Audio Quality Notification via Sensor Feedback
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Solution Overview
Problem
The quality of audio input in information handling devices like smartphones and tablets is often diminished due to factors such as physical blockage of the microphone or sub-optimal device orientation, leading to communication difficulties and errors, with conventional solutions failing to identify the cause and provide effective feedback to users.
Innovation Solution
The method involves using a processor to detect factors impacting audio input quality, such as blockages or orientation issues, and notifying the user through haptic feedback, visual cues, or textual instructions to adjust the device position for improved audio reception, utilizing sensors like proximity and orientation sensors to establish baseline audio quality and provide real-time feedback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the device is held in various positions for convenience, then ease of operation is improved, but audio input quality deteriorates due to sub-optimal microphone orientation
Solution Approach 1:
The system continuously monitors audio input quality through the microphone and provides real-time feedback to the user via visual (display icons/messages) and haptic (vibration patterns) notifications when quality deteriorates. This feedback loop enables users to adjust their device holding position to maintain optimal audio quality while preserving operational convenience.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces mechanical/orientational constraints with sensor-based detection and software-based feedback. Instead of requiring users to manually maintain precise device orientation, the system uses microphones, proximity sensors, and orientation sensors to detect sub-optimal positions and guides users through intelligent feedback, substituting physical constraint mechanisms with intelligent detection and communication systems.
2Manufacturing precision
If the microphone is placed in a fixed position on the device, then manufacturing precision is improved, but audio input quality deteriorates when the user's finger blocks it
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary detection of potential blockage conditions using proximity sensors and audio quality analysis before the blockage significantly degrades communication. When blockage is detected, the system proactively notifies the user to adjust their grip, preventing audio quality deterioration rather than reacting after the fact.
Solution Approach 2:
Real-time feedback through visual and haptic notifications alerts users when their finger or hand is blocking the microphone. This immediate feedback enables users to adjust their holding position to maintain optimal audio input quality while preserving the simplicity of fixed microphone placement in device manufacturing.
3Device complexity
If no feedback is provided to users about audio quality issues, then device complexity is reduced, but loss of information increases due to undetected communication errors
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements multi-channel feedback including visual notifications on the display, haptic feedback through vibration motors, and audible alerts through the speaker. These feedback mechanisms inform users of audio quality issues without requiring complex additional hardware, leveraging existing device components to minimize added complexity while preventing information loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes existing multi-functional device components for feedback delivery: the display screen serves both as the primary interface and as an audio quality notification medium, the vibration motor serves both as a haptic interface element and as an audio quality alert mechanism, and the speaker serves both as an audio output device and as a feedback channel. This multi-functionality approach minimizes additional hardware complexity while ensuring users receive timely notifications about communication quality.
Data Source
AI summary
One embodiment provides a method including: receiving, using a microphone of an electronic device, user audio input; detecting, using a processor, at least one factor that impacts quality of the audio input received; and notifying, using an output device of the electronic device, a user of an event associated with the at least one factor. Other aspects are described and claimed.