IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,581,225
Granted Patent B2
US 12,581,225 · App. 18/105,022 · Granted Mar 17, 2026

Charging box for earphones

Inventor: Linyong Fan (Shenzhen, CN)
Assignee: Harman International Industries, Incorporated
H04R1/1025G08B21/02H04R1/1083H04R2420/07
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,581,225
App. No.
18/105,022
Granted
Mar 17, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A charging box for wireless earphones includes a battery; a plurality of contacts configured to be in contact with the wireless earphones when the wireless earphones are provided in the charging box; a charging circuit configured to electrically couple the battery to the plurality of contacts for charging the wireless earphones; an audio sensor configured to sense environment sounds and provide signals representative of the environment sounds; a processor configured to receive and process the signals and send information to the wireless earphones when the processor determines that the environment sounds contains predefined sounds.

Claims (44)

1 . A charging box kit, comprising:

a charging box; and

a pair of wireless earphones configured to be provided in the charging box, wherein the charging box comprises:

a battery;

a plurality of contacts configured to be in contact with the wireless earphones when the wireless earphones are provided in the charging box;

a charging circuit configured to electrically couple the battery to the plurality of contacts for charging the wireless earphones;

an audio sensor configured to sense environment sounds and provide signals representative of the environment sounds; and

a processor configured to receive and process the signals, send information to the wireless earphones based on the processor determining that the environment sounds include one or more predefined sounds, and to notify a wearer of the wireless earphones an existence of the one or more predefined sounds in the environment sounds, wherein the determination is made in response to a matching degree reaching or exceeding a threshold,

wherein the pair of wireless earphones comprises:

a second audio sensor configured to sense the environment sounds and provide second signals representative of the environment sounds; and

a second processor configured to receive and process the second signals upon receipt of the information from the charging box, and the wireless earphones are configured to generate an alert sound when the second processor of the wireless earphones determines that the environment sounds includes the one or more predefined sounds,

wherein the wireless earphones are configured to:

receive environment sounds and generate signals representative of the environment sounds by using the audio sensor in the wireless earphones after the receipt of the information from the charging box; and

receive and process the signals representative of the environment sounds generated by the audio sensor in the wireless earphones by using the processor in the wireless earphones, and confirm or double-check whether the one or more predefined sounds exists in the environment sounds received by the audio sensor in the wireless earphones.

2 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more predefined sounds are selected from a group consisting of sound of a car horn sound, a doorbell ringing sound, an alarm sound, and a beeping sound.

3 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the charging box further comprises a Bluetooth communication interface, and wherein the information is sent to the wireless earphones via the Bluetooth communication interface.

4 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to perform a Natural Language Processing algorithm to determine whether the environment sounds include the one or more predefined sounds.

5 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the processor is a system on chip (SoC)-type processor including a Bluetooth low energy interface.

6 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the one or more predefined sounds are sound samples that are pre-stored in the charging box.

7 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the processor sends the information to a mobile phone, and in response to receiving the information, the mobile phone sends the information to the wireless earphones.

8 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the pair of wireless earphones are in-ear earphones or automatic noise cancelling earphones.

9 . The charging box kit of claim 1 , wherein the wireless earphones are configured to generate an alert sound in response to receiving the information from the charging box.

10 . The charging box of claim 1 , wherein the signals are processed by performing a natural language processing routine, and wherein the processed signals are indicative of the matching degree of the environment sounds to the predefined sounds.

11 . A method for notifying a user of earphones, the method comprising:

receiving, using an audio sensor of a charging box, environment sounds and generating signals representative of the environment sounds;

receiving and processing, the signals representative of the environment sounds;

sending information to the earphones based on determining that the environment sounds contains one or more predefined sounds, wherein the determination is made in response to a matching degree reaching or exceeding a threshold;

generating a voice command in the earphones that notifies the user of the earphones of an existence of the one or more predefined sounds from among the environment sounds;

receiving the environment sounds and generating signals representative of the environment sounds by using a second audio sensor of the earphones after a receipt of the information from the charging box; and

receiving and processing the signals representative of the environment sounds by using a second processor of the earphones, and confirming whether the one or more predefined sounds exists in the environment sounds received by the audio sensor in the earphones.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the processed signals are indicative of the matching degree of the environment sounds to the one or more predefined sounds.

13 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more predefined sounds are selected from a group consisting of sound of a car horn sound, a doorbell ringing sound, an alarm sound, and a beeping sound.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

performing a Natural Language Processing algorithm to determine whether the environment sound includes the one or more predefined sounds.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the one or more predefined sounds are sound samples that are pre-stored in the charging box.

16 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

generating an alert sound in response to receiving the information from the charging box.

17 . One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to:

receive environment sounds and generate signals representative of the environment sounds;

receive and process the signals representative of the environment sounds;

send information to earphones based on determining that the environment sounds contains one or more predefined sounds, wherein the determination is made in response to a matching degree reaching or exceeding a threshold;

generate a voice command in the earphones that notifies a user of the earphones of an existence of the one or more predefined sounds from among the environment sounds;

receive the environment sounds and generating signals representative of the environment sounds after a receipt of the information; and

receive and process the signals representative of the environment sounds by using a second processor of the earphones, and confirming whether the one or more predefined sounds exists in the environment sounds.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 2, 2023
From: FAN, LINYONG
To: HARMAN INTERNATIONAL INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED
Reel/Frame 063514/0877 →
Continuity (2)
Continuation PCTCN2020109186 · Aug 14, 2020
Related Publication 20230188883A1 · Jun 15, 2023
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