Re:We need to talk about AirPods Pro
by russellbeattie on Friday April 10, 2020 @03:35PM
(#22836557)
The other option is that Bose, Sony or some other high-end audio company has a patent on whatever noise cancellation system was in place originally. A decision was made to avoid a legal battle (or a deal fell through at the last minute) and the feature was nerfed until Apple can strong arm the patent holder into a better deal.
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Without disclosing more this is the situation.
The patents violated expire in 2021 so it is likely they are holding out.
I was under the impression that the core principles of noise cancellation were well-understood and in the public domain as part of signal processing. Basically you reverse the predictable component of the signal and add it to the incoming, so only the innovation (unpredictable) signal remains.
Couldn’t Apple or Bose just fall back on these methods which should work closely enough to whatever fancy method is patented? Or is the method I’m describing patented?
this is exactly what happened.
source?