Earbud orientation-based beamforming
AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC
InventorsAmir Zyskind, Eliza C. Arango-Vargas, Olli-Pekka Ahokas
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An earbud includes an earbud speaker, a microphone array including a plurality of microphones, an orientation sensing subsystem, and a beamforming subsystem. The orientation sensing subsystem is configured to output an orientation signal indicating an orientation of the earbud. The beamforming subsystem is configured to output a beamformed signal. The beamformed signal is based at least on the orientation signal and a plurality of microphone signals from the plurality of microphones in the microphone array. The beamformed signal spatially selectively filters the plurality of microphone signals.
Claims18
An earbud comprising:
- an earbud speaker;
- a microphone array including a plurality of microphones;
- an orientation sensing subsystem configured to output an orientation signal indicating an orientation of the earbud;
- and
- a beamforming subsystem configured to set a direction of a beamformed signal relative to the earbud based at least on the orientation signal and output the beamformed signal based at least on the orientation signal and a plurality of microphone signals from the plurality of microphones in the microphone array, the beamformed signal spatially selectively filtering the plurality of microphone signals.
A method for controlling an earbud, the method comprising:
- receiving, from a plurality of microphones in a microphone array of the earbud, a plurality of microphone signals;
- receiving, from an orientation sensing subsystem of the earbud, an orientation signal indicating an orientation of the earbud;
- setting, via a beamforming subsystem of the earbud, a direction of a beamformed signal based at least on the orientation signal;
- and
- outputting, from the beamforming subsystem of the earbud, the beamformed signal based at least on the orientation signal and the plurality of microphone signals, the beamformed signal spatially selectively filtering the plurality of microphone signals.
An earbud comprising:
- an earbud speaker;
- a microphone array including plurality of microphones;
- an orientation sensing subsystem including a touch sensor, an accelerometer configured to determine a gravity vector, and orientation estimation logic configured to assess a gesture angle of a directional gesture on the touch sensor and output an orientation signal indicating an orientation of the earbud based at least on the gesture angle and the gravity vector;
- and
- a beamforming subsystem configured to output a beamformed signal based at least on the orientation signal and a plurality of microphone signals from the plurality of microphones, the beamformed signal spatially selectively filtering the plurality of microphone signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.