Downmixing control

• US 9,288,604 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Issued: 03/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Jrvinen, Roope Olavi, Jrvinen, Kari Juhani, Arrasvuori, Juha Henrik, Vilermo, Miikka
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): TON, DAVID L
• Application Number:
  US13/557,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20140029767A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,329 Days
• Field of Search: 381/119, 381 1- 21, 381/310, 455/313, 455/323
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1694 the I/O peripheral being a single or a set of motion sensors for pointer control or gesture input obtained by sensing movements of the portable computer
• 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: H04B 1/3833 Hand-held transceivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/60 including speech amplifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2400/03 Aspects of down-mixing multi-channel audio to configurations with lower numbers of playback channels, e.g. 7.1 -> 5.1 H04S2400/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

An apparatus including an audio mixer configured to mix at least two audio channels of an audio signal; and a sensor configured to sense motion and/or orientation of the apparatus. The audio mixer is configured to change mixing of the at least two audio channels based, at least partially, on an output from the sensor regarding the sensed motion and/or orientation of the apparatus.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a receiver configured to receive a telephone call audio signal, where the telephone call audio signal comprises at least two audio channels;

an audio mixer configured to mix the at least two audio channels of the telephone call audio signal to produce a downmixed audio signal; and

at least one sensor configured to sense motion and/or orientation of the apparatus based on a user interfacing with the at least one sensor, comprising motion and/or gesture by the user, for controlling downmixing by the audio mixer,

where the audio mixer is configured to change mixing of the at least two audio channels based, at least partially, on an output from the at least one sensor regarding the sensed motion and/or orientation of the apparatus, from the motion and/or gesture by the user as the interfacing, to at least partially control the downmixing by the audio mixer to produce the downmixed audio signal.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the audio mixer is a down mixer.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2 where the telephone call audio signal is a stereo audio signal, where the at least two audio channels comprise a right channel and a left channel, and where the down mixer is configured to mix the right channel and the left channel into the downmixed audio signal.

4. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the audio mixer is configured to mix a direct signal and an ambience signal, as the at least two audio channels, to form the downmixed audio signal.

5. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the audio mixer is variable to change a ratio of the at least two audio channels in the downmixed audio signal from the audio mixer.

6. An apparatus as in claim 5 where the apparatus further comprises means for automatically adjusting the ratio based upon at least one predetermined aspect of the telephone call audio signal.

7. An apparatus as in claim 1 further comprising means for preventing the audio mixer from changing the mixing of the at least two audio channels, where the means for preventing comprises at least one of the at least one sensor.

8. An apparatus as in claim 1 where the at least one sensor comprises an accelerometer, a gyroscope and/or a magnetometer.

9. An apparatus comprising:

an audio mixer configured to mix at least two audio channels of at least one audio signal to produce a downmixed audio signal;

at least one sensor configured to sense motion and/or orientation of the apparatus based on a user interfacing with the sensor, comprising motion and/or gesture by the user, for controlling downmixing by the audio mixer; and

a wireless transmitter,

where the audio mixer is configured to change mixing of the at least two audio channels based, at least partially, on an output from the at least one sensor regarding the sensed motion and/or orientation of the apparatus, from the motion and/or gesture by the user as the interfacing, to at least partially control the downmixing by the audio mixer to produce the downmixed audio signal,

where the apparatus is configured to send a signal from the wireless transmitter comprising information regarding a mix setting of the audio mixer.

10. A method comprising:

receiving by a receiver of a hand-held apparatus a telephone call audio signal, where the telephone call audio signal comprises at least two audio channels;

sensing motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus based on a user interfacing with at least one sensor, comprising motion and/or gesture by the user, for controlling an audio mixer; and

changing mixing of the at least two channels of the telephone call audio signal by the audio mixer, including changing downmixing of the at least two channels based, at least partially, upon the sensed motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus, where the audio mixer is configured to mix the at least two audio channels to produce a downmixed audio signal based, at least partially, on an output from the at least one sensor regarding the sensed motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus, from the motion and/or gesture by the user as the interfacing, to at least partially control downmixing by the audio mixer to produce the downmixed audio signal.

11. A method as in claim 10 where the at least one sensor comprises a sensor inside the hand-held apparatus which senses the motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus.

12. A method as in claim 10 where the audio mixer is a down mixer, and where changing the mixing comprises changing a ratio of the at least two channels in the downmixed audio signal from the down mixer.

13. A method as in claim 12 where the telephone call audio signal is a stereo audio signal, where the at least two audio channels comprise a right channel and a left channel, and where the down mixer mixes the right channel and the left channel into the downmixed audio signal.

14. A method as in claim 10 where the audio mixer mixes a direct signal and an ambience signal, as the at least two audio channels, to form the downmixed audio signal.

15. A method as in claim 10 where the audio mixer varies a ratio of the at least two audio channels in the downmixed audio signal from the audio mixer.

16. A method as in claim 10 further comprising automatically adjusting a ratio of the at least two channels relative to each other based upon at least one predetermined aspect of the telephone call audio signal.

17. A method as in claim 10 further comprising preventing the audio mixer from changing the mixing of the at least two audio channels based upon a signal from at least one of the at least one sensor.

18. A method as in claim 10 further comprising sending a signal from a wireless transmitter of the apparatus, where the signal comprises information regarding a mix setting of the audio mixer.

19. A non-transitory program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for performing operations, the operations comprising:

receiving by a receiver of a hand-held apparatus a telephone call audio signal, where the telephone call audio signal comprises at least two audio channels;

sending a mixed signal from an audio mixer of the hand-held apparatus to a sound transducer or to a sound processor and then to the sound transducer, where the mixed signal is formed from at least two channels of the telephone call audio signal, where the mixed signal is a downmixed audio signal; and

changing mixing of the at least two channels of the telephone call audio signal by the audio mixer, including changing downmixing by the audio mixer, based, at least partially, upon a sensed motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus, where the audio mixer is configured to mix the at least two audio channels of the telephone call audio signal to produce the downmixed audio signal based, at least partially, on an output from at least one sensor regarding the sensed motion and/or orientation of the hand-held apparatus, from motion and/or gesture by a user interfacing with the at least one sensor, to at least partially control downmixing by the audio mixer to produce the downmixed audio signal.

20. A device as in claim 19 where the operations further comprise sending a signal from a wireless transmitter of the hand-held apparatus, where the signal comprises information regarding a setting of the audio mixer.