US 11,950,050 B1
Ceiling tile microphone
Derek Graham, South Jordan, UT (US); David K. Lambert, South Jordan, UT (US); and Michael Braithwaite, Pflugerville, TX (US)
Assigned to ClearOne, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (US)
Filed by ClearOne, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (US)
Filed on Jan. 10, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/152,498.
Application 18/152,498 is a continuation of application No. 16/872,557, filed on May 12, 2020, granted, now 11,601,749.
Application 16/872,557 is a continuation of application No. 15/218,297, filed on Jul. 25, 2016, granted, now 10,728,653, issued on Jul. 28, 2020.
Application 15/218,297 is a continuation of application No. 14/475,849, filed on Sep. 3, 2014, granted, now 9,813,806, issued on Nov. 7, 2017.
Application 14/475,849 is a continuation of application No. 14/276,438, filed on May 13, 2014, granted, now 9,294,839, issued on Mar. 22, 2016.
Application 14/276,438 is a continuation of application No. 14/191,511, filed on Feb. 27, 2014, abandoned.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/828,524, filed on May 29, 2013.
Claims priority of provisional application 61/771,751, filed on Mar. 1, 2013.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. H04R 1/40 (2006.01); G10L 21/0208 (2013.01); G10L 21/0232 (2013.01); H04R 1/08 (2006.01); H04R 1/28 (2006.01); H04R 3/00 (2006.01); H04R 3/04 (2006.01); H04R 17/02 (2006.01); H04R 29/00 (2006.01); H04R 31/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04R 1/406 (2013.01) [G10L 21/0232 (2013.01); H04R 1/08 (2013.01); H04R 1/2876 (2013.01); H04R 3/005 (2013.01); H04R 3/04 (2013.01); H04R 17/02 (2013.01); H04R 29/005 (2013.01); H04R 31/006 (2013.01); G10L 2021/02082 (2013.01); H04R 2201/021 (2013.01); H04R 2420/07 (2013.01); H04R 2430/21 (2013.01); H04R 2430/23 (2013.01)] 44 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A ceiling tile microphone, comprising:
a plurality of microphones coupled together as a microphone array used for beamforming, the plurality of microphones are positioned at predetermined locations and produce audio signals to be used to form a directional pickup pattern;
a single ceiling tile with an outer surface on the front side of the ceiling tile where the outer surface is acoustically transparent, the microphone array couples to the back side of the single ceiling tile, the microphone array combines with the ceiling tile as a single unit, the single unit is mountable in a drop ceiling in place of a single ceiling tile included in the drop ceiling, all or part of the single unit is in the drop space of the drop ceiling when the single unit is used in a drop ceiling mounting configuration;
where the ceiling tile microphone further includes beamforming, acoustic echo cancellation, and auto mixing.