CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is based on and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2020-0006726, filed on Jan. 17, 2020, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1) Field

One or more embodiments disclosed herein generally relate to an audio output device and, more particularly, to an audio output device capable of outputting audio data transmitted from an external electronic device via wireless communication. The embodiments also relate to an output speed control method of the audio output device.

2) Description of Related Art

With the development of mobile communication and hardware/software technologies, portable electronic devices (hereinafter, electronic devices) such as smartphones can implement various functions. Electronic devices can provide users with various user experiences by installing and executing various applications. Electronic devices can provide sounds generated from various applications for users using audio accessories connected via a wire or wirelessly. Recently, trends in audio accessories have been moved from wired connections to wireless connections. For example, earphones, headphones, earbuds, speakers, and the like which are connected to the electronic device through short-range wireless communication, such as Bluetooth, are being used.

Such an audio accessory may include a buffer memory and may output audio data received from the electronic device in the manner of first-in-first-out. Here, the audio accessory may accumulate a certain level of audio data in the buffer memory in order to prevent sound interruption. Specifically, when the electronic device streams audio data to the wireless audio accessory, the audio accessory may store a specified amount of the audio data in the buffer memory rather than immediately outputting the audio data, and may then output audio data when the specified amount of audio data is accumulated.

The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the disclosure.

SUMMARY

Wireless audio accessories do not have the disadvantages of wired audio accessories but need to overcome the problem of sound interruption in a wireless environment and latency in synchronization and real time between the sound provided by an audio accessory and when a video is provided by an electronic device.

For example, the amount of audio data stored in a buffer memory may be configured to be high, which may be advantageous to resolving sound interruption but which may cause the audio and the video displayed by the electronic device to be desynchronized due to greater latency time. On the contrary, the amount of buffered audio data may be configured to be low, which may be disadvantageous to resolving sound interruption.

Aspects of certain embodiments disclosed herein is to provide an audio output device capable of being optimized for sound interruption and/or latency, and an audio output speed control method thereof.

An audio output device according to an embodiment may include: a short-range communication module configured to perform short-range wireless communication; a memory configured to buffer audio data received from an external electronic device through the short-range communication module; an audio output unit configured to output the audio data; and a processor operatively connected to the short-range communication module, the memory, and the audio output unit, wherein the processor may be configured to: receive operation mode information related to a function being executed in the external electronic device from the external electronic device through the short-range communication module; configure a reference period corresponding to the amount of the audio data buffered in the memory based on the operation mode information; and determine the playback speed of the audio data to be output through the audio output unit by comparing the amount of the buffered audio data with the configured reference period.

A method for controlling an audio output speed according to an embodiment may include: receiving operation mode information related to a function being executed in an external electronic device from the external electronic device through short-range communication; configuring a reference period corresponding to the amount of audio data buffered in a memory based on the operation mode information; and determining the playback speed of the audio data to be output through an audio output unit by comparing the amount of the buffered audio data with the configured reference period.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the presented embodiments.

