Andrea Electronics (ANDR)

[falon]

Andrea Electronics who sells Audio Related Apps for iOS Devices is Suing Apple over Noise Cancellation Technologies


http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2016/09/andrea-electronics-who-sells-audio-related-apps-for-ios-devices-is-suing-apple-over-noise-cancellation-technologies.html

September 20, 2016

Andrea Electronics Corporation who sells 'PureAudio' Pro Recorder and Live Recorder apps for iOS devices is suing Apple Inc. on five counts of patent infringement relating to noise cancellation technology.



Andrea is a publicly-held company with its corporate headquarters located in Bohemia, New York. Andrea engages in substantial engineering, research, and development related to audio technology and has developed microphone hardware and software that provides solutions to current sound fidelity challenges.



Andrea has a decorated history as a leading industry developer of product solutions which optimize the performance of voice user interfaces. Its technology has been applied to products related to, among other things, voice over internet protocol ("VoIP") telephony, VoIP teleconferencing, video conferencing, speech recognition, computer gaming, in-car computing, and 3D audio recording.



According to Andrea Electronics formal complaint before the court, they claim that "infringing products made and sold by Apple, include but are not limited to, desktop computers, all-in-one computers, notebook/laptop computers, tablets, smart phones, headsets, headphones, earbuds, and wearables, are widely advertised.

System, method and apparatus for cancelling noise
US 6363345 B1

ABSTRACT
A threshold detector precisely detects the positions of the noise elements, even within continuous speech segments, by determining whether frequency spectrum elements, or bins, of the input signal are within a threshold set according to current and future minimum values of the frequency spectrum elements. In addition, the threshold is continuously set and initiated within a predetermined period of time. The estimate magnitude of the input audio signal is obtained using a multiplying combination of the real and imaginary part of the input in accordance with the higher and lower values between the real and imaginary part of the signal. In order to further reduce instability of the spectral estimation, a two-dimensional smoothing is applied to the signal estimate using neighboring frequency bins and an exponential average over time. A filter multiplication effects the subtraction thereby avoiding phase calculation difficulties and effecting full-wave rectification which further reduces artifacts. Since the noise elements are determined within continuous speech segments, the noise is canceled from the audio signal nearly continuously thereby providing excellent noise cancellation characteristics. Residual noise reduction reduces the residual noise remaining after noise cancellation. Implementation may be effected in various noise canceling schemes including adaptive beamforming and noise cancellation using computer program applications installed as software or hardware.

Publication number US6363345 B1
Publication type Grant
Application number US 09/252,874
Publication date Mar 26, 2002
Filing date Feb 18, 1999
Priority date Feb 18, 1999
Fee status Paid
Inventors Joseph Marash, Baruch Berdugo
Original Assignee Andrea Electronics Corporation
Export Citation BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
Patent Citations (284), Non-Patent Citations (19), Referenced by (83), Classifications (11), Legal Events (10)

https://www.google.com/patents/US6363345

External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet

For example, Exhibit 2 includes a chart comparing the asserted independent claims of the '607 Patent to Defendant's iPhone 6S product. Exhibit 2 shows that the iPhone 6S product and its use are covered by at least the asserted independent claims of the '607 Patent.



The iPhone 6S is a representative example of Defendant's infringement of the '607 Patent. Andrea believes that Defendant's devices in addition to the iPhone 6S product, including Defendant's desktop computers, all-in-one computers, notebook/laptop computers, tablets, other smart phones, headsets, headphones, and earbuds, and their uses, are covered by at least one of the Asserted Claims of the '607 Patent."



They further note that Apple has been aware of the '607 Patent and of Andrea's allegations of infringement since at least being sent a notice letter by Andrea's counsel on May 13, 2015. Despite Defendant's awareness of the '607 Patent and Andrea's allegations, it has knowingly and actively induced others to infringe the '607 Patent.



The other patents that Andrea Electronics claims is being infringed upon include granted patents 6,377,637 and 6,363,345 that cover noise cancellation as well. In addition, Andrea Electronics is slapping Apple with additional counts for willful Infringement and Notice of the Asserted Patents bringing the total of five counts against Apple.



The patent infringement case presented in today's report was filed yesterday in the New York Eastern District Court, Central Islip Office. At present, no Judge has been assigned to the case.

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Posted by Jack Purcher on September 20, 2016 at 09:11 AM in 3. Patently Legal | Permalink