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EP-3942841-B1 - ELECTRONIC DEVICE

EP3942841B1EP 3942841 B1EP3942841 B1EP 3942841B1EP-3942841-B1

Inventors

  • MAGANA, Giovanni Mata
  • SAVELLO, Alexander David
  • KUO, CHIA HUNG
  • NGUYEN, Thompson Quang-Tue
  • CHAN, DANNY
  • CHUA, ALBERT JOHN YU SAM

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20200313

Claims (5)

  1. An electronic device comprising: a cylindrical housing (610) having a top (102) and a bottom (104); a first mid-range loudspeaker (600) disposed within the cylindrical housing and oriented to emit sound towards the top of the cylindrical housing; a woofer loudspeaker (602) disposed within the cylindrical housing and oriented to emit sound towards the bottom of the cylindrical housing; a second mid-range loudspeaker (604) disposed within the cylindrical housing and oriented to emit sound radially outward from the cylindrical housing in a first direction; a third mid-range loudspeaker (608) disposed within the cylindrical housing and oriented to emit sound radially outward from the cylindrical housing in a second direction, the second direction being opposite to the first direction, a tweeter loudspeaker (606) disposed within the cylindrical housing and oriented to emit sound radially outward from the cylindrical housing in a third direction, the third direction being between the first direction and the second direction; and a microphone array disposed in the cylindrical housing proximate the top of the cylindrical housing, wherein: the electronic device includes a central longitudinal axis; the first mid-range loudspeaker (600) and the woofer loudspeaker (602) are axially aligned with the central longitudinal axis; and the centerlines of the second mid-range speaker, the third mid-range speaker and the tweeter loudspeaker are disposed on the same plane, which is perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis.
  2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the cylindrical housing comprises: a first back volume for the first mid-range loudspeaker (600); a second back volume for the second mid-range loudspeaker (604), the second back volume being separate from the first back volume; and a third back volume for the third mid-range loudspeaker (608), the third back volume being separate from the first back volume and the second back volume.
  3. The electronic device of claim 2, further comprising a fourth back volume for the woofer loudspeaker (602) and the tweeter loudspeaker (606), the fourth back volume being separate from the first back volume, the second back volume, and the third back volume.
  4. The electronic device of any of claims 1 to 3, wherein: the cylindrical housing comprises a first portion, a second portion, a loudspeaker port (632) disposed between the first portion and the second portion, and a column (218) coupling the first portion to the second portion; the first mid-range loudspeaker, the woofer loudspeaker, the second mid-range loudspeaker, and the tweeter loudspeaker are disposed in the first portion; and the loudspeaker port (632) provides an opening to emit sound from the woofer loudspeaker (602).
  5. The electronic device of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein: the cylindrical housing comprises a first portion, a second portion, and a column (218) extending between the first portion and the second portion; and the column (218) includes a channel through which one or more electrical connections are disposed, the one or more electrical connections connecting a first electrical component in the first portion with a second electrical component in the second portion.

Description

BACKGROUND Homes are becoming more connected with the proliferation of computing devices, such as desktop and laptop computers, tablets, entertainment systems, and portable communication devices. As these computing devices continue to evolve, many different ways have been introduced to allow users to interact with the computing devices, such as through touch, gestures, and speech. With speech interaction, the computing devices may be operated essentially "hands free." To implement speech interaction, the computing devices are commonly equipped with a microphone to receive voice input from a user and a loudspeaker to emit audible responses to the user. However, existing computing devices often sacrifice sound characteristics for a compact form factor. Reference is made to WO2016/028264. That document discloses a rotationally symmetric speaker array, comprising rings of transducers of different types. Other speaker arrays are disclosed in documents US9060224B1, US8175304B1, and CN207235023U. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The detailed description is set forth below with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference number in different figures indicates similar or identical items. The systems depicted in the accompanying figures are not to scale and components within the figures may be depicted not to scale with each other. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an example electronic device, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 2A is a front view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 3 is a top view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 4 is a bottom view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 5 is a side view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 6 is an exploded view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, showing example components of the example electronic device, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 7A is a first cross-sectional view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1 taken along line A-A in FIG. 3, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 7B is a second cross-sectional view of the example electronic device of FIG. 1 taken along line B-B in FIG. 4, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 8 illustrates an example shroud and an example top loudspeaker port for one or more loudspeakers of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 9 illustrates an example top cover of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 10 is a perspective view of an example light diffuser of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 11A is an enlarged detail view of a side of the example light diffuser of FIG. 10, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 11B is an enlarged detail view showing a bottom perspective view of the example light diffuser of FIG. 10, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 12 illustrates an example housing and one or more loudspeakers of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 13 illustrates the example housing and the one or more loudspeakers of FIG. 12, showing the one or more loudspeakers coupled to the housing, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 14 illustrates an example sleeve and an example grill of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 15A illustrates the example sleeve and the example grill of FIG. 14 coupled together, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 15B illustrates the example sleeve and the example grill of FIG. 14 disposed over the housing of FIG. 12, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an example bottom loudspeaker port of the example electronic device of FIG. 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 17A is a top view of the example bottom loudspeaker port of FIG. 16, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 17B is a bottom view of the example bottom loudspeaker port of FIG. 16, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 18A is a first side view of the example bottom loudspeaker port of FIG. 16, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 18B is a second side view of the example bottom loudspeaker port of FIG. 16, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.FIG. 19 is a partially exploded view of the example electronic device