Audio control system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11449304-B2
Application number	US-202117162788-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 29, 2021
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Sep 20, 2022
Grant date	Sep 20, 2022

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 method for controlling a device, the method comprising:
transmitting device information over a network, the device information comprising a location of the device;
receiving a communication from a service provider over the network, the communication comprising an external command to modify a setting of the device based on an alert triggered at an alert region that identifies a physical location; and
automatically modifying, based on the external command, the setting of the device from an original setting level to a modified setting level while the location of the device is within the alert region, including incrementally returning the setting of the device to the original setting level as a distance between the location of the device and the alert region is increased.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device includes an audio device, and wherein the setting includes an audio setting of the device.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device information includes one or more of:
a device manufacturer,
a device model,
a device type, or
a device specific frequency for the device.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external command includes pausing a playback of an audio source playing audio via the device.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the external command comprises an alert type, wherein the setting of the device includes an audio setting, and wherein the automatically modifying the setting comprises automatically modifying the audio setting based on the alert type.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the alert type is based on an indication of the triggered alert received from another device.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically transmitting device information to a wireless beacon device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
automatically disabling, based on the external command, a noise-canceling feature of a headphone associated with the device; and
automatically enabling, based on the external command, the noise-canceling feature of the headphone associated with the device.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the automatically modifying the setting includes reducing the audio setting to different noise levels for different alert types.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the device information includes a device specific frequency at which the device will respond to external commands, and wherein the automatically modifying the setting is based on the communication being communicated over the network at the device specific frequency.

11. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by the processor cause the system to:
transmit device information of a device over a network, the device information comprising a location of the device;
receive a communication from a service provider over the network, the communication comprising an external command to modify a setting of the device based on an alert triggered at an alert region that identifies a physical location; and
automatically modify, based on the external command, the setting of the device from an original setting level to a modified setting level while the location of the device is within the alert region, the setting of the device being incrementally returned to the original setting level as a distance between the location of the device and the alert region is increased.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the device includes an audio device, wherein the device information includes audio device information, and wherein the setting includes an audio setting of the device.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the device information includes one or more of:
a device manufacturer,
a device model,
a device type, or
a device specific frequency for the device.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the external command includes pausing a playback of an audio source playing audio via the device.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the external command includes an alert type, wherein the setting of the device includes an audio setting of the device, and wherein the audio setting of the device is automatically modified based on the alert type, wherein the alert type is based on an indication of the triggered alert received from another device.

16. The system of claim 11 , the computer-executable instructions when executed further causing the system to:
automatically disable, based on the external command, a noise-canceling feature of a headphone associated with the device.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a processor cause a computer system to:
transmit device information of a device over a network, the device information comprising a location of the device;
receive a communication from a service provider over the network, the communication comprising an external command to modify a setting of the device based on an alert triggered at an alert region that identifies a physical location; and
automatically modify, based on the external command, the setting of the device from an original setting level to a modified setting level while the location of the device is within the alert region, the setting of the device being incrementally returned to the original setting level as a distance between the location of the device and the alert region is increased.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the device includes an audio device, wherein the device information includes audio device information, and wherein the setting includes an audio setting of the device.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the device information includes one or more of:
a device manufacturer,
a device model,
a device type, or
a device specific frequency for the device.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17 , the computer-executable instructions when executed further causing the computer system to:
automatically transmit device information to a wireless beacon 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