AUDIO-BASED METHOD FOR DETERMINING DEVICE DISTANCE

• Main Authors: Abildgren, Rasmus, Bonde, Casper Stork
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 08.12.2022
• Subjects: ACOUSTICS; ANALOGOUS ARRANGEMENTS USING OTHER WAVES; DEAF-AID SETS; DETERMINING DISTANCE OR VELOCITY BY USE OF RADIO WAVES; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; LOCATING OR PRESENCE-DETECTING BY USE OF THE REFLECTION ORRERADIATION OF RADIO WAVES; LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKEACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; MEASURING; MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; PHYSICS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS; RADIO DIRECTION-FINDING; RADIO NAVIGATION; SPEECH ANALYSIS OR SYNTHESIS; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING; SPEECH RECOGNITION; TESTING; WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORKS

Systems and methods directed to determining the distance between two devices are disclosed. The systems and methods utilize a Bluetooth connection between a first device, such as a smartphone with an acoustic transducer, and a second device, such as an earbud with an embedded microphone, and the audio capturing capabilities of the second device to determine a distance between the two devices. The first device plays audio via the acoustic transducer. This audio is captured by a microphone of the second device. The second device transmits data including the captured audio back to the first device via the Bluetooth connection. The first device calculates a time delay from the playing of the audio to the reception of the data over the Bluetooth connection. The first device then calculates the distance based on the time delay, the latency constant, and the speed of sound.