Mobile Audio Output Control Using Virtual Sound Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of mobile terminals face inconvenience when multiple sounds are output simultaneously, requiring them to search and adjust sound settings to isolate the desired sound, leading to hindrances in listening to intended audio.
Innovation Solution
A mobile terminal with a sound control unit that forms virtual output paths for applications requesting sound data, determines the desired sound data, and mutes unnecessary paths to prioritize and output the selected sound, allowing users to manage and control overlapping audio streams through a user-friendly interface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple applications output sound simultaneously, then users can access multiple functions, but sound quality and listening experience deteriorate due to overlapping audio streams
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the audio output by creating separate virtual output paths for different applications. Each application's sound stream is routed through its own virtual path, allowing independent control and muting of specific application sounds without affecting others, thus resolving the audio overlap interference while maintaining multi-application functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a sound control unit as an intermediary between the audio output unit and applications. This mediator manages multiple virtual output paths, controls which application sounds are muted or active, and provides a user interface for selecting desired audio streams, thereby enabling versatile multi-application support while preventing harmful audio overlap.
2Measurement precision
If users manually search and adjust sound settings for each application, then sound control precision improves, but operation complexity and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The sound control unit automatically manages virtual output paths and application sound routing without requiring users to manually search through application settings. The system self-services by providing a centralized interface where users can select desired audio streams, and the system automatically mutes unwanted sounds, maintaining precision while greatly simplifying operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal sound control mechanism that handles multiple applications through a single interface. The sound control unit provides multi-functional capabilities by managing various application audio streams uniformly, allowing users to control all application sounds from one place rather than accessing each application's individual settings, thus improving ease of operation while maintaining control precision.
3Ease of operation
If a centralized sound control system is implemented, then ease of operation improves, but device complexity increases due to additional control units and virtual path management
Solution Approach 1:
The sound control unit serves as an intermediary layer between the audio output unit and applications, providing centralized sound management without significantly increasing overall system complexity. This mediator handles virtual path creation and muting operations, simplifying user interaction while distributing the complexity management across modular components rather than creating a monolithic complex system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a virtual dimension for sound path management by creating virtual output paths in software rather than requiring additional physical hardware components. This dimensional shift from physical to virtual space allows centralized sound control and multi-application management without proportionally increasing physical device complexity, as the virtual paths are managed through software abstraction.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a mobile terminal and method for controlling a sound (audio) to be output, the mobile terminal including at least one application including sound (audio) data and requesting an output sound, a sound (audio) control unit to determine an output sound when a plurality of requests for the output sound is input by a plurality of applications being executed, and a sound (audio) output unit to output the determined sound by forming a virtual output path for each of the sound data to be output, and blocking other virtual output paths aside from a virtual output path mapped to the sound determined to be output by the sound control unit.