IP Library Granted Patent US 11,188,294
Granted Patent B2
US 11,188,294 · App. 17/008,372 · Granted Nov 30, 2021

Detecting the nearest playback device

Inventors: Dayn Wilberding (Portland, OR); Youjin Nam (Santa Barbara, CA); Tadeo T. Toulis (Santa Barbara, CA); Jonathan Cole Harris (Santa Barbara, CA); Patrick Devine (Andover, MA); Nicholas A. J. Millington (Santa Barbara, CA); Jodi Vautrin (Boston, MA); Maria-Jose Ramos (Seattle, WA); Richard Bannon (Seattle, WA); Michael Sheldon (San Francisco, CA); Ted Lin (Cambridge, MA); Ron Kuper (Arlington, MA); Kirsten Lewis (Boston, MA); Jake Harwood (Seattle, WA); Jonathan Herbst (Seattle, WA); Daniel Jones (London, GB); Henry Sia (Seattle, WA)
Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
G06F3/165G01S11/14G06F3/162G10L25/51H04R3/12H04R27/00H04R2227/003H04R2227/005H04R2420/05H04R2420/07
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,188,294
App. No.
17/008,372
Granted
Nov 30, 2021
Kind
B2
Abstract

Examples described herein relate to transitioning a playback session between portable playback devices such as “smart” headphones, earbuds, and handheld speakers with playback devices of a zone-based media playback system. Exemplary techniques facilitate continuity of playback when transitioning between locations (e.g., from at home to on-the-go or vice versa) or between listening paradigms (e.g., personal or out-loud playback of audio content). An example implementation includes detecting a swap trigger, determining the source playback device(s) and target playback device(s), and performing a playback session swap between the source playback device(s) and target playback device(s).

Claims (92)

1. A portable playback device comprising:

one or more microphones;

one or more batteries;

one or more processors;

a non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the portable playback device to perform functions comprising:

receiving an indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices;

transmitting one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection;

after transmitting the one or more messages, receiving, via a first microphone, a first audio signal;

determining a time-frequency representation of the first audio signal;

based on the time-frequency representation of the first audio signal and data indicating respective reference audio signals, determining that the first audio signal comprises a superposition of a second audio signal transmitted by a first playback device and a third audio signal transmitted by a second playback device;

based on the first audio signal, determining a first magnitude associated with the second audio signal and a second magnitude associated with the third audio signal;

based on determining that the first magnitude is greater than the second magnitude, determining that the first playback device is arranged in closer proximity than the second playback device to the portable playback device; and

transitioning a playback session between the portable playback device and the first playback device.

2. The portable playback device of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

receiving data representing a first playback session swap input; and

wherein transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on receiving the data representing the first playback session swap input, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

3. The portable playback device of claim 1 , wherein receiving the indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

detecting a user interaction with the portable playback device; and

based on the user interaction, determining a predicted swap command state, and

wherein transmitting one or more messages instructing one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on determining the predicted swap command state, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

4. The portable playback device of claim 3 , wherein detecting the user interaction with the portable playback device comprises:

determining that an interaction has occurred on a control interface of the portable playback device.

5. The portable playback device of claim 1 , wherein the functions further comprise:

determining available presence detection techniques of the one or more playback devices; and

based on the available presence detection techniques, selecting an audio chirp technique as a presence detection technique.

6. The portable playback device of claim 1 , wherein the functions further comprise:

connecting to a network;

after connecting to the network, receiving state information of the one or more playback devices connected to the network; and

based on the state information, determining that the first playback device and the second playback device are swap-capable playback devices.

7. The portable playback device of claim 1 , wherein transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

transmitting a message to all of the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection.

8. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a portable playback device to perform functions comprising:

receiving an indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices;

transmitting one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection;

after transmitting the one or more messages, receiving, via a first microphone, a first audio signal;

determining a time-frequency representation of the first audio signal;

based on the time-frequency representation of the first audio signal and data indicating respective reference audio signals, determining that the first audio signal comprises a superposition of a second audio signal transmitted by a first playback device and a third audio signal transmitted by a second playback device;

based on the first audio signal, determining a first magnitude associated with the second audio signal and a second magnitude associated with the third audio signal;

based on determining that the first magnitude is greater than the second magnitude, determining that the first playback device is arranged in closer proximity than the second playback device to the portable playback device; and

transitioning a playback session between the portable playback device and the first playback device.

9. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein receiving the indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

receiving data representing a first playback session swap input; and

wherein transmitting the one or more messages instructing one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on receiving the data representing the first playback session swap input, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

10. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein receiving an indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

detecting a user interaction with the portable playback device; and

based on the user interaction, determining a predicted swap command state, and

wherein transmitting one or more messages instructing one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on determining the predicted swap command state, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein detecting the user interaction with the portable playback device comprises:

determining that an interaction has occurred on a control interface of the portable playback device.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the functions further comprise:

determining available presence detection techniques of the one or more playback devices; and

based on the available presence detection techniques, selecting an audio chirp technique as a presence detection technique.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the functions further comprise:

connecting to a network;

after connecting to the network, receiving state information of the one or more playback devices connected to the network; and

based on the state information, determining that the first playback device and the second playback device are swap-capable playback devices.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein transmitting one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

transmitting a message to all of the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection.

15. A media playback system, comprising:

a portable playback device;

a first playback device;

a second playback device;

one or more non-transitory, computer-readable media storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the media playback system to perform functions comprising:

receiving, via the portable playback device, an indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices;

transmitting, via the portable playback device, one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection;

transmitting, via the first playback device, a first audio signal;

transmitting, via the second playback device, a second audio signal;

after transmitting the one or more messages, receiving, via the portable playback device, a third audio signal comprising the first audio signal and the second audio signal;

determining, via the portable playback device, a time-frequency representation of the third audio signal;

based on the time-frequency representation of the third audio signal and data indicating respective reference audio signals, determining, via the portable playback device, that the third audio signal comprises a superposition of the first audio signal transmitted by the first playback device and the second audio signal transmitted by the second playback device;

based on the third audio signal, determining, via the portable playback device, a first magnitude associated with the first audio signal and a second magnitude associated with the second audio signal;

based on determining that the first magnitude is greater than the second magnitude, determining, via the portable playback device, that the first playback device is arranged in closer proximity than the second playback device to the portable playback device; and

transitioning, via the portable playback device, a playback session between the portable playback device and the first playback device.

16. The media playback system of claim 15 , wherein receiving, via the portable playback device, the indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

receiving data representing a first playback session swap input; and

wherein transmitting, via the portable playback device, one or more messages instructing one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on receiving the data representing the first playback session swap input, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

17. The media playback system of claim 15 , wherein receiving, via the portable playback device, an indication to perform presence detection of one or more playback devices comprises:

detecting a user interaction with the portable playback device; and

based on the user interaction, determining a predicted swap command state, and

wherein transmitting, via the portable playback device, one or more messages instructing one or more playback devices to transmit respective audio signals for presence detection comprises:

based on determining the predicted swap command state, transmitting the one or more messages instructing the one or more playback devices to transmit the respective audio signals for presence detection.

18. The media playback system of claim 17 , wherein detecting, via the portable playback device, the user interaction with the portable playback device comprises:

determining that an interaction has occurred on a control interface of the portable playback device.

19. The media playback system of claim 15 , wherein the functions further comprise:

determining, via the portable playback device, available presence detection techniques of the one or more playback devices; and

based on the available presence detection techniques, selecting, via the portable playback device, an audio chirp technique as a presence detection technique.

20. The media playback system of claim 15 , wherein the first audio signal and the second audio signal are in a frequency range of 18-20 kHz.

Assignments (2)
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Oct 15, 2021
From: SONOS, INC.
To: JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A.
Reel/Frame 058123/0206 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 20, 2021
From: WILBERDING, DAYN; NAM, YOUJIN; TOULIS, TADEO T.; HARRIS, JONATHAN COLE; DEVINE, PATRICK; MILLINGTON, NICHOLAS A.J.; VAUTRIN, JODI; RAMOS, MARIA-JOSE; BANNON, RICHARD; SHELDON, MICHAEL; LIN, TED; KUPER, RON; LEWIS, KIRSTEN; HARWOOD, JAKE; HERBST, JONATHAN; JONES, DANIEL; SIA, HENRY
To: SONOS, INC.
Reel/Frame 057244/0187 →
Cited By (2)
US 12,581,256 US 12,671,873