 16 wherein each sonic tone of the sequence of sonic tones has a frequency from 7 kHz to 10 kHz.
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18. The method of claim 15 further comprising embedding the sequence of sonic tones into speech or music such that the sequence of sonic tones is imperceptible to the human ear.
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19. The method of claim 15 further comprising:
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receiving the cadence of sonic signals at a microphone coupled to a second electronic device; synchronizing the received sonic signals using the synchronization signals; and determining a sequence of frequencies corresponding to the sequence of sonic tones corresponding to the received sonic signals, wherein the silent portions, the cadence of sonic signals, the redundant information, the timed intervals, and the synchronizing are utilized to extract information corresponding to the command.
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20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon program code executable by a computer system, the program code comprising:
- code that causes the computer system to receive digital information corresponding to a command encoded as a sequence of sonic tones; and
code that causes the computer system to transmit a cadence of sonic signals corresponding to the sequence of sonic tones from a speaker coupled to the computer system, thereby enabling wireless communication between the computer system and another device, wherein each sonic signal has a predefined duration, and wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the cadence of sonic signals at timed intervals with a predefined silent portion between each successive sonic signal.
- code that causes the computer system to receive digital information corresponding to a command encoded as a sequence of sonic tones; and
Specification