Invention Grant
- Patent Title: Method and apparatus for estimating talker distance
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Application No.: US14463596Application Date: 2014-08-19
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Publication No.: US09769552B2Publication Date: 2017-09-19
- Inventor: Sylvain J. Choisel , Martin E. Johnson , Afrooz Family
- Applicant: Apple Inc.
- Applicant Address: US CA Cupertino
- Assignee: APPLE INC.
- Current Assignee: APPLE INC.
- Current Assignee Address: US CA Cupertino
- Agency: Blakely Sokoloff Taylor & Zafman LLP
- Main IPC: H04R1/08
- IPC: H04R1/08 ; G01S3/803 ; H04R3/00 ; G01S5/28

Abstract:
An audio capture device generates two microphone beam patterns with different directivity indices. The audio capture device may determine the position of a user relative to the audio capture device based on sounds detected by the separate microphone beam patterns. Accordingly, the audio capture device allows the determination of the position of the user without the complexity and cost of using a dedicated listening device and/or a camera. In particular, the audio capture device does not need to be immediately proximate to the user (e.g., held near the ear of the user) and may be used to immediately provide other services to the user (e.g., audio/video playback, telephony functions, etc.). The position of the user may include the measured distance between the audio capture device and the user, the proximity of the user relative to another device/object, and/or the orientation of the user relative to the audio capture device.
Public/Granted literature
- US20160057522A1 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ESTIMATING TALKER DISTANCE Public/Granted day:2016-02-25
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