Smart audio settings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11074035-B2
Application number	US-201916594475-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 7, 2019
Priority date	Jun 29, 2012
Publication date	Jul 27, 2021
Grant date	Jul 27, 2021

Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide for smart configuration of audio settings for a playback device. According to an embodiment, while a playback device is a part of a first zone group that includes the playback device and at least one first playback device, the playback device applies a first audio setting. The embodiment also includes the playback device joining a second zone group that includes the playback device and at least one second playback device. The embodiment further includes the playback device applying a second audio setting based on an audio content profile corresponding to the second zone group.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
one or more processors; and
at least one tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium;
program instructions stored on the at least one tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium that are executable by the one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to:
while a first playback device is playing a first audio track according to a first audio playback configuration corresponding to a first audio profile, determine for a second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile; and
in response to determining that the first playback device should not play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile, cause the first playback device to play the second audio track according to a second audio playback configuration.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to cause the first playback device to play the second audio track according the second audio playback configuration comprises program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to send the second audio playback configuration to the first playback device.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first audio playback configuration comprises one or more equalization settings for audio playback, and wherein the second audio playback configuration comprises one or more equalization settings for audio playback different from the one or more equalization settings of the first audio playback configuration.

4. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first audio profile corresponds to a first genre of audio content, and wherein the program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine for the second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile comprises program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine whether a genre corresponding to the second audio track is different from the first genre of audio content.

5. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first audio profile corresponds to portions of spectral content of an audio track falling within each of two or more frequency bands, and wherein the program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine for the second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile comprises program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine whether portions of spectral content of the second audio track falling within each of the two or more frequency bands exceed the portions of spectral content falling within each of the two or more frequency bands for the first audio profile by a threshold amount.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the first audio profile corresponds to a representative audio profile based on a spectral analysis of a set of audio tracks, and wherein the program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine for the second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile comprises program instructions that are executable by one or more processors such that the computing system is configured to determine whether a distribution of spectral content among a set of two or more frequency ranges for the second audio track is within a threshold range of the distribution of spectral content among the set of two or more frequency ranges for the representative audio profile.

7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the set of audio tracks comprises audio tracks that the first playback device has played within a set duration of time.

8. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the set of audio tracks comprises audio tracks of a particular genre of audio content.

9. The computing system of claim 7 , wherein the set of audio tracks comprises audio tracks stored in a library of audio tracks associated with a particular listener.

10. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the computing system is configured to communicate with the first playback device via an Internet connection.

11. A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
while a first playback device is playing a first audio track according to a first audio playback configuration corresponding to a first audio profile, determining for a second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile; and
in response to determining that the first playback device should not play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile, causing the first playback device to play the second audio track according to a second audio playback configuration.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein causing the first playback device to play the second audio track according the second audio playback configuration comprises sending the second audio playback configuration to the first playback device.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first audio playback configuration comprises one or more equalization settings for audio playback, and wherein the second audio playback configuration comprises one or more equalization settings for audio playback different from the one or more equalization settings of the first audio playback configuration.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first audio profile corresponds to a first genre of audio content, and wherein determining for the second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile comprises determining whether a genre corresponding to the second audio track is different from the first genre of audio content.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the first audio profile corresponds to portions of spectral content of an audio track falling within each of two or more frequency bands, and wherein determining for the second audio track queued for playback after the first audio track, whether the first playback device should play the second audio track according to the first audio playback configuration corresponding to the first audio profile comprises determining whether portions of spectral content of the second audio track falling within each of the two or more frequency bands exceed the portions of spectral content falling within each of the

Assignees

• Sonos Inc

Inventors

• Lang Jonathan P

Classifications

• H03G5/005 Primary

  of digital signals · CPC title

• H03G3/3089

  Control of digital or coded signals · CPC title

• G06F16/683

  using metadata automatically derived from the content · CPC title

• H03G5/165

  Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title