Silent mobile device vibration

• US 9,406,290 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Issued: 08/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Elwha LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Chan, Alistair K., Hyde, Roderick A.
• Primary Examiner(s): SING, SIMON P
• Application Number:
  US14/260,957
• Publication Number:
  US 20150310845A1
• Time in Patent Office: 831 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/175 using interference effects; Masking sound
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17821 characterised by the analysis of the input signals only
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/1783 handling or detecting of non-standard events or conditions, e.g. changing operating modes under specific operating conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17857 Geometric disposition, e.g. placement of microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17873 using a reference signal without an error signal, e.g. pure feedforward
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/129 Vibration, e.g. instead of, or in addition to, acoustic noise
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3046 Multiple acoustic inputs, multiple acoustic outputs

Abstract

A mobile device vibrational sound system includes a processing circuit configured to activate a selectively vibratable element based on a triggering event, and control operation of a speaker to provide a mitigation sound configured to at least partially cancel a vibrational sound resulting from activation of the vibratable element.

Claims

1. A mobile device, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to;

activate a selectively vibratable element based on a triggering event; and

control operation of a speaker to provide a mitigation sound at least partially cancelling a vibrational sound resulting from activation of the vibratable element based on a location of the mobile device.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein the mitigation sound comprises a phase inverted representation of the vibrational sound.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to selectively provide the mitigation sound.

4. The device of claim 1, wherein the speaker is configured to provide the mitigation sound in a direction selected by the processing circuit to interfere with and cause the at least partial cancellation of the vibrational sound.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to be operable in a first mode, a second mode, and a third mode.

6. The device of claim 5, wherein in the second mode, the processing circuit is configured to control operation of the speaker to provide the mitigation sound based on the location of the mobile device.

7. The device of claim 6, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the location of the mobile device based on at least one of a user input identifying the location and a utilization of a location positioning system.

8. The device of claim 5, wherein in the third mode, the processing circuit is configured to control operation of the speaker to provide the mitigation sound based on sound wave characteristics of the vibrational sound.

9. The device of claim 8, wherein the sound wave characteristics comprise at least one of an amplitude, a phase, and a frequency.

10. The device of claim 5, wherein in the first mode, the processing circuit is configured to control operation of the speaker to provide the mitigation sound at a predetermined amplitude and duration.

11. The device of claim 10, wherein the amplitude is based on an activation level of the selectively vibratable element.

12. The device of claim 10, wherein the predetermined duration is based on an activation duration of the selectively vibratable element.

13. The device of claim 10, wherein at least one of the predetermined amplitude and duration is a fixed value.

14. The device of claim 1, wherein the processing circuit is configured to receive an input and modify the mitigation sound based on the input, wherein the input includes at least one of an amplitude input, a phase input, and a frequency input.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein partially cancelling includes reducing an audible level of the vibrational sound by at least fifteen percent.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the audible level is a sound level of the vibrational sound at the mobile device.

17. A mobile device vibrational sound system, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to;

receive a first input, the first input based on a vibrational sound;

determine a mitigation sound based on the first input such that the mitigation sound at least partially cancels the vibrational sound; and

control operation of a speaker to provide the mitigation sound based on a location of a mobile device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the mitigation sound comprises a phase inverted representation of the vibrational sound.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing circuit is further configured to receive a second input, the second input including an adjustment to the mitigation sound, the adjustment including at least one of an amplitude input, a phase input, and a frequency input.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing circuit is configured to continuously provide the mitigation sound to the speaker based on the first input.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing circuit is configured to control operation of the speaker to provide the mitigation sound based on sound wave characteristics of the vibrational sound.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the sound wave characteristics include at least one of an amplitude, a phase, and a frequency.

23. The system of claim 17, wherein the partial cancellation includes reducing an audible level of the vibrational sound by at least fifteen percent.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the audible level is a sound level of the vibrational sound at the mobile device.

25. The system of claim 17, wherein the speaker is configured to provide the mitigation sound in a direction selected by the processing circuit to interfere with and cause the at least partial cancellation of the vibrational sound.

26. A mobile device vibrational sound system, comprising:

a processing circuit configured to;

activate a selectively vibratable element based on a triggering event, the activation resulting in a vibrational sound;

determine a location of the mobile device; and

control operation of a speaker to provide a mitigation sound based on the location of the mobile device;

wherein the mitigation sound at least partially cancels the vibrational sound.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the mitigation sound comprises a phase inverted representation of the vibrational sound.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein the triggering event includes at least one of a text message, an email message, an incoming phone call, a reminder notification, a social media notification, and a photo message.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the mobile device includes at least one of a smartphone, a cellular phone, a tablet computer, a PDA, and a watch.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the speaker is configured to provide the mitigation sound in a direction selected by the processing circuit to interfere with and cause at least partial cancellation of the vibrational sound.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the processing circuit is configured to select the direction by selecting at least one speaker from a plurality of speakers.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein the processing circuit includes a memory device configured to store a plurality of vibrational sounds for a plurality of locations of the mobile device.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine a location of the mobile device from the plurality of locations based on a comparison of the vibrational sound and the stored vibrational sounds.

34. The system of claim 32, wherein the processing circuit determines a location specific mitigation sound for each location within the plurality of locations based on the stored vibrational sound for each location.

35. The system of claim 26, wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the location of the mobile device based on at least one of a user input identifying the location and a utilization of a location positioning system.