SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SPEAKER CONFIGURATION

• US 20110316768A1
• Filed: 06/28/2010
• Published: 12/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: VIZIO, Inc.
• Original Assignee: VIZIO, Inc.
• Inventors: McRae, Matthew Blake
• Application Number:
  US12/824,512
• Publication Number:
  US 20110316768A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/02 Spatial or constructional arrangements of loudspeakers

Abstract

An application for a device includes at least two speakers and at least two-channels of audio. The at least two-channels of audio are selectively routed to the at least two speakers. Routing of the audio to the speakers is made based upon an orientation of the device. The orientation of the device and therefore the speaker configuration is either manually changed by a viewer input or is automatically detected such as when a hand-held device is rotated, for example, to view a display of the device in portrait mode instead of landscape mode.

Claims

1. A system for configuring speakers associated with a device, the system comprising:

a device having a display and at least two speakers;

a means for detecting an orientation of the device;

a processing element operatively coupled to the display and means for detecting, the processing element controlling an orientation of an image displayed on the display responsive to detecting a change in orientation by the means for detecting;

an amplifier having a plurality of outputs;

a switch, the switch selectively connecting each of the speakers to each of the outputs; and

the processing element controlling the switch such that the speakers connected to each of the outputs correspond to the orientation of the image.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the detecting of the change in orientation by the means for detecting is in the granularity of zero, 90, 180 and 270 degrees.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the at least two speakers is four speakers and the amplifier has two outputs, a left output and a right output.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the four speakers includes a left top speaker, a left bottom speaker, a right top speaker and a right bottom speaker and when the orientation of the device is zero degrees, the left top speaker and the left bottom speaker are connected to the left output and the right top speaker and the right bottom speaker are connected to the right output.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein when the orientation of the device is 90 degrees, the left bottom speaker and the right bottom speaker are connected to the left output and the left top speaker and the right top speaker are connected to the right output.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein when the orientation of the device is 180 degrees, the right top speaker and the right bottom speaker are connected to the left output and the left top speaker and the left bottom speaker are connected to the right output.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein when the orientation of the device is 270 degrees, the left top speaker and the right top speaker are connected to the left output and the right bottom speaker and the left bottom speaker are connected to the right output.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a means for locking the speakers in one configuration connected to each of the outputs correspond to the orientation of the image.

9. A method of configuring speakers associated with a device, the method comprising:

providing a device having a display, at least two audio channels and at least two speakers;

determining an orientation of the device;

displaying an image on the display relative to the orientation of the device;

routing the audio channels to the speakers relative to the orientation of the device.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the routing is performed by software, the software running on a processor the device.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of determining the orientation of the device includes reading one or more sensors and automatically determining the orientation of the device.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein there the at least two speakers is three speakers, the at least two audio channels is a left audio channel and a right audio channel and the orientation of the device is selected from the group consisting of landscape and portrait, a first speaker of the three speakers is located at a left lower corner of the device, a second speaker of the three speakers is located at a right lower corner of the device and a third speaker of the three speakers is located at a left upper corner of the device.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein, if the orientation of the device is landscape, the left output is connected to the first speaker and the right output is connected to the second speaker.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein, if the orientation of the device is portrait, the left output is connected to the third speaker and the right output is connected to the first speaker.

15. A system for configuring speakers associated with a device, the system comprising:

a device having a display, a first speaker, a second speaker, a third speaker, a fourth speaker, a left audio channel, a right audio channel and a means for routing each of the audio channels selectively to any of the speakers;

a detector, the detector detects an orientation of the device in the range of zero, 90, 180 and 270;

when the detector detects an orientation of zero degrees, the left audio channel is routed to the first speaker and the right audio channel is routed to the fourth speaker.

16. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, wherein the detector is a mechanical switch.

17. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, in which when the detector detects an orientation of 90 degrees, the left audio channel is routed to the second speaker and the right audio channel is routed to the first speaker.

18. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, in which when the detector detects an orientation of 180 degrees, the left audio channel is routed to the third speaker and the right audio channel is routed to the second speaker.

19. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, in which when the detector detects an orientation of 270 degrees, the left audio channel is routed to the fourth speaker and the right audio channel is routed to the third speaker.

20. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, wherein the detector is one or more electronic sensors, the electronic sensors determine the degrees of rotation in a granularity of the ranges of zero, 90, 180 and 270.

21. The system for configuring speakers associated with a device of claim 15, wherein the detector reads an input from a viewer of the display, the input corresponding to the degrees of rotation in a granularity of the ranges of zero, 90, 180 and 270.