Position determination of devices using stereo audio

• US 9,316,717 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Gicklhorn, Daniel P., Tran, Dang Van
• Primary Examiner(s): Ratcliffe, Luke
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baghdasaryan, Hovhannes
• Application Number:
  US13/183,241
• Publication Number:
  US 20120127831A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,741 Days
• Field of Search: 367/118, 367/127, 367/129
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 11/14 using ultrasonic, sonic, or infrasonic waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/8083 determining direction of source
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/18 using ultrasonic, sonic, or infrasonic waves

Abstract

Methods and systems for determining and utilizing spatial correlative information relating to two or more devices to determine device positioning are described. Using audio signals emitted from stereo speakers, for example, associated with a first device and a microphone associated with the second device, the distance and angle between the two devices and as their relative positions can be determined. No other sensors or specialized accessories are needed on either device to calculate the distance and angles. The devices need only be loaded with the appropriate software which, when executed, is able to carry out steps of the present invention. The usefulness of one or both of the devices may be enhanced by knowing the distance and angle data between the devices. For example, one device may be a TV having stereo speakers and the other device may be a handheld device, such as a smartphone, having a microphone.

Claims

1. A method of determining a position of a client device, the method comprising:

receiving, via a microphone of the client device, audible audio signals, wherein the audible audio signals comprise host emitted stereo sounds;

receiving an audio event message over a non-deterministic channel;

extracting audio feature data from the audible audio signals;

identifying peak events in the audio feature data;

retrieving stored initial frequency information from an audio file, the initial frequency information comprising impulse frequency information for one or more assigned audio non-harmonic frequencies for the audible audio signals, from the client device;

measuring offsets in the audio feature data using the peak events and the initial frequency information; and

calculating a position of the client device based on the audible audio signals.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing particular initial audio frequency information with frequency data of the received audio feature data; and

performing a frequency analysis on the received audible audio signals.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying peak events further comprises:

determining an emitted initial peak delay; and

determining an observed initial peak delay.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining an emitted inter-peak delay; and

determining an observed inter-peak delay.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein measuring offsets further comprises:

calculating an initial peak disparity by subtracting the emitted initial peak delay from the observed initial peak delay.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein measuring offsets further comprises:

calculating a second peak disparity by adding the observed initial peak delay and the observed inter-peak delay to arrive at a first sum and adding the emitted initial peak delay and the emitted inter-peak delay to arrive at a second sum; and

subtracting the second sum from the first sum.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a start time of the audible audio signals by examining the audio event message.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a first distance value of a distance between a first audio speaker and a second audio speaker.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

calculating a second distance value, the second distance value being the distance between the first audio speaker and the client device, said calculating performed using speed of sound and the initial peak disparity.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

calculating a third distance value, the third distance value being the distance between the second audio speaker and the client device, said calculating performed using the speed of sound and the second peak disparity.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

using the first distance value, the second distance value, and the third distance value to calculate a fourth distance value between the client device and a virtual center point.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating an angle between a median line and a derived Euclidian distance line connecting the client device and a virtual center point.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing initial time synchronization.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein a start time of emission of the audible audio signals is recorded.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the client device receives the audio event message which contains the start time of emission of the audible audio signals.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the fourth distance value is a derived Euclidian distance between the client device and a virtual center point.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting a seeking event message from the client device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein calculating a position of the client device further comprises:

performing triangulation calculations.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein measuring offsets further comprises:

determining whether feature thresholds are met.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the audible audio signals includes two signals.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving audio feature data from a buffer on the client device.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filtering the audio feature data for obtaining peak events.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device is an addressable network component.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein a calculated audible delay is used for determining distance of the client device, and a calculated differential in position of impulses between a source track profile and a received track profile is used for calculating angular offset values.

25. A client device addressable on a network, the client device comprising:

a communication processing component;

an audio recording and processing component;

a time synchronization component;

a data processing component; and

data storage configured to store pre-determined initial audio frequency information in an audio file, the initial audio frequency information comprising audio file sound track frequency information for one or more assigned audio non-harmonic frequencies for received audible audio signals, and audible audio signals comprise host emitted stereo sounds;

wherein the client device determines distance based on a disparity between the received audible audio signals and the pre-determined initial audio frequency information, and the audible audio signals are received via a microphone of the audio recording and processing component.

26. The client device of claim 25, wherein the client device is a mobile phone.

27. The client device of claim 25, wherein the time synchronization component implements a clock synchronization protocol.

28. The client device of claim 25, wherein the data processing component filters and performs calculation on audio data received from the communication processing component.

29. The client device of claim 25, wherein the pre-determined initial audio frequency information on the client device represents a received standard audio signal to determine the distance for the client device.

30. A method of distance determination based on audio signals and audio signal data, the method comprising:

receiving, by a host device, a client seeking event message;

emitting audible audio signals via a first audio speaker and a second audio speaker on the host device based on the received client seeking event message;

recording a start time of the audible audio signals emission by the host device;

transmitting from the host device an audio event message containing the start time;

storing, by the host device, initial frequency information in an audio file, the initial frequency information comprising impulse frequency information for one or more assigned audio non-harmonic frequencies for the emitted audible audio signals; and

causing distance determination based on a disparity between the audible audio signals and the pre-determined initial frequency information.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein sequence of impulses includes two distinct sounds, a first sound followed by a second sound, the first sound emitted from the first audio speaker and the second sound emitted from the second audio speaker.

32. The method of claim 30, further comprising:

determining whether the client seeking event message was received.

33. The method of claim 30, wherein the audio event message contains network synchronization data.