EXCLUSIVE: BlackBerry working on automatic call volume adjustment for noisy places

Earlier today on my BBHub BlackBerry blog, I broke an exclusive that BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion is working on technology that will automatically sense the background noise present when a caller is on the line, and automatically adjust the call volume to compensate.

At the top of this post, that's the just-published Patent application for this technology, which is called "Automatic Audio Intensity Adjustment."

Excerpting from my post now: 

According the application, here's how this automatic audio intensity adjustment is going to work:

The "mobile communications device" (i.e., BlackBerry)  will contain a sensor system for detecting a state of an environment of the communication device from among at least two states and an adjustment system for selecting an intensity of output for the audio output device based on the state detected by the sensor.

The BlackBerry will have the capacity of, as the patent app says, "a method of automatically adjusting intensity of output for an audio output device.T "he method includes determining a state of an environment of the mobile communication device and, based on the determining, selecting an intensity of output for the audio output device. In another aspect, a computer readable medium is provided to allow a processor to carry out this method."

By state of the environment, that means how loud the potentially interfering background noise is. 

BlackBerrys equipped with this new technology will, according to the application, contain "an adjustment system for selecting an intensity of output for the audio output device based on the level detected by the sensor."

The application further states that a computer readable medium will be provided to enable a processor to carry out this method.

I'm back. Now let us look at two drawings from the Patent app that shows you how this is going to work.

Here are the innards of a BlackBerry so enabled for "automatic audio intensity adjustment":

And now for  the diagram that shows this concept in action:

This functionality will be a big hit when it arrives. Everyone who has ever had trouble hearing a cell caller- or being heard- when talking in a crowded place will want a BlackBerry or other device enabled with automatic audio intensity adjustment.