US 12,149,919 B2
Automatic acoustic handoff
Jonathan D. Sheaffer, San Jose, CA (US); Martin E. Johnson, Los Gatos, CA (US); and Andrew P. Bright, Los Gatos, CA (US)
Assigned to Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed by Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA (US)
Filed on Feb. 22, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/677,808.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/154,651, filed on Feb. 26, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0279305 A1, Sep. 1, 2022
Int. Cl. H04S 7/00 (2006.01); G10L 25/21 (2013.01); G10L 25/60 (2013.01); H04R 1/10 (2006.01); H04R 1/40 (2006.01); H04R 3/00 (2006.01); H04R 5/033 (2006.01); H04R 5/04 (2006.01); H04W 76/14 (2018.01)
CPC H04S 7/304 (2013.01) [G10L 25/21 (2013.01); G10L 25/60 (2013.01); H04R 1/1016 (2013.01); H04R 1/1041 (2013.01); H04R 1/406 (2013.01); H04R 3/005 (2013.01); H04R 5/033 (2013.01); H04R 5/04 (2013.01); H04S 2400/11 (2013.01); H04S 2400/15 (2013.01); H04W 76/14 (2018.02)] 16 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
13. A processor of an earphone, the processor configured to perform operations comprising:
process a near-field speech signal of a local talker wearing the earphone and a far-field speech signal of a remote talker received by the earphone to estimate acoustic parameters;
determine a communication mode between the earphone and a remote earphone worn by the remote talker based on the estimated acoustic parameters, wherein the communication mode includes one of an acoustic transparency mode that captures the far-field speech signal by a microphone of the earphone, a peer-to-peer radio-frequency (RF) mode, or a telephony mode, the peer-to-peer RF mode or the telephony mode being configured to communicate using RF signals between local earphone and the remote earphone; and
output to a speaker of the earphone the far-field speech signal in the acoustic transparency mode, an augmented speech signal based on the far-field speech signal in the peer-to-peer RF mode, or a telephony speech signal based on the far-field speech signal in the telephony mode.