Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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POINT-TO-POINT WIRELESS AUDIO TRANSMISSION
BACKGROUND
This description relates to sharing audio through wireless devices.
It has become commonplace to use devices employing point-to-point wireless
communications technologies to create a personal area network in the vicinity
of a
user of personal electronic devices carried about by the user (referred to by
some as a
"piconet") to convey audio from one of those personal electronic devices to
one or
both ears of the user, as in the case of the playback of audio stored on an
audio
playing device to the user. It has also become commonplace to additionally
convey
audio from the user to one of those personal electronic devices, as in the
case of cell
phone in which the user engages in telephonic communication through such point-
to-
point wireless communications with that device. Among the forms of such point-
to-
point wireless communications being used for such purposes are those that
conform to
the widely used "Bluetooth" specification promulgated by the Bluetooth Special
Interest Group of Bellevue, WA.
Wireless communications conforming to the Bluetooth specification have been
in use for some time to wirelessly convey two-way audio between cell phones
and so-
called "earpieces" that incorporate both an acoustic driver to output audio to
an ear of
a user and a microphone to receive audio from the mouth of the user. More
recently,
there has been a growing emergence of audio playing devices employing wireless
communications conforming to the Bluetooth specification to wirelessly convey
one-
way audio from those devices to one or more acoustic drivers to output audio
to one
or both ears of a user.
Unfortunately, despite the growing acceptance of such point-to-point wireless
communications for the conveying of audio between personal electronic devices,
the
point-to-point nature, the procedures required to securely establish wireless
connections, and the conversions of audio between various analog and digital
forms
have presented various difficulties. Those difficulties include various
impediments to
providing audio to both ears of a user, allowing a user to easily transition
from one
choice of acoustic driver andlor microphone to another, and sharing audio with
a
personal electronic device carried by another user.
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SUMMARY
In one aspect, the invention features an apparatus that includes a processor;
a
transceiver accessible to the processor and configured to send and receive
wireless
communications in a wireless network; and a storage accessible to the
processor and
having a routine stored therein comprising a sequence of instructions. When
the
sequence of instructions is executed by the processor, the processor is caused
to
operate the transceiver to receive a first piece of audio from a first
external electronic
device, operate the transceiver to retransmit at least a portion of the first
piece of
audio to a second external electronic device, and provide at least a portion
of the first
piece of audio to a digital-to-analog converter to create an analog audio
signal to drive
an acoustic driver.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following
features. The transceiver could be configured to transmit and/or receive
signals in a
manner conforming to the Bluetooth specification. The transceiver could be
configured to receive audio having multiple audio channels, and the acoustic
driver
may be driven with one audio channel while another audio channel is
retransmitted to
the second external electronic device. The acoustic driver may be driven with
audio
on which a delay is imposed to synchronize the output of that audio with audio
output
by a different acoustic driver that is driven by the second external
electronic device.
2o The digital-to-analog converter, the acoustic driver, an analog-to-digital
converter and
a microphone may each be incorporated within the apparatus or may be external
to the
apparatus. The apparatus may incorporate one or both of a manually-operable
control
and an indicator. The control may be manually operable to remotely control the
first
external electronic device and/or to initiate some form of link establishment
procedure. The indicator may display information related to the first piece of
audio
and received from the first external electronic device.
In on aspect, the invention features a machine-readable medium storing a
sequence of instructions that when executed by a processor of an audio sharing
device
cause the processor to operate a transceiver configured to send and receive
wireless
communications in a wireless network to receive a first piece of audio from a
first
external electronic device; operate the transceiver to retransmit at least a
portion of
the first piece of audio to a second external electronic device; and provide
at least a
portion of the first piece of audio to a digital-to-analog converter to create
an analog
audio signal to drive an acoustic driver.
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Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following
features. The processor may be caused to drive an acoustic driver with one
audio
channel and to retransmit another audio channel to the second external
electronic
device. The processor may be caused to impose a delay on the driving of the
one
audio channel to synchronize the output of the one audio channel with the
output of
the other audio channel through a different acoustic driver driven by the
second
external electronic device. The processor may be caused to receive a second
piece of
audio from a microphone and to transmit the second piece of audio to at least
one of
the first and second external electronic devices. The processor may be caused
to
monitor a control for an indication of being manually operated, and then to
initiate a
link establishment procedure with the second external electronic device. The
processor may be caused to respond to an indication from the second external
electronic device that the second extemal electronic device is an audio
sharing device
by altering the link establishment procedure to a simplified form of link
establishment
procedure. The processor may be caused to receive a piece of information from
the
first external electronic device regarding the first piece of audio, and then
to operate
an indicator to provide the piece of information to a person.
In one aspect, the invention features a portable audio sharing device that
includes a processor; a transceiver accessible to the processor and configured
to send
and receive wireless communications in a wireless network; a digital-to-analog
converter; an acoustic driver to provide audio to an ear of the person; and a
storage
accessible to the processor and having a routine stored therein comprising a
sequence
of instructions. When the sequence of instructions is executed by the
processor, the
processor is caused to operate the transceiver to receive a first piece of
audio from a
first external electronic device; operate the transceiver to retransmit at
least a portion
of the first piece of audio to a second external electronic device; and
provide at least a
portion of the first piece of audio to the digital-to-analog converter to
create an analog
audio signal to drive the acoustic driver.
Implementations of the invention may include one or more of the following
features. The transceiver could be configured to transmit and/or receive
signals in a
manner conforming to the Bluetooth specification. The transceiver could be
configured to receive audio having multiple audio channels, and the acoustic
driver
may be driven with one audio channel while another audio channel is
retransmitted to
the second external electronic device. The acoustic driver may be driven with
audio
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on which a delay is imposed to synchronize the output of that audio with audio
output
by a different acoustic driver that is driven by the second external
electronic device.
The apparatus may incorporate one or both of a manually-operable control and
an
indicator. The control may be manually operable to remotely control the first
external
electronic device and/or to initiate some form of link establishment
procedure. The
processor may be caused to monitor the control for an indication of being
manually
operated, and then to initiate a link establishment procedure with the second
external
electronic device. The processor may be caused to respond to an indication
from the
second external electronic device that the second external electronic device
is an
audio sharing device by altering the link establishment procedure to a
simplified form
of link establishment procedure. The indicator may display information related
to the
first piece of audio and received from the first external electronic device.
The
processor may be caused to receive a piece of information from the first
electronic
device regarding the first piece of audio, and then to create additional audio
representing the piece of information and mixing the additional audio with
audio
driven to the acoustic driver.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
FIG 1 is a block diagram of a wireless network incorporating multiple audio
sharing devices and a personal electronic device.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an audio sharing device of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is another block diagram of a wireless network incorporating multiple
audio sharing devices and a personal electronic device.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an audio sharing device of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 is still another block diagram of a wireless network incorporating
multiple audio sharing devices and a personal electronic device.
FIG. 6 is yet another block diagram of a wireless network incorporating
multiple audio sharing devices and a personal electronic device.
DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 depicts a network 1100 enabling the transfer of audio between three
personal electronic devices, specifically, a personal electronic device 900
and multiple
audio sharing devices 100a and 100b. As depicted, the network 1100 (or at
least the
depicted portion of it) is of a daisy-chained point-to-point topography in
which the
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personal electronic device 900 transmits audio to the audio sharing device
100a via
one point-to-point link, and in turn, the audio sharing device 100a
retransmits the
audio to the audio sharing device 100b via another point-to-point link. It
should be
noted that although only the audio sharing devices 100a and 100b are depicted,
those
skilled in the art will readily recognize that other embodiments of the
network 1100
may have longer chains of more than two audio sharing devices employing a
chain of
point-to-point links. The technology on which the network 1100 is based may be
of
any of a wide variety of types employing RF signals, infrared signals, or any
of a
variety of other forms of wireless transmission media. Where the network 1100
employs RF signals, at least a portion of the network 1100 may at least
partially
conform to the Bluetooth specification, or to any of a variety of other
specifications
for wireless networking as would be appropriate in shortness of range and
limitation
of power consumption for use between personal electronic devices carried by a
user.
Where at least a portion of the network 1100 at least partially conforms to
the
Bluetooth specification, one or more of the "profiles" in the Bluetooth
specification
for the transfer of audio may be used (either one-way or two-way, and either
monaural or with multiple audio channels), and/or one or both of the audio
sharing
devices 100a and 100b may participate in some form of link establishment
procedure
to set up point-to-point links between devices. As those familiar with the
Bluetooth
specification and similar point-to-point networks will readily recognize, such
a link
establishment procedure must be performed to cause devices to recognize each
other
and to accept communications between them, as well as to establish encryption
keys
or other security measures between them. Furthermore, those familiar with the
Bluetooth specification and similar point-to-point networks will readily
recognize that
during such a link establishment procedure between two devices, information is
exchanged between them by which each device provides various indications as to
functions it performs and/or parameters for the types of data that it could
exchange
across a point-to-point linkage that could be established between them. More
specifically regarding the Bluetooth specification, a device capable of
supporting one
or more profiles that entail the exchange of audio data and/or commands must
indicate which of such profiles it supports. Among the Bluetooth profiles that
may be
supported by one or both of the audio sharing devices 100a and 100b for
conveying at
least one-way audio and/or commands are the general audio/video distribution
profile
(GAVDP), the advanced audio distribution profile (A2DP), the human interface
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device protocol (HIDP), the audio/video remote control profile (AVRCP), and
the
serial port profile (SPP).
The audio sharing devices 100a and 100b are, themselves, personal electronic
devices, at least one of which may be employed by the user of the personal
electronic
device 900 to convey audio transmitted by the personal electronic device 900
to an
acoustic driver (not shown) to allow the user to hear it. As depicted in
Figure 1, and
as will be discussed in greater detail, each of the audio sharing devices 100a
and 100b
incorporate a wireless transceiver 110 enabling the reception and
retransmission of
audio from the personal electronic device 900. In some embodiments, the
wireless
transceiver 110 is capable of RF point-to-point communications conforming to
the
Bluetooth specification, and audio is received from the personal electronic
device 900
and/or retransmitted between the audio sharing devices 100a and 100b via one
or
more forms of one-way stereo audio data streaming supported by the Bluetooth
specification (e.g., GAVDP or A2DP). Further, each of the audio sharing
devices
100a and 100b incorporates a user interface 120 by which the operation of one
or
more of the audio sharing devices 100a and 100b, and the personal electronic
device
900 may be monitored and/or controlled. In some embodiments, the user
interface
120 incorporates one or more manually operable controls by which a user may
cause a
command to be transmitted either between the audio sharing devices 100a and
100b,
or to the personal electronic device 900. Where point-to-point communications
conforming to the Bluetooth specification are employed, the transmission of
such
commands may be via HIDP or AVRCP, or still other Bluetooth profiles.
The personal electronic device 900 may be any of a variety of types of
personal electronic device, including but not limited to, various multimedia,
information handling and/or communications devices such as a cell phone, a
digital
music player (e.g., a typical MP3 music file player), portable camera with
playback
function, a personal data assistant (PDA), or a personal navigation device.
The
personal electronic device 900 incorporates a wireless transmitter 910 by
which the
personal electronic device 900 transmits audio to the audio sharing device
100a.
However, as those skilled in the art will readily recognize, depending on what
functions the personal electronic device 900 is capable of performing, a
wireless
transceiver capable of both transmission (including transmission of audio to
the audio
sharing device 100a) and reception may be substituted for the wireless
transmitter
910. Indeed, depending on whether the Bluetooth specification or other similar
form
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of communication is employed by the personal electronic device 900, the use of
a
wireless transceiver (instead of the wireless transmitter 910) may be required
to
support a link establishment procedure and/or to perform other functions that
enable a
point-to-point link between the personal electronic device 900 and the audio
sharing
device 100a to be set up and/or utilized. Where such a wireless transceiver is
substituted for the wireless transmitter 910, the personal electronic device
900 may
accept commands related to the transmission of audio from one or both of the
audio
sharing devices 100a and 100b.
Where two different users of personal electronic devices wish to both receive
audio transmitted by the personal electronic device 900, and where point-to-
point
links conforming to the Bluetooth specification or a similar networking
specification
are employed, a link establishment procedure is first carried out to form the
point-to-
point links. A link establishment procedure is performed to set up the point-
to-point
link between the personal electronic device 900 and the audio sharing device
100a.
Manually-operable controls provided by the user interface 120 and
corresponding
controls of the personal electronic device 900 may be employed to cause this
link
establishment procedure between the audio sharing device 100a and the personal
electronic device 900 to occur. During this link establishment procedure, the
personal
electronic device 900 and the audio sharing device 100a provide indications to
each
other of functions that each performs and/or types of data exchange that each
supports. It may be found that the exchange of one or more of one-way stereo
audio,
two-way conversational audio and commands may be found to be supported by
both,
and would thereby be enabled for use. Also, a similar link establishment
procedure is
performed to set up the point-to-point link between the audio sharing devices
100a
and 100b.
Following such link establishment procedures, the personal electronic device
900 transmits audio to the audio sharing device 100a via the point-to-point
link set up
between them. The audio sharing device 100a receives this audio and
retransmits this
audio to the audio sharing device 100b. In this way, a user of the audio
sharing
device 100a and a user of the audio sharing device 100b may both hear the same
audio being transmitted by the personal electronic device 900. In some
embodiments,
indicators provided by the user interface 120 may allow indications of
information
related to the audio to be presented to one or both of these users, including
but not
limited to, a visual indication of elapsed time of playback of a specific
audio
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recording and/or textual data conveying its author and title. Also, in some
embodiments, manually-operable controls provided by the user interface 120 may
make possible the remote operation of the personal electronic device 900 to
control
aspects of the transmission of the audio, including but not limited to, the
ability to
cause an audio recording to be played, fast-forwarded or paused.
It is envisioned as one possibility that the user of the personal electronic
device 900 and the audio sharing device 100a may be one and the same person,
and
that this one user normally employs the audio sharing device 100a in his/her
own use
of the personal electronic device 900, while perhaps momentarily allowing the
user of
the audio sharing device 100b to share in listening to audio transmitted by
the
personal electronic device 900. To do this, this one user and the user of the
personal
sharing device 100b might then both operate their respective audio sharing
devices
100a and 100b to initiate a link establishment procedure to form a link
between the
audio sharing devices 100a and 100b, and thereby enable the retransmission of
the
audio to the audio sharing device 100b. However, it should be noted, and as
will be
made more clear, other forms and uses of audio sharing devices are possible in
which
the users of a personal electronic device and an audio sharing device between
which a
point-to-point link is formed need not be one and the same person.
Figure 2 is a block diagram of an audio sharing device 100 such as may be
employed as embodiments of one or both of the audio sharing devices 100a and
100b
of the network 1100 of Figure 1. The audio sharing device 100 enables the
reception
and retransmission of audio to another audio sharing device (not shown) to
thereby
allow two users to hear the same audio. The audio sharing device 100
incorporates a
wireless transceiver 110, a user interface 120, a processor 130 and a storage
135.
Also, depending on the manner in which the audio sharing device 100
participates in
providing audio to at least one ear of a user, the audio sharing device 100
may
incorporate one or more of a digital-to-analog converter (D-to-A converter)
140, an
amplifier 145 and a connector 150.
Not unlike the wireless transceiver 110 of the audio sharing devices 100a and
100b of Figure 1, the wireless transceiver 110 of the audio sharing device 100
is able
to receive audio through one point-to-point link, and retransmit that audio to
another
audio sharing device (or still other forms of personal electronic device)
through
another point-to-point link. Where such point-to-point links conform to the
Bluetooth
specification or a similar specification for point-to-point wireless
communication, the
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wireless transceiver 110 may be used in carrying out the sending and receiving
of
indications of supported functionality and/or exchangeable types of data
during a link
establishment procedure employed in setting up a point-to-point link.
The user interface 120 incorporates one or both of a control 122 and an
indicator 123. The control 122 may be any type of manually-operable control,
including but not limited to, a button, a lever switch, a rotatable knob, a
touch-screen
sensor, a pressure sensor, a proximity sensor or an orientation sensor. The
indicator
123 may be any of a number of possible devices conveying information to a user
of
the audio sharing device 100, including but not limited to, a graphical
display capable
of depicting various symbols and/or language characters, one or more LEDs, a
buzzer,
or a vibration-generating device. Alternatively, information may be provided
to a
user of the audio sharing device 100 through the output of audio conveying
that
information which is mixed with the audio received by the wireless transceiver
110,
with the mixed audio being output to the user. Where the control 122 is
provided, the
control 122 may be employed for one or both of performing some form of link
establishment procedure and controlling one or more aspects of the provision
of audio
to a user (e.g., the volume employed in outputting audio to the user).
In embodiments where the audio sharing device 100 drives a separate acoustic
driver (not shown), the audio sharing device 100 may incorporate the connector
150
by which the audio sharing device is able to be connected to an external
acoustic
driver, such as a speaker, a pair of headphones, etc. In embodiments where the
audio
sharing device 100 incorporates an acoustic driver within a casing of the
audio
sharing device 100 (such as where the audio sharing device 100 is, itself, a
speaker, a
pair of headphones, etc.), the connector 150 may not be present. In either of
such
embodiments, the audio sharing device 100 may incorporate one or both of the D-
to-
A converter 140 and the amplifier 145 to drive an acoustic driver (whether
external or
incorporated within) with the audio received through the wireless transceiver
110.
Alternatively, where the connector 150 is provided to connect the audio
sharing
device with an external acoustic driver, the connector 150 may convey through
the
connector 150 a digital signal representing the audio that was received
through the
wireless transceiver in support of an external acoustic driver having its own
D-to-A
converter and/or amplifier. Doing so may obviate the need for the audio
sharing
device 100 to incorporate either of the D-to-A converter 140 or the amplifier
145 in
some embodiments. An example implementation of this may be where the connector
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150 conforms to the Universal Serial Bus specification (USB specification)
promulgated by the USB Implementers Forum, Inc. of Beaverton, OR, and is
employed in conveying such a digital signal to an acoustic driver having an
interface
that also conforms to the USB specification.
The processor 130 may be any of a variety of types of processing device,
including but not limited to, a general purpose processor, a digital signal
processor or
other more specialized processor having a limited instruction set optimized
for a given
range of functions, a microcontroller or combinational logic. The storage 135
may be
based on any of a wide variety of information storage technologies, including
but not
limited to, static RAM, dynamic RAM, ROM of either erasable or non-erasable
form,
FLASH, magnetic memory, ferromagnetic disk storage, phase-change storage or
magneto-optical storage. The storage 135 carries one or both of a routine 137
and
audio data 138. The processor 130 executes at least one sequence of
instructions of
the routine 137 and is thereby caused to carry out one or both of a link
establishment
procedure and the retransmission of audio. During the retransmission of audio,
the
processor 130 may be caused by the routine 137 to store portions of the audio
received through the wireless transceiver 110 as at least a portion of the
audio data
138 in the storage 135 in preparation for retransmission by the wireless
transceiver
110 and/or output to a user.
In embodiments in which the processor 130 carries out some form of link
establishment procedure to enable a point-to-point link between the audio
sharing
device 100 and another device, the processor 130 is caused by the routine 137
to
monitor the user interface 120 for an indication that the control 122 has been
operated
by a user to initiate a link establishment procedure. Upon receiving such an
indication, the processor 130 operates the wireless transceiver 110 to receive
indications of the functionality and/or exchangeable data types supported by
the other
device with which a link is to be set up, and the processor 130 operates the
wireless
transceiver 110 to transmit similar indications to the other device. When the
link
establishment procedure has been concluded such that a point-to-point link has
been
set up between the audio sharing device 100 and the other device, the
processor 130
may be caused to operate the indicator 123 of the user interface 120 to
provide an
indication of the results of the link establishment procedure to the user.
In some embodiments where the processor 130 carries out such a link
establishment procedure, the processor 130 may be caused by the routine 137 to
carry
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out a simplified variant of the link establishment procedure where a user
seeks to form
a point-to-point link between the audio sharing device 100 and another
incarnation of
the audio sharing device 100 or similar audio sharing device. The processor
130 may
respond to detecting that the other device is another audio sharing device by
signaling
the other device with an indication that the audio sharing device 100 is also
an audio
sharing device, and the two devices may engage in a simplified form of link
establishment procedure to avoid unnecessarily inconveniencing the users of
both
devices with the greater complexity and time involved in a more conventional
link
establishment procedure.
In embodiments in which the processor 130 carries out the retransmission of
audio received through the wireless transceiver 110, the processor 130 is
caused by
the routine 137 to operate the wireless transceiver 110 to receive the audio
and to
temporarily store portions of the received audio as at least a portion the
audio data
138 in the storage 135. This buffering of the received audio as at least a
portion of the
audio data 138 may be required by one or both of the retransmission of the
audio to
another device and the provision of the audio to the user of the audio sharing
device
100. The processor 130 is also caused to operate the wireless transceiver 110
to
perform the retransmission of the received audio, and the processor 130 is
further
caused to provide the audio to the wireless transceiver 110 at a rate
appropriate for the
retransmission. As the retransmission occurs, the processor 130 may also be
caused
to operate the D-to-A converter 140 and the amplifier 145 to convert the audio
from a
digital form to an analog form of sufficient amplitude to drive to an acoustic
driver,
and the processor 130 is further caused to provide the audio to the D-to-A
converter
140 at a rate appropriate for the conversion to analog form. Alternatively, as
the
retransmission occurs in an embodiment of the audio sharing device in which
the
connector 150 is employed in outputting the received audio as a stream of
digital data,
the processor 130 may also be caused to output the audio through the connector
150 at
a rate appropriate to match chosen bit and sampling rates.
In some embodiments where audio is stored as the audio data 138, the
processor 130 may be further caused by the routine 137 to perform some degree
of
signal processing and/or time-delay function on at least a portion of the
audio data
138. For example, where the audio sharing device 100 incorporates an acoustic
driver, signal processing may be performed to compensate for characteristics
of that
acoustic driver (e.g., bass and/or treble adjustments, amplitude expansion or
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compression, re-equalization, low-pass or high-pass filtering,
resynchronization to a
different sampling rate, etc.). Also, there may be a need to impose a time-
delay in the
output of audio by an acoustic driver connected to either the audio sharing
device 100
or to the other device to which the audio sharing device 100 retransmits audio
in order
to synchronize the output of audio by acoustic drivers attached to both
devices. To
enable this synchronization, the sharing device 100 may create and incorporate
a
synchronization signal in the retransmitted audio for use by the other device
in
synchronizing the output of audio by acoustic drivers attached to both devices
(in
some embodiments, the processor 130 may be caused to do this). For example, a
single user may be listening to left and right channels through different
acoustic
drivers that are each attached to one or the other of the audio sharing device
100 and
another device to which the audio sharing device 100 retransmits audio, and
the audio
output by one or the other of these devices to the user may need to be delayed
to
ensure that the left and right channels are synchronized.
The audio sharing device 100 may be employed to perform a wide variety of
functions. Although much of the above discussion has focused on the use of
multiple
incarnations of the audio sharing device 100 to allow multiple persons to
sharing in
listening to a single transmission of audio from a personal electronic device,
multiple
incarnations of the audio sharing device 100 may be employed by one person.
One
person may wish to use multiple incarnations of the audio sharing device 200
to
provide the audio received from a personal electronic device to both ears, to
provide
the audio to multiple locations in a given space, and/or to provide a
spatially separated
output of different channels of the same audio (e.g., the left and right
channels of
stereo audio) through separate acoustic drivers for each channel.
The audio sharing device 100 may take any of a wide range of possible
physical forms. In some embodiments, the audio sharing device 100 may be a
pair of
headphones such that the audio sharing device incorporates at least two
acoustic
drivers (one for each ear of a user), and therefore, may not incorporate the
connector
150. In other embodiments, the audio sharing device 100 may be a device not
incorporating an acoustic driver, and having a casing designed to be of
desirable size
and shape for being worn or carried by a user in various ways intended to make
the
attachment of a pair of headphones, one or more in-ear acoustic drivers, or
other form
of acoustic driver worn or carried by the user relatively conveniently.
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Figure 3 depicts a network 1200 enabling the transfer of audio between three
personal electronic devices, specifically, a personal electronic device 900
and multiple
audio sharing devices 200a and 200b. The network 1200 (or at least the
depicted
portion of it) is of a daisy-chained point-to-point topography in which the
personal
electronic device 900 exchanges audio with the audio sharing device 200a via
one
point-to-point link, and in turn, the audio sharing device 200a exchanges
audio with
the audio sharing device 200b via another point-to-point link. It should be
noted that
although only the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b are depicted, those
skilled in
the art will readily recognize that other embodiments of the network 1200 may
have
longer chains of more than two audio sharing devices employing a chain of
point-to-
point links. Not unlike the network 1100 of Figure 1, the technology on which
the
network 1200 is based may be of any of a wide variety of types, and in
embodiments
where the network 1200 employs RF signals, at least a portion of the network
1200
may at least partially conform to the Bluetooth specification, or to any of a
variety of
other specifications for wireless networking.
Where at least a portion of the network 1200 at least partially conforms to
the
Bluetooth specification, profiles in the Bluetooth specification allowing for
one or
both of one-way stereo audio and two-way monaural audio may be used, andlor
one
or both of the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b may participate in link
establishment procedures to set up point-to-point links between devices. As
will be
discussed in greater detail, the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b support
two-way
exchanges of audio, which is a substantial difference from the audio sharing
devices
100a and 100b of Figure 1, and the audio sharing device 100 of Figure 2. As a
result,
the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b are capable of supporting both the
Bluetooth
profiles previously discussed with reference to those previously-discussed
audio
sharing devices, and additional Bluetooth profiles supporting two-way
exchanges of
audio. Among these additional Bluetooth profiles that may be supported by one
or
both of the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b are the headset profile (HSP),
the
hands-free profile (HFP), the intercom profile (ICP) and the cordless
telephony profile
(CTP).
The audio sharing devices 200a and 200b are, themselves, personal electronic
devices, at least one of which may be employed by the user of the personal
electronic
device 900 to convey audio transmitted by the personal electronic device 900
to an
acoustic driver (not shown) to allow the user to hear it, and to convey audio
detected
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by a microphone (not shown) back to the personal electronic device. As
depicted in
Figure 3, and as will be discussed in greater detail, each of the audio
sharing devices
200a and 200b incorporate a wireless transceiver 210 enabling the reception
and
retransmission of audio from the personal electronic device 900, and enabling
the
transmission or retransmission of audio to the personal electronic device 900.
In
some embodiments, the wireless transceiver 210 is capable of RF point-to-point
communications conforming to the Bluetooth specification, and audio is
exchanged
with the personal electronic device 900 and/or retransmitted between the audio
sharing devices 200a and 200b via one or more forms of two-way audio data
streaming supported by the Bluetooth specification (e.g., HSP or HFP).
Further, each
of the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b incorporates a user interface 220
by which
the operation of one or more of the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b, and
the
personal electronic device 900 may be monitored and/or controlled. In some
embodiments, the user interface 220 incorporates one or more manually operable
controls by which a user may cause a command to be transmitted either between
the
audio sharing devices 200a and 200b, or to the personal electronic device 900.
Where
point-to-point communications conforming to the Bluetooth specification are
employed, the transmission of such commands may be via HFP or still other
Bluetooth profiles.
The personal electronic device 900 may be any of a variety of types of
personal electronic device capable of two-way exchanges of audio, including
but not
limited to, a cell phone. The personal electronic device 900 incorporates a
wireless
transceiver 910 by which the personal electronic device 900 exchanges audio
with the
audio sharing device 200a, and/or by which the personal electronic device 900
may
perform some form of link establishment procedure to set up a link with the
audio
sharing device 200a.
Where two different users of personal electronic devices wish to exchange
audio among the personal electronic device 900 and both of the audio sharing
devices
200a and 200b, and where point-to-point links conforming to the Bluetooth
specification or a similar networking specification are employed, a link
establishment
procedure is first carried out to form the point-to-point links. Not unlike
the network
1100 of Figure 1, in the network 1200, a link establishment procedure is
performed to
set up the point-to-point link between the personal electronic device 900 and
the audio
sharing device 200a. Manually-operable controls provided by the user interface
220
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and corresponding controls of the personal electronic device 900 may be
employed to
cause this link establishment procedure between the audio sharing device 200a
and
the personal electronic device 900 to occur. During this link establishment
procedure,
the personal electronic device 900 and the audio sharing device 200a provide
indications to each other of functions that each performs and/or types of data
exchange that each supports. It may be found that the exchange of one or more
of
one-way stereo audio, two-way conversational audio and commands may be found
to
be supported by both, and would thereby be enabled for use. Also not unlike
the
network 1100 of Figure 1, a similar link establishment procedure is performed
to set
up the point-to-point link between the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b.
Following such link establishment procedures, the personal electronic device
900 is able to exchange audio with the audio sharing device 200a via the point-
to-
point link set up between them, and the audio sharing device 200a exchanges
audio
with the audio sharing device 200b. Also, as these two exchanges of audio
occur, the
audio sharing device 200a is able to retransmit audio that it receives from
the personal
electronic device 900 to the audio sharing device 200b, and is similarly able
to
retransmit audio that it receives from the audio sharing device 200b to the
personal
electronic device 900. In this way, a user of the audio sharing device 200a
and a user
of the audio sharing device 200b may both hear the same audio being
transmitted by
the personal electronic device 900, and may both transmit audio back to the
personal
electronic device 900, as well as exchange audio between each other through
the
audio sharing devices 200a and 200b. In some embodiments, indicators provided
by
the user interface 220 may allow indications of information related to at
least some of
the audio being exchanged to be presented to one or both of these users,
including but
not limited to, a visual indication of a phone number with which these users
are in
communication through the personal electronic device 900. Also, in some
embodiments, manually-operable controls provided by the user interface 220 may
make possible the remote operation of the personal electronic device 900 to
control
aspects of the exchange of audio, including but not limited to, the ability to
remotely
initiate or end a phone call.
It is envisioned as one possibility that the user of the personal electronic
device 900 and the audio sharing device 200a may be one and the same person,
and
that this one user normally employs the audio sharing device 200a in his/her
own use
of the personal electronic device 900, while perhaps momentarily allowing the
user of
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the audio sharing device 200b to share in conversation that entails the
exchange of
audio between the personal electronic device 900 and the audio sharing device
200a.
To do this, this one user and the user of the personal sharing device 200b
might then
both operate their respective audio sharing devices 200a and 200b to initiate
a link
establishment procedure to form a link between the audio sharing devices 200a
and
200b, and thereby enable the audio sharing device 200b to exchange audio with
the
audio sharing device 200a and the personal electronic device 900 (through the
audio
sharing device 200a). However, it should be noted, and as will be made more
clear,
other forms and uses of audio sharing devices are possible in which the users
of a
personal electronic device and an audio sharing device between which a point-
to-
point link is formed need not be one and the same person.
Figure 4 is a block diagram of an audio sharing device 200 such as may be
employed as an embodiment of one or both of the audio sharing devices 200a and
200b of the network 1200 of Figure 3. The audio sharing device 200 enables the
reception and retransmission of audio between two other devices (not shown) to
thereby allow multiple users to both transmit and receive audio between them.
The
audio sharing device 200 incorporates a wireless transceiver 210, a user
interface 220,
a processor 230 and a storage 235. Also, depending on the manner in which the
audio
sharing device 200 participates in providing audio to at least one ear of a
user and
allows that user to provide speech in return, the audio sharing device 200 may
incorporate one or more of a D-to-A converter 240, an amplifier 245, a
connector 250,
and an analog-to-digital converter (A-to-D converter) 260.
Not unlike the wireless transceiver 210 of the audio sharing devices 200a and
200b of Figure 3, the wireless transceiver 210 of the audio sharing device 200
is able
to receive audio through one point-to-point link, and retransmit that audio
through
another point-to-point link, and vice versa. Where such point-to-point links
conform
to the Bluetooth specification or a similar specification for point-to-point
wireless
communication, the wireless transceiver 210 may be used in carrying out the
sending
and receiving of indications of supported functionality and/or exchangeable
types of
data during a link establishment procedure employed in setting up a point-to-
point
link.
Not unlike the user interface 120 of the audio sharing device 100 of Figure 2,
the user interface 220 incorporates one or both of a contro1222 and an
indicator 223.
The control 222 may be any type of manually-operable control, and the
indicator 223
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may be any of a number of possible devices conveying information to a user of
the
audio sharing device 200. Alternatively, information may be provided to a user
of the
audio sharing device 200 through mixing audio conveying that information with
audio
received by the wireless transceiver 210, and outputting the mixed audio to
the user.
Where the contro1222 is provided, the control 222 may be employed for one or
both
of performing some form of link establishment procedure and controlling one or
more
aspects of the provision of audio to a user (e.g., the volume employed in
outputting
audio to the user, or remotely controlling a function of another personal
electronic
device).
In embodiments where the audio sharing device 200 drives a separate acoustic
driver (not shown), and receives audio spoken by a user through a separate
microphone (also not shown), the audio sharing device 200 may incorporate the
connector 250 by which the audio sharing device is able to be connected to
that
external acoustic driver and/or that microphone. In embodiments where the
audio
sharing device 200 incorporates an acoustic driver and/or a microphone within
a
casing of the audio sharing device 200 (such as where the audio sharing device
200 is,
itself, a handset, a speakerphone, a headset, etc.), the connector 250 may not
be
present. In either of such embodiments, the audio sharing device 200 may
incorporate
one or both of the D-to-A converter 240 and the amplifier 245 to drive an
acoustic
driver (whether external or incorporated within), and the audio sharing device
200
may incorporate the A-to-D converter to convert audio received from a
microphone
(whether external or incorporated within) to digital form for transmission.
Alternatively, where the connector 250 is provided to connect the audio
sharing
device with an external acoustic driver and/or an external microphone, the
connector
250 may convey audio in digital form to an external acoustic driver having its
own D-
to-A converter or from an external microphone having its own A-to-D converter.
Not unlike the processor 130 and the storage 135 of the audio sharing device
100, the processor 230 may be any of a variety of types of processing device
and the
storage 235 may be based on any of a wide variety of information storage
technologies. The storage 235 carries one or both of a routine 237 and audio
data
238. The processor 230 executes at least one sequence of instructions of the
routine
237 and is thereby caused to carry out one or more of a link establishment
procedure,
the retransmission of audio received from other devices, and the exchange of
audio
with a user of the audio sharing device 200 through an acoustic driver and a
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microphone. During the retransmission of audio, the processor 230 may be
caused by
the routine 237 to store portions of the audio received through the wireless
transceiver
210 as at least a portion of the audio data 238 in the storage 235 in
preparation for
retransmission by the wireless transceiver 210 and/or output to a user. Also,
the
processor 230 may be caused by the routine 237 to store portions of audio
received
from a microphone, either incorporated within the audio sharing device 200 or
external to it, as at least a portion of the audio data 238 in the storage 235
in
preparation for transmission by the wireless transceiver to one or more other
personal
electronic devices.
In embodiments in which the processor 230 carries out some form of link
establishment procedure to enable a point-to-point link between the audio
sharing
device 200 and another device, the processor 230 is caused by the routine 237
to
monitor the user interface 220 for an indication that the control 222 has been
operated
to initiate a link establishment procedure, and then to perform the link
establishment
procedure. When the link establishment procedure has been concluded, the
processor
230 may be caused to operate the indicator 223 of the user interface 220 to
provide an
indication of the results of the link establishment procedure to the user.
Furthermore,
the processor 230 may be caused by the routine 237 to carry out a simplified
variant
of the link establishment procedure where a user seeks to form a point-to-
point link
between the audio sharing device 200 and another incarnation of the audio
sharing
device 200 or similar audio sharing device (perhaps an incarnation of the
audio
sharing device 100). The processor 230 may respond to detecting that the other
device is another audio sharing device by signaling the other device with an
indication
that the audio sharing device 200 is also an audio sharing device, and the two
devices
may engage in a simplified form of link establishment procedure.
In embodiments in which the processor 230 carries out the retransmission of
audio received through the wireless transceiver 210, the processor 230 is
caused by
the routine 237 to operate the wireless transceiver 210 to receive the audio
and to
temporarily store portions of the received audio as at least a portion of the
audio data
238 in the storage 235. This buffering of the received audio as at least a
portion of the
audio data 238 may be required by one or both of the retransmission of the
audio to
another device and the provision of the audio to the user of the audio sharing
device
200. The processor 230 is also caused to operate the wireless transceiver 210
to
perform the retransmission of the received audio, and caused to provide the
audio to
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the wireless transceiver 210. As the retransmission occurs, the processor 230
may
also be caused to operate the D-to-A converter 240 and the amplifier 245 to
convert
the audio from a digital form to an analog form of sufficient amplitude to
drive to an
acoustic driver, and caused to provide the audio to the D-to-A converter 240.
Alternatively, as the retransmission occurs in an embodiment of the audio
sharing
device in which the connector 250 is employed in outputting the received audio
as a
stream of digital data, the processor 230 may also be caused to output the
audio
through the connector 250.
In embodiments in which the processor 230 carries out the transmission of
audio received from either an external microphone through the connector 250 or
from
a microphone incorporated internally within the audio sharing device 200, the
processor 230 is caused by the routine 237 to operate the A-to-D converter to
receive
the audio and to temporarily store portions of the received audio as at least
a portion
of the audio data 238 in the storage 235. Alternatively, the processor 230 may
also be
caused to receive audio through the connector 250 already in a digital form.
This
buffering of the received audio as at least a portion of the audio data 238
may be
required for the transnussion of the audio to another device. The processor
230 is also
caused to operate the wireless transceiver 210 to perform the transmission of
the
audio, and caused to provide the audio to the wireless transceiver 210.
In some embodiments where audio is stored as at least a portion of the audio
data 238, the processor 230 may be further caused by the routine 237 to
perform some
degree of signal processing and/or time-delay function on the audio data 238.
For
example, where the audio sharing device 200 incorporates an acoustic driver
and/or a
microphone, signal processing may be performed to compensate for
characteristics of
that acoustic driver or that microphone (e.g., bass and/or treble adjustments,
amplitude expansion or compression, re-equalization, low-pass or high-pass
filtering,
resynchronization to a different sampling rate, etc.). Also, there may be a
need to
impose a time-delay in the output of audio by an acoustic driver eonnected to
either
the audio sharing device 200 or to the another device with which the audio
sharing
device 200 retransmits audio in order to synchronize the output of audio by
acoustic
drivers attached to both devices. Similarly, there may be a need to impose a
time-
delay in the output of audio received from a microphone to another device.
The audio sharing device 200 may be employed to perform a wide variety of
functions. The above-described capabilities of the audio sharing device 200
allows
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multiple incarnations of the audio sharing device 200 to be used by multiple
persons
to engage in two-way audio communications among themselves, and allows an
exchange audio with still another personal electronic device in a manner not
unlike
what is depicted in Figure 3. Where that other personal electronic device is a
cell
phone, walkie talkie, cordless phone base station or other communications
device, the
audio communications in which the users of the multiple incarnations of the
audio
sharing device 200 are engaged can be extended to include still another person
through that personal electronic device. Where point-to-point links conforming
to the
Bluetooth specification or other wireless network specification are employed,
more
than one unrelated exchange of audio may take place through one or more of the
point-to-point links, simultaneously. For example, amidst such a conversation
between multiple persons using multiple incarnations of the audio sharing
device 200
and another person through another form of personal electronic device, one of
those
participating in the conversation through one of the incarnations of the audio
sharing
device 200 may operate his/her audio sharing device to switch to listening to
music
stored on the personal electronic device, thereby causing that music to be
streamed
across at least one of the point-to-point links from the personal electronic
device
alongside the two-way exchanges of the audio of the conversation. In switching
between participating in the conversation and listening to the music, in this
example,
this particular participant may make use of a contro1222 of his/her
incarnation of the
audio sharing device 200 to remotely control the personal electronic device to
cause it
to commence playing the music, and possibly to cause it to pause, fast-
forward, etc.
Furthermore, this remote control capability could be used by this participant,
or one of
the other participants employing another incarnation of the audio sharing
device 200,
to send a command to the personal electronic device to activate a mute feature
thereby
allowing the participants using audio sharing devices to talk among themselves
with
the participant(s) communicating through the personal electronic device not
being
able to hear them. Again, these are but examples of the possible functionality
enabled
by such embodiments of audio sharing devices and wireless networks that employ
them.
The audio sharing device 200 may take any of a wide range of possible
physical forms. In some embodiments, the audio sharing device 200 may be an
earpiece or headset such that the audio sharing device incorporates at one
acoustic
driver and at least one microphone, and therefore, may not incorporate the
connector
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250. In other embodiments, the audio sharing device 200 may be a device not
incorporating either an acoustic driver or a microphone, and having a casing
designed
to be of desirable size and shape for being worn or carried by a user in
various ways
intended to make the attachment of an earpiece, headset, or other combination
of
microphone and acoustic driver worn or carried by the user relatively
conveniently.
As previously discussed with reference to both the audio sharing devices 100
and 200, embodiments of these audio sharing devices may be capable of
performing a
simplified form of link establishment procedure when the point-to-point link
that is to
be set up is with another incarnation of one of these audio sharing devices.
In some
variations of the audio sharing devices 100 and 200,.provision may be made for
users
of these audio sharing devices to be able to manually initiate the performance
of a
simplified form of link establishment procedure, themselves, instead of
relying on
such a simplified form of link establishment procedure to take place
automatically, as
previously described. This would allow users of such audio sharing devices to
more
quickly create point-to-point links to enable the sharing of audio from an
audio
playing device or to enable others to join in a telephone call in a more
agreeable "ad-
hoc" manner that does not require waiting through a lengthier and fuller
version of
link establishment procedure that would necessitate delaying listening to
audio
playback or delaying carrying on a phone conversation for an extended period
of time.
For example, such audio sharing devices may enable users to do this by making
provision for users to press and hold the control 122 or 222 of incarnations
of the
audio sharing devices 100 or 200, respectively, to initiate such a simplified
link
establishment procedure. It may be that such controls 122 or 222 are meant to
more
frequently be used in controlling aspects of the manner in which exchanges of
audio
are carried out, such as "play" or "call" buttons that normally remotely
control another
personal electronic device, but which cause a simplified link establishment
procedure
to be initiated when pressed and held. Further, such audio devices may
similarly
enable users who no longer desire to maintain a point-to-point link that has
been set
up through a simplified link establishment procedure to signal their own audio
sharing
devices (such as the audio sharing devices 100 or 200) to cease to maintain
that link.
Such simplified link establishment procedure functionality may be meant to
conform,
at least in some way, with widely used specification such as Bluetooth, or may
be a
proprietary procedure carried out between audio sharing devices of only one
vendor
or a limited number of vendors.
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Figures 5 and 6 depict still other a networks 2100 and 2200, respectively, in
which other possible combinations of incarnations of audio sharing devices and
personal electronic devices are employed, and at least some of the resulting
capabilities. The network 2100 incorporates a personal electronic device 900
capable
of two-way audio communication, along with an audio sharing device 200 capable
of
two-way audio communication and retransmission, and an audio sharing device
100
capable of only outputting audio that it receives to its user and
retransmitting that
audio to yet another device (not shown). The network 2200 incorporates a
personal
electronic device 900 capable of only transmitting audio communication, along
with
two audio sharing devices 200a and 200b that are each capable of two-way audio
communication and retransmission. Not unlike the networks 1100 and 1200 of
Figures 1 and 3, the personal electronic devices 900 in both networks 2100 and
2200
of Figures 5 and 6, respectively, have a point-to-point link with one of the
depicted
audio sharing devices, and that each of those depicted audio sharing devices
have a
separate point-to-point link with the other of the depicted audio sharing
devices,
resulting in a chain of point-to-point links.
With the audio sharing device 100 of the network 2100 of Figure 5 limited to
being able to only receive audio from its point-to-point link with the audio
sharing
device 200, the audio sharing device 100 may enable its user to hear a two-way
exchange of audio between the audio sharing device 200 and the personal
electronic
device 900, but cannot enable its user to participate in that two-way exchange
by
speaking. Alternatively, rather than listening to a two-way exchange of audio
between audio sharing device 200 and the personal electronic device 900, the
user of
the audio sharing device 100 may listen to unrelated audio transmitted by the
personal
electronic device 900 and retransmitted by the audio sharing device 900. This
unrelated audio could, for example, be an audio recording stored on the
personal
device 900 that the user of the audio sharing device 200 is willing to allow
the user of
the audio sharing device 100 to hear through retransmission by the audio
sharing
device 200. Despite being only able to receive audio from the personal
electronic
device 900, in some embodiments, the user of the audio sharing device 100 may
still
be able to operate a control of the audio sharing device 100 to remotely
operate at
least some aspect of the personal electronic device 900, perhaps controlling
some
aspect of the provision of the audio.
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With the personal electronic device 900 of the network 2200 of Figure 6
limited to being able to only transmit audio across its point-to-point link
with the
audio sharing device 200a, the audio sharing devices 200a and 200b may enable
their
users to hear the audio from the personal electronic device 900 and/or to talk
to each
other, but neither user can transmit audio back to the personal electronic
device 900.
Despite being only able to receive audio from the personal electronic device
900, in
some embodiments, the users of either of the audio sharing devices 200a and
200b
may still be able to operate a control of their respective ones of the audio
sharing
devices 200a and 200b to remotely operate at least some aspect of the personal
electronic device 900, perhaps controlling some aspect of the provision of the
audio.
Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.
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