Method and system for volume control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12481476-B2
Application number	US-202217848319-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2022
Priority date	Jul 12, 2021
Publication date	Nov 25, 2025
Grant date	Nov 25, 2025

Abstract

A method performed by a first electronic device, the method includes, while engaged in a call with a second electronic device, initiating a joint media playback session in which the first and second electronic devices independently stream media content for synchronous playback; driving a speaker with a mix of a downlink signal of the call and an audio signal of the media content at an overall volume level; receiving a user-adjustment at a single volume control for the first electronic device to reduce the overall volume level; in response to the user adjustment, applying a first gain adjustment to the downlink signal and a second gain adjustment to the audio signal; and driving the speaker with a mix of the downlink signal and the audio signal at the reduced volume level.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method performed by a first electronic device, the method comprising:
while engaged in a call with a second electronic device, initiating a joint media playback session in which the first electronic device and the second electronic device independently stream media content for synchronous playback; driving a speaker with a mix of a downlink signal of the call and an audio signal of the media content at an overall volume level; receiving a user-adjustment at a single volume control for the first electronic device to reduce the overall volume level; and in response to the user-adjustment,
determining a time period that extends from before the user-adjustment is received to at least when the user-adjustment is received in which a microphone signal of a microphone has included speech;
responsive to the time period being greater than a threshold, determining a first gain and a second gain based on the user-adjustment;
responsive to the time period being less than the threshold, determining a third gain and a fourth gain, wherein the first gain is less than the third gain and the fourth gain is less than the second gain;
applying 1) the first gain or the third gain to the downlink signal and 2) the second gain or the fourth gain to the audio signal based on whether the time period is greater than or less than the threshold, respectively; and
driving the speaker with a mix of the downlink signal and the audio signal at the reduced volume level.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the single volume control is a master volume control of the first electronic device that is configured to provide bi-directional control for either incrementally increasing or decreasing the overall volume level.

3 . The method of claim 1 ,
wherein prior to the applying of the first gain and second gain, the audio signal has a greater signal level than a signal level of the downlink signal, wherein the second gain is greater than the first gain such that 1) a signal level of a gain-adjusted audio signal and a signal level of a gain-adjusted downlink signal are lower than the signal level of the downlink signal and 2) the signal level of the gain-adjusted downlink signal is greater than the signal level of the gain-adjusted audio signal.

4 . The method of claim 1 further comprising determining each gain based at least partially on the streamed media content of the joint media playback session.

5 . The method of claim 1 further comprising:
responsive to the time period being greater than the threshold, determining a first volume curve for the downlink signal and a second volume curve for the audio signal, wherein the first gain and the second gain are determined using the first volume curve and the second volume curve, respectively; and
responsive to the time period being less than the threshold, determining a third volume curve for the downlink signal and a fourth volume curve for the audio signal, wherein the third gain and the fourth gain are determined using the third volume curve and the fourth volume curve, respectively.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein at least one volume curve is different than at least one other volume curve.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first electronic device is executing a plurality of software applications that comprises at least a telephony application that is performing the call and a media application that is performing the joint media playback session, wherein each gain is determined based at least partially on the telephony application or the media application.

8 . A first electronic device, comprising:
a sensor; a speaker; a processor; and non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions which when executed by the processor causes the first electronic device to:
while engaged in a call with a second electronic device, initiate a joint media playback session in which the first and second electronic devices independently stream media content for synchronous playback,
drive the speaker with a mix of a downlink signal of the call and an audio signal of the media content at an overall volume level,
receive sensor data from the sensor of the first electronic device,
determine, based on the sensor data, that the downlink signal comprises a first priority and that the audio signal of the media content comprises a second priority that is different than the first priority,
determine a first rate of change for a downlink volume level of the downlink signal based on the first priority and a second rate of change for a media content volume level of the audio signal based on the first and second priorities,
receive at least two user-adjustments at a single volume control for the first electronic device to reduce the overall volume level at least twice, and
in response to each user-adjustment, decrease the downlink volume level of the downlink signal at the first rate of change and the media content volume level of the audio signal at the second rate of change.

9 . The first electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the single volume control is a master volume control of the first electronic device that is configured to provide bi-directional control for either incrementally increasing or decreasing the overall volume level.

10 . The first electronic device of claim 8 ,
wherein prior to the decreasing of a first user-adjustment, the media content level is higher than the downlink volume level, wherein the first rate of change is lower than the second rate of change such that 1) a decreased downlink volume level and a decreased media content volume level are lower than the downlink volume level of the downlink signal and 2) the decreased downlink volume level is higher than the decreased media content volume level.

11 . The first electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium has further instructions to, in response to each user-adjustment, determine a first gain adjustment based on the first rate of change and a second gain adjustment based on the second rate of change, wherein the decrease comprises instructions to apply the first and second gain adjustments to the downlink audio signal and audio signal, respectively.

12 . The first electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the sensor comprises a microphone and the sensor data comprises a microphone signal, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable medium has further instructions to determine whether the microphone signal produced by the microphone of the first electronic device includes speech of a user of the first electronic device based on output from a voice activity detector (VAD),
wherein the decrease is performed in response to determining that the microphone signal includes the speech.

13 . The first electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the first and second priorities are determined based on the microphone including speech for a period of time before the user-adjustment is received at the volume control.

14 . The first electronic device of claim 8 , wherein the sensor comprises a camera and the sensor data comprises one or more images, wherein the instructions to determine that the downlink signal comprises the first priority and that the audio signal comprises the second priority is based on determining that a user of the first electronic device is performing a gesture based on the one or more images.

15 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions which when executed by at least one processor of a first electronic device causes the first electronic device to:
while the first electronic device is engaged in

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Peard Ross B
• Shah Pratik

Classifications

• H04R2430/01

  Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems · CPC title

• H04R2499/11

  Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's · CPC title

• H04R2420/07

  Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones · CPC title

• H04R2420/03

  Connection circuits to selectively connect loudspeakers or headphones to amplifiers · CPC title

• H04R3/12

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