Today the US Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a patent that relates to a spatial audio rendering processor for AirPods Max that calibrates audio beamforming array processing algorithms in response to a change in a physical shape of the wearable audio device. Whether Apple's patent is describing a future aspect of their H1 Chip is unknown at this time.

Beamforming is an audio signal processing technique that uses transducer arrays (microphones or loudspeakers) to control the direction of sound transmission or reception.

How Beamforming Works:

• Microphone Arrays: Capture sound from multiple sources, allowing a system to isolate and focus on a specific audio signal while attenuating other noises.
• Loudspeaker Arrays: Create sound beam patterns to direct sound to different locations.

Apple’s Wearable Device Innovation

Apple's granted patent focuses on optimizing beamforming in wearable devices:

• Transfer Function Measurements: Conducted in anechoic chambers where the device is morphed into different shapes to analyze sound behavior.
• Acoustic, Optical & Mechanical Methods: Used to determine the physical arrangement of the beamforming array.
• Acoustic method: Measures transmission paths between audio elements.

• Optical method: Associates array arrangements with image data.
• Mechanical sensing method: Uses physical sensing data to determine configurations.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below illustrates one example of a block diagram of an audio system for self-calibrating a microphone array.

Apple's patent FIG. 10 below illustrates a calibration of a beamforming process in order to direct a sound pattern towards a sound source in response to a change in a physical arrangement of a microphone array.