US 12,411,362 B2
Eyewear with direction of sound arrival detection
Jennica Pounds, Bellevue, WA (US); Daniel Harris, San Francisco, CA (US); and Ashwani Arya, Cypress, CA (US)
Assigned to Snap Inc., Santa Monica, CA (US)
Filed by Jennica Pounds, Bellevue, WA (US); Daniel Harris, San Francisco, CA (US); and Ashwani Arya, Cypress, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 1, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/539,839.
Prior Publication US 2023/0168522 A1, Jun. 1, 2023
Int. Cl. G02C 11/00 (2006.01); G02B 27/01 (2006.01); G02C 5/00 (2006.01); G02C 11/04 (2006.01)
CPC G02C 11/10 (2013.01) [G02B 27/0176 (2013.01); G02C 5/001 (2013.01); G02C 11/04 (2013.01); G02B 2027/0178 (2013.01)] 13 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. Eyewear, comprising:
a frame having a first side and a second side;
a first temple adjacent the first side of the frame;
an optical element supported by the frame;
a computer vision (CV) camera supported by the frame and configured to perform object identification;
a microphone array supported by the first temple and configured to receive a sound from a remote sound source that generates sound signals;
a vibration device array configured to generate a vibration pattern indicative of the remote sound source; and
an electronic processor configured to:
process the sound signals received from the microphone array to determine a direction of the received sound relative to the eyewear;
access a memory comprising a data set of known sounds correlated to known sound sources to identify the received sound;
generate an indicator discernable by a user of the eyewear that is indicative of the direction of the received sound relative to the eyewear; and
control the vibration device array to generate the vibration pattern indicative of the remote sound source, wherein a variable intensity of the vibration pattern is indicative of a variable intensity of the sound and varies directly with the intensity of the sound;
wherein the processor is configured to identify the sound source using both the CV camera and the microphone array to identify the received sound by comparing the received sound to the memory data, and by correlating the received sound using the CV camera object identification.