Audio control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10915293-B2
Application number	US-201916532150-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2019
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Feb 9, 2021
Grant date	Feb 9, 2021

Abstract

Systems and methods for controlling an audio device include a system provider device that retrieves, through a network, audio device information for at least one audio device. The system provider device also receives an indication of a triggered alert from at least one of a plurality of devices. In various embodiments, the system provider device determines an alert type corresponding to the received indication of the triggered alert. In addition, the system provider device modifies an audio setting of the at least one audio device based on the determined alert type. In some examples, the system provider device further modifies the audio setting of the at least one audio device to return the modified audio setting of the at least one audio device to a pre-modified setting.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system, comprising:
at least one processing unit; and
memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method comprising:
receiving audio device information over a network for an audio device;
determining one or more characteristics of the audio device based at least upon the audio device information;
receiving an alert over the network, wherein the alert has an alert type and is associated with a location; and
when a current location of the audio device matches the location associated with the alert, modifying an audio setting of the audio device using the one or more characteristics, wherein the modification of the audio setting is based at least upon the alert type and the location.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises modifying the audio setting of the audio device to return the modified audio setting of the audio device to a pre-modified setting upon completion of an alert condition.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the received audio device information includes data collected from at least one beacon device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises, responsive to detection of a spoken phrase by the audio device, receiving an indication of the alert over the network.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the alert type is one of a high severity alert, a low severity alert, and an informational alert.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the audio device includes a noise-cancelling feature, and wherein the modifying the audio setting includes disabling the noise-cancelling feature.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein modifying the audio setting comprises one or more of: disabling a noise-cancelling feature, enabling a noise-cancelling feature, reducing a volume setting, increasing a volume setting, muting the at least one audio device, un-muting the at least one audio device, pausing playback of an audio source playing via the at least one audio device, or un-pausing playback of the audio source playing via the audio device.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the audio device comprises one of a mobile device, a noise-cancelling headphone set, a headphone set, a radio, a hands-free headset, or an MP3 player.

9. A method, comprising:
retrieving audio device information for an audio device, the audio device information comprising one or more audio device characteristics;
receiving, by the system provider device, an indication of a triggered alert wherein the triggered alert is associated with an alert type and a location; and
modifying an audio setting of the at least one audio device based upon using the one or more characteristics, wherein the modification is based at least upon the alert type and the location, and wherein the audio setting is modified when a current location of the audio device is located within a predefined proximity of the location associated with the alert.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising modifying the audio setting of the audio device to return the modified audio setting of the audio device to a pre-modified setting.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein modifying the audio setting of the audio device to return the modified audio setting of the audio device to a pre-modified setting is performed upon at least one of:
an indication that the alert has terminated; or
a determination that the audio device is not located within or proximate to the location associated with the alert.

12. The method of claim 9 , further comprising responsive to detection of a spoken phrase by the audio device, receiving the indication of the triggered alert from at least one of a plurality of devices.

13. The method of claim 9 , wherein the audio device information comprises data collected from at least one beacon device.

14. The method of claim 9 , wherein modifying the audio setting of the at least one audio device comprises one or more of: disabling a noise-cancelling feature, enabling a noise-cancelling feature, reducing a volume setting, increasing a volume setting, muting the at least one audio device, un-muting the at least one audio device, pausing playback of an audio source playing via the at least one audio device, or un-pausing playback of the audio source playing via the at least one audio device.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions executable by one or more processors to cause the one or more processors to perform a method comprising:
receiving audio device information over a network for at least one an audio device;
determining one or more characteristics of the audio device based at least upon the audio device information;
receiving an alert over the network from at least one of a plurality of devices, wherein the alert has an alert type and is associated with a location; and
modifying an audio setting of the audio device using the one or more characteristics, wherein the modification of the audio setting is based at least upon the alert type and the location, wherein the modification of the audio setting of the audio device is performed when a current location of the audio device matches the location associated with the alert.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises modifying the audio setting of the audio device to return the modified audio setting of the audio device to a pre-modified setting.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises, responsive to detection of a spoken phrase by the audio device, receiving the alert over the network.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein modifying the audio setting comprises one or more of: disabling a noise-cancelling feature, enabling a noise-cancelling feature, reducing a volume setting, increasing a volume setting, muting the at least one audio device, un-muting the at least one audio device, pausing playback of an audio source playing via the at least one audio device, or un-pausing playback of the audio source playing via the audio device.

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Luk Bryant G
• O'Toole Christopher D
• He Robert
• Tang Yu
• Brenner Jennifer T
• Shabbot Leith
• Das Ananya
• Ziaja Jason

Classifications

• G06F3/165 Primary

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