Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090109054 | Wireless and Dockable Audio Interposer Device - An apparatus meant to be interposed between a wired device and a wireless device gathers information concerning the functions of which each of the wired device and wireless devices are capable, passing on signals from the wireless device to the wired device to perform an audio function if the wired device is determined to be present and/or capable of performing the audio function, performing the audio function if capable of doing so and if the wired device is determined to not be present and/or incapable of performing the audio function, and responding to the wireless device as if the audio function were successfully performed if incapable of doing so and if the wired device is determined to not be present and/or incapable of performing the audio function. | 04-30-2009 |
20100246836 | Personal Acoustic Device Position Determination - Apparatus and method for determining an operating state of an earpiece of a personal acoustic device and/or the entirety of the personal acoustic device through tests to determine the current operating state, wherein the tests differ depending on a current power mode of the personal acoustic device, and wherein at least one lower power test is employed during at least one lower power mode. | 09-30-2010 |
20100246845 | Personal Acoustic Device Position Determination - A apparatus and method for determining an operating state of an earpiece of a personal acoustic device and/or the entirety of the personal acoustic device by analyzing signals output by at least an inner microphone disposed within a cavity of a casing of the earpiece and an outer microphone disposed on the personal acoustic device in a manner acoustically coupling it to the environment outside the casing of the earpiece. | 09-30-2010 |
20100272276 | ANR Signal Processing Topology - An ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device, incorporates an signal processing topology to support the provision of feedback-based ANR, feedforward-based ANR and pass-through audio in which the topology incorporates a branch in which feedback anti-noise sounds are generated from feedback reference sounds received from a feedback microphone, a branch in which feedforward anti-noise sounds are generated from feedforward reference sounds, and a branch in which modified pass-through audio sounds are generated from pass-through audio sounds received from an audio source, wherein these three branches are combined to combine the generated sounds of each branch into a single output by which an acoustic driver, possibly of the personal ANR device, is driven. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272280 | Binaural Feedfoward-Based ANR - In a personal ANR device having a pair of earpieces, each having a feedforward microphone and an ANR circuit associated therewith, each ANR circuit provides digital data representing environmental noise sounds detected by each ANR circuit's associated feedforward microphone. Such digital data may represent the environmental noise sounds as detected with little or not modification, or such digital data may be modified to some degree within each ANR circuit, perhaps to limit the range of frequencies that such digital data represents, before being provided to the other ANR circuit. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272281 | ANR Analysis Side-Chain Data Support - An ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device and possibly within an ADC of the ANR circuit, feedback reference data, feedforward reference data and/or pass-through audio data is provided to a secondary downsampling (and/or decimating) filter and/or is provided to a calculating block (e.g., RMS or absolute calculation block) to derive side-chain data to be output by the ANR circuit to a processing device coupled to the ANR circuit to employ the side-chain data in an analysis related to the provision of feedback-based ANR, feedforward-based ANR and/or pass-through audio by the ANR circuit. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272283 | DIGITAL HIGH FREQUENCY PHASE COMPENSATION - In an ANR circuit of a personal ANR device, a digital filter is structured to introduce one or more zeros to add gain to introduce positive phase in the provision of feedback-based ANR, wherein the gain follows a frequency-dependent “ski-slope” gain curve with little gain added at lower audible frequencies, with increasing gain that increases with frequency added at higher audible frequencies, and with the increasing gain flattening at frequencies above audible frequencies. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272284 | Feedforward-Based ANR Talk-Through - An ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device, reduces the degree of feedforward-based ANR that it provides in response to receiving an indication of the operation of a manually-operable control. The reduction of degree of feedforward-based ANR may be effected by turning off or otherwise deactivating the provision of feedforward-based ANR, reducing a range of frequencies of environmental noise sounds attenuated by the feedforward-based ANR to provide less attenuation of sounds detected by a feedforward microphone that are in a range of frequencies deemed to be those of human speech, and/or creating a notch in the range of frequencies of environmental noise sounds attenuated by the feedforward-based ANR to provide less attenuation of sounds detected by the feedforward microphone that are in a range of frequencies deemed to be those of human speech. | 10-28-2010 |
20110235813 | Adapted Audio Masking - Ambient sound is masked by receiving an audio signal, monitoring an acoustic signal that includes components of both the ambient sound the audio signal, determining a sound level sufficient to at least partially mask the ambient sound, and reproducing the received audio signal to produce an output acoustic signal at the determined sound level. | 09-29-2011 |
20110243343 | FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT ANR REFERENCE SOUND COMPRESSION - Apparatus and method of controlling provision of ANR, possibly of a personal ANR device, in which amplitudes of a piece of audio employed in the provision of ANR are monitored, and the compression of one or both of feedback and feedforward ANR reference sounds is made dependent on frequency such that a first sound of one frequency need only reach a lower amplitude to trigger compression, while a second sound of another frequency must reach a higher amplitude to trigger compression. | 10-06-2011 |
20110243345 | VARIABLE ANR TRANSFORM COMPRESSION - Apparatus and method of reducing the provision of ANR at an one end of a range of frequencies at which the ANR is provided without reducing the provision of the ANR at the other end of the range of frequencies by repeatedly reconfiguring coefficients of one or more digital filters to reduce the provision of ANR at the one end in increments at a first recurring interval, and then later reversing the reduction in the provision of the ANR at the one end by repeatedly reconfiguring coefficients of the one or more digital filters in increments at a second recurring interval. | 10-06-2011 |
20110311071 | Electronic Interfacing with a Head-Mounted Device - Power is delivered from a power source in a head-mounted device to a separate accessory that is coupled to the head-mounted device. Power and signals are delivered on a common conductor that couples the head-mounted device to an accessory. One or both of the head-mounted device and the accessory are configured based on the signals. Power may be received at an accessory from the head-mounted device through a dedicated power conductor. Power may be delivered from a power source in a portable accessory to a head-mounted device that is coupled to the portable accessory and uses the power for circuitry in the head-mounted device that delivers audio to a user. | 12-22-2011 |
20120249125 | Measuring Transducer Displacement - Displacement of a moving diaphragm in an electroacoustic transducer is measured by modulating an electrical signal based on changes in capacitance between the voice coil assembly and the magnetic structure resulting from relative motion between the voice coil and the magnetic structure. The modulated electrical signal is demodulated to produce an output signal having a value proportional to the displacement. | 10-04-2012 |
20130272530 | In-Ear Audio Device Customization - An in-ear audio device has a casing on which is disposed one or more bags are positioned to be filled with fillable material during a customization process in which a test sound is acoustically output into an ear canal by an acoustic driver of the in-ear audio device while the one or more bags are being filled, and a microphone acoustically coupled to the ear canal is employed to detect sounds within the ear canal that are indicative of the frequency response of the acoustic output of the acoustic driver to determine when the degree of sealing of the ear canal by the one or more bags is sufficient to achieve a desired quality of frequency response. | 10-17-2013 |
20140126733 | User Interface for ANR Headphones with Active Hear-Through - An active noise reducing headphone has an active noise-cancelling mode and an active hear-through mode, and changes between the noise-cancelling mode and the hear-through mode based on detection of a user touching a housing of the headphone or based on a command signal received from an external device. In another aspect, a signal processor in the headphone is configured to change between the active noise-cancelling and active hear-through modes based on a comparison of signals from a feed-forward microphone and a feedback microphone. During the hear-through mode, the signal processor detects high-frequency signals in the feed-forward path exceeding a threshold level indicative of abnormally high acoustic coupling of the output transducer to the feed-forward microphone, and applies a compressing limiter to the feed-forward path until the high-frequency signals are no longer detected at levels above the threshold. | 05-08-2014 |
20140126735 | Reducing Occlusion Effect in ANR Headphones - In an active noise reducing headphone, a signal processor is configured to apply first feedback filters to the feedback signal path, causing the feedback signal path to operate at a first gain level, as a function of frequency, during a first operating mode, and apply second feedback filters to the feedback signal path, causing the feedback signal path to operate at a second gain level less than the first gain level at some frequencies during a second operating mode. The first gain level is a level of gain that results in effective cancellation of sounds transmitted through or around the ear cup and through the user's head, and the second level is a level of gain that is matched to the level of sound of a typical wearer's voice transmitted through the wearer's head when wearing the headphone. | 05-08-2014 |
20140126736 | Providing Audio and Ambient Sound simultaneously in ANR Headphones - In an active noise reducing headphone, a signal processor applies filters and control gains of feed-forward and feedback active noise cancellation signal paths. The signal processor is configured to apply first feed-forward filters to the feed-forward signal path and apply first feedback filters to the feedback signal path during a first operating mode providing effective cancellation of ambient sound, apply second feed-forward filters to the feed-forward signal path during a second operating mode providing active hear-through of ambient sounds with ambient naturalness, and provide an input electronic audio signal to an output transducer via an audio playback signal path during both the first and second operating modes. | 05-08-2014 |
20140126756 | Binaural Telepresence - A system for providing binaural telepresence includes two communication devices, and two sets of active noise reducing headphones having an active noise-cancelling mode and an active hear-through mode, coupled to the respective communication devices and configured to provide left and right feed-forward microphone signals to the communication devices. The first communication device is configured to transmit the first left and right feed-forward microphone signals to the second communication device. The second communication device is configured to provide the first left and right feed-forward microphone signals to the second set of headphones. The second set of headphones are configured to activate their noise-cancelling mode while filtering the first left and right feed-forward microphone signals so that a user of the second set of headphones hears ambient noise from the environment of the first set of headphones, so that the user hears the ambient noise from the first set of headphones with ambient naturalness. | 05-08-2014 |