A Nintendo patent was recently found by our team on the United Patent Office website for a sound determination unit, which was submitted on 1/10/17. The description of the patent describes an information processing device which determines sound input to a microphone. The determination section of the device will decide on whether or not sound input to the microphone is a predetermined sound (like breathing into the microphone), which will be decided upon based on amplitude of the partial segments. We’ll have to see if this patent has something to do with the Nintendo Switch or if Nintendo is just protecting some of its patents. See a diagram below of the original patent, and a PDF of the actual submitted patent claim.
An example information processing device determines a sound input to a microphone. The information processing device includes an obtaining section, a mean amplitude calculation section, and a determination section. The obtaining section obtains data of a sound detected by the microphone. For a sound of a predetermined determination segment, the mean amplitude calculation section calculates a mean amplitude, which is an average amplitude, for each of a plurality of partial segments included in the determination segment. The determination section determines whether or not the sound input to the microphone is a predetermined type of a sound (e.g., a sound made by breath blowing) based on the mean amplitudes for the partial segments.
