Voice controlled assistant with stereo sound from two speakers

• US 8,971,543 B1
• Filed: 06/25/2012
• Issued: 03/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rawles, LLC (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: List, Timothy T.
• Primary Examiner(s): MCFADDEN, SUSAN IRIS
• Application Number:
  US13/532,156
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: 381/17
• US Class Current: 381/17
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/24 Structural combinations of separate transducers or of two parts of the same transducer and responsive respectively to two or more frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/26 Spatial arrangements of separate transducers responsive to two or more frequency ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/401 2D or 3D arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/00 Stereophonic arrangements stereophonic pick-ups H04R9/16, H04R11/12, H04R17/08, H04R19/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/04 Circuit arrangements, e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 3/002 Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30

Abstract

A voice controlled assistant has two speakers and stereo component configured to produce high quality stereo sound. The stereo component generates a first channel signal and a second channel signal used to produce stereo sound. The first channel signal is filtered to remove a range of frequencies, such as the low frequency range. The filtered first channel signal is passed to a first transducer associated with a first speaker to output a first part of the stereo sound. The second channel signal, together with the frequency portion removed from the first channel signal, are provided to a second transducer associated with a second speaker to output a second part of the stereo sound. In this manner, the two speaker arrangement plays stereo, without distortion, while preserving all frequencies in the signals.

Claims

1. A device comprising:

a first transducer in a first speaker to receive a first signal;

a second transducer in a second speaker to receive a second signal, the second transducer being different in size than the first transducer; and

a filter to filter at least a frequency portion included in the first signal such that the first signal is provided to the first transducer after the frequency portion is filtered; and

wherein a third signal corresponding to the frequency portion filtered from the first signal is provided together with the second signal to the second transducer.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the filter comprises a high pass filter configured to filter lower frequency ranges.

3. The device of claim 2, wherein the high pass filter is configured remove frequencies of approximately 60 to 200 Hz.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the second speaker is mounted above the first speaker.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the first and second speakers are arranged within a cylindrical housing and coaxially aligned about a center axis of the cylindrical housing.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein the first and second speakers are arranged horizontally in a spaced relationship.

7. A method comprising:

receiving a first signal and a second signal to be used to produce stereo sound;

filtering the first signal to filter at least a portion of frequencies;

providing the first signal to a first transducer in a first speaker after the first signal is filtered; and

providing the second signal, together with a third signal corresponding to the portion of frequencies filtered from the first signal, to a second transducer in a second speaker.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second signal is provided to the second transducer without filtering.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein filtering comprises applying a high pass filter to the first signal.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein filtering comprises filtering a frequency range of approximately 60 to 200 Hz.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the portion of frequencies filtered from the first signal are approximately 200 to 1500 Hz.

11. A device comprising:

a processor mounted within the housing to process a first signal and second signal representation of an audio output;

a first speaker having a first transducer;

a filter to filter to pass a first frequency portion of the first signal to the first transducer of the first speaker and to filter a second frequency portion of the first signal; and

a second speaker having a second transducer to receive the second signal and the filtered frequency portion of the first signal, the second transducer being different in size than the first transducer.

12. The device of claim 11, wherein the second transducer is larger than the first transducer.

13. The device of claim 11, further comprising a housing and wherein the first and second speakers are arranged within a housing such that the second speaker is mounted above the first speaker.

14. The device of claim 11, further comprising a housing and wherein the first and second speakers are coaxially aligned within the housing.

15. The device of claim 11, further comprising a housing and wherein the first and second speakers are arranged horizontally within the housing in a spaced relationship.

16. The device of claim 11, wherein the filter comprises a high pass filter.

17. The device of claim 16, wherein the high pass filter is configured to filter frequencies of approximately 60 to 200 Hz.

18. The device of claim 11, wherein the high pass filter is configured to pass frequencies of approximately 200 to 1500 Hz.

19. The device of claim 11, wherein the first signal is a right channel signal and the second signal is a left channel signal.