US 11,988,784 B2
Detecting an audio signal with a microphone to determine presence of a playback device
Daniel Jones, London (GB); Richard Bannon, Seattle, WA (US); Jake Harwood, Seattle, WA (US); Jonathan Herbst, Seattle, WA (US); and Henry Sia, Seattle, WA (US)
Assigned to Sonos, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA (US)
Filed by Sonos, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 30, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/460,708.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/072,888, filed on Aug. 31, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2022/0066008 A1, Mar. 3, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 7/539 (2006.01); G01S 7/527 (2006.01); G06F 3/16 (2006.01); G10L 19/008 (2013.01)
CPC G01S 7/539 (2013.01) [G01S 7/527 (2013.01); G06F 3/165 (2013.01); G10L 19/008 (2013.01); H04R 2430/01 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A receiving device comprising:
a microphone configured to receive an audio signal comprising a superposition of a plurality of audio signals transmitted by a plurality of respective playback devices;
one or more processors; and
a non-transitory, computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, instruct the receiving device to:
determine a time-frequency representation of the audio signal received by the microphone;
obtain data associating playback devices with respective reference audio signals, each reference audio signal having a predefined time-frequency representation;
based on the time-frequency representation of the audio signal and the data, determine that the audio signal comprises a superposition of a first audio signal transmitted by a first playback device and a second audio signal transmitted by a second playback device;
based on the audio signal, determine a first magnitude associated with the first audio signal and a second magnitude associated with the second audio signal;
determine that the first magnitude is greater than the second magnitude;
determine that the first playback device is arranged in closer proximity than the second playback device to the receiving device; and
transition a playback session between the receiving device and the first playback device.