Electronic devices and methods for selectively recording input from authorized users

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10402149-B2
Application number	US-201715835274-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 7, 2017
Priority date	Dec 7, 2017
Publication date	Sep 3, 2019
Grant date	Sep 3, 2019

Abstract

An electronic device includes one or more sensors having at least an audio sensor and one or more processors. The one or more sensors detect multiple persons within an environment about the electronic device and identify at least one person as an authorized user of the electronic device. The audio sensor receives audio input from the environment, and the one or more processors filter the audio input into authorized user generated audio input and other audio input, record audio signals representing the authorized user generated audio input, and preclude the recording of other audio signals representing to the other audio input.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
determining, with one or more sensors of an electronic device, a plurality of persons within an environment of the electronic device;
identifying, with the one or more sensors, an authorized user and at least one unauthorized user of the electronic device in the plurality of persons;
receiving, with an audio sensor of the electronic device, a first audio input emanating from the authorized user and a second audio input emanating from the at least one unauthorized user; and
with one or more processors operable with the one or more sensors and the audio sensor:
recording, in a memory of the electronic device, the first audio input; and
precluding the recording of the second audio input in the memory of the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transcribing, with the one or more processors, the second audio input to transcribed text, and storing, in the memory of the electronic device, the transcribed text.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising confirming, with the one or more processors and prior to the recording, the first audio input emanates from the authorized user.

4. The method of claim 3 , the confirming comprising:
identifying, with the one or more sensors, a spatial location of the authorized user relative to the electronic device; and
detecting the first audio input is received from the spatial location.

5. The method of claim 4 , the detecting comprising beam steering an acoustic reception cone of the audio sensor to the spatial location.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the audio sensor comprises a first audio sensor disposed on a first side of the electronic device and a second audio sensor disposed on a second side of the electronic device, wherein the detecting comprises calculating a phase shift between the first audio sensor and the second audio sensor to confirm the first audio input is received from the spatial location.

7. The method of claim 4 , the confirming comprising:
capturing, with an imager, a plurality of images of the authorized user;
processing, with the one or more processors, the plurality of images to identify lip movement of the authorized user; and
determining, with the one or more processors, whether the lip movement is in synchrony with the first audio input.

8. The method of claim 3 , the confirming comprising performing, with a depth scanner, a depth scan of a face of the authorized user and determining whether the depth scan sufficiently corresponds to one or more predefined depth scans stored in the memory of the electronic device.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising filtering, with the one or more processors, the first audio input from the second audio input to segregate the first audio input from the second audio input.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein when the filtering fails to segregate the first audio input from the second audio input, precluding the recording of the first audio input.

11. The method of claim 2 , further comprising identifying at least one contextual cue corresponding to the first audio input from the transcribed text.

12. An electronic device, comprising:
one or more sensors comprising an audio sensor;
one or more processors operable with the one or more sensors;
the one or more sensors detecting a plurality of persons within a predefined environment about the electronic device and identifying at least one person of the plurality of persons as an authorized user of the electronic device;
the audio sensor receiving audio input from the predefined environment about the electronic device;
the one or more processors:
filtering the audio input into authorized user generated audio input and other audio input;
recording audio signals representing the authorized user generated audio input; and
precluding the recording of other audio signals representing to the other audio input.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 , further comprising a memory, the one or more processors further:
transcribing the other audio signals to transcribed text; and
storing the transcribed text in the memory.

14. The electronic device of claim 13 , the one or more processors further confirming the authorized user generated audio input emanates from the authorized user prior to the recording of the audio signals.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , the one or more processors confirming the authorized user generated audio input emanates from the authorized user by determining whether the authorized user generated audio input sufficiently corresponds to at least one predefined audio signal stored in the memory.

16. The electronic device of claim 14 , the one or more processors confirming the authorized user generated audio input emanates from the authorized user by determining, with the one or more sensors, a spatial location of the authorized user relative to the electronic device, and determining whether the authorized user generated audio input is received within an audio reception cone aligned with the spatial location.

17. The electronic device of claim 14 , the one or more sensors comprising a plurality of sensors, the plurality of sensors comprising an imager, the one or more processors confirming the authorized user generated audio input emanates from the authorized user by:
capturing, with the imager, a plurality of images of the authorized user;
processing, with the one or more processors, the plurality of images to identify lip movement of the authorized user; and
determining, with the one or more processors, whether the lip movement is in synchrony with the authorized user generated audio input.

18. A method, comprising:
receiving, with an audio sensor of an electronic device, audio input from an environment about the electronic device;
filtering, with one or more processors operable with the audio sensor, the audio input into at least a first audio input and a second audio input;
identifying, with the one or more processors, one of the first audio input or the second audio input as emanating from an authorized user of the electronic device and another of the first audio input or the second audio input as emanating from a source other than the authorized user of the electronic device;
recording, with the one or more processors, audio signals representing the one of the first audio input or the second audio input; and
precluding the recording of the another of the first audio input or the second audio input.

19. The method of claim 18 , further comprising transcribing, with the one or more processors, the another of the first audio input or the second audio input as transcribed text, and storing the transcribed text in a memory of the electronic device.

20. The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
receiving, with the one or more sensors, user input authorizing recording of audio input from at least a second person within the environment of the electronic device;
filtering the another of the first audio input or the second audio input to segregate a third audio input emanating from the second person; and
recording audio signals representing the third audio input.

Assignees

• Motorola Mobility Llc

Inventors

• Alameh Rachid
• Simerson Jarrett
• Balar Amitkumar

Classifications

• G06F3/167

  Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback · CPC title

• G06F3/165

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title

• G06F2221/2111

  Location-sensitive, e.g. geographical location, GPS · CPC title

• G06F21/32

  using biometric data, e.g. fingerprints, iris scans or voiceprints · CPC title

• H04W4/023

  using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds · CPC title