Spatial Audio Stream Multiplexing for Multi-Wearable Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems face challenges in efficiently multi-streaming audio to multiple wearable audio devices due to the use of a single output device, leading to higher latency and reduced transmission efficiency, and wearable audio devices struggle to parse combined audio streams effectively.
Innovation Solution
An audio stream manager generates a combined audio stream that includes multiple rendered audio streams, each associated with a device identifier, allowing simultaneous transmission to multiple wearable audio devices using a single output device, and an audio stream handler processes this stream to output the correct audio based on device identifiers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple separate audio streams are transmitted to multiple wearable audio devices using individual communication links, then each device receives dedicated audio rendering, but the system requires multiple output devices and transmitters, increasing system complexity and reducing transmission efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate audio streams into a single multiplexed audio stream that contains time-multiplexed audio data for multiple wearable devices. This single stream is transmitted through one output device and one communication link, eliminating the need for multiple separate transmitters and reducing system complexity while maintaining dedicated audio rendering for each device through time-division multiplexing
2Reliability
If multiple separate audio streams are transmitted using individual communication links, then each wearable device receives optimized audio, but transmission efficiency decreases due to redundant communication overhead
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple audio streams into a single time-multiplexed stream, transmitting all audio data through one communication link. This eliminates redundant communication protocols and overhead associated with multiple separate links, significantly improving transmission efficiency while maintaining optimized audio delivery to each device through precise time-division multiplexing
3Device complexity
If a single output device transmits combined audio streams to multiple wearable devices, then system complexity is reduced, but latency increases due to stream combining and parsing operations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-rendering audio streams for multiple devices and pre-synchronizing their timing before multiplexing. The audio stream manager pre-processes the time-multiplexed stream with synchronized timing information, and wearable devices pre-buffer received data, thereby minimizing processing delays and reducing overall latency despite the combined stream approach
4Productivity
If wearable audio devices receive combined audio streams from a single transmitter, then transmission efficiency improves, but the devices face difficulty in parsing and identifying the correct audio stream
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an audio stream manager as an intermediary component that creates the time-multiplexed combined audio stream with embedded synchronization markers and device identifiers. These markers act as intermediaries that facilitate easy parsing and identification of correct audio segments by wearable devices, reducing their parsing complexity while maintaining transmission efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
A device includes one or more processors configured to obtain an audio stream and to obtain first spatial state data that indicates an estimated first spatial state of a first wearable audio device. The one or more processors are configured to determine a first device identifier that corresponds to the first wearable audio device. The one or more processors are configured, based on the audio stream, to generate a first rendered audio stream associated with the estimated first spatial state and to generate a second rendered audio stream. The one or more processors are configured to output, to the first and second wearable audio devices, the combined audio stream that includes the first rendered audio stream, the first device identifier, and the second rendered audio stream, where the first rendered audio stream is associated with the first device identifier.