Mechanism for facilitating dynamic adjustment of audio input/output (i/o) setting devices at conferencing computing devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016189726-A1
Application number	US-201313977693-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 15, 2013
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A mechanism is described for facilitating dynamic adjustment of audio input/output setting devices at conferencing computing devices according to one embodiment. A method of embodiments, as described herein, includes maintaining awareness of proximity between a plurality of computing devices participating in a conference, detecting audio disturbance relating to the plurality of computing devices, and calculating adjustments to settings of one or more audio input/output (I/O) devices coupled to one or more of the plurality of computing devices to eliminate the audio disturbance. The adjustments may be dynamically applied to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices.

First claim

1 . An apparatus to manage audio disturbances in a conference, comprising:
proximity awareness logic to maintain awareness of proximity between a plurality of computing devices participating in a conference; audio detection logic to detect audio disturbance relating to the plurality of computing devices; and adjustment logic to calculate adjustments to settings of one or more audio input/output (I/O) devices coupled to one or more of the plurality of computing devices to eliminate the audio disturbance, wherein the adjustments are dynamically applied to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising device locator to determine a location of each of the plurality of computing devices, wherein locations of the plurality of computing devices are used to determine the proximity.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the audio detection logic comprises a sound detector to detect a sound, wherein the sound comprises a normal sound or an audio disturbance, wherein the normal sounds comprises a human voice and wherein the audio disturbance comprises a feedback or an echo.

4 . The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the audio detection logic further comprises a feedback detector to detect the feedback, and an echo detector to detect the echo.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein adjustment logic is further to automatically anticipate the feedback or the echo based on the detected audio disturbance, wherein automatic anticipation further comprises predicting a decibel level of the feedback or the echo.

6 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the dynamic application of the adjustments to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices is performed via user interfaces provided by software applications at the plurality of computing devices, and wherein the adjustments are recommended to the plurality of computing devices by execution logic and via the user interfaces.

7 . The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein a software application comprises one or more of a conferencing software application, a conferencing website, and a social networking website, wherein the plurality of computing devices are coupled to each other over a network, wherein the network comprises one or more of a cloud-based network, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN), an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein a computing device of the plurality of device comprises one or more of a desktop computer, a server computer, a set-top box, and a mobile computer comprising one or more of a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, an e-reader, and a laptop computer.

9 . A method for managing audio disturbances in conferencing, comprising:
maintaining awareness of proximity between a plurality of computing devices participating in a conference; detecting audio disturbance relating to the plurality of computing devices; and calculating adjustments to settings of one or more audio input/output (I/O) devices coupled to one or more of the plurality of computing devices to eliminate the audio disturbance, wherein the adjustments are dynamically applied to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining a location of each of the plurality of computing devices, wherein locations of the plurality of computing devices are used to determine the proximity.

11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising detecting a sound, wherein the sound comprises a normal sound or an audio disturbance, wherein the normal sounds comprises a human voice and wherein the audio disturbance comprises a feedback or an echo.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising detecting the feedback, and detecting the echo.

13 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising automatically anticipating the feedback or the echo based on the detected audio disturbance, wherein automatic anticipation further comprises predicting a decibel level of the feedback or the echo.

14 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the dynamic application of the adjustments to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices is performed via user interfaces provided by software applications at the plurality of computing devices, and wherein the adjustments are recommended to the plurality of computing devices by execution logic and via the user interfaces.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein a software application comprises one or more of a conferencing software application, a conferencing website, and a social networking website, wherein the plurality of computing devices are coupled to each other over a network, wherein the network comprises one or more of a cloud-based network, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN), an intranet, an extranet, or the Internet.

16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein a computing device of the plurality of device comprises one or more of a desktop computer, a server computer, a set-top box, and a mobile computer comprising one or more of a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, an e-reader, and a laptop computer.

17 . A system to manage audio disturbances in a conference, comprising:
a computing device having a memory to store instructions, and a processing device to execute the instructions, the computing device further having a mechanism to: maintain awareness of proximity between a plurality of computing devices participating in a conference; detect audio disturbance relating to the plurality of computing devices; and calculate adjustments to settings of one or more audio input/output (I/O) devices coupled to one or more of the plurality of computing devices to eliminate the audio disturbance, wherein the adjustments are dynamically applied to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices.

18 . The system of claim 17 , further comprising determining a location of each of the plurality of computing devices, wherein locations of the plurality of computing devices are used to determine the proximity.

19 . The system of claim 17 , further comprising detecting a sound, wherein the sound comprises a normal sound or an audio disturbance, wherein the normal sounds comprises a human voice and wherein the audio disturbance comprises a feedback or an echo.

20 . The system of claim 19 , further comprising detecting or automatically anticipating the feedback or the echo based on the detected audio disturbance, wherein automatic anticipation further comprises predicting a decibel level of the feedback or the echo, wherein the dynamic application of the adjustments to the settings of the one or more audio I/O devices is performed via user interfaces provided by software applications at the plurality of computing devices, and wherein the adjustments are recommended to the plurality of computing devices by execution logic and via the user interfaces.

21 . The system of claim 20 , wherein a software application comprises one or more of a conferencing software application, a conferencing website, and a social networking website, wherein the plurality of computing devices are coupled to each other over a network, wherein the network comprises one or more of a cloud-based network, a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), a Personal Area Network (PAN), an intranet, an e

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Raniwala Sundeep
• Baran Stanley Jacob
• Smith Michael P
• Fletcher Vincent A
• Pickering Cynthia Kay
• Horn Nathan

Classifications

• G10L21/0208 Primary

  Noise filtering · CPC title

• G06F3/165

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

• G10L2021/02082

  the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech · CPC title

• H04R3/002

  Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits · CPC title

• H04M9/082

  using echo cancellers (echo cancellers per se H04B3/23) · CPC title