Wireless Headphone Touch Controls for Faster Gesture Interactions
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques for interacting with wireless headphones are cumbersome and inefficient, often requiring multiple key presses and wasting user time and device energy, particularly in battery-operated devices.
Innovation Solution
Implementing orientation-dependent, context-dependent, and motion-dependent techniques using touch-sensitive surfaces and sensors to facilitate faster and more efficient interactions with electronic audio devices, such as wireless headphones, by performing actions based on detected gestures, orientations, and device contexts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional multiple key press techniques are used to control wireless headphones, then device functionality is achieved, but user time is wasted and device energy is consumed inefficiently
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the control functionality from the paired device (phone/player) and relocates it to the headphones themselves through touch-sensitive surfaces. This allows users to control playback, volume, and other functions directly on the headphones without returning to the source device, eliminating multiple key presses and saving time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces touch-sensitive surfaces as an intermediary interface between the user and the audio playback system. These surfaces detect gestures and translate them into control commands, providing a more efficient mediation mechanism than traditional multiple-key press sequences.
2Productivity
If traditional multiple key press techniques are used to control wireless headphones, then device functionality is achieved, but device energy is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
By extracting control functionality to the headphones' touch-sensitive surfaces, the system eliminates the need for repeated wireless communications and processing cycles between the paired device and headphones that occur during multiple key press interactions, thereby reducing overall energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The headphones perform self-control through their integrated touch-sensitive surfaces, processing gestures locally without requiring continuous communication with the paired device. This self-service capability reduces unnecessary energy expenditure on wireless transmissions and remote processing.
3Ease of operation
If simple touch surfaces are used on headphones, then ease of operation is improved, but control precision may be insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The touch-sensitive surfaces are designed to detect multiple types of gestures (taps, swipes, holds, rotational movements) and map them to various control functions. This multi-functional capability allows simple physical interactions to precisely control multiple aspects of audio playback, maintaining both ease of operation and control precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent incorporates orientation detection as an additional dimension for gesture recognition. By detecting the orientation of touches and swipes relative to the headphone's coordinate system, the system achieves more precise control without adding physical complexity to the interface.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure generally relates to user interfaces for electronic audio devices. In some examples, the operating mode of the device changes to various states of sound transparency.