# US 2019/0174245 A1 · Convolving a voice in a telephone call to a sound localization point that is familiar to a listener

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- Number: US 2019/0174245 A1
- Document ID: US20190174245A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/271,787
- Filed: 2019-02-09
- Published: 2019-06-06
- Earliest claimed: 2016-06-10
- Inventors: Philip Scott Lyren; Glen A. Norris
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190174245A1

## CPC

- H04S 7/30: {Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field}
- G10L 15/04: Segmentation; Word boundary detection
- G10L 25/81: for discriminating voice from music
- H02M 1/08: Circuits specially adapted for the generation of control voltages for semiconductor devices incorporated in static converters
- H02M 1/4208: {Arrangements for improving power factor of AC input}
- H04M 1/0202: {Portable telephone sets, e.g. cordless phones, mobile phones or bar type handsets (constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. of speakers or microphones H04M1/03)}
- H04W 88/02: Terminal devices
- H02M 3/24: by static converters
- H04M 2201/40: using speech recognition
- H04S 7/302: {Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation (H04S7/301 takes precedence)}
- H04S 2420/01: Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
- H04S: STEREOPHONIC SYSTEMS
- G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
- H02M: APPARATUS FOR CONVERSION BETWEEN AC AND AC, BETWEEN AC AND DC, OR BETWEEN DC AND DC, AND FOR USE WITH MAINS OR SIMILAR POWER SUPPLY SYSTEMS; CONVERSION OF DC OR AC INPUT POWER INTO SURGE OUTPUT POWER; CONTROL OR REGULATION THEREOF (transformers H01F; dynamo-electric converters H02K47/00; controlling transformers, reactors or choke coils, control or regulation of electric motors, generators or dynamo-electric converters H02P)
- H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

A method convolves a voice in a telephone call as binaural sound to an external sound localization point (SLP) that is familiar to a user. The method analyzes SLPs in prior telephone calls where voices in the prior telephone calls externally localized as binaural sound to the user and determines, based on the analysis, a SLP that is familiar to the user where the user previously localized the voices in the prior telephone calls.

## Claims

### Claim at position 1

-20. (canceled)

### Claim 21

A method comprising:
determining, by one or more electronic devices in a computer system and for a person to a telephone call, a familiar sound localization point (SLP) by analyzing SLPs in prior telephone calls where voices in the prior telephone calls externally localized as binaural sound to the person;
convolving, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system, a voice of a party in the telephone call with head related transfer functions (HRTFs) so the voice externally localizes as binaural sound from the familiar SLP that is external to the person and at a far field distance from the person; and
providing, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system, the voice in the binaural sound to the person so the voice externally localizes from the familiar SLP that is external to the person and at the far field distance from the person.

### Claim 22 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising:
convolving, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system, voices of two different people in the telephone call with HRTFs having spherical coordinates that differ by 60° azimuth.

### Claim 23 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising:
receiving, during the telephone call, a verbal request from the person to move the voice from externally localizing as the binaural sound at the familiar SLP to internally localizing as stereo sound or mono sound inside a head of the person; and
moving, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system and in response to the verbal request, the voice from externally localizing at the familiar SLP to internally localizing inside the head of the person.

### Claim 24 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising:
segmenting, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system, voices during the telephone call so one of the voices internally localizes inside a head of the person as mono or stereo sound and another one of the voices externally localizes to the person as the binaural sound to the familiar SLP.

### Claim 25 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising:
prefetching and caching, by the one or more electronic devices in the computer system and before the telephone call commences, the HRTFs in order to increase execution speed of convolving the voice.

### Claim 26 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21, further comprising:
assigning the HRTFs to a telephone number;
storing, in memory of the one or more electronic devices in the computer system, the telephone number and the HRTFs assigned to the telephone number; and
retrieving the HRTFs from the memory upon identifying the telephone number of a caller.

### Claim 27 (depends on 21)

The method of claim 21 further comprising:
expediting convolution of the voice by caching the HRTFs in memory of a digital signal processor (DSP) convolving the voice.

### Claim 28

A method to convolve a voice in a telephone call to an external sound localization point (SLP) that is familiar to a user, the method comprising:
receiving, at a wearable electronic device (WED), the telephone call that will externally localize to the user as binaural sound;
analyzing, by the WED, SLPs in prior telephone calls where voices of the prior telephone calls externally localized as the binaural sound to the user;
determining, by the WED and based on analysis of the SLPs of the prior telephone calls, a preferred SLP that is familiar to the user where the user previously localized the voices in the prior telephone calls; and
processing, with a processor in the WED, the voice in the telephone call so the voice externally localizes to the user at the preferred SLP that is familiar to the user, wherein the preferred SLP is at a far field distance from the user.

### Claim 29 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
storing, in memory of the WED, the preferred SLP where the user desires to localize the voices in the telephone calls, wherein the WED is one of a head mounted display (HMD) and electronic glasses.

### Claim 30 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
prefetching, by the WED, head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that are processed with the voice in order to increase execution speed of processing the voice in the telephone call into the binaural sound.

### Claim 31 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
receiving, at the WED, a telephone call from an unknown telephone number; and
processing, with the processor, a voice of a caller from the unknown telephone number to a SLP that is designated for unknown callers.

### Claim 32 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
storing, in memory of the WED, historic information about telephone calls that is consulted by the WED to determine where to localize the voice in the telephone call, wherein the historic information includes telephone numbers, SLPs for the telephone numbers, and head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) having coordinates that correspond to the SLPs for the telephone numbers.

### Claim 33 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
storing, in memory of the WED, user preferences that include locations in spherical coordinates where the user previously externally localized the voices in the prior telephone calls, wherein the WED is one of a head mounted display (HMD) and electronic glasses.

### Claim 34 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
assigning, by the WED, head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) to telephone numbers;
determining, by the WED, a telephone number of an incoming telephone call; and
selecting, by the WED, a pair of the HRTFs that are assigned to the telephone number of the incoming call for processing the voice.

### Claim 35 (depends on 28)

The method according to claim 28 further comprising:
caching, in memory of the WED, head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that process the voice in order to increase execution speed of processing the voice in the telephone call to the user.

### Claim 36

A wearable electronic device (WED) that selects where to localize voices in telephone calls as binaural sound to a user, the WED comprising:
a memory that stores telephone numbers of people, sound localization points (SLPs) for the telephone numbers, head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) of the user that correspond to the SLPs for the telephone numbers, and instructions that when executed retrieve from the memory a SLP for a telephone number of the incoming telephone call and retrieve from the memory a pair of HRTFs that correspond to the SLP for the telephone number; and
a digital signal processor (DSP) that receives the pair of HRTFs and convolves a voice of a caller of the incoming telephone call with the pair of HRTFs so the voice of the caller externally localizes as the binaural sound to the user at the SLP for the telephone number, wherein the SLP is a far field distance from the user.

### Claim 37 (depends on 36)

The WED of claim 36, wherein the memory stores a table that includes the telephone number, the SLP for the telephone number in spherical coordinates, and the pair of HRTFs that correspond to the SLP for the telephone number.

### Claim 38 (depends on 36)

The WED of claim 36, where different pairs of HRTFs are assigned to different telephone numbers and are stored in the memory as user preferences for where the user prefers to externally localize voices as the binaural sound in telephone calls.

### Claim 39 (depends on 36)

The WED of claim 36 further comprising:
a processor that executes instructions to predict where the user prefers to localize the voice in the incoming telephone call based on previous SLPs where the user already localized voices in previous telephone calls and to cache the pair of HRTFs to expedite binaural sound processing.

### Claim 40 (depends on 36)

The WED of claim 36, wherein the DSP includes a specialized hardware architecture to increase execution speed of processing sound for the telephone call by prefetching and caching the pair of HRTFs.