US-20260126320-A1 - Acoustic Communication

US20260126320A1US 20260126320 A1US20260126320 A1US 20260126320A1US-20260126320-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electronic device including an acoustic transducer for transmitting an acoustic signal at a predetermined frequency toward a second electronic device. The device including an inertia measuring unit configured to measure change in direction and movement of the device relative to the second device. The device also has a calculation unit configured to calculate the Doppler shift resulting from the movement and adjusting the transmitted and/or received frequency according to the calculated Doppler shift.

Inventors

Espen Klovning

Assignees

ELLIPTIC LABORATORIES ASA

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20231116
Priority Date: 20221118

Claims (9)

1 - 8 . (canceled)
9 . An electronic device comprising an acoustic transducer for transmitting an acoustic signal at a predetermined frequency toward a second electronic device for providing a communication between the devices, the electronic device including sensors configured to receive an acoustic signal from the second electronic device and to detect the direction toward the second electronic device, and an inertia measuring unit configured to measure acceleration relative to the direction toward the second electronic device resulting in a change in the relative movement, the electronic device having a calculation unit configured to calculate the Doppler shift resulting from the amount of movement in the direction relative to the second electronic device and adjusting at least one of the transmitted and received frequency according to the calculated Doppler shift.
10 . The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein the electronic device comprises an acoustic receiver, the calculating unit being configured to adjust the sampling rate of the receiver according to the calculated Doppler shift.
11 . The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein the acoustic signal is in the ultrasound range.
12 . The electronic device according to claim 11 , wherein calculation unit is configured to avoid the acoustic range when adjusting the signal.
13 . The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein the electronic device is configured to measure the movement relative to a stationary reference system.
14 . The electronic device according to claim 9 , wherein the inertia measuring unit comprises an accelerometer.
15 . A communication system including at least two electronic devices according to claim 9 , the electronic devices being configured to measure the relative movement between the electronic devices and to adjust transmitter and receiver to the common acoustic frequency according to the measured relative movement.
16 . The communication system according to claim 15 , wherein the devices include communication means being configured to choose a frequency suitable for both devices.

Description

The present invention is related to electronic devices at least partially communicating using sound, specifically ultrasound signals. It is known to track an object for touchless interaction with a computing device with an ultrasonic transmitter and a number of receivers using time-of-flight measurements. Indeed various proposals for such tracking have been made—e.g. in US patent application U.S. 2006/0161871 by Apple, which relates particularly to input to a handheld device by a user's finger. However, these proposals have shortcomings. In particular, they can be sensitive to interference from echoes caused by other objects and from active sources of noise. Interference is particularly problematic in acoustic tracking systems due to the wider dispersion characteristics and speed of sound waves. In U.S. Pat. No. 10,331,166 this the situation is discussed where two or more devices, especially mobile devices, attempt to use acoustic input systems within audible range of each other. They are likely to interfere with each other, especially when they are configured to transmit similar or identical acoustic signals to each other (e.g. in the same frequency range). In U.S. Pat. No. 10,331,166 a solution has been proposed where two devices can interact by one of the devices receiving and acting on an acoustic signal from the other. One simplistic example might be for the second device to alert a user to the presence of another user (of the first device) in the vicinity, e.g. any user or any that can be identified, or any with an identity in the second device's phonebook. In the Office Action the Examiner is of the opinion that the present application lack inventive step over JP2015185950A (D1) and US2019/0204408 A1 (D2). In JP2015185950A and US2019/0204408 calculation of the Doppler shift is used for adjusting for relative movement in a communication based on acoustic signals. In JP2015185950A a global positioning system, reflected electromagnetic waves, or similar, is used for measuring position and speed and then is used to adapt the frequencies of the acoustic signals. In US2019/0204408 the Doppler shift is measured based on signals between two devices, thus requiring an already established relationship between the two devices. The solution in the prior art is, however, still vulnerably to disturbances and loss of contact between the devices, especially on mobile devices moving relative to each other. It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve the accessibility and stability of the acoustic communication between at least two devices. This is achieved as presented in the accompanying claims. The present invention is primarily described in relation to the use of an inertia measurement in each mobile phone. As inertial or acceleration measurements differ from the direct measurement of relative speed as you adjust the signal when you measure a change, and the magnitude of the change, and do not monitor the relative speed or position. Thus, the present invention only compensates for changes in relative movement when a change in movement or position is registered in one of the devices. Thus the present invention is aimed at the problem where the devices are moving relative to each other. When using ultrasound signals the movement may be sufficiently large to alter the frequency received at the devices due to the Doppler shift. While a narrow frequency range may be advantageous in order to filter out ambient noise the Doppler effect is more evident with a narrow frequency range. Also, in a case where more than one frequency is used transmitting the acoustic signal, e.g. as described in NO20221245 [P6567], the signals will usually have to be separated by 150-200 Hz so as to avoid overlapping frequencies when the devices move relative to each other. Compensating for the relative movements will reduce this problem and provide a more efficient use of the frequency range, for example allowing more parallel signals at different frequencies. According to the present invention the transmitted acoustic signals that are intentionally varied with device movement in a specific direction to remove or significantly reduce the doppler effect observed by receiving devices. The present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, illustrating the invention by way of examples. FIG. 1 illustrates the concept of the present invention with two electronic devices communicating as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 10,331,166 FIG. 2a, b illustrates the relative movement vectors between the two devices. As illustrated in FIG. 1 electronic devices 100, 101 equipped with acoustic components to send and receive acoustic signals 102 which may be signals with a single sine or a plurality of frequencies to encode and transfer data between the electronic devices. The acoustic signal 102 could also be used as an identifiable acoustic signal with a fixed set of frequencies that the receiving devices rely on