Orientation-responsive acoustic array control

• US 9,253,561 B2
• Filed: 04/14/2011
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Inventors: Freeman, Eric J., Joyce, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Goins, Davetta W
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ojo, Oyesola C
• Application Number:
  US13/087,002
• Publication Number:
  US 20120263325A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,755 Days
• Field of Search: 381/386, 381332-336, 381/307, 381/352, 381/120, 381/305, 381/300, 381/17, 181198-199
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/02 Casings; Cabinets ; Supports therefor; Mountings therein H04R1/28 takes precedence ; attachments for microphones H04R1/08; mounting of transducers in earpieces H04R1/1075
• 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 1/2807 Enclosures comprising vibrating or resonating arrangements for the reduction of undesired resonances or vibrations H04R1/2869
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/2811 for loudspeaker transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/34 by using a single transducer with sound reflecting, diffracting, directing or guiding means specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/402
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/025 Transducer mountings or cabinet supports enabling variable orientation of transducer of cabinet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2203/12 Beamforming aspects for stereophonic sound reproduction with loudspeaker arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/022 Plurality of transducers corresponding to a plurality of sound channels in each earpiece of headphones or in a single enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/024 Positioning of loudspeaker enclosures for spatial sound reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/25 Array processing for suppression of unwanted side-lobes in directivity characteristics, e.g. a blocking matrix
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/005 Microphone arrays
• 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 3/12 for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/14 Cross-over networks
• 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 3/008 in which the audio signals are in digital form, i.e. employing more than two discrete digital channels data reduction aspects thereof based on psychoacoustics G10L19/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/301 Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/307 : Frequency adjustment, e.g. tone control H04S7/301 takes precedence

Abstract

An audio device incorporates a plurality of acoustic drivers and employs them to form either a first acoustic interference array generating destructive interference in a first direction from the plurality of acoustic drivers or a second acoustic interference array generating destructive interference in a second direction from the plurality of acoustic drivers in response to the orientation of the casing of the audio device relative to the direction of the force of gravity.

Claims

1. An audio device comprising:

a casing rotatable about an axis between a first orientation and a second orientation different from the first orientation;

an orientation input device disposed on the casing to enable determination of an orientation of the casing relative to the direction of the force of gravity;

a plurality of acoustic drivers disposed on the casing and operable to form a plurality of acoustic interference arrays;

a processing device; and

a storage accessible by the processing device in which is stored a control routine comprising a sequence of instructions that when executed by the processing device, causes the processing device to;

in response to the casing being in the first orientation, operate the plurality of acoustic drivers to form at least a first acoustic interference array by selecting a first plurality of coefficients to configure a plurality of filters; and

in response to the casing being in the second orientation, operate the plurality of acoustic drivers to form at least a second acoustic interference array different from the first acoustic interference array by selecting a second plurality of coefficients to configure the plurality of filters.

2. The audio device of claim 1, wherein:

the casing comprises an elongate shape extending along the axis; and

the plurality of acoustic drivers form a laterally extending row.

3. The audio device of claim 1, wherein:

the audio device is a portion of an audio system comprising the audio device and a subwoofer comprising a separate casing; and

the audio device and the subwoofer cooperate in acoustically outputting audio received from another device, wherein the audio device acoustically outputs a portion of the received audio comprising sounds in a first frequency range and the subwoofer acoustically outputs a portion of the received audio comprising sounds in a second frequency range lower than the first frequency range.

4. The audio device of claim 1, wherein the orientation input device comprises a gravity detector comprising an accelerometer.

5. The audio device of claim 1, wherein the orientation input device comprises a manually operable control.

6. The audio device of claim 1, further comprising:

a plurality of digital-to-analog converters accessible by the processing device;

a plurality of audio amplifiers, of which each audio amplifier is coupled to an output of one of the digital-to-analog converters of the plurality of digital-to-analog converters, and of which each audio amplifier is coupled to one of the acoustic drivers of the plurality of acoustic drivers;

wherein the processing device is further caused by execution of the sequence of instructions to;

monitor the orientation input device to determine the orientation of the casing;

provide the first plurality of coefficients to the plurality of filters in response to determining that the casing is in the first orientation, wherein each filter of the plurality of filters is accessible by the processing device and an output of each filter of the plurality of filters is provided as an input to one of the digital-to-analog converters; and

provide the second plurality of coefficients to the plurality of filters in response to determining that the casing is in the second orientation.

7. The audio device of claim 6, wherein the processing device is further caused by execution of the sequence of instructions to instantiate each filter of the plurality of filters.

8. The audio device of claim 6, wherein:

the first and second pluralities of coefficients are stored within the storage; and

the processing device is further caused by the execution of the sequence of instructions to retrieve one or the other of the first and second pluralities of coefficients in response to determining the orientation of the casing to be in one of the first and second orientations.

11. The audio device of claim 3, wherein the audio device comprises a wireless transmitter to provide the subwoofer with at least sounds in the second frequency range.

12. The audio device of claim 1, further comprising a first infrared sensor and a second infrared sensor, wherein:

in response to the audio device being positioned in the first orientation, the first infrared sensor is enabled so that it is configured to receive infrared signals from an external control device, and the second infrared sensor is disabled; and

in response to the audio device being positioned in the second orientation, the second infrared sensor is enabled so that it is configured to receive infrared signals from the external control device, and the first infrared sensor is disabled.

13. The audio device of claim 1, further comprising a first visual indicator and a second visual indicator, the first visual indicator configured to be viewable to a listener when the casing is positioned in the first orientation, the second visual indicator configured to be viewable to a listener when the casing is positioned in the second orientation.

9. A method comprising:

monitoring a gravity detector disposed on a casing of an audio device to determine an orientation of the casing about an axis relative to a direction of the force of gravity;

operating a plurality of acoustic drivers disposed on the casing to form at least a first acoustic interference array by selecting a first plurality of coefficients to configure a plurality of filters in response to the casing being in a first orientation about the axis relative to the direction of the force of gravity; and

operating the plurality of acoustic drivers to form at least a second acoustic interference array different from the first acoustic interference array by selecting a second plurality of coefficients to configure the plurality of filters in response to the casing being in a second orientation about the axis relative to the direction of the force of gravity.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

providing the first plurality of coefficients to the plurality of filters in response to determining that the casing is in the first orientation; and

providing the second plurality of coefficients to the plurality of filters in response to determining that the casing is in the second orientation.

14. The method of claim 10, further comprising instantiating each filter of the plurality of filters.

15. An audio system comprising:

a casing rotatable about an axis between a first orientation and a second orientation different from the first orientation;

an orientation input device to detect an orientation of the casing relative to the direction of the force of gravity, wherein the orientation input device comprises a gravity detector comprising an accelerometer;

a plurality of acoustic drivers disposed on the casing, each acoustic driver operating in a first frequency range, and the plurality of acoustic drivers configured to form a plurality of acoustic interference arrays;

and a subwoofer separate from the casing, the subwoofer comprising at least one acoustic driver to acoustically output audio in a second frequency range lower than the first frequency range,

wherein;

in response to the casing being in the first orientation, the plurality of acoustic drivers are configured to form at least a first acoustic interference array; and

in response to the casing being in the second orientation, the plurality of acoustic drivers are configured to form at least a second acoustic interference array different from the first acoustic interference array.

16. The audio system of claim 15, wherein the casing comprises a wireless transmitter to provide the subwoofer with audio signals to be acoustically output in the second frequency range.

17. The audio system of claim 15, wherein the casing comprises an elongate shape extending along the axis, and the plurality of acoustic drivers form a laterally extending row.

18. The audio system of claim 15, wherein the casing comprises a first infrared sensor and a second infrared sensor, wherein:

in response to the casing being positioned in the first orientation, the first infrared sensor is enabled so that it is configured to receive infrared signals from an external control device, and the second infrared sensor is disabled; and

in response to the casing being positioned in the second orientation, the second infrared sensor is enabled so that it is configured to receive infrared signals from the external control device, and the first infrared sensor is disabled.

19. The audio system of claim 15, wherein the casing comprises a first visual indicator and a second visual indicator, the first visual indicator configured to be viewable to a listener when the casing is positioned in the first orientation, the second visual indicator configured to be viewable to a listener when the casing is positioned in the second orientation.