Abstract:
Systems and methods are provided for allowing a user with a Smartphone to pair the Smartphone with another Bluetooth device to receive audio that is played to the user over headphones or through speakers on the Smartphone. Further, an audio processing module is used to modify the audio presented to the user, extract closed captioning text to be displayed to the user, find information relevant to the audio to be displayed to the user, and pause audio content sent to the Smartphone when phone calls or other Smartphone interruptions occur.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     Technical Field 
       [0001]    The present disclosure generally relates to receiving and presenting audio over a Bluetooth connection to a user, and more particularly to receiving audio at a Smartphone that is connected by Bluetooth™ to a device transmitting audio and receiving the video on a different display device using a different connection, other than Bluetooth. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY 
       [0002]    In one embodiment, a set top box receives audiovisual programming content, for example multiple channels of content coming from a satellite or cable provider. The set top box decodes those multiple channels of content and enables a user to select a particular channel to be displayed on a display device, for example a television set. Set top boxes that contain Bluetooth transceivers also enable a user to listen to audio portion of the displayed audiovisual content by pairing a Bluetooth listening device with the Bluetooth transceiver in the set top box. Examples of user listening devices include Bluetooth earpieces and Bluetooth headsets. Disclosed herein are systems and methods to enable a user to receive audio content by pairing a Bluetooth-enabled Smartphone device with a Bluetooth-enabled set-top box, or other device, so that the user can listen to audio using headphones connected to the Smartphone. 
         [0003]    In addition, an audio processing module on the Smartphone is able to provide additional functionality as audio content is sent to the listener, including but not limited to pausing the presented content if the user receives a phone call, to adjusting the sound for optimal user listening, or, to analyzing the audio content and to display information related to the audio content on the Smartphone display. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0004]      FIG. 1  shows a context diagram for providing audiovisual content to a receiving device as is known in the art. 
           [0005]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of one non-limiting embodiment of a system for linking a Smartphone to a receiving device. 
           [0006]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of one non-limiting embodiment of a process to detect and display closed captioned information on a Smartphone display. 
           [0007]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of one non-limiting embodiment of a process to synchronize audio on the Smartphone to the presented content on the display. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0008]      FIG. 1  is a diagram  1002  of a context diagram for delivering audiovisual content to a receiving device as is conventionally done in the prior art. Content, including audiovisual content, is created by content provider  10 . This content provider may include but is not limited to film studios, television studios, and independent content producers such as AMC, HBO, or Showtime. A content provider may also include individuals that capture personal or home videos and who want to distribute these videos to others over YouTube™ or some other distribution mechanism. A content provider may also focus on audio content, such as audiobooks or music. Information providers  12  create and distribute information that describes or supports audiovisual content and may include data such as programming data, timeslot data, pay-per-view and related data, or other information that supports content as it is distributed to the user. Communication system  14  is a network, which may be made up of any network capable of transmitting data, such as the Internet, X.25 networks, or a series of smaller or private connected networks that carry the content and information to program distributor  16 . The program distributor  16 , in some embodiments, will distribute the programs and data to the customer directly through communication system  14 . In other embodiments, the programs and data will be sent through uplink  18  which goes to satellite  20  and back to the downlink station  22  which may also include a head end (not shown). At this point, the content and data is sent to an individual receiving device  24 . In one embodiment, customers throughout neighborhood may subscribe to this content and receive it through receiving devices  24  in each of their respective homes. Examples of a receiving device  24  are a set-top box, a cable connection box, a computer or the like. Customers may have one or more receiving devices  24  that are attached to one or more display devices  26  within a business or end user customer premises  28 . 
         [0009]      FIG. 2  is a diagram  1004  of a non-limiting embodiment of a customer&#39;s premises  28  according to the disclosure herein. The receiving device  24  receives content from communication system  14 , in particular audiovisual content to be presented on display unit  26 . Receiving device  24 , which may take the form of a set top box, has a Bluetooth component  63  that allows the set-top box to pair with other Bluetooth devices so that the two devices can communicate over the Bluetooth protocol. The Bluetooth module  63  may be a single chip within receiving device  24 , or may be a Bluetooth transceiver external to the receiving device  24 . Display device  26 , in the current embodiment, includes display area  44  on which visual content, for example a movie played from a satellite channel, is displayed. Display device  26  may also include a second display area, picture in picture area  48 , where a different channel of visual content is displayed. In some embodiments, this second picture may appear as a tiled display next to display area  44 , rather than a smaller display area  48  overlapping larger display area  44 . In other embodiments, display area  48  may appear on a second display device (not shown) connected to the receiving device  24 . 
         [0010]    In one or more embodiments, a Bluetooth module  50  within display device  26  may be paired with other Bluetooth-enabled devices. Therefore, in one or more embodiments the audio that corresponds to audiovisual content presented on display area  44  or display area  48  may be transmitted either by the Bluetooth transmitter  63  in receiving device  24 , or the Bluetooth transmitter  50  in display device  26 . In some embodiments, separate Bluetooth connections may be established to transmit the separate audio associated with content presented in display area  44  and display area  48  to separate Bluetooth devices. 
         [0011]    To listen to the audio of the content presented by receiving device  24 , Smartphone  52  would be connected via Bluetooth module  62  to Bluetooth modules  50  or  63 , so that the audio from either device would be sent directly to the Smartphone  52 . Examples of Smartphones are the iPhone™ and Galaxy™ Smartphones, that includes the ability to run applications, support Bluetooth and have full mobile and cell phone capability. 
         [0012]    There are many advantages to sending audio to a Smartphone  52 . Wireless Bluetooth headphones are expensive. Not everyone has them, and those people that do, often find that those headphones do not hold a charge for long, and must be frequently recharged. In some instances, the battery life of Bluetooth headphones are less than the length of a feature movie. In contrast, Smartphones  52  typically have a long battery life, are typically sold with earbuds  56 , are typically kept alongside their users, and typically have Bluetooth capability  62 . Also, users typically carry earbuds  56  or other listening devices  58  to hear audio play on the smart phone  52  without disturbing people around the user. This way, most Smartphone users have the hardware to connect to and receive audio from Bluetooth devices without having to buy a special Bluetooth headset. 
         [0013]    Once Smartphone  52  is paired with the Bluetooth device to send the audio portion of the presented audiovisual content, users  54 ,  59  may listen to audio on Smartphone  52  in at least two different ways. In one embodiment, user  54  is connected to Smartphone  52  via earbuds  56  that are plugged directly into the Smartphone  52  audio jack. In a second embodiment, user  59  has paired Bluetooth earpiece  58  with Smartphone  52  to listen to audio, for example to participate in a phone conversation while driving. In this embodiment, user  59  may always keep Bluetooth earpiece  58  paired with Smartphone  52  to listen to audio, and pair Smartphone  52  with Bluetooth in other devices  50 ,  63  only when Smartphone  52  is to receive audio from those devices. In other words, if a user always wore their Bluetooth earpiece for their Smartphone  52 , and the user wanted to watch television with Bluetooth-enabled receiving device  24 , the user would not re-pair their Bluetooth earpiece  58  with Bluetooth component  63  in receiving device  24 , but instead would Bluetooth pair Smartphone  52  Bluetooth component  62  to receiving device  24 . This way, the user&#39;s Bluetooth earpiece device  58  does not have to be re-paired. In other embodiments, a user&#39;s Smartphone  52  would be paired in one of the manners above, but the user would listen to audio over the Smartphone  52  speakers. 
         [0014]    The description above has focused on a series of embodiments related to presentation of audiovisual content. However, Smart phone  52  may be used to play audio when paired to other devices, such as a car radio, satellite radio, or the like. 
         [0015]    In addition to receiving audio, the Bluetooth component  62  within Smart phone  52 , may also be used as a way to wake up nearby devices  26 ,  24  and  68  when the user  54 ,  59  walk within range of the devices. For example, the devices may be configured to go into a standby mode automatically if Smartphone  52  is not within a threshold proximity of the paired device for certain period of time. For example, suppose user  54  was listening to the audio of a program displayed on device  26  in the user&#39;s living room. If the user  54  gets up and leaves during the program for a 20 minute period, then display device  26  may go into standby mode until user  54  returns to the living room with Smartphone  52 , at which time the display device  26  will recognize that the Bluetooth module  62  of Smartphone  52  is within proximity and will restart. 
         [0016]    The Smartphone  52  itself contains significant computing power that is able to do more than just present audio data received from a Bluetooth connection  50  to a user  54 ,  59 . The Smartphone  52  may contain program modules that are able to gather, analyze, transform and present information. One example is an audio processing module  60  that monitors audio and other data signals received from devices  26 ,  24  and  68 , and provides added capability to users  54 ,  59  using the Smartphone  52  as a listening device. 
         [0017]    In one embodiment, if user  54  is listening to a television program presented on display area  44  and a telephone call from phone service  72  comes into Smartphone  52 , the audio processing module  60  may, for example, pause the audio sent to Smartphone  52  so that the user  54  can take the phone call. Once the phone call is complete, the audio will resume playing. In a related example, audio processing module  60  may send commands back to their paired display device  26 ,  24  and  68  to pause the entire audiovisual content presentation until the user&#39;s phone call is over. This gives the user  54 ,  59  the option of listening to audiovisual content as it is presented while maintaining the flexibility of receiving a phone call. It should be noted that in related embodiments, other functions or communications to the user may pause the presentation of audio content onto Smartphone  52 , for example text messages, alert notifications, email messages, and the like. Similarly, in other related embodiments, other commands may be sent to the presentation devices  24 ,  26  and  68  when the audio processing module  60  detects an activity that would conflict with the audio played on Smartphone  52 . Examples of these commands include begin to record the content, rewind the presented content, move the video presentation from the display device  26  to the Smartphone display  64 , or raise or lower the volume of the content, while the interrupting event is occurring. For example, if a user  54 ,  59  was listening to audio on smartphone  52  while watching display device  26  and a Skype™ call came in, the audio processing module  60  would immediately send a command to receiving device  24  to begin to record the video and audio being played, and the user would be available to take the Skype call. When audio processing module  60  determines the Skype call was over, it would send a command to receiving device  24  to begin to play the recorded content so that the user can continue to watch the movie at the point the Skype call came in. 
         [0018]    In other embodiments, the audio processing module  60  may monitor the received audio or data content and provide additional information to user  54 ,  59  depending upon the content received. For example, if the audio processing module  60  determines that an advertisement is being played, audio processing module  60  may alert the user with a notification of “you are listening to a commercial, would you also like to hear a related commercial?” Module  60  may also ask if the user would like to play a related YouTube video, watch some other related content, search for price comparisons of the advertised product or perform other search-related functions in the Internet  66  such as lookup in IMDB™, provide an coupon for the product a commercial is promoting, and the like. 
         [0019]    In another embodiment, if audio processing module  60  determines that the user  54 ,  59  is watching a movie, the audio processing module may search for and provide background information on the movie being watched such as the genre, director, actors, filming locations, and the like. 
         [0020]    In these two embodiments, the results of the additional information determined by audio processing module  60  may be displayed on Smartphone  52  display  64 . In this way, Smartphone  52  becomes a private second screen application that operates in conjunction with the display device  26 . In conjunction with audio processing module  60 , the second screen knows what the user  54 ,  59  is watching and provides the user with additional information. 
         [0021]    In another embodiment, the audio processing module  60  recognizes incoming audio and modifies the audio for a better experience for user  54 ,  59 . For example, the audio processing module  60  may perform an audio-leveling function, such as adjusting the volume so that it is always within a certain decibel range, so that the audio as listened to by user  54 ,  59  is never too soft nor too loud. 
         [0022]    In another example, audio processing module  60  may use the computing resources of Smartphone  52  to provide a translation of the incoming audio into another language, which is then presented to the user  54 ,  59 . In one embodiment, this may be done by analyzing the incoming audio signal, decoding it to determine the words spoken to actors, translating the words or phrases into the final language, and sending the audio to the user. Translating the audio signal into a series of words or phrases may be done on Smartphone  52 . The identification of different actors and the words or phrases spoken may be determined in a number of different ways. For example, the differing tone, pitch, and/or tenor of the voices may be used to identify which words are spoken by which actor. The translations are then made and the translated audio played to user  54 ,  59  such that the translated audio and video are substantially in sync. In a related example, closed captioned information may be read and converted into translated audio which is then presented to user  54 ,  59 . 
         [0023]    In another example, audio processing module  60  may use the significant computing and data processing resources of Smartphone  52  by performing an audio equalization function to better enable the user  54 ,  59  to hear sounds or understand words spoken in the audio. For example, people can hear some frequencies better than other frequencies, such as older people that have more difficulty hearing higher frequencies and may need the volume of these frequencies increased. Without equalization, the only way to make these higher frequencies louder is to turn up the volume of the entire audio spectrum, which could cause lower frequencies to become too loud for the user. Equalization breaks up the auditory spectrum into different frequency bands that correspond to, for example, high-range sounds including high-pitched sounds or wind sounds, mid-range sounds such as conversation-level voices, or low-pitched sounds such as base notes. Each of these ranges can then be adjusted for volume, and then recombined back into a single audio signal. This process allows a user  54 ,  59  to customize the spectrum profile of the audio they listen to that will give them the most enjoyment. This may be particularly helpful in a group of people that includes one person with hearing problems who needs sound equalization while listening to a movie using Smartphone  52  using Bluetooth earpiece  58 , while others in the group watch the same movie with no audio equalization. 
         [0024]    In addition, the audio processing module  60  may also receive closed captioning information, and present the decoded closed captioning text on the Smartphone display  64  for the user to read as a movie is playing. This closed captioned data may be embedded either in the audio stream, or in a data stream and sent to Smartphone  52  and decoded and presented by audio processing module  60 . 
         [0025]    The audio processing module  60  may also be used to adjust any delay between the audio and the video as it is presented on display device  26 . For example, if an actor&#39;s words are heard in a scene before the actor begins to speak. In this example, the audio processing module would delay presentation of the audio to the user  54 ,  59  so that the audio and video would appear in sync. 
         [0026]      FIG. 3  shows flow diagram  1006  of one non-limiting embodiment of a process to detect and display closed caption information on a Smartphone display. The process starts at step  72 . At step  74 , the Smartphone is paired with the display device using the Bluetooth protocol. At step  76 , once the two devices are paired audio data is received by the Smartphone, and the audio processing module  60  will perform digital signal processing on the audio signal at step  77 . At step  78 , the audio is played to the user. The audio is played to the user either through a wired or wireless connection between the Smartphone device and the user&#39;s headphones or earbuds  56 , or the audio is played through the speakers of the Smartphone. At step  80 , the process determines whether the audio data contains closed caption information. If it does, then at step  82  the closed captioned information is decoded, and at step  84  the closed caption text is displayed on the smartphone in synchronization with the presentation of the related video content. If at step  80  the audio data does not contain closed captioned information, then at step  86  audio processing module  60  will attempt to use speech recognition to determine words contained in dialogue, and at step  88  display those words on the Smartphone display as they are spoken. This continues until the viewed program is complete, at which point the process ends at step  90 . 
         [0027]      FIG. 4  shows flow diagram  1008  of one non-limiting embodiment of a process to synchronize audio and video information. The process starts at step  94 . At step  96 , the Smartphone is paired Bluetooth with the display device. Once the two devices are paired, audio data is received by the Smartphone in step  98 . At step  99 , the audio processing module  50  will perform digital signal processing on the audio signal. At step  100  of the audio is played to the user by the audio processing module  60 . At step  102 , the process determines whether the audio being played to the user is synchronized with the display video. If it is not synchronized, then the Smartphone user will input the timing adjustment, and the flow will continue to step  102 . If the audio is synchronized with the displayed video, then the process ends at step  106 . 
         [0028]    The various embodiments described above can be combined to provide further embodiments. All of the U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications and non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet are incorporated herein by reference, in their entirety. Aspects of the embodiments can be modified, if necessary to employ concepts of the various patents, applications and publications to provide yet further embodiments. 
         [0029]    These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of the above-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, the terms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specific embodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should be construed to include all possible embodiments along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, the claims are not limited by the disclosure.