Harman awarded patent for flying robotic speakers

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Why bother with physically moving speakers around a subject when today’s virtual surround sound offerings are good enough to get the job done? Well, that’s just it… they’re good at mimicking surround sound but nothing beats the authenticity of true directional audio. If you’re striving for the highest level of immersion, you want each and every environmental variable to be as authentic as possible.

The US Patent and Trademark Office this week awarded audio specialist Harman a patent for a mobile speaker system for virtual reality environments.

The idea is to make virtual reality a more immersive experience by mapping VR soundscapes to robotic speakers that move around in the real world to correspond to an audio source in the virtual world. This could be accomplished in a variety of ways including wheeled robots, retractable tethers, gas propulsion components, robotic appendages and even aerial drones.

The latter possibility is perhaps the most intriguing. Imagine a room full of drones navigating the airspace in a symphony of sound, feeding dialogue, sound effects and more to an audience below. Granted, noise cancelling components would be needed to reduce the noise from the propulsion systems although by the time this comes to fruition (or, if it ever does), aerial drones may be much quieter than today’s examples.

Samsung, if you recall, announced plans to purchase Harman in late 2016 for $8 billion in cash and closed on the deal the following year.

Lead image courtesy alphaspirit via Shutterstock. Second image courtesy Italy3d via Shutterstock.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/79061-harman-awarded-patent-flying-robotic-speakers.html

 

[mbrowne5061]

Except most patents like this are troll patents. Harmon is slapping a big old "MINE" sticker on it now, in case anyone ever figures out how to do it.

With the USPO, it is entirely a case of "first to file". You don't need to get it working, you don't even need to prove it would work in theory, you just need a concise write-up of how the rough idea is supposed to work and a lawyer who knows which levers to pull to push it through.

 

[TomSEA]

Except most patents like this are troll patents. Harmon is slapping a big old "MINE" sticker on it now, in case anyone ever figures out how to do it.

With the USPO, it is entirely a case of "first to file". You don't need to get it working, you don't even need to prove it would work in theory, you just need a concise write-up of how the rough idea is supposed to work and a lawyer who knows which levers to pull to push it through.

Not so sure about Harman-Kardon. They've been in the speaker business since the 1950's. If anyone was going to develop something like this, it would be either them or JBL.

Cool concept, though. Especially for concerts where some areas of an arena have a lot of "dead" sound spots.

 

[Uncle Al]

I certainly hope local, state, and federal laws will keep pace and limit the application of these. Otherwise ordinarily quiet neighborhoods will eventually be bombarded with all sorts of announcements, advertisements, and other commercial applications. It COULD work small miracles for smaller towns with limited weather alert systems and needs for civil defense applications but I doubt there will be enough money involved to make it a worthy venture for such limited applications ......

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Troll bait.

 

[wiyosaya]

Dolby Atmos on steroids. I expect that this would not fly, pun intended, for all but the enthusiast with deep-pockets who wants bragging rights, or for a commercial VR enterprise similar to splat ball or something like that.

Except most patents like this are troll patents. Harmon is slapping a big old "MINE" sticker on it now, in case anyone ever figures out how to do it.

With the USPO, it is entirely a case of "first to file". You don't need to get it working, you don't even need to prove it would work in theory, you just need a concise write-up of how the rough idea is supposed to work and a lawyer who knows which levers to pull to push it through.

With the fact that Samsung owns them now, I have to agree. They used to be a high-end and respected brand years ago, but now, it looks like they are strictly selling lower-end products. https://www.harmankardon.com/

 

[Vulcanproject]

The first picture of stock art used to illustrate this article is comically bad.

 

[macgaber]

Except most patents like this are troll patents. Harmon is slapping a big old "MINE" sticker on it now, in case anyone ever figures out how to do it.

With the USPO, it is entirely a case of "first to file". You don't need to get it working, you don't even need to prove it would work in theory, you just need a concise write-up of how the rough idea is supposed to work and a lawyer who knows which levers to pull to push it through.

I agree...seems like a troll patent. Structural/mechanical components, power delivery and/or storage type, recharging/refueling method if any, and type of propulsion not specified (just going by this blurb). Pretty vague to be awarded a patent.

 

[erickmendes]

Reminds me of the drone bee episode from Black Mirror...

 

[Knot Schure]

Except most patents like this are troll patents. Harmon is slapping a big old "MINE" sticker on it now, in case anyone ever figures out how to do it.

With the USPO, it is entirely a case of "first to file". You don't need to get it working, you don't even need to prove it would work in theory, you just need a concise write-up of how the rough idea is supposed to work and a lawyer who knows which levers to pull to push it through.

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