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Apparatus and method for disabling portable electronic devices

  • US 9,949,059 B1
  • Filed: 09/19/2013
  • Issued: 04/17/2018
  • Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2012
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. Apparatus cooperating with an acoustic transducer operable to provide an acoustic signal in response to one or more sources of sound that are issued at a distance from a portable electronic device and are derived from a radio broadcast signal, in order to modify operation of the portable electronic device, the apparatus comprising:

  • a radio receiver having a demodulator for producing a demodulated output that corresponds to, and has a temporal gap relative to, the one or more sources of sound,a delay element for producing from said demodulated output a delayed signal that is delayed by an adjustable amount,a correlation element having an acoustic transducer, the correlation element being operable to provide for providing a correlation output signifying an amount of correlation with the acoustic transducer,a processor coupled to said delay element and said correlation element, anda switching element coupled to said processor for altering services at said portable electronic device, said correlation element being operable to correlate said acoustic signal with information obtained from said delayed signal, said processor being operable to successively adjust delay by said delay element by an amount that differs in successive time intervals and to detect from said correlation element during one or more of the successive time intervals one or more peak correlations, delay by said delay element at a magnitude that produces the one or more peak correlations representing travel time from the one or more sources of sound to the acoustic transducer, and being used to deduce portable electronic device use relative to the one or more sources of sound and to operate said switching element in response.

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