Speaker driver arrangement for implementing cross-talk cancellation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12317028-B2
Application number	US-202217819897-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2022
Priority date	Sep 13, 2021
Publication date	May 27, 2025
Grant date	May 27, 2025

Abstract

A multimedia device having a housing that includes a display screen, two tweeters, two mid-range drivers, and two woofers, which are integrated into the housing. Both woofers are disposed at a first distance from a center vertical axis of the housing in opposite horizontal directions, both tweeters are disposed at a second distance from the center vertical axis in the opposite horizontal directions, and both mid-range drivers are disposed at a third distance from the center vertical axis in opposite horizontal directions. In addition, both the first and second distances are greater than the third distance.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A multimedia device having a single housing, comprising the following elements integrated into the single housing:
a display screen;
a first tweeter;
a second tweeter;
a first mid-range driver;
a second mid-range driver;
a first woofer; and
a second woofer,
wherein the first woofer is disposed at a first distance from a center vertical axis in a first horizontal direction and the second woofer is disposed at the first distance from the center vertical axis in a second horizontal direction that is opposite to the first horizontal direction,
wherein the first tweeter is disposed at a second distance from the center vertical axis of the single housing in the first horizontal direction and the second tweeter is disposed at the second distance from the center vertical axis in the second horizontal direction,
wherein the first mid-range driver is disposed at a third distance from the center vertical axis in the first horizontal direction and the second mid-range driver is disposed at the third distance from the center vertical axis in the second horizontal direction,
wherein the first and second distances are greater than the third distance,
wherein the first tweeter, the first woofer, and the first mid-range driver are a first group of speaker drivers and the second tweeter, the second woofer, and the second mid-range driver are a second group of speaker drivers, wherein, for each group of speaker drivers, a distance between a respective tweeter to a respective woofer is smaller than another distance between a respective mid-range driver to the respective tweeter or the respective woofer.

2. The multimedia device of claim 1 ,
wherein the first mid-range driver and the second mid-range driver are aligned along a first horizontal axis, and
wherein the first tweeter and the second tweeter and the first woofer and the second woofer are aligned along a second horizontal axis.

3. The multimedia device of claim 2 , wherein the first horizontal axis is above the display screen and the second horizontal axis is below the display screen.

4. The multimedia device of claim 1 , wherein the first tweeter, the second tweeter, the first mid-range driver, the second mid-range driver, the first woofer, and the second woofer are all aligned along a horizontal axis.

5. The multimedia device of claim 1 further comprising a controller that is configured to:
receive an audio program comprising at least one audio signal; and
process the audio program to produce a plurality of low-frequency driver signals for the first woofer and the second woofer, a plurality of mid-frequency driver signals for the first mid-range driver and the second mid-range driver, and a plurality of high-frequency driver signals for the first tweeter and the second tweeter.

6. The multimedia device of claim 5 , wherein the plurality of low-frequency driver signals include spectral content across a low-frequency range that includes at least one frequency less than 1 kHz, the plurality of mid-frequency driver signals include spectral content across a mid-frequency range that includes at least one frequency between 1 kHz-6 kHz, and the plurality of high-frequency driver signals include spectral content across a high-frequency range that includes at least one frequency greater than 6 kHz.

7. The multimedia device of claim 1 , wherein the distance between the respective tweeter and the respective woofer of each group is a smallest amount of separation necessary for integrating both elements within the single housing.

8. The multimedia device of claim 1 , wherein each of the elements are separate electronic devices, and portions of the respective tweeter and the respective woofer of each group are touching each other.

9. An electronic device, comprising:
a display screen;
first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth speaker drivers;
a housing in which the display screen and first-sixth speaker drivers are integrated;
a processor; and
memory having instructions which when executed by the processor causes the electronic device to:
receive an audio program;
produce, from the audio program, a first plurality of driver signals that include audio content of the audio program across a low-frequency range, a second plurality of driver signals that include audio content of the audio program across a mid-frequency range, and a third plurality of driver signals that include audio content of the audio program across a high-frequency range, wherein audio content of the first, second and third pluralities of driver signals are across non-overlapping frequency ranges with respect to each other; and
drive the first and second speaker drivers with the first plurality of driver signals, the third and fourth speaker drivers with the second plurality of driver signals, and the fifth and sixth speaker drivers with the third plurality of driver signals,

wherein the first and second speaker drivers are spaced apart in a horizontal direction by a first distance, the third and fourth speaker drivers are spaced apart in the horizontal direction by a second distance, and the fifth and sixth speaker drivers are spaced apart in the horizontal direction by a third distance,
wherein the first and third distances are greater than the second distance,
wherein a fourth distance between the first speaker driver to fifth speaker drivers is less than a fifth distance between the third speaker driver to the first speaker driver or the fifth speaker driver.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the first and second speaker drivers are separated in the horizontal direction by a center vertical axis of the housing such that both the first and second speaker drivers are equidistant from the center vertical axis, the third and fourth speaker drivers are separated in the horizontal direction by the center vertical axis of the housing such that both the third and fourth speaker drivers are equidistant from the center vertical axis, and the fifth and sixth speaker drivers are separated in the horizontal direction by the center vertical axis of the housing such that both the fifth and sixth speaker drivers are equidistant from the center vertical axis.

11. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the first, second, fifth, and sixth speaker drivers are disposed along a first horizontal axis, and the third and fourth speaker drivers are disposed along a second horizontal axis.

12. The electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the first horizontal axis is above the display screen and the second horizontal axis is below the display screen.

13. The electronic device of claim 9 ,
wherein the first, second, third, and fourth speaker drivers are front-firing drivers,
wherein the fifth and sixth speaker drivers are both either front-firing drivers or side-firing drivers.

14. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to produce comprises instructions to:
producing one or more crosstalk cancellation (XTC) audio signals by applying one or more XTC filters upon a portion of the audio program; and
applying one or more audio crossover filters upon the one or more XTC audio signals.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the portion of the audio program comprises one or more audio signals with spatial audio data, wherein the instructions to produce comprises instructions to apply the one or more audio crossover filters upon stereo audio signals of the audio program.

16. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the first, third, and fifth speaker drivers are driven to output sound of the audio program to be heard throug

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Boothe Daniel K
• Johnson Martin E
• Nawfal Ismael H
• Valentine Timothy J
• Nevill Stuart M
• Feng Chanjuan

Classifications

• H04R3/12

  for distributing signals to two or more loudspeakers {(specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407)} · CPC title

• H04R1/028

  associated with devices performing functions other than acoustics, e.g. electric candles · CPC title

• H04R2499/15

  Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops · CPC title

• H04S7/302

  Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation (H04S7/301 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04S2420/01

  Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD] · CPC title