CN102113349A - Method of identifying speakers in a home theater system - Google Patents

Abstract

For a speaker array including a center speaker equipped with left and right ultrasonic electroacoustic transducers and left and right speakers each equipped with ultrasonic electroacoustic transducers, it is possible to identify the left and right speakers. One method includes energizing a left transducer of a center speaker to transmit an acoustic pulse signal, utilizing the transducers of the left and right speakers to detect a check signal, the acoustic pulse signal transmitted through the left transducer and passed through the left and right speakers. The measurement time interval between the detection of the sound pulse signal of the transducer of the right loudspeaker is measured. The process then repeats with the right transducer.

Description

How to Identify Speakers in a Home Theater System

Background of the invention

The subject matter of the present application relates to a method of identifying speakers in a home theater system.

A typical home theater system includes a display unit, a DVD player or other signal source, an audio video control receiver, and multiple speakers. The so-called 7.1-channel system uses eight speakers, a center speaker, a subwoofer and six surround speakers (front right and left, fill right and left, and rear right and left). A home theater system includes a home theater decoder that creates eight digital audio signals assigned to each of the eight speakers from data read from disk by the DVD player. For the sake of this discussion, it is assumed that the home theater decoder is integrated into the DVD player, but it could be elsewhere in the system.

The home theater decoder combines the digital audio signals into 4 pairs, each pair running on the I2S serial bus. The I2S serial bus signal consists of a series of frames, each frame consisting of 32 left channel bits followed by 32 right channel bits. Two sets of 32 bits labeled left and right are conventional, but arbitrary, since there is no industry standard requiring that the left channel portion of a two-channel audio signal be encoded in the first set of bits of the I2S frame and the corresponding right The channel part is encoded in the second set of bits of the I2S frame. In a 7.1-channel home theater decoder with four I2S buses, I2S bus 0 carries the signals created for the right and left front speakers, bus 1 carries the signals for right fill and left fill, and bus 2 carries the right and left rear , while Bus 3 carries the center and subwoofer signals. However, there is no industry standard for mapping speaker positions to I2S bus channels. The DVD player transmits four I2S serial bus signals over a digital communication medium to the receiver, which separates the four two-channel signals to produce eight audio signals and converts the digital audio signals to analog form for driving them separately Eight speakers. The system may use wired speaker connections, in which case the receiver has at least eight pairs of speaker terminals from which wires go to the eight speakers respectively.

The subwoofer delivers the low frequency information, and the placement of the subwoofer and the timing of the audio signals used to drive the subwoofer are not critical to the satisfactory operation of a home theater system. However, optimal performance of a home theater system requires that the acoustic signals received from the other seven speakers at the listening position have the correct timing relationship, and so the receiver includes a A facility for obtaining correct timing relationships in .

The procedure for proper adjustment of acoustic signal delay is so challenging for many potential users of home theater systems that most receivers and multi-channel speaker systems purchased are returned to the store without being properly installed.

Summary of the invention

According to a first aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a method of identifying speakers in an array comprising a center speaker, a left speaker, and a right speaker, the method comprising providing the center speaker with left and right ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducers , each of the left and right speakers is provided with an ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducer, and either (a) one transducer of the center speaker is energized to emit an acoustic ping signal, utilizing the left and right speakers Transducers to detect the sound pulse signal, measure the time interval between the sound pulse signal emission by the one transducer and the sound pulse signal detection by the transducers of the left and right speakers, and the other transducer for the center speaker The transducer supplies energy to emit a sound pulse signal, detects the sound pulse signal with the transducers of the left and right speakers, and measures the sound pulse signal emission through the other transducer and through the transducers of the left and right speakers The time interval between the detection of the acoustic pulse signal, or (b) power the transducer of the left speaker to emit the acoustic pulse signal, use the transducer of the center speaker to detect the acoustic pulse signal, and measure the transduction through the left speaker The time interval between the emission of the sound pulse signal of the speaker and the detection of the sound pulse signal of the transducer of the center speaker, the energy is supplied to the transducer of the right speaker to emit the sound pulse signal, and the transducer of the center speaker is used to detect the sound pulse signal pulse signal, and measure the time interval between the sound pulse signal emission by the transducer of the right speaker and the detection of the sound pulse signal by the transducer of the center speaker, and use the measured value of the time interval to assign the The position of each relative to the center speaker.

According to a second aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a method of identifying speakers in an array comprising a center speaker, a plurality of A speakers, and a plurality of B speakers, where one of A and B is on the left and A and The other of B is on the right, where the A speaker includes the front A speaker closest to the center speaker among the A speakers, the center speaker includes the A and B ultrasonic electroacoustic transducers and each of the A speakers and each of the B speakers one comprising ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducers, wherein the A transducer of the center speaker is closer to at least one of the A speakers than the B transducer, and the B transducer of the center speaker is closer to one of the B speakers than the A transducer At least one, and the method includes energizing the A transducer of the center speaker to emit a pulse signal, utilizing the transducer in the A speaker to detect the pulse signal, and measuring the pulse signal emission through the A transducer and passing through the time interval between the detection of the acoustic pulse signal by the transducers of the A and B speakers, and the B transducer of the center speaker is powered to emit the acoustic pulse signal, and the acoustic pulse signal is detected by the transducer of the A speaker, and The time interval between the emission of the acoustic pulse signal by the B transducer and the detection of the acoustic pulse signal by the transducers of the A and B loudspeakers was measured.

According to a third aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a home theater system comprising a control unit, a central speaker, a first surround speaker, and a second surround speaker, the control unit including a control unit for transmitting and receiving wireless control signals and radio transceivers for wireless left and right audio signals, the central speaker is equipped with left and right ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducers and a center for controlling the left and right electro-acoustic transducers in response to wireless control signals received from the radio transceiver The speaker control means, the first surround speaker is equipped with an ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducer and the first speaker control means for controlling the electro-acoustic transducer of the first surround speaker in response to a wireless control signal received from the radio transceiver, the second The surround speakers are provided with ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducers and second speaker control means for controlling the electro-acoustic transducers of the second surround speakers in response to wireless control signals received from the radio transceiver, and wherein the control unit, center speaker control The device, the first speaker control device and the second speaker control device are programmed so that when one of the surround speakers is in a right surround position relative to the center speaker and the other surround speaker is in a left surround position relative to the center speaker, the control unit and the center The speaker control, the first speaker control, and the second speaker control cooperate to identify which of the first and second surround speakers is in the right surround position and which surround speaker is in the left surround position, and the control unit sets the wireless left and right audio Signals are routed to the surround speakers in the left and right surround positions respectively.

According to a fourth aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a home theater system comprising a control unit, a first speaker, and a second speaker, the control unit including means for transmitting and receiving wireless control signals and wireless left and right audio A radio transceiver for signals, the first loudspeaker is provided with an ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducer and a first speaker control means for controlling the electro-acoustic transducer of the first loudspeaker in response to wireless control signals received from the radio transceiver, the second The speaker is provided with an ultrasonic electroacoustic transducer and a second speaker control means for controlling the electroacoustic transducer of the second speaker in response to a wireless control signal received from the radio transceiver, and wherein the control unit, the first speaker control means and the second speaker control are programmed such that the control unit cooperates with the first speaker control and the second speaker control when one of the speakers is in a right position relative to the listening position and the other speaker is in a left position relative to the listening position to determine the distance between the first and second speakers, and the control unit transmits wireless left and right audio signals to the left and right speakers, respectively.

According to a fifth aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a loudspeaker adapted for use as a center loudspeaker in an array of loudspeakers, the array of loudspeakers also comprising a plurality of left loudspeakers and a plurality of right loudspeakers, wherein the loudspeakers include a Left and right ultrasonic electro-acoustic transducers of the ultrasonic sound pulse signal, wherein the left and right transducers are positioned such that when the speaker is used as a center speaker in an array that also includes a left front speaker and a right front speaker, the left transducer The right transducer is closer to the left front speaker than the right transducer and the right transducer is closer to the right front speaker than the left transducer.

According to a sixth aspect of the disclosed subject matter, there is provided a method of providing a listener in selectively variable positions an optimized speaker system comprising a center speaker, a plurality of left speakers, and a plurality of right speakers, wherein each speaker An ultrasonic electroacoustic transducer is included, the method comprising placing a portable position measuring device comprising the ultrasonic electroacoustic transducer at a selected location, and using the portable position measuring device to initiate the transducers of at least two speakers to emit ultrasonic sound A measurement procedure of a pulse signal, the transducer of the position measuring device detects an ultrasonic sound pulse signal, and the time interval between the detection of the sound pulse signal and the emission of the sound pulse signal through the transducer of the position measuring device is measured, Computation of the position of the position measuring device relative to the loudspeaker is allowed, whereby the relative signal delay to the loudspeaker can be adjusted to compensate for the position of the position measuring device.

Brief description of the drawings

For a better understanding of the invention, and to show how the same works, reference will be made by way of example to the accompanying drawings, in which:

1 is a schematic block diagram of a 7.1-channel home theater audio system embodying the subject matter disclosed in this application,

Figure 2 is a plan view of a room in which a home theater system may be installed,

Figure 3 is a more detailed block diagram illustrating portions of the decoder unit of the system shown in Figure 1,

4A and 4B (collectively referred to as FIG. 4 ) are each a horizontal cross-sectional view and a front view of one form of loudspeaker used in the system shown in FIG. 1 ,

Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram illustrating electronics components included in the loudspeaker shown in Figure 4,

6A and 6B (collectively referred to as FIG. 6 ) are each a horizontal cross-sectional view and a front view of a second form of speaker used in the home theater system shown in FIG. 1 , and

FIG. 7 is a schematic block diagram of electronics components included in the speaker shown in FIG. 6 .

detail

When used in this detailed description and the appended claims, the term "audio" applied to a signal means that the signal has a frequency within the acceptable standard range for audio frequencies, i.e. from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, whereas the term "audio" applied to a signal Ultrasonic" means that the signal has a frequency higher than 20kHz. As applied to electroacoustic transducers, the term "ultrasonic" as used herein means that the transducer is capable of emitting and receiving ultrasonic acoustic signals.

The 7.1 channel home theater system shown in Figure 1 includes a signal source 2 which may be, for example, a satellite receiver, a cable TV decoder or a DVD player, eight speakers 61-68 (central speaker 61, six surround speakers 62-67 and subwoofer 68) and display unit 8. As mentioned above, the home theater system also includes a home theater decoder 14 (FIG. 3) that receives audio data from a signal source and generates four I2S serial bus signals. A home theater system may be installed in, for example, a monitor unit, DVD player or audio video receiver (AVR), or it may be a stand-alone unit. We refer to the part where a home theater decoder is installed as a decoder unit.

The decoder unit has a main processor 12 which controls the functions performed by the decoder unit, eg in a home theater system this is a display unit or AVR. The main processor communicates with the home theater decoder 14 and the main module 4 .

The home theater system is installed in a room with front, rear, left and right walls, with the display unit 8 against the front wall and the speakers 61-68 positioned relative to the walls and listening position 10 as shown in FIG. Typically, the user will interact with the home theater system using a handheld remote control unit 11 that transmits user commands to an infrared receiver mounted in the decoder unit. An infrared receiver in the decoder unit communicates user commands to the main processor 12 and the main processor responds to commands transmitted by the remote control unit. The main processor 12 propagates certain user commands to the main module 4 .

3, the main module 4 also includes an antenna 24 for wireless transmission and signal reception, a radio transceiver 28 capable of transmitting and receiving on any selected one of several channels, receiving signals from the main processor and controlling A controller 32 for the operation of the radio transceiver, and a non-volatile memory 40 .

As described in detail below, the main module uses a radio transceiver 28 and antenna 24 for providing wireless transmission of audio signals from the home theater decoder 14 to the speakers. Therefore, it is not necessary to run individual speaker wires to the speakers.

The center speaker and six surround speakers are sometimes referred to herein as the main speakers. The six surround speakers are essentially identical to each other. The installer places six surround speakers (in the 7.1-channel system discussed below) at selected locations in the room. Because the six surround speakers are identical, they are interchangeable and the installer can place speakers regardless of whether a particular speaker is in a given location. In this specification, the term "position" applied to a loudspeaker refers to the general position of the loudspeaker relative to the listening position, such as right front, left rear, whereas the term "position" refers to the linear position in a coordinate system having at least two axes. The spatial position of the loudspeaker represented in the displaced (and possibly angular) unit.

We will discuss the six surround speakers by reference to the speaker 62 placed in front and to the right of the listening position 10 at the front right position. Referring to FIG. 4 , the speaker 62 includes a housing 70 and an audio driver 72 . The housing is substantially symmetrical about a vertical plane 73 . Typically, the loudspeaker will be oriented such that the plane 73 extends towards the listening position 10 . The driver 72 includes a diaphragm and a voice coil for replacing the diaphragm in response to the acoustic signal, thus causing the driver to emit the audio acoustic signal in a pattern that is generally symmetrical about a horizontal axis lying in the vertical plane 73 and considered to be the center of the loudspeaker axis. The loudspeaker also includes an electroacoustic ultrasonic transducer 74 distinct from the audio driver 72 . Transducer 74 is designed to transmit and receive acoustic signals at ultrasonic frequencies, eg, about 40 kHz, and has a relatively wide angular sensitivity. For example, a generally inexpensive transducer, despite being listed with an angular sensitivity of 90°, may actually be capable of transmitting and receiving over an angular range of 180° or more. The transducer is mounted in the housing such that the center line defining its angular range of sensitivity is parallel to the central axis of the loudspeaker, and perpendicular above.

Referring to FIG. 5, the loudspeaker 62 also includes an antenna 76 and an electronics package connected to a source of operating current. The electronics package includes a radio transceiver 78 and a switch 80 connected to the antenna for receiving signals transmitted by the main module and for transmitting signals to the main module. The switches propagate signals received from radio transceiver 78 to audio processor 82 or through message filter 85 to controller 84 . The electronics package also includes an ultrasonic transceiver 86 connected to the ultrasonic transducer.

The ultrasonic transceiver 86 responds to commands from the controller 84 by driving the ultrasonic transducer 74 to transmit a brief ultrasonic signal at a frequency of about 40 kHz for about 250 us (one sound pulse). The signal energy level may be very high (over 100dB), but because the signal is so transient, it contains very little energy. When operating as a receiver, the ultrasonic transceiver provides a signal to the controller 84 when the transducer detects ultrasonic energy above a threshold level.

Controller 84 includes a counter that continuously counts clock pulses. The counter can optionally be reset to zero in response to a signal provided by radio transceiver 78, and will store its count in response to a signal provided by ultrasonic transceiver 86.

Referring to Figures 6 and 7, the center speaker 61 is similar to the speaker 62 except that the center speaker 61 includes two electro-acoustic transducers 74L, 74R each positioned to the left and right of the center axis of the speaker. The lines defining the centers of the respective angular ranges of sensitivity are equidistant horizontally from the central axis of the loudspeaker. The transducers 74L, 74R are horizontally spaced apart by at least 10 cm, and preferably at least 15 cm.

The topology of the electronics package in the center speaker is similar to that shown in FIG. 5, except that there are two ultrasonic transceivers each connected to the two ultrasonic transducers 74L, 74R, and the controller 84 includes two counters (L , R), these two counters count clock pulses in a manner similar to the counter of speaker 62 and store their respective counts in response to signals provided by respective transceivers 86L and 86R.

Subwoofer 86 is similar to speaker 62 . The topology of the electronics components in the subwoofer is similar to that shown in Figure 5, except that the controller does not necessarily include the counters for the reasons mentioned below.

Each speaker has a unique access control address, similar in function to a MAC address assigned to a network adapter, but also of a hardware type. The three hardware types are center, surround and subwoofer. The access control address and hardware type are hardwired into the controller 84 at the time of manufacture. The center speaker also has a unique speaker ID which is hardwired into the controller and recorded on a disk attached to the center speaker. The horizontal spacing of the transducers 74L, 74R is also hardwired into the controller 84, for example to a supplementary field of hardware type. Other items of loudspeaker specific information may also be stored in the controller at the time of manufacture.

The loudspeaker is a slave module relative to the master module 4 . When the home theater system is first installed and connected to an operating current source, and until the decoder unit is first switched on, the main module contains no information about the speakers. When the home theater system is connected to an operating current source, and before the decoder unit is turned on, the main module operates in a low power state where its radio transceiver 28 periodically monitors each of its communication channels to determine the channel Whether it is unobstructed and convenient for communication. The main module maintains a list of clear channels and updates that list as necessary. Similarly, the speaker electronics run in a low power state where the audio processor and ultrasonic transceiver are off and at 500 ms intervals the controller 84 turns on the radio transceiver 78 and scans for all possible The signal is detected in the main module. If the speaker does not detect the main module organizing or running the network, the controller turns off the transceiver 78 .

The system remains in this low power state until the user turns on the home theater system, for example by pressing the power button on the remote control unit. In this case, the main processor 12 detects the power-up signal sent by the remote control unit and issues commands to the internal components of the decoder unit to start the power-up procedure. The main module 4 also receives this command from the main processor and randomly selects a clear communication channel and transmits a beacon for about one second. Loudspeakers that are in range (and scan all possible channels at 500ms intervals) are thus notified that the master module is organizing the network, and respond to the beacon by turning on their ultrasonic transceivers 86 . The speaker's audio processor 82 remains off.

During the initial phase of operation, the switch 80 directs the signal received from the transceiving letter 78 to the message filter 85 . Message filter 85 , when run, passes control messages including the access control address of the speaker to controller 84 and prevents other control messages from reaching controller 84 . However, at this point in operation, the message filter is not running and all control messages transmitted by the master module are propagated to the controller 84 .

After transmitting the beacon, the master module transmits a discovery command and then turns its radio transceiver to receive mode for a brief interval of eg 64ms. Each speaker randomly selects a delay time of less than 64 ms and transmits a response to the discovery command at the end of the selected delay time. The response contains the speaker's access control address and the speaker's hardware type. The main module stores in its non-volatile memory 40 a table containing the access control addresses and hardware types of the corresponding speakers. For speakers other than subwoofers, the table can also store one or more distance values, a left or right indicator, a front fill or rear indicator, and at least one set of coordinates specifying the location of the speaker. For the center speaker, the table stores values for the distance between the left and right transducers.

Because speakers choose delay times randomly, it is possible that two or more speakers will choose the same delay time. To prevent this possibility, the master module repeats the discovery process and if it detects a response from one or more slave units that did not respond to the first execution of the discovery process, the master module adds the access control address and hardware type of each additional speaker to to the tables stored in its memory.

After responding to the discovery command, the message filter 85 becomes operational so that only messages containing the correct access control address can be propagated to the controller 84 .

If there is a similar home theater system in the next room, it is possible that the discovery command transmitted by the main module elicits responses from two or more central speakers, in which case the speakers stored by the main module in response to the discovery command The table will contain items for two or more center speakers. If this is the case, the main module must be excluded from the network it is organizing for each center loudspeaker that is not in the same room as the main module. To identify center speakers that are not in the main module room, controller 32 causes the transceiver to transmit a reduced power probe signal to each of the center speakers listed in the table. Each center speaker that receives the probe signal transmits a response message. If the master module still receives multiple response messages, it reduces its transmission power again and sends out another probe signal. The master module continues in this manner until it receives responses from only one center speaker, and the master module recognizes the center speaker as a member of its network and deletes entries from its table for the other center speakers.

In case this procedure cannot resolve the ambiguity in the identification of the center speaker that should be included in the network organized by the main module, the user can use the user interface of the decoder unit to select the center speaker by reference to the speaker ID.

Surround speakers to receive discovery commands may include speakers instead of six speakers 62-67. Likewise, the discovery command may be received by one or more subwoofers outside the room containing the center speaker. The master module sends command messages to the center speaker and all surround speakers and subwoofers in its table. The center speaker responds to the message by emitting a pulse signal from each of its ultrasonic transceivers, while the surround speakers and subwoofer respond by activating the ultrasonic transceivers to receive the pulse signal. The main module then sends out a request message, and the surround speakers and subwoofer respond by reporting whether they detect at least one of the burst signals.

Because the burst signal emitted by the center speaker 61 contains very little energy, it cannot be detected by surround speakers or subwoofers outside the room containing the center speaker, and therefore only the loudspeakers reporting the detection of at least one burst signal can be detected. are speakers in the same room as the main module. The main module updates its table by deleting any entries for speakers that do not respond to the peg signal.

It will be appreciated that a check may be required before removing speakers from the table, for example to ensure that a speaker temporarily evading the center speaker by a person walking around the room is detected. Such examination is not necessary for an understanding of the subject matter disclosed in this application and requires no further description.

In this way, the master module is able to determine the access control addresses of all eight speakers in its network and exclude from the network any speakers outside the room in which the master module is located, associate a hardware type with each speaker, and Know the distance between the left and right ultrasonic transducers of the center speaker. The main module must then determine the position of each of the surround speakers (front left or right, fill or rear). For proper operation of the home theater system, it is sufficient for the main module to determine that the subwoofer is in the same room as the center speaker. Determining the location of the subwoofer is not necessary.

There are several ways to locate surround speakers.

According to one approach, the main module executes an algorithm based on certain assumptions about the layout of the home theater system. According to these assumptions, the center axes of the left and right fill speakers are perpendicular to the center axis of the center speaker, and the listening position is midway between the center axis of the center speaker and the center axes of the left and right fill speakers. Referring to Figure 2, the listening area is divided into four quadrants with respect to a polar coordinate system centered on the default listening position and having a 0° vector aligned with the center axis of the center speaker. The left front quadrant is from 0° to 90°, the left rear quadrant is from 90° to 180°, the right rear quadrant is from 180° to 270°, and the right front quadrant is from 270° to 0°.

For the sake of discussion, it is convenient to specify the (X, Y) coordinate system, where the default listening position is at the origin (0, 0), the right speaker is at the positive X position, the left speaker is at the negative X position, and the front speaker is at the positive Y position The position as well as the rear speaker is in the negative Y position. See Figure 2.

The main module selects one of the surround speakers and transmits a command message, the selected surround speaker responds to the command message by emitting a pulse signal, and the center speaker responds to the command message by resetting its counter to zero. Each transducer of the center speaker detects the acoustic pulse signal and the controller 84 stores the counts obtained by the two counters. The main module interrogates the center speaker and the center speaker reports the stored count value. The main module repeats this operation for each of the other surround speakers in turn, and thus obtains a data set relating to the access control address of the selected speaker (which pinged) and the two count values reported by the center speaker. As before, the angle of sensitivity of the transducers typically exceeds 180°, and thus the transducer of the central speaker 61 and the transducers of speakers 62 and 67 are mutually audible in the layout shown in FIG. 2 . If, in an alternative layout, the center speaker 61 is significantly closer to the listening position along the Y axis than the front speakers, an alternative triangulation technique can be used to determine the position of the front speakers, for example using transduction of the rear speakers device.

The main module is able to calculate the respective distances of the center speaker's left and right transducers from each of the surround speakers. Since the distance between the transducers of the center speaker is known, it is then routine for the main module to calculate the position of each surround speaker in the (X,Y) coordinate system.

Using the speaker's calculated (X,Y) positions, the main module assigns each speaker to a speaker position (front left, rear right, etc.) by identifying the quadrant the speaker is in. It should be understood that this may lead to some ambiguity. For example, speakers 62 and 63 are both located in the right front quadrant. This ambiguity can later be resolved, for example, by using triangulation to measure the Y positions of speakers 62, 63 and 64, and deducing that speaker 63, which is between speakers 62 and 64, must be the right fill speaker. It should also be understood that the error associated with the calculation of the Y position of the front speakers is larger than that of the rear speakers, and that it may therefore be desirable to use the acoustic pulse signal sent by the transducer of the rear speaker to Recalculates the position of the front speakers.

In this way, the main module associates each speaker's access control address with the speaker location. The master module then sends a message that associates the speaker's access control address with the I2S bus channel assigned to that speaker location, as discussed in more detail below.

When the main module associates each speaker with the speaker position and calculates the distance of each speaker from the center speaker, the main module can do triangulation in the (X,Y) coordinate system, i.e. by using the transducer of the right fill speaker The emitted acoustic pulse signals are used to measure the distance between the right fill speaker and the left front and left rear speakers to calculate the position of each speaker. By iteratively calculating speaker positions, the main module is able to calculate surround speaker positions with considerable precision and accuracy.

Current 7.1 channel home theater decoders generate seven main speaker signals based on the main speaker positions in a polar coordinate system (r, θ) with the listening position at the origin. By default, the right and left fill speakers are at 90° and 270° respectively and the center speaker is at 0°. The front and rear speakers also have default angular positions. The main module converts the position of the surround speakers in the (X, Y) coordinate system to the polar coordinate system (r, θ). The main module supplies the (r, θ) values of the main speakers to the home theater decoder 14 through the main processor 12 .

A home theater decoder uses the r-value and the calculated (or default) angular position in processing the audio data received from the source to produce seven surround signals such that the six surround and center signals received at the default listening position in the correct phase relationship.

Home theater system setup is almost complete now. Referring again to FIG. 3 , the host processor propagates certain user commands to the home theater decoder 14 which receives digital audio data from the signal source 2 . The home theater decoder 14 creates eight audio signals for the main speakers from digital audio data and (r, θ) information each assigned to the eight speaker positions and combines the eight signals into four pairs as described above and outputs four I2S serial data streams, each delivering digital audio signals to two speakers. Although the I2S bus frame provides 32 bits for each channel, in actual implementation, 24 bits of the 32 bits are used for each channel and the remaining 8 bits are empty. Four serial data streams are received by the main module 4 .

The main module includes a deserializer 18 that splits each of the I2S signals into its two parts, and a matrix 20 that multiplexes each of the eight digital audio signals generated Assigned into respective time slots (slots 0-7).

Different home theater decoders use different mappings between speaker positions and channels of the I2S bus. The matrix 20 maps the I2S bus channels to time slots to provide a fixed relationship between speaker positions and time slots. For example, the matrix may be configured to assign the front right speaker to slot 0 regardless of the speaker position to I2S bus channel mapping. Therefore, the message linking the access control address of each speaker to the I2S channel informs the speaker whose access control address is related to the right front speaker position that it should capture the digital audio signal transmitted in time slot 0.

At this point, the home theater system is operable. Controller 32 enables radio transceiver 28 to transmit digital audio signals provided by matrix 20 . The matrix 20 supplies a signal block comprising data bits of eight consecutive time slots to a radio transceiver 28 which transmits eight digital audio signals. A digital audio signal is organized as a series of blocks, each containing data for eight time slots, representing one sample value for each speaker. Radio transceiver 28 uses the digital audio signal to encode a carrier at the frequency of the selected communication channel and transmits the modulated signal through antenna 24 . In each speaker, a controller 84 sets a switch 80 to direct the signal received from the radio transceiver to an audio processor 82 . The controller also provides the appropriate slot ID to the audio processor. Audio processor 82 receives blocks of audio data from radio transceiver 78, captures the audio data for the appropriate time slot, converts the digital audio signal to analog form, amplifies the audio signal and supplies the audio signal to the audio driver.

Each time slot of the signal transmitted by the matrix contains 24 bits. Noise events can impair reception of several consecutive bits. In order to reduce the impairment of such noise events on the signal provided to any one loudspeaker, the output signal blocks delivered by the matrix can be scrambled so that, for example, no two consecutive bits of the transmitted signal belong to the same time slot and the high-order bits are the same as the low-order bits. bit interleaved.

Since it is possible that the actual listening position is in fact different from the default listening position, it is desirable that the main module be able to calculate the (r, θ) positions of the center and surround speakers relative to the actual listening position. In order to support this auto-find (AF) function, the remote control unit 11 includes an ultrasonic transducer and an ultrasonic transceiver.

To perform the listening position AF calculations, the user sits at the listening position, presses the AF button on the remote control unit, and the remote control unit's infrared emitter issues IR commands that are received by the main processor. The main processor 12 decodes the IR message and determines that it is an AF command, and responds to the main module 4 by sending an AF command. The main module transmits AF commands over the radio. The AF command contains the access control address of the center speaker and instructs the center speaker to transmit a pulse signal through each of its transducers. The center speaker and left and right fill speakers reset their counters and the left and right fill speakers listen to the sound pulses delivered by the center speaker's left and right transducers. When the left or right fill speaker receives a sound pulse from the center speaker, it saves the count value and restarts its counter. The remote control unit also listens for sound pulses from the central speaker. When receiving a sound pulse, the remote control unit waits for a set period, let's say 100ms, which is sufficient to attenuate all echoes of the sound pulse from the center speaker so that they can no longer be detected, and then the remote control unit transmits sound pulse. The center speaker and the left and right fill speakers receive the second sound pulse. The left and right fill speakers add (because of the restart) the count value to the count value saved for the sound pulse delivered by the center speaker. The center speaker holds two left and right count values. The main module then reads all these values and uses them (along with the remote control unit's set waiting period) to triangulate the remote control unit's position in the (X,Y) coordinate system. Knowing the (X, Y) position relative to the listening position of the center speaker, the main module can transform the (X, Y) position of the main speakers into an (r, θ) position relative to the listening position.

In the case of the above-described embodiment, when the home theater decoder creates a digital audio signal, delaying the audio signal taking into account the distance of the main speakers from the listening position is performed by the home theater decoder. In other embodiments, the audio signal may be delayed elsewhere, such as in the main module or in separate speakers. Amplification of the audio signal in response to an adjustment of the volume control on the remote control unit is accomplished by the home theater decoder, but in other embodiments the amplification can be performed by individual speakers in the digital or analog domain by supplying appropriate control messages to the speakers. in the implementation.

A less complex home theater decoder can create seven main speaker signals based only on the distance of each main speaker from the default listening position (and based on the speaker's default angular position), which is between the two fill speakers and directly in front of the center speaker. Since the positions of the main speakers are known in the (X, Y) coordinate system, it is straightforward to calculate the distance of each main speaker from the default listening position.

In the case of a home theater system comprising such a less complex home theater decoder, the main module supplies the distance values to the home theater decoder and the home theater decoder uses the distance values to calculate a suitable set of delay times. The home theater decoder delays the individual audio signals for the seven main speakers based on corresponding delay times.

It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described and that changes may be made therein without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims, as construed in accordance with the principles of current law, including enlarging the enforceability of the claims. The scope of the teaching is beyond its literal scope, equivalent or any other principles. For example, the subject matter disclosed in this application is described in terms of a home theater system having eight speakers, but those skilled in the art will appreciate that equivalent subject matter may be applied to systems having as few as two speakers and having more than System of eight speakers. In addition, although the method of identifying speakers in a system having a center speaker, a left speaker, and a right speaker has been described in terms of sound pulse signals emitted by the transducers of the surround speakers and detected by the transducer of the center speaker, for acoustic Pulse signals, emitted by the transducers of the center speaker and received by the transducers of the surround speakers are optionally possible.

In the case of the described embodiments of the disclosed subject matter, for example, the left transducer receives sound pulses from the surround speakers on the left side of the listening area, before the right transducer does so, while on the left side of the listening area The surround speaker receives sound pulses from the left transducer of the center speaker with a shorter delay than it receives sound pulses from the right transducer, in the sense that the system uses each of the two transducers of the center speaker to optimize Left and right to be able to distinguish between left and right of the listening area. However, there are other mechanisms by which the system can distinguish between left and right sides of the listening area. For example, the two transducers of the center speaker are oriented by virtue of their angle to the left and right of the preferred listening area so that one transducer preferentially transmits to the right of the center axis of the center speaker and from the center axis of the center speaker The right part of the transducer receives while the other transducer preferentially transmits to and receives from the left part of the central speaker's central axis.

Unless the context dictates otherwise, recitation of a number of instances of an element in a claim, if one or more than one instance is cited, requires at least the stated number of instances of the element, but is not intended to exclude from the scope of the claim that element than the stated number A struct or method with more instances. The word "comprising" or its derivatives, when used in the claims, is used in a non-exclusive sense and is not intended to exclude the presence of other elements or steps in the claimed structure or method.

Claims (7)

1. One kind in the array that comprises center loudspeaker, left speaker and right loud speaker identification loud speaker method, described method comprises:

   Left ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and right ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer are provided for described center loudspeaker,

   Give described left speaker and described right loud speaker each the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer all is provided, and

   Perhaps (a) be described center loudspeaker a transducer energize with the emission ping, utilize the described transducer of described left speaker and described right loud speaker to detect described ping, measurement by a described transducer to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described left speaker and described right loud speaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping, for another transducer energize of described center loudspeaker with the emission ping, utilize the described transducer of described left speaker and described right loud speaker to detect described ping, measurement by described another transducer to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described left speaker and described right loud speaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping

   Perhaps (b) be described left speaker described transducer energize with the emission ping, utilize the described transducer of described center loudspeaker to detect described ping, measurement by the described transducer of described left speaker to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described center loudspeaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping, for the described transducer energize of described right loud speaker with the emission ping, utilize the described transducer of described center loudspeaker to detect described ping, measurement by the described transducer of described right loud speaker to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described center loudspeaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping, and

   Service time, measured value was at interval assigned each position with respect to described center loudspeaker in described left speaker and the described right loud speaker.
2. 2. the method for claim 1, wherein said left transducer and described right transducer are respectively on the left side of the center line of described center loudspeaker and the right flatly at interval, and described service time measured value at interval step comprise, perhaps calculate by a described transducer to the emission of described ping with by the described transducer of described left speaker and described right loud speaker difference the measured time interval between the detection of described ping at (a) under the selectable situation, and calculate by described another transducer the described transducer of the emission of described ping and described left speaker and described right loud speaker difference to the measured time interval between the detection of described ping, perhaps (b) under the selectable situation calculate by the described transducer of described left speaker to the emission of described ping and by the described left transducer of described center loudspeaker and described right transducer separately to the difference in the measured time interval between the detection of described ping, and calculate by the described transducer of described right loud speaker to the emission of described ping and by the described left transducer of described center loudspeaker and described right transducer separately to the difference in the measured time interval between the detection of described ping.
3. One kind in the array that comprises center loudspeaker, a plurality of A loud speaker and a plurality of B loud speakers identification loud speaker method, wherein the side in A loud speaker and the B loud speaker on a left side and the opposing party in A loud speaker and the B loud speaker on the right side,

   Wherein said A loud speaker is included in the described A loud speaker the most preceding A loud speaker of close described center loudspeaker, described center loudspeaker comprises A ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and B ultrasonic sound wave electroacoustic transducer, and in each and the described B loud speaker in the described A loud speaker each comprises the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer

   The described A transducer of wherein said center loudspeaker is than in the more close described A loud speaker of described B transducer at least one, and the described B transducer of described center loudspeaker is than in the more close described B loud speaker of described A transducer at least one,

   And described method is included as the described A transducer energize of described center loudspeaker with the emission ping, the described transducer that utilizes described A loud speaker is to detect described ping, and measure by described A transducer to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described A loud speaker and B loud speaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping, and be described center loudspeaker described B transducer energize with the emission ping, utilize the described transducer of described A loud speaker to detect described ping, and measure by described B transducer to the emission of described ping and by the described transducer of described A loud speaker and B loud speaker to the time interval between the detection of described ping.
4. 4. household audio and video system comprises:

   Control unit, it comprises the radio transceiver that is used to transmit and receive wireless control signal and wireless left audio signal and right audio signal,

   Center loudspeaker, it is equipped with left ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer, right ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and center loudspeaker control device, this center loudspeaker control device is used to control the wireless control signal that described left electroacoustic transducer and described right electroacoustic transducer receive from described radio transceiver with response

   First circulating loudspeaker, it is equipped with the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and first loudspeaker controller, this first loudspeaker controller is used to control the wireless control signal that the described electroacoustic transducer of described first circulating loudspeaker receives from described radio transceiver with response, and

   Second circulating loudspeaker, it is equipped with the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and second loudspeaker controller, this second loudspeaker controller is used to control the described electroacoustic transducer of described second circulating loudspeaker with the wireless control signal of response from described radio transceiver reception

   And wherein said control unit, described center loudspeaker control device, described first loudspeaker controller and described second loudspeaker controller are programmed, make when one in described circulating loudspeaker the right in described relatively center loudspeaker around the position another circulating loudspeaker on the left side of described relatively center loudspeaker during around the position, described control unit and described center loudspeaker control device, described first loudspeaker controller and the described second loudspeaker controller cooperation with discern in described first circulating loudspeaker and described second circulating loudspeaker which on described the right around position and which circulating loudspeaker on the described left side around the position, and described control unit with described wireless left audio signal and right audio signal be sent to respectively a described left side around position and the described right side around the described circulating loudspeaker in the position.
5. 5. household audio and video system comprises:

   Control unit, it comprises the radio transceiver that is used to transmit and receive wireless control signal and wireless left audio signal and right audio signal,

   First loud speaker, it is equipped with the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and first loudspeaker controller, and this first loudspeaker controller is used to control the wireless control signal that the described electroacoustic transducer of described first loud speaker receives from described radio transceiver with response, and

   Second loud speaker, it is equipped with the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and second loudspeaker controller, and this second loudspeaker controller is used to control the wireless control signal that the described electroacoustic transducer of described second loud speaker receives from described radio transceiver with response,

   And wherein said control unit, described first loudspeaker controller and described second loudspeaker controller are programmed, make when one in the described loud speaker in the location right of listening to the position relatively and another loud speaker described relatively when listening to the left position of position, described control unit and described first loudspeaker controller and the described second loudspeaker controller cooperation are with the distance between definite described first loud speaker and described second loud speaker, and described control unit is sent to left speaker and right loud speaker respectively with described wireless left audio signal and right audio signal.
6. 6. loud speaker, be suitable in the array of loud speaker, using as center loudspeaker, the array of described loud speaker also comprises a plurality of left speakers and a plurality of right loud speaker, wherein said loud speaker comprises left ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer and the right ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer that is used to launch the ultrasonic acoustic pulse signal, wherein said left transducer and described right transducer are placed with when described loud speaker is used as center loudspeaker in the array that also comprises left loudspeaker and right front speaker, described left transducer than the more close described left loudspeaker of described right transducer and described right transducer than the more close described right front speaker of described left transducer.
7. 7. method of optimizing speaker system for hearer in optionally variable position, described speaker system comprises center loudspeaker, a plurality of left speakers and a plurality of right loud speaker, wherein each loud speaker comprises the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer, described method is included in the select location place and places the portable position measurement apparatus that comprises the ultrasonic wave electroacoustic transducer, and utilize described portable position measurement apparatus to begin a process of measurement, by this process of measurement, the described transducers transmit ultrasonic waves ping of at least two loud speakers, the described transducer of described position measurement apparatus detects the emission of described ultrasonic acoustic pulse signal and described ping and measured to the time interval between the detection of described ping by the described transducer of described position measurement apparatus, to allow to calculate the position of the described relatively loud speaker of described measuring position equipment, the relative signal that can adjust in view of the above for described loud speaker postpones to compensate with the position at described position measurement apparatus.

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