REVIEWS OF ACOUSTICAL PATENTS Free

• GEORGE L. AUGSPURGER, Perception, Incorporated, Box 39536 Los Angeles, California 90039

• ERIC E. UNGAR, Acentech, Incorporated, 33 Moulton Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138

Arjen Teake De Jong and Richard Vincent Armin De Jong, assignors to Arjen Teake, De Jong

11 April 2023; filed 16 October 2017

This patent describes several configurations of ear plugs whose attenuations can be changed by the wearer. Simple arrangements that change the propagation path lengths and/or resonating volumes in the earplug are indicated.—EEU

Peter Andrew Lucon and Zachary Ruprecht Martineau, assignors to RESODYN CORPORATION

11 April 2023; filed 16 November 2020

An acoustic mixer as described in this patent is a device that agitates granular materials in order to enhance mixing or coating, etc., of materials. As shown schematically in the attached figure, material flows from a tank through a continuous process vessel 120 into an acoustic agitator (not described in the patent, but might be a vibrator), and from there along a horizontal conveyor 106 into a delivery tube 107. In some embodiments there are in-parallel arrangements of process vessels and also of delivery tubes.—EEU

Wensen Liu et al., assignors to Google LLC

11 April 2023; filed 5 October 2020

At first glance, the design of this noise-canceling earbud appears to be conventional. It has an external microphone to pickup ambient sound, a micro-speaker, and an internal microphone 1210 that picks up sound that enters the user's ear canal. Sound that enters the ear canal consists of sound from the micro-speaker plus ambient sound leakage. A second examination of the drawing still fails to reveal anything unusual. However, the patent Claims proudly point out two novel features: (a) “the sound port comprises a straight channel” and (b) the internal microphone is, “…recessed within a notch.”—GLA

Paul Barton et al., assignors to Lenbrook Industries Limited

11 April 2023; filed 25 March 2022

This small, cylindrical powered loudspeaker has its bass driver 108 mounted at an angle. That is it—the sole novel feature of the design. According to the patent, the goal is “…to increase acoustic output and reduce acoustic frequency distortion by providing a varying distance between the bass driver and the top and bottom ends of the enclosure.”—GLA

Jean-Luc Aider et al., assignors to SORBONNE UNIVERSITE, UNIVERSITÉ PARIS CIT

18 April 2023; filed 29 June 2018

This patent pertains to manipulating tiny objects which absorb light in a given frequency range as they are in a liquid suspension, e.g., molecules in a micro-test arrangement. An acoustic field is used to aggregate the particles and light is applied to disrupt the aggregate.—EEU

Kyle Brian McNicholas et al., assignors to Bose Corporation

18 April 2023; filed 2 September 2021

A small, portable, powered loudspeaker has one equalization curve for horizontal operation and a second curve for vertical operation. The appropriate curve is selected automatically after a slight delay (at least 100 ms).—GLA

Ping-Yu Lee et al., assignors to FORTUNE GRAND TECHNOLOGY INC.

18 April 2023; filed 11 February 2022

This double-sided speaker appears to be two back-to-back planar speakers that share a common magnet. The Description and Claims are too long-winded to be understandable, but emphasis is placed on “…the requirement of thinning.”—GLA

Xin Qi et al., assignors to SHENZHEN SHOKZ CO., LTD.

18 April 2023; filed 16 June 2022

In a bone-conduction hearing aid vibrations of the housing 10 resulting from action of the transducer 22 may cause the housing to radiate some sound outward from the hearing aid, in addition to causing the desired bone-contact vibrations of panel 21. This potentially undesirable “leakage” may result in the hearer's reduced privacy. This leakage effect may be controlled by permitting some of the sound resulting inside the enclosure from transducer 21 vibrations to escape through openings 30 and by configuring the interior volume so that the escaped radiated sound interferes with that resulting from vibrations of the enclosure.—EEU

Daniel Bracht and Matthias von Saint-George, assignors to Harman Becker Automotive Systems GmbH

18 April 2023; filed 12 July 2021

The simplest and most common loudspeaker layout for a sound system in a motor vehicle places left and right speakers in the front left and right door panels. Since the driver's seat is a substantial distance away from the centerline, stereo localization is compromised. Numerous existing patents describe ways of dealing with the problem—some require additional loudspeakers along with complex signal processing. The system described in this patent takes a different approach. A single small array of loudspeakers 104, 106 is located on the centerline. The speakers are presumably connected in reverse polarity to create a null, and delay is used to steer the null toward the driver's ear. Somehow, this creates a virtual center image 112 directly in front of the driver. The concept is interesting, but the limited amount of information in the patent generates more questions than answers.—GLA

Tommaso Delpero et al., assignors to Autoneum Management AQ

25 April 2023; filed 14 June 2018

Multi-layer arrangements of fibrous materials are used to provide decoupling between automotive trim members in order to enhance noise isolation. The thicknesses and gaps between layers may vary from location to location as needed for ease of construction.—EEU

Daniel C. Chisu and Si Chen, assignors to Motorola Mobility LLC

25 April 2023; filed 9 September 2019

The user of a cell phone or the like may set the phone's alerting means to be audible or tactile (e.g., from vibration). The system of this patent detects whether the acoustic environment is excessively noisy and selects tactile alerting if audible alerting had been chosen by the user.—EEU

Yen-Chieh Wang et al., assignors to HTC Corporation

25 April 2023; filed 1 December 2021

This patent describes a miniature “nearphone.” Two of these devices are mounted on a headband that holds them slightly away from the wearer's ears. Ports 110a,110b face the user's head at carefully specified angles. Port 110c faces away from the user's head. The goal is “…to provide comprehensive and realistic sound bandwidth, volume, and directivity.”—GLA

Michael O'Connor et al., assignors to Amazon Technologies, Inc.

2 May 2023; filed 6 April 2020

This patent describes a camera assembly made up of several modules that can be clipped together. One of the modules is a loudspeaker in a sealed box. The patent discloses a design for friction-fit electrical connectors that do not require any special precautions while the modules are being put together.—GLA

Gopal Prasad Mathur et al., assignors to Acoustic Metamaterials LLC

2 May 2023; filed 26 May 2022

In a headphone the undistorted transmission of sound from the speaker diaphragm to a human ear is improved if the acoustic impedance of the speaker matches that of the ear. This patent describes enhancing this matching by providing slits and ducts in the housing that encloses the air volume between the speaker and the ear.—EEU

Fahrettin Levent Degertekin et al., assignors to Georgia Tech Research Corporation

2 May 2023; filed 17 July 2018

The attached figure represents a simple example illustrating the idea of a parametric oscillator. The series connected capacitor 110, inductor 120, and resistor 130 form a classical RLC circuit. If the capacitor's size is modulated by an externally applied “pumping” forcing signal l0 at about twice the natural frequency of the circuit, then a current is induced in the circuit. The patent shows various applications of this concept for inducing current in devices without internal power sources.—EEU

Yu-Ruei Li et al., assignors to AmTRAN Technology Co., Ltd.

2 May 2023; filed 31 August 2021

This patent describes means that provide detailed information concerning resonances in a display device (such as computer screen) which may have adverse effects on the sound radiated by the device. The intent is to enable the rapid and convenient adjustment of the device.—EEU

Frank Maker et al., assignors to Roku, Inc.

2 May 2023; filed 13 June 2022

This patent deals with a home entertainment installation that has several loudspeakers in various rooms and is controlled by voice commands. The command process is made faster and simpler by employing voice recognition, and then accessing metadata associated with that person.—GLA

Xin Qi et al., assignors to SHENZHEN SHOKZ CO., LTD.

2 May 2023; filed 31 March 2021

A device for inducing sound-related vibrations upon bone, likely in a person's skull, may be usefully included in hearing aids, eyeglass frames, etc. As shown in the attached schematic diametral section, a voice coil 8 drives panel 13 that is intended to be in contact with bone structure. Inner magnet 11 is supported on bottom plate 12 and topped by conduction plate 7. The outer annular magnet 10 carries conduction plate 9, and via grommet 8 supports the thin flexible conduction plate 1 connected to vibration board 2. The various elastic components may be essentially annular with radial “spokes.”—EEU