Granted Patent B2

US 12,495,263 · App. 18/101,889 · Granted Dec 9, 2025

Inventors: Soonkyu Lee (Suwon-si, KR); Taemin Kwon (Suwon-si, KR); Jinyoung Kim (Suwon-si, KR); Dongmoon Ok (Suwon-si, KR); Jongmin Choi (Suwon-si, KR)

Assignee: SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.

H04S5/02G06F3/162H04S1/007H04S3/008H04S2400/01

Abstract

Claims (45)

1 . An electronic device comprising:

an output device configured to output audio;

an audio output interface configured to receive the audio from the output device and to forward the audio to an external electronic device;

an Application Processor (AP) comprising a Central Processing Unit (CPU); and

an audio processing unit configured to:

receive an audio stream of M channels from the CPU,

convert the M-channel audio stream into an N-channel audio stream, the N-channel being different from the M-channel,

output the N-channel audio stream through the output device, wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to:

detect a connection with the external electronic device through the audio output interface;

determine whether to stop the converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream, based on information received from the CPU; and

transmit, via the audio output interface, the M-channel audio stream to the external electronic device in response to the determination of stopping the converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream,

wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to:

generate N-M dummy data;

generate audio streams of N-M channels by copying the N-M dummy data to the the M-channel audio stream; and

convert the N-channel audio stream on the basis of the M-channel audio stream and the audio streams of N-M channels.

2 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to identify a number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device on the basis of information of the external electronic device.

3 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to stop converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream in response to an identification that the number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device is not N channels.

4 . The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to stop generating the N-channel audio stream in response to the number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device being 2 channels.

5 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to:

identify a channel to which first dummy data included in the N−M dummy data is to be output;

select an audio stream to be copied from the audio streams of the M channels on the basis of the identified channel; and

convert the first dummy data into an audio stream in a method of copying the selected audio stream.

6 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to:

identify the number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device on the basis of information of the external electronic device; and

determine a number of dummy data to be generated on the basis of the identified number of channels.

7 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to receive state information of the electronic device from the CPU and generate the N-channel audio stream based on the state information of the electronic device.

8 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to perform at least one operation of generating the N-channel audio stream based on information of the output device in response to an identification that a connection with the external electronic device is disconnected.

9 . The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the output device is configured to outputs 4-channel audio.

10 . A method for operating an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving a M-channel audio stream from a Central Processing Unit (CPU);

converting the M-channel audio stream into an N-channel audio stream;

outputting the N-channel audio stream to an output device supporting N-channel audio output;

determining where to stop converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream based on information received from the CPU in response to connection of an external electronic device supporting audio having a number of channels that are different from the N-channel; and

transmitting the M-channel audio stream to the external electronic device in response to the determination to stop converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream,

wherein the audio processing unit is further configured to:

generate N−M dummy data;

generate audio streams of N−M channels by copying the N−M dummy data to the the M-channel audio stream; and

convert the N-channel audio stream on the basis of the M-channel audio stream and the audio streams of N−M channels.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises identifying a number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device based on information of the external electronic device.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining whether to stop converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream comprises stopping of converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream in response to an identification that a number of audio channels supportable by the external electronic device is not N.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the determining whether to stop converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream comprises stopping of converting the M-channel audio stream into the N-channel audio stream in response to a number of audio channels supported by the external electronic device being 2 channels.

14 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the converting the N-channel audio stream comprises:

generating N−M dummy data;

generating audio streams of N−M channels by copying the N−M dummy data to the M-channel audio stream; and

converting the N-channel audio stream based on the M-channel audio stream and the N−M channel audio stream.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (2)

References Cited (42)