Today the U.S. Patent Office published a patent application of Apple's that relates to audio signals driven to extra-aural speakers, and more specifically to correcting audio signals driven to extra-aural speakers of an eyewear assembly based on an orientation of the eyewear assembly.

Correcting Audio Signals Based On An Orientation Of An Eyewear Assembly

Extra-aural speakers attached to headgear worn by a user can sometimes fall out of position. For example, when a wearer of the headgear experiences excessive movement and/or perspiration, the headgear can slip on the wearer's head. This can cause extra-aural speakers attached to the headgear to also move out of position, resulting in subsequent sounds projected from the extra-aural speakers being imbalanced.

For example, when the headgear falls out of position, one speaker may move further away from the user's ear, while another speaker moves closer to the user's ear, causing an undesirable change in sounds experienced by the wearer.

In some cases, even without the headgear slipping, a user may still experience imbalanced audio from the extra-aural speakers. For example, the user may have asymmetric anatomic features, e.g., one ear offset higher than the other ear, or an uneven head or nose, causing the extra-aural speakers to be out of alignment.

Implementations of this patent address problems such as these by configuring sensors coupled to an eyewear assembly to detect an orientation of the eyewear assembly relative to anatomic features of a wearer.

For example, the eyewear assembly could be smart glasses or goggles, e.g., eyeglasses with circuitry. An output from the sensors may be used to adjust audio signals driven to extra-aural speakers that are coupled to the eyewear assembly based on the orientation that is detected.

In some implementations, the eyewear assembly may include a frame configured to rest on a wearer's face, a plurality of arms or a band extending from the frame and configured to rest on ears of a wearer, a plurality of extra-aural speakers coupled to the frame or to the plurality of arms or band, and a plurality of sensors coupled to the frame or to the plurality of arms or band.

In some implementations, an eyewear assembly system may utilize sensors to track the locations of anatomic features of a user and to compensate for movement, tilt, and/or obstructions when worn by the user. The sensors could include, for example, ultrasonic sensors, optical sensors, cameras, laser range finder (e.g., a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) system), electro-mechanical sensors, capacitive touch sensors, and/or strain gauge sensors. The sensors may enable the system to detect anatomic feature of the user, such as eyes, pupils, ears, earlobes, ear canals, a nose, or a mouth.

In some implementations, the system can utilize machine learning to predict the anatomic features with confidence percentages. The system can utilize the sensors to determine distances and/or angles to centroids of the anatomic features.

If the system confirms that the anatomic features are balanced to within a threshold, the system need not apply a correction to audio signals (audio output) driven to the extra-aural speakers (e.g., the audio signals may be driven normally without additional processing). However, if the system determines that the anatomic features are imbalanced (e.g., differences between distances and/or angles exceeding the threshold), then the system can apply signal processing to correct one or more audio signals driven to one or more of the extra-aural speakers to achieve balancing.

In some implementations, applying the correction may include applying a level compensation, an equalization adjustment, and/or an HRTF correction. In some implementations, the system may utilize the sensors to detect objects causing obstructions to the extra-aural speakers. For example, the sensors may detect hair and/or clothing between the user's ears and the extra-aural speakers. The system can then determine corrections to audio signals driven to the extra-aural speakers based on the objects causing the obstructions (e.g., to compensate, in the audio signals, for the hair and/or clothing).

In some implementations, the system may utilize sensors to determine an amount of asymmetry, then correct for the amount of asymmetry in an audio output (e.g., audio signals). For example, a user with asymmetrical features may ear imbalanced audio.

To enable the user to receive the same experience as others, the system may use sensors to track the location of the user's anatomic features and compensate for tilt.

The sensors may also include, for example, ultrasonic, optical, camera, laser range finder, electro-mechanical, capacitive touch, and/or strain gauge sensors. The system may utilize the sensors to generate signals that may include, for example, feature detections (e.g., earlobes, eyes, hair, etc.), each with a confidence percentage, distances to centroids of the feature, and/or angles to centroids of the feature.

For full details, review Apple's patent application 20250071498. The lead invention is listed as being Ron Guglielmone, Audio Software Engineer.