DESC:CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent application is related to and claims the benefit of priority from the Indian Provisional Patent Application with Serial No. 201841048160 titled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COMMUNICATING DIGITAL DATA USING AMBIENT ACOUSTIC SIGNALS”, filed on December 19, 2018 and the contents of which are incorporated in entirety by the way of reference.

A) TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present invention generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly to wireless communications using acoustic waves.

B) BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Widespread availability and popularity of mobile devices have made them indispensable in both business and everyday use. These mobile devices include portable computing devices such as laptops, netbooks and tablets that provide mobile computing power as well as access to the information on the Internet, text messaging, email and other functions. Other mobile devices such as wireless phone devices not only provide the aforementioned portable computing functions but further include wireless voice capabilities along with applications using features such as built-in cameras, global positioning satellite (GPS) services and others.
[0004] In comparison, portable computers not only offer general purpose computing power but also operate more like a phone device delivering phone calls and voice capabilities with protocols/services such as voice-over-IP (VOIP) and Skype TM.
[0005] Despite these advances, mobile devices still have difficulty communicating with desktop computers or workstations. Users of mobile phones attempting communication with a desktop computer have little choice but to send the user of the desktop computer a brief email or text message as well. Unfortunately, manually entering information needed for emails or text messages is time consuming, prone to error and often dissuades people from interacting altogether.
[0006] Indeed, attempts to establish direct communication between mobile devices has been met with failure for a variety of reason. In many cases, too few devices have the specialized hardware required for communication. For example, infrared transceivers are not found on all mobile devices or computers and therefore lack the scale required to permit reliable communication. Moreover, infrared communication is not only slow but requires a line-of-sight between the transceivers of the devices to operate.
[0007] Bluetooth communication is another interesting wireless protocol shared by many mobile devices but it takes too long to sync or “pair” before any communication can take place. The time delay for pairing not only frustrates users but also makes the data transmitted more susceptible to interception. Accordingly, Bluetooth communication may be seen as a security risk and not suited for transmitting sensitive information.
[0008] Yet another approach for mobile communication involves displaying and reading bar codes from the display of a mobile device. The bar codes can generally be displayed on a mobile device and then read by another device or computer having a camera or bar code scanner. However, processing bar codes in this manner can be difficult as each display device may need to be configured with different display parameters, aspect ratios, display resolutions and other factors to ensure the bar codes can be read reliably.
[0009] Another approach places RFID tags on a mobile device to facilitate quick identification of the phone and promote mobile communication. Indeed, RFID works quickly to identify the mobile device but requires each vendor to purchase a potentially expensive specialized reader device. Given the added expense of the reader and the complexity of accepting payments in this manner, RFID tags and readers have not been widely adopted.
[0010] All the above technologies have at least one of the drawbacks to their perfect functionality and for their use: need for connectivity, external interferences, low transmission speed, extreme proximity and/or need for a special hardware, computational cost and/or problems concerning requisition of specialized hardware devices.
[0011] Therefore, there is need for a less complex, yet user-friendly, inexpensive and/or efficient way to share and/or transfer information.
[0012] The above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems are addressed herein, which will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.

C) OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
[0013] The primary object of the present invention is to effectively solve the above-mentioned issues of the technology of data communication between user devices, so that the need for connectivity to the Internet or networks for communication between devices is eliminated.
[0014] Another object of the present invention is to provide a new communication method between two user devices using ambient noise, so that the signal is not affected by interferences.
[0015] Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a communication method between two devices that, although requiring a certain proximity of the devices, will operate at longer distances than those disclosed in the state of the art, such as up to about 10 to 15 centimeters away from each other, favoring two-way communication.
[0016] Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a communication method between two devices using ambient noise, so that it may be implemented in any device with computing power, audio output and microphone, thus taking advantage of the great variety of appliances currently existing on the market.
[0017] These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

D) SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0018] The various embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus and method especially developed for the direct application in transmission involving user devices with some computational potential, allowing data transmission between two devices without the need for an additional hardware or any other type of connectivity.
[0019] Aspects of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus to exchange data over the air using ambient acoustic waves. The data to be exchanged may be received on a transmitter module and converted, as needed, to a digital representation suitable for digital signal processing. For example, binary data on the transmitter module may be processed immediately while text or other symbolic data may need to be converted into a digital representation for further processing. The transmitter module has at least one sound generator that transmits an acoustic carrier signal through the air in accordance with aspects of the present invention. The digital representation of the data is modulated consistent with a modulation protocol using one or more acoustic transmission frequencies in accordance with present invention. The sound generator transmits the one or more acoustic carrier signals carrying the modulated data over the air. Each acoustic carrier signal has sufficient gain to carry the signal to a receiver module where the data from the one or more acoustic carrier signals is demodulated in order to reconstruct the original data.
[0020] The method for the transmission of data between two devices according to the present invention comprises the following steps receiving a digital data and a carrier signal as input, encoding the digital data into acoustic waves, detecting each frequency gains of the input audio signal and thereby selecting a carrier frequency with a maximum gain value, phase modulating the selected carrier frequency based on gain and encoded data signal, broadcasting the acoustic waves, capturing the acoustic waves by the microphone, demodulating and decoding the acoustic waves for recovering the digital data.
[0021] These and other aspects of the embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating the preferred embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the embodiments herein without departing from the spirit thereof, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

E) BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0022] The other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiment and the accompanying drawings in which:
[0023] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an apparatus for communicating digital data using ambient acoustic waves, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0024] FIG. 2 illustrates a flow diagram depicting a method for communicating digital data using ambient acoustic waves, according to one embodiment of the present invention.
[0025] Although the specific features of the present invention are shown in some drawings and not in others. This is done for convenience only as each feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the present invention.

F) DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0026] In the following detailed description, a reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which the specific embodiments that may be practiced is shown by way of illustration. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the embodiments and it is to be understood that other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the embodiments. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense.
[0027] The various embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus and method for communicating data between two devices without the need for an additional hardware or any other type of network connectivity.

[0028] Accordingly, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus to exchange data over the air using an acoustic wave. The data to be exchanged may be received on a transmitter module and converted, as needed, to a digital representation suitable for digital signal processing. For example, binary data on the transmitter module may be processed immediately while text or other symbolic data may need to be converted into a digital representation for further processing. The transmitter module has at least one sound generator that transmits an acoustic carrier signal through the air in accordance with aspects of the present invention. The digital representation of the data is modulated consistent with a modulation protocol using one or more acoustic transmission frequencies in accordance with present invention. The sound generator transmits the one or more acoustic carrier signals carrying the modulated data over the air. Each acoustic carrier signal has sufficient gain to carry the signal to a receiver module where the data from the one or more acoustic carrier signals is demodulated.
[0029] The method for the transmission of data between two user devices according to the present invention comprises the following steps encoding a digital data into digital sound signal, sending said digital sound signal to the speakers of the emitting device in order to reproduce it, propagating the sound in the air, capturing the sound by the microphone of the receiving device, transforming said sound into digital sound data, and decoding the digital sound data for recovering the digital data.
[0030] FIG. 1 illustrates an apparatus 100 for transmitting data among two user devices. The term “user device” refers to a portable computing device capable of receiving ambient noise and generating acoustic waves embedding the digital data to be transmitted. Examples of the user device include but may not be limited to, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless email terminal, and a portable point of sale device, a laptop and a tablet computer.
[0031] As shown in the FIG. 1, a user uses a first user device to transfer data to a second user device of another user. Examples of data can include but are not limited to images, audio clips, videos, text messages, documents, files, etc.
[0032] The user device includes a transceiver comprising a transmitter module 102 and a receiver module 104, a first input unit 106 and a second input unit 108, an encoder 110, a gain detector 112, a modulator 114, a speaker/sound generator 116, a microphone 118, a demodulator 120, a decoder 122, a storage module (not shown), and an output unit 124. The transceiver 102 and 104 is configured to send and receive electronic signals wirelessly using radio frequencies. The input unit 106 and 108 includes a microphone 118 configured for receiving acoustic input and converting the acoustic input into one or more audio signals. In an embodiment, the microphone 118 is configured to receive acoustic signals having frequencies between 20 hertz and 22,000 hertz. In an embodiment, the input unit 106 and 108 includes other input means such as touch pads, keypads, etc., for interacting with the user.
[0033] As disclosed herein, the term “audio/acoustic signal” refers to sound wave frequencies lying within the audible spectrum, which is approximately 20 Hz to 20 kHz.
[0034] At the transmitting module, digital data is encoded into acoustic signals carried on sound waves having a certain frequency or range of frequencies. At a receiver module 104, the sound waves are received and decoded back into digital data.
[0035] The transmitter module 102 comprises a first input unit 106 configured to receive ambient noise signal received through microphone 118 as carrier input. a second input unit 108 configured for receiving digital human readable data as data input, an encoder 110 configured for converting the digital data into machine readable signal, a gain detector 112 configured for detecting each frequency gains of the input audio signal and thereby selecting a carrier frequency with a maximum gain value, a modulator 114 coupled to the encoder 110, the modulator 114 configured for phase modulating the selected carrier frequency based on gain and encoded data signal and a sound generator 116 such as a speaker 116 configured to broadcast the carrier frequency embedded in the form of sound/acoustic waves.
[0036] The encoder 110 receives and encodes digital data to generate code symbols. The encoding may include error correction coding and/or error detection coding to increase the reliability of the acoustic channel. Such encoding may include, but is not limited to, interleaving, convolutional coding, and cyclic redundancy check (CRC) coding. Addition of CRC bits is a known technique to allow error detection.
[0037] The encoder 110 is configured to look for the max gain frequencies in the environment (audio data receives through microphone 118) these frequencies are chosen as the carrier frequencies for the data transmission by the algorithm. Algorithm applies PSK modulation to these frequencies which will help to reproduce same frequencies available in current environment with their respective gain value. Hence the modulation doesn’t affect to the human ear.
[0038] The modulator 114 modulates the code symbols into multiple sound wave carriers.
[0039] In one embodiment, the modulator 114 may comprise a digital modulator 114, an inverse fast fourier transform (IFFT) element and an up-converter for modulation of the code symbols into multiple sound wave carriers. Digital modulator 114 may be a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulator 114. However, a digital modulation technique other than QPSK such as for example, amplitude shift keying (ASK), frequency shift keying (FSK), phase shift keying (PSK) or a combination thereof, can be implemented in the modulator 114.
[0040] Accordingly, digital data may be modulated into multiple sound wave carrier signals for transmission and emitted as sound waves through sound generator 116. A second user device within the distance over which sound can be heard, detected or sensed can receive and process the transmission through sound processor and demodulator 120 for display, storage and/or presentation. Due to the nature of the acoustic channel, the amount of interference rises as the distance increases between two communicating devices.
[0041] The apparatus 100 further comprises storage means (not shown) for storing data to be transmitted. Storage means (not shown) are well known in the art and hence shall not be described in detail.
[0042] The receiver module 104 comprises a microphone 118 for receiving modulated acoustic signals transmitted by the transmitter module 102, a demodulator 120 coupled to the microphone 118, the demodulator 120 configured for demodulating the carrier frequency for reconstructing the encoded signal, a decoder 122 coupled to the demodulator 120, the decoder 122 configured for decoding the encoded logical signal into digital data and an output unit 124 coupled to the decoder 122, the output unit 124 configured for displaying the digital data in a human readable and/or comprehendible form.
[0043] The demodulation unit coupled to the microphone 118 comprises a demodulator 120 is configured to demodulate and recover digital data from the acoustic signals by filtering out the carrier signals, and a decoder 122 to decode the demodulated data for output to a user. Also in one embodiment, decoder 122 may comprise a Viterbi decoder 122. Thus, the demodulated data is decoded using well known implementations of the Viterbi algorithm. The decoded digital data can be displayed or stored for later use.

[0044] The decoder 122 is also looking for the frequencies available with maximum gain (audio signals received through microphone 118) and by using PSK demodulation will try to find data which is encoded in the ambient noise signal.
[0045] The encoder 110 and the decoder 122 are not using any specific predefined frequency sets, they use the frequencies available with highest gain in the current environment. So, there is no much effect on data transmitting until there will be zero noise in the environment.
[0046] The recovered digital data may be output to a user through a display and/or other output devices 124 for presentation or may be stored for later presentation or use. The digital data may be, but is not limited to, personal information; contact information such as names, phone numbers, and addresses; business information; calendar information; memos; software or a combination thereof. The apparatus 100 may also comprise a processor (not shown) such as a central processor (CPU) or digital signal processor (DSP) to control the transmission and reception of data using sound waves. It would be apparent to those skilled in the art that the placement of the processor is not important and that the placements of elements may also be rearranged without affecting the performance and/or purpose of apparatus 100.
[0047] As schematically illustrated in FIG. 2, the method 200 for the transmission of data between two devices according to the present invention comprises the following steps: receiving digital data and ambient acoustic waves as input (at step 201), Encoding digital data into acoustic waves so as to generate encoded data signal (at step 202), detecting each frequency gain of input acoustic waves thereby selecting carrier frequency with maximum gain value (at step 203), Phase modulating the selected acoustic waves based on gain and encoded data signal (at step 204), broadcasting acoustic waves (at step 205) and Demodulating and decoding acoustic waves for recovering digital data (at step 206). The digital data thus recovered may be displayed using the output device 124 such as display unit of the user device.
[0048] Accordingly, users can easily and conveniently perform a one way or bidirectional communication as described above. By using a multi-carrier system, data can be transmitted in a robust manner using sound waves. Furthermore, a standard speaker 116 and/or microphone 118 can be used to implement the invention. Therefore, the invention can easily be implemented in existing devices since most computers have either built-in speakers 116 and microphones 118 or add-in sound cards, modules, devices or interfaces.
[0049] In addition, embodiments may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, firmware, middleware or microcode, the program code or code segments to perform the necessary tasks may be stored in a machine readable medium such as storage medium or in a separate storage(s) not shown. A processor may perform the necessary tasks. A code segment may represent a procedure, a function, a subprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a software package, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures, or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another code segment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information, data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments, parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via any suitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing, network transmission, etc.
[0050] Although the embodiments herein are described with various specific embodiments, it will be obvious for a person skilled in the art to practice the embodiments herein with modifications.

G) ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
[0051] Aspects of the present invention provide one or more of the following advantages. Use of acoustic communication of the present invention scales quickly as it is compatible across a wide range of computers and user devices. Sound components and other supporting hardware necessary to perform acoustic communication in accordance with the present invention are generally available and already installed on most of these devices. For example, many computers and user devices may already include CODECS, filters, digital signal processors (DSP), memory and other components necessary for processing sound. These sound components may be built directly into the computer or user device or may be added afterwards using an after market sound card or an externally connected peripheral sound device.

[0052] Method and apparatus designed in accordance with the present invention take advantage of these sound components to modulate data on an acoustic carrier signal. The acoustic carrier signal can be processed by user devices and computers from different manufacturers provided the sound components on each device operate at a sufficient sample rate and frequency response. This makes it possible for various devices to communicate together over a wide range of carrier frequencies while running on dissimilar hardware platforms and otherwise incompatible operating systems. For example, a wireless device running the Android operating system can readily communicate sonically with a computer device running Microsoft Windows, the Apple OS X operating system or an Apple iPhone or iPad (Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., Android is a registered trademark of Google, Inc. of Mountain View Calif., iPhone and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
[0053] Acoustic communication implemented in accordance with the present invention has considerable economic advantages. As previously described, a majority of the hardware required for acoustic communication is already installed on the computers and user devices of interest. Software designed in accordance with the present invention can be installed on most devices without requiring additional hardware or even a hardware upgrade. In some cases, there may be a nominal cost associated with attaching a microphone 118 or speaker 116 to the sound components already installed on the device. Even if the sound components are not already installed on these devices, there are many after market manufacturers of sound components and sound cards that can be combined with or added to existing hardware at a relatively low-cost. In some cases, it may even be cost-effective to create custom or semi-custom sound card designs using codecs and processors available from companies such as Texas Instruments.
[0054] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments will so fully reveal the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such as specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modifications. However, all such modifications are deemed to be within the scope of the claims. ,CLAIMS:1. An apparatus for transmission of data between two user devices, the apparatus comprising:
a transmission module configured for transmitting acoustic waves embedded with digital data, the transmission module comprising:
a first input unit configured to receive ambient acoustic waves;
a second input unit configured for receiving digital human readable data as data input;
a coding module configured for generating encoded data signal; and
a sound generator configured to broadcast the carrier frequency embedded in the form of acoustic waves; and
a receiver module configured for receiving acoustic waves, the receiver module comprising:
a microphone for receiving modulated acoustic signals transmitted by the transmitter module; and
a demodulation unit coupled to the microphone, the demodulation unit configured for reconstructing the digital data.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coding module comprises an encoder configured for converting the digital data into machine readable signal.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coding module comprises a gain detector configured for detecting each frequency gains of the input acoustic waves and thereby selecting a carrier frequency with a maximum gain value.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the coding module comprises a modulator coupled to the encoder the modulator configured for phase modulating the selected carrier frequency based on gain and encoded data signal.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the demodulation unit coupled to the microphone comprises a demodulator is configured to demodulate and recover digital data from the acoustic signals by filtering out the carrier signals.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the demodulation unit comprises a decoder coupled to the demodulator, the decoder configured to decode the demodulated data for output to a user.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein the receiver module further comprises an output unit coupled to the decoder for displaying the digital data.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a processor configured to control the transmission and reception of data using acoustic waves.
9. A method for transmission of data between two user devices, the method comprising:
receiving a digital data and ambient acoustic waves as input;
encoding the digital data into acoustic waves so as to generate an encoded data signal;
detecting each frequency gain of the input acoustic waves and thereby selecting a carrier frequency with a maximum gain value;
phase modulating the selected acoustic waves based on gain and encoded data signal;
broadcasting the acoustic waves;
capturing the acoustic waves by the microphone;
demodulating and decoding the acoustic waves for recovering the digital data; and
displaying the digital data.

10. A computer readable media storing computer readable instructions which
when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method comprising the steps of:
receiving a digital data and ambient acoustic waves as input;
encoding the digital data into acoustic waves so as to generate an encoded data signal;
detecting each frequency gain of the input acoustic waves and thereby selecting a carrier frequency with a maximum gain value;
phase modulating the selected acoustic waves based on gain and encoded data signal;
broadcasting the acoustic waves;
capturing the acoustic waves by the microphone;
demodulating and decoding the acoustic waves for recovering the digital data; and
displaying the digital data.