Automatic audio adjustment balance

• US 9,712,940 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2014
• Issued: 07/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Tatourian, Igor, Rider, Tomer
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, QUYNH H
• Application Number:
  US14/570,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20160174011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 946 Days
• Field of Search: 381303
• 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: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

Various systems and methods for automatically adjusting audio balance are described herein. A system for automatically adjusting audio balance includes a distance module to determine a distance from an audio speaker to an audience, the audio speaker being one of a plurality of audio speakers, an audio modification module to determine a modification to an audio characteristic of the audio speaker based on the distance, the modification to provide a balanced soundstage for the audience from the plurality of audio speakers, and a control module to apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker.

Claims

1. A system for automatically adjusting audio balance, the system comprising:

a distance module to determine a distance from an audio speaker to an audience, the audio speaker being one of a plurality of audio speakers, wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein to determine the distance from the audio speaker to the audience, the distance module is to;

determine locations of each of the plurality of listeners in the audience;

calculate a centroid of the plurality of listeners; and

determine a distance from the audio speaker to the centroid;

an audio modification module to determine a modification to an audio characteristic of the audio speaker based on the distance, the modification to provide a balanced soundstage for the audience from the plurality of audio speakers, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic includes a change in digital timing; and

a control module to apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein to determine the distance, the distance module is to:

detect a location of the audience from a sensor in the audio speaker; and

calculate the distance based on the location.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the sensor comprises one of:

a camera, a micropower impulse radar, an electric field sensor, a vibration sensor, a Doppler-shift sensor, or a scanning range-finder.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein to detect the location of the audience, the distance module is to detect a location of a mobile device of the audience.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein to detect the location of the mobile device, the distance module is to use a wireless trilateration mechanism to detect the location of the mobile device.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein to detect the location of the mobile device, the distance module is to access the location from a positioning system on the mobile device.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the mobile device is one of:

a smartphone, a wearable device, a remote control, or a mobile computer.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic is based on the location of the audience.

9. The system of claim 2, further comprising a direction module to determine a direction the audience is facing.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic is based on the direction the audience is facing.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the audio modification module is to:

identify a front speaker having a front channel audio output; and

identify a rear speaker having a rear channel audio output; and

wherein to apply the modification of the audio characteristic, the control module is to;

swap the front channel audio output to the rear speaker, and the rear channel audio output to the front speaker when the direction the audience is facing is toward the rear speaker.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic is further includes one of an increase in volume or a decrease in volume.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the control module is to apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker automatically on a periodic basis.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the control module is to apply the modification of the audio characteristic when the distance from the audio speaker to the audience changes more than a threshold amount.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein to determine the distance from the audio speaker to the audience, the distance module is to determine an average distance from the audio speaker to each of the plurality of listeners in the audience and use the average distance for the distance.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein to determine the distance from the audio speaker to the audience, the distance module is to:

determine locations of each of the plurality of listeners in the audience;

calculate a bell-shaped distribution of the plurality of listeners; and

determine a distance from the audio speaker based on the bell-shaped distribution.

17. A method of automatically adjusting audio balance, the method comprising:

determining a distance from an audio speaker to an audience, the audio speaker being one of a plurality of audio speakers, wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein determining the distance from the audio speaker to the audience comprises;

determining locations of each of the plurality of listeners in the audience;

calculating a centroid of the plurality of listeners; and

determining a distance from the audio speaker to the centroid;

determining a modification to an audio characteristic of the audio speaker based on the distance, the modification to provide a balanced soundstage for the audience from the plurality of audio speakers, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic includes a change in digital timing; and

applying the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein determining the distance comprises:

detecting a location of the audience from a sensor in the audio speaker; and

calculating the distance based on the location.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the sensor comprises one of:

a camera, a micropower impulse radar, an electric field sensor, a vibration sensor, a Doppler-shift sensor, or a scanning range-finder.

20. At least one machine-readable medium including instructions for automatically adjusting audio balance, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

determine a distance from an audio speaker to an audience, the audio speaker being one of a plurality of audio speakers;

determine a modification to an audio characteristic of the audio speaker based on the distance, the modification to provide a balanced soundstage for the audience from the plurality of audio speakers, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic includes a change in digital timing; and

apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker,

wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein the instructions to determine the distance include instructions, which when executed by the machine, cause the machine to;

determine locations of each of the plurality of listeners in the audience;

calculate a centroid of the plurality of listeners; and

determine a distance from the audio speaker to the centroid.

21. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the modification to the audio characteristic is one of an increase in volume, a decrease in volume, or a change in digital timing.

22. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the instructions to apply the modification of the audio characteristic to the audio speaker are automatically performed on a periodic basis.

23. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the instructions to apply the modification of the audio characteristic are performed when the distance from the audio speaker to the audience changes more than a threshold amount.

24. The at least one machine-readable medium of claim 20, wherein the audience comprises a plurality of listeners, and wherein the instructions to determine the distance from the audio speaker to the audience comprise instructions to determine an average distance from the audio speaker to each of the plurality of listeners in the audience and use the average distance for the distance.