Entries |
Document | Title | Date |
20080205663 | Supplying Electrical Power - A power supply includes a battery source supplying power and a voltage converter circuit. The voltage converter circuit converts the power to the input voltage supplied to other circuitry. The voltage converter circuit varies the input voltage in response to a load current drawn by the other circuitry from the power supply. | 08-28-2008 |
20080212791 | SIGNAL PROCESSING APPARATUS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD - Disclosed herein is a signal processing apparatus including: a first decimation processing section for generating, based on a digital signal in a first form, a digital signal in a second form; a second decimation processing section for generating, based on the digital signal in the second form, a digital signal in a third form; a first signal processing section for processing the digital signal in the third form; an interpolation processing section for converting a digital signal in the third form outputted from the first signal processing section into a digital signal in the second form; a second signal processing section for processing the digital signal in the second form outputted from the first decimation processing section; and a combining section for combining the digital signals in the second form outputted from the interpolation processing section and the second signal processing section. | 09-04-2008 |
20080247560 | AUDIO OUTPUT DEVICE - An audio collector collects an ambient sound near a sound-catching ear and converts the collected ambient sound into a collected-sound electrical signal. A noise canceller generates an offset sound for acoustically canceling the ambient sound based on a phase-inverted collected-sound electrical signal obtained when a phase of the collected-sound electrical signal is inverted and emits the generated offset sound near the sound-catching ear. An ambient sound monitor generates a monitor sound which is a phase inversion sound of the ambient sound based on the phase-inverted collected-sound electrical signal and emits the generated monitor sound near the sound-catching ear. | 10-09-2008 |
20080292111 | Headset for Blocking Noise - The present invention relates, in general, to a headset for temporarily blocking or interrupting noise and shock waves above a preset reference level and, more particularly, to a headset for blocking or interrupting noise, which allows a user to listen to typical voices, sounds, etc. through microphones and speakers mounted on the headset, thus allowing the user to normally converse with other users even while wearing the headset, and which senses a noise above the preset reference level which may be generated in places, such as a rifle range, a hunting field, and a large-scale work place and factory where a loud noise is frequently generated, and temporarily blocks or interrupts the output of the speakers, thus preventing auditory organs from being damaged due to noise above the reference level being transmitted through the headset. | 11-27-2008 |
20080310645 | NOISE CANCELING SYSTEM AND NOISE CANCELING METHOD - Disclosed herein is a noise canceling system, including: a first sound collection section configured to collect noise and output a first noise signal; a first signal processing section configured to produce a first noise reduction signal for reducing the noise at a predetermined cancel point; a sound emission section configured to emit noise reduction sound based on the first noise reduction signal; a second sound collection section configured to collect noise and output a second noise signal; and a second signal processing section configured to produce a second noise reduction signal for reducing noise at the cancel point. In the noise canceling system, the sound emission section emitting the noise reduction sound based on the first and second noise reduction signals | 12-18-2008 |
20080317255 | Audio Transducer Component - An audio transducer component comprises at least two independent voice coils, each voice coil associated with a diaphragm and an acoustic cavity. The audio transducer component further comprises magnetic means for driving the at least two independent voice coils with independent signals. | 12-25-2008 |
20090003616 | HEADPHONING - A noise reducing headset has one or more of the following features: (a) pair of earcups each seated in a yoke assembly mechanically coupled by a headband enclosing a flat spring formed with a slot that runs the length of the spring accommodating electrical wires electrically interconnecting electrical elements in the earcups, (b) each earcup having active noise reducing circuitry, (c) each earcup including a loudspeaker driver located off center in the earcup to allow an internal cavity inside each earcup to accommodate a loudspeaker driver, a microphone and an electronic printed circuit board and one of a battery and plug assembly, (d) one of the earcups accommodating a detachably secured plug assembly having a sensitivity switch covered by the earcup when the plug assembly is fully seated in the earcup, (e) the other earcup having a battery door that may be opened to allow insertion and removal of the battery and covered by a yoke assembly when the headset is worn by a user with the battery fully seated in the earcup. | 01-01-2009 |
20090010447 | Active Noise Control System - An active noise control system includes a first microphone, a controller operably coupled to the first microphone, and a speaker operably coupled to the controller. The first microphone senses a sound input in an audible spectrum, wherein the sound input includes a disturbance noise portion. The controller includes a selection unit and an output unit. The selection unit determines the disturbance noise portion of the sound input based on a highest frequency level of the sound input. The output unit removes the disturbance noise portion from the sound input to generate a filtered sound input. The speaker generates a speaker output based on the filtered sound input. | 01-08-2009 |
20090028356 | DIAPHONIC ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCTION COUPLER AND EAR BUD - The disclosed methods and devices incorporate a novel expandable bubble portion which provides superior fidelity to a listener while minimizing listener fatigue. The expandable bubble portion may be expanded through the transmission of low frequency audio signals or the pumping of a gas to the expandable bubble portion. In addition, embodiments of the acoustic device may be adapted to consistently and comfortably fit to any ear, providing for a variable, impedance matching acoustic seal to both the tympanic membrane and the audio transducer, respectively, while isolating the sound-vibration chamber within the driven bubble. This reduces the effect of gross audio transducer vibration excursions on the tympanic membrane and transmits the audio content in a manner which allows the ear to utilize its full inherent capabilities. | 01-29-2009 |
20090034748 | AMBIENT NOISE-REDUCTION CONTROL SYSTEM - The invention provides a noise reduction control system for an ear-worn speaker-carrying device (“ESD”). The system is configured to sense ambient noise and to develop electrical signals which can be used to reduce the amount of said ambient noise audible to a wearer of the ESD. The system sets a plurality of predetermined and discrete noise reduction levels and automatically responds to at least one controlling event, outside the control of the wearer, to set the degree of noise reduction to one of those discrete levels. Typically, the system inverts and filters the electrical signals relating to ambient noise and feeds the inverted and filtered signals to the speaker of the ESD in time for the speaker to generate sounds capable of interfering destructively with the ambient noise. | 02-05-2009 |
20090041259 | Headphones for Connection to an External Active Noise Compensation Device - There is provided headphones for connection to an external active noise compensation device. The headphones have at least one earphone, a microphone near the ear, and a passive circuitry network for increasing the amplification of the external noise compensation device. In that way noise compensation in respect of the external noise compensation can be increased by increasing the overall amplification by the passive network. | 02-12-2009 |
20090041260 | Active noise cancellation in hearing devices - Disclosed is a hearing device system comprising at least one hearing aid circuitry and at least one active noise cancellation unit, the at least one hearing aid circuitry comprises at least one input transducer adapted to convert a first audio signal to an electric audio signal; a signal processor connected to the at least one input transducer and adapted to process said electric audio signal by at least partially correcting for a hearing loss of a user; an output transducer adapted to generate from at least said processed electric audio signal a sound pressure in an ear canal of the user, whereby the generated sound pressure is at least partially corrected for the hearing loss of the user; the at least one active noise cancellation unit being adapted to provide an active noise cancellation signal adapted to perform active noise cancellation of an acoustical signal entering the ear canal in addition to said generated sound pressure, wherein the hearing device system further comprises a combiner unit adapted to combine the processed electric audio signal with the active noise cancellation signal, to obtain a combined signal and to provide the combined signal to the output transducer. | 02-12-2009 |
20090046867 | Digtal Circuit Arrangements for Ambient Noise-Reduction - The invention provides a digital circuit arrangement for an ambient noise-reduction system affording a higher degree of noise reduction than has hitherto been possible, through the use of a low latency signal processing chain consisting of analogue-to-digital conversion, digital processing and digital-to-analogue conversion. The arrangement converts the analogue signals into N-bit digital signals at sample rate f | 02-19-2009 |
20090074199 | SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING A REDUCTION OF AUDIABLE NOISE PERCEPTION FOR A HUMAN USER - A system is disclosed where the well-known psycho-acoustic masking effect, i.e. frequency and/or temporal masking is applied to reduce the human perception of a noise signal. An input signal, such as music or another entertainment signal, is adjusted based on the intensity of the auditory noise by applying existing knowledge about the properties of the human auditory perception and is provided to the human user as a masking sound signal, so that the masking sound elevates the human auditory perception threshold for at least some of the noise signal, whereby the user's perception of that part of the noise signal is reduced or eliminated. The masking sound may be combined with active noise control where a sound in anti-phase with the noise signal is provided for further reduction of the human perception of the noise signal. | 03-19-2009 |
20090080670 | In-Ear Digital Electronic Noise Cancelling and Communication Device - A noise canceling and communication system is described. An in-ear device is adapted to fit in the ear canal of a device user. A passive noise reduction element reduces external noise entering the ear canal. An external microphone senses an external acoustic signal outside the ear canal to produce a representative external microphone signal. An internal microphone senses an internal acoustic signal proximal to the tympanic membrane to produce a representative internal microphone signal. One or more internal sound generators produce a noise cancellation signal and an acoustic communication signal, both directed towards the tympanic membrane. A probe tube shapes an acoustic response between the internal sound generator and the internal microphone to be relatively constant over a wide audio frequency band. An electronics module is located externally of the ear canal and in communication with the in-ear device for processing the microphone signals using a hybrid feed forward and feedback active noise reduction algorithm to produce the noise cancellation signal. The noise reduction algorithm includes a modeling component based on a transfer function associated with the internal sound generator and at least one of the microphones to automatically adjust the noise cancellation signal for fit and geometry of the ear canal of the user. The communication component also includes a modeling component based on a transfer function associated with the internal sound generator and at least one of the microphones to automatically adjust the communication signal for fit and geometry of the ear canal of the user and to assure that the communication signal does not interfere with the noise reduction algorithm and that the noise cancellation signal does not interfere with passing of the communication signal. | 03-26-2009 |
20090086988 | NOISE REDUCTION HEADSETS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING THE SAME - A headphone ( | 04-02-2009 |
20090103745 | Headset with Active Noise Compensation - There is provided an earphone comprising an electroacoustic reproduction transducer, a microphone ( | 04-23-2009 |
20090136055 | Converter System for an Active Noise Compensation Apparatus - There is provided a transducer system for an active noise compensation apparatus, which has a first end at the ear side and an electroacoustic transducer. The electroacoustic transducer has a diaphragm system and a magnet system, wherein the central region of the diaphragm system is curved towards the magnet system and is in the form of an inverted calotte. A sensor microphone is arranged in a volume between the first end and the region of the curvature of the diaphragm system. | 05-28-2009 |
20090136056 | DEVICE IN A HEADSET - A device in a headset having a throat microphone and ear speakers soundproofing against the auditory meatus. The device has a separate microphone connected to the ear speaker for picking up the sound of the surroundings that is transmitted to the car speaker. Furthermore, noise-suppressing means are included, which limit the sound level of the sound of the surroundings. The throat microphone communicates via a communication unit. The soundproofing ear speaker and the microphone are arranged so that the headset can be housed in a safety helmet. | 05-28-2009 |
20090141906 | Communication Headset Processing Multiple Audio Inputs - A communication headset includes first and second domes. The first and second domes include the speaker assembly having a first speaker coil and a second speaker coil. One speaker coil is for receiving a first audio signal, and the second speaker coil is for receiving a second audio signal and an active noise cancellation signal. Each of the speaker coils co-acts with a magnetic field to cause a diaphragm to move responsive to the first and second audio signals and the active noise cancellation signal individually or simultaneously. When the first audio signal is detected, a controller disconnects the second audio signal from the first dome of the headset. | 06-04-2009 |
20090147965 | ELECTRONIC PILLOW FOR ABATING SNORING/ENVIRONMENTAL NOISES, HANDS-FREE COMMUNICATIONS, AND NON-INVASIVE MONITORING AND RECORDING - An electronic pillow including a pillow unit encasing at least one error microphone and at least one loudspeaker in electrical connection with a controller unit, the pillow unit also including a power source, and a reference sensing unit including at least one reference microphone in electrical connection with the controller unit, the controller unit including an algorithm for controlling interactions between the error microphone, loudspeaker, and reference microphone. A method of abating unwanted noise, by detecting an unwanted noise with a reference microphone, analyzing the unwanted noise, producing an anti-noise corresponding to the unwanted noise in a pillow, and abating the unwanted noise. Methods of hands-free communication, recording and monitoring sleep disorders, providing real-time response to emergencies, and playing audio sounds. | 06-11-2009 |
20090161885 | Component for noise reducing earphone - An active noise reduction (ANR) component for provision in an earphone housing is disclosed. The device includes a driver and a sensing microphone, the driver and sensing microphone being housed in a component housing. The earphone housing has an outlet passageway from the ANR component to an auditory canal. The ANR component is adapted for use with a controller to provide active noise reduction to the auditory canal over a predetermined range of physical dimensions or acoustic parameters of the housing outlet passageway. The ANR component can thus be used with different housings which simplifies the design process for producing ANR earphone products. | 06-25-2009 |
20090175463 | NOISE-CANCELING SOUND PLAYING STRUCTURE - A noise-canceling sound playing structure includes a noise canceling mechanism having at least one filtering and phase-reversing unit, an amplifier, and a power supply unit; and a sound output mechanism having at least one enclosure. The enclosure has a first speaker arranged therein and connected to the amplifier, a second speaker arranged therein and connected to an external sound player, and a microphone mounted thereon and connected to the filtering and phase-reversing unit. A chamber is defined in the enclosure between the first and second speakers and the microphone. External noise signals are picked up by the microphone and sent to the noise canceling mechanism for processing at the filtering and phase-reversing unit and the amplifier to thereby produce phase-reversed signals, which are sent to the first speaker to cancel out external noise without being mixed with the musical sound transmitted from the external sound player to the second speaker. | 07-09-2009 |
20090190771 | ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER DEVICE - A noise attenuation device comprising a first tube for receiving an acoustic signal, a first housing defining a first cavity between a first surface and a second surface, the first tube being coupled to the first housing at the first surface for conducting the acoustic signal into the first cavity, wherein one end of the first tube contacts the first surface at a first region with a first area, a second housing defining a second cavity between a first surface and a second surface, and a second tube coupled between the second surface of the first housing and the first surface of the second housing for conducting the acoustic signal between the first cavity and the second cavity, wherein one end of the second tube contacts the second surface of the first housing at a second region with a second area, wherein the first tube, the first housing and the second tube form a filter structure and the area of the first surface of the first housing is greater than the first area and the area of the second surface of the first housing is greater than the second area. | 07-30-2009 |
20090208027 | APPARATUS FOR RECTIFYING RESONANCE IN THE OUTER-EAR CANALS AND METHOD OF RECTIFYING - According to one embodiment, an apparatus for cancelling resonance in an outer-ear canal, comprises an outer-ear canal model includes attenuator modules representing reflection coefficients of an earphone or headphone and an eardrum, and a delay module having a delay time corresponding to a distance between the earphone or headphone and the eardrum, an inverse-filter forming unit configured to form an inverse filter of the outer-ear canal model, and a convolution module configured to perform convolution on an impulse response from the inverse filter and a sound-source signal. | 08-20-2009 |
20090232324 | SEMI-INSERT HEARING PROTECTOR HAVING A HELMHOLTZ-TYPE RESONATOR - A semi-insert hearing protector includes a thin-walled enclosure sized substantially to that of the outer ear of a wearer, the enclosure being made from a rigid or semi-rigid material and secured to the head of said wearer by means of an adjustable headband. A short tube extends from the enclosure for communication with the ear canal, the short tube being made from a rigid or semi-rigid material and including a flexible cuff disposed over the tube made from a resilient material. The enclosure contains sound absorbing material configured to vary the frequency characteristic of sound attenuation by the semi-insert. | 09-17-2009 |
20090245529 | HEADPHONE DEVICE, SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD - A headphone device includes: a sound reproduction unit having a diaphragm which is configured to perform sound reproduction based on a sound signal; a sound pickup unit configured to perform a sound pickup operation; a filtering unit configured to apply filtering to a picked-up sound signal obtained by the sound pickup unit, to give a noise-cancelling signal characteristic; a combining unit configured to combine the picked-up sound signal that has undergone filtering, and a listening sound signal which is inputted separately, to generate a sound signal supplied to the sound reproduction unit; and an abnormality determination unit configured to determine occurrence or non-occurrence of an abnormal sound, on the basis of a result of level detection of a sound signal obtained within a sound signal processing system that includes the filtering unit and the combining unit and is formed between the sound pickup unit and the sound reproduction unit. | 10-01-2009 |
20090279711 | EAR CUP - An ear cup for a hearing protection unit including an inner cup portion which defines a noise damping space facing towards the user. The ear cup further has an outer cup portion for accommodating electronics and/or a current source. The inner cup portion and the outer cup portion are separated by a partition which is of one piece manufacture with the inner cup portion. The partition is substantially closed, with the exception of an opening in which a fixing portion on a bracket is disposed. The fixing portion ( | 11-12-2009 |
20090279712 | Microphone Boom With Adjustable Wind Noise Suppression - A microphone boom cap includes a porous plastic portion adapted to cover a microphone boom first aperture. The microphone boom cap includes a non-porous plastic portion affixed to the porous plastic portion. The non-porous plastic portion is adapted to cover a microphone boom second aperture in a second use position, where the porous plastic portion covers the second aperture in a first use position. | 11-12-2009 |
20090285408 | NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONE - A noise-cancelling headphone includes a cancel signal generator that receives ambient noise via an electro-acoustic transducer and generates and outputs a cancel signal eliminating the noise and a speaker unit that outputs an audio signal and a cancel signal, and connects the cancel signal generator to a first terminal of two input terminals of the speaker unit and connects a sound source of an audio signal to a second terminal thereof, whereby obtaining the noise-cancelling headphone with which one can enjoy music with high quality without the change in the sound quality and volume between when a noise-cancelling function is activated and when deactivated. | 11-19-2009 |
20090296947 | Method and System for a Headset H-Field/E-Field Canceller - Described are a device and a method for canceling a magnetic field and/or an electric field emitted from a device. The device includes a housing including an inner wall and an outer wall, a sense coil located within the inner wall of the housing in proximity to a user's ear, the sense coil sensing a magnitude, polarization and a polarity of an inbound magnetic field within the housing, and an induction coil located between the outer wall and the inner wall of the housing, the induction coil generating an outbound magnetic field having the same polarization and an opposing polarity to the polarity of the inbound magnetic field. The method includes sensing, by a sensing coil, a magnitude and a polarity of an inbound magnetic field, the sensing coil located within a housing of a device, and applying a current to an induction coil to generate an outbound magnetic field having an opposing polarity to the polarity of the inbound magnetic field, the induction coil located within the housing of the device. | 12-03-2009 |
20090296948 | MPD custom ear communication device - A unique communication management device allows the user to control his/her sound environment both in and outside the ear. The device overcomes previous shortcomings encountered by emergency first responders, military, SWAT, firefighters, police, sports enthusiasts, musicians, as well as other users, with respect to single application headsets by utilizing a combination of an ambient noise microphone, volume control, compression circuit, and audio transducer. In an embodiment of the invention, the device also includes independent left and right on/off switches and one or more bone conduction microphones. | 12-03-2009 |
20090296949 | ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTIC CORRECTION APPARATUS, ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTIC MEASUREMENT APPARATUS, AND ACOUSTIC CHARACTERISTIC MEASUREMENT METHOD - According to one embodiment, an acoustic characteristic measurement apparatus comprises a generation module configured to generate a measuring pulse for measuring an acoustic characteristic of a subject, an acquisition module configured acquire an acoustic characteristic of the subject based on a response signal from the subject, and a transducer module configured to transduce the measurement pulse into an acoustic signal to be transmitted to the subject and transduce an acoustic response signal from the subject into an electrical response signal to be supplied to the acquisition module. | 12-03-2009 |
20090316926 | AUDIO DEVICE - An audio device includes a jack, a switch, an amplifier, an internal sound producer, and a determining circuit. The jack establishes a connection with an external sound producer. The switch is in an opened state when the connection is established, and in a closed state when the connection is open. The amplifier amplifies audio signals to amplified audio signals and sends the amplified audio signals to the switch. The determining circuit receives the amplified audio signals from the switch, and generates a high voltage to control the amplifier not to output the amplified audio signals to the internal sound producer when the switch is in the closed state, and generates a low voltage to control the amplifier to output the amplified audio signals to the internal sound producer. The determined circuit further filters out the amplified audio signals when the switch is in the opened state. | 12-24-2009 |
20100014684 | Audio headphone provided with device to prevent audio feedback - An ear muff used with a headset containing two ear muffs. Both of the ear muffs are provided with a loudspeaker and a microphone for sensing ambient noise. An active noise reduction (ANR) circuitry is utilized to cancel the ambient noise. An immobile or inflexible disc is provided within each ear muff for preventing the change of dimensions of an enclosure which includes the loudspeaker and microphone, thereby preventing audio feedback. | 01-21-2010 |
20100027803 | SUPRA-AURAL HEADPHONE NOISE REDUCING - An earphone for a supra-aural noise reducing headphone, with a front cavity that includes a foam portion and an open passageway. The foam portion supplements the volumetric dimension of the passageway to improve passive attenuation. | 02-04-2010 |
20100054491 | NOISE-CANCELING HEADSET FOR A CHILD - A headset for use by a child, such as an infant or small child. The headset includes a front headband sized and shaped to fit over a front portion of the head of the child and a rear headband sized and shaped to fit over a rear portion of the child's head and coupled to the front headband. The headset also includes a first ear cover attached to one side of the front headband and a second ear cover attached to an opposite second side of the front headband. The ear covers each include a noise-canceling earpiece. The headset is positioned over the head of the child and the ear covers are position over the ears of the child to provide noise cancelation to the child. | 03-04-2010 |
20100061564 | AMBIENT NOISE REDUCTION SYSTEM - An adaptive, feed-forward, ambient noise-reduction system includes a reference microphone for generating first electrical signals representing incoming ambient noise, and a connection path including a circuit for inverting these signals and applying them to a loudspeaker directed into the ear of a user. The system also includes an error microphone for generating second electrical signals representative of sound (including that generated by the loudspeaker in response to the inverted first electrical signals) approaching the user's ear. An adaptive electronic filter is provided in the connection path, together with a controller for automatically adjusting one or more characteristics of the filter in response to the first and second electrical signals. The system is configured to constrain the operation of the adaptive filter such that it always conforms to one of a predetermined family of filter responses, thereby restricting the filter to operation within a predetermined and limited set of amplitude and phase characteristics. | 03-11-2010 |
20100061565 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD - An information processing apparatus includes a jack, a noise-canceling adjustment section, a signal superposition section, an inter-device universal communication bus, and a control section. The jack is connectable with a plug of a headphone including a microphone, outputs a first signal to the headphone, and inputs a second signal from the microphone. The noise-canceling adjustment section generates and outputs, based on the second signal input from the jack, a third signal that cancels a noise component around the headphone. The signal superposition section superposes the third signal on the first signal output from the jack. The control section controls the noise-canceling adjustment section via the inter-device universal communication bus. | 03-11-2010 |
20100080400 | EAR-WORN SPEAKER-CARRYING DEVICES - An ear-worn speaker carrying device (“ESD”) incorporating active ambient noise reduction circuitry is provided with a seal intended to contact or surround the ear of a user; the seal being intended to present a substantial impedance to inward or outward transmission of sound to or from the ear. At least one acoustic channel of predetermined dimensions bypasses the seal to providing an acoustic leakage path of known characteristics, thereby permitting predetermined levels of sound to enter and exit by way of the channel, such that minor variations in leakage, dependent, for example, upon precise mounting of the seal to the ear as used from time to time, are rendered relatively unimportant. In a preferred embodiment, the device further comprise conduit connected to vent the speaker's rear surface to the external ambient, and respective exit apertures for the acoustic channel and the acoustic conduit are so relatively located that sounds exiting from them tend to cancel each other, reducing sound emissions from the device. | 04-01-2010 |
20100086144 | COMMUNICATION APPARATUS WITH AMBIENT NOISE REDUCTION - Noise reduction circuitry for a communication apparatus can apply different noise reduction transfer functions, depending on whether a listening device is connected to the apparatus. If no listening device is connected, the noise reduction transfer function can be adapted for use with microphones ( | 04-08-2010 |
20100119076 | Hearing Protection Device Ear Seal With Acoustic Barrier - A hearing protection device such as a headset or headphone having ear cups is provided with ear seals that incorporate an acoustic barrier for attenuating external noise levels in the interior of the ear cups. The ear seals completely encircle the wearer's ear and use cushioning material into which the acoustic barrier is embedded or otherwise associated. The acoustic barrier comprises a strip or flange of material that is denser than the cushioning material and provides enhanced cross sectional attenuation. The acoustic barrier blocks external noise to reduce the level of noise within the internal cell of the ear cup. | 05-13-2010 |
20100128884 | High Transmission Loss Headphone Cushion - A headset including an earcup having a front opening adapted to be adjacent to the ear of the user, a baffle disposed within the earcup to define front and rear cavities, a cushion extending around the periphery of the front opening of the earcup and constructed and arranged to accommodate the ear of the user, the cushion having a first density, an inner radial portion, and an outer radial portion opposite the inner radial portion, a cushion cover substantially surrounding the cushion to form a headphone cushion assembly, and a high impedance component having a second density and located near the outer radial portion to increase the transmission loss of the cushion along a radial direction. | 05-27-2010 |
20100142718 | NOISE CANCELLING HEADPHONE - A noise cancelling headphone is described. The noise cancelling headphone utilizes a low power consuming noise cancellation circuit wherein an audio input signal is directly fed into the headphone without the use of an additional headphone amplifier. The noise cancelling circuit uses a microphone to pick up ambient noise and produces a signal which is equal in amplitude but opposite in polarity to the ambient noise signal. The resultant signal is mixed with the audio input signal and fed into the speakers of the headphone. This method is advantageous because it uses fewer components than conventional noise cancellation circuits and it also consumes less power due to the use of fewer components. The distortion of the audio input signal is also reduced since no amplification is performed to the audio input signal onboard the noise cancellation circuit. | 06-10-2010 |
20100142719 | ACOUSTIC APPARATUS AND METHOD OF CONTROLLING AN ACOUSTIC APPARATUS - According to one embodiment, an acoustic apparatus comprises an electro-acoustic transducer with a first function of converting an electric signal to an acoustic signal and a second function of converting an acoustic signal to an electric signal, the electro-acoustic transducer configured to convert a measuring electric signal to a measuring acoustic signal using the first function, and to convert an acoustic response signal responding to the measuring acoustic signal from an object to an electric response signal using the second function, a switch configured to switch the first function to the second function, or vice versa, and a switch controller configured to control a function switching of the switch in accordance with a sound source signal. | 06-10-2010 |
20100150367 | NOISE CONTROL DEVICE - A noise control device according to the present invention is capable of reducing noises respectively arriving in a plurality of spaces which are acoustically independent from each other. The noise control device comprises: sound output means, which are respectively provided in the plurality of spaces so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of spaces, each for outputting a sound to a corresponding space; noise detection means, which is provided in at least one of the plurality of spaces, for detecting a noise arriving in the at least one of the plurality of spaces; and signal generation means which is a single means for generating, based on the noise detected by one of the noise detection means, a cancellation signal for canceling the noise, and outputting the generated cancellation signal to each of the plurality of sound output means. | 06-17-2010 |
20100150368 | Apparatus, System, and Method for Audio Communications - An apparatus is provided in one example embodiment and includes an earpiece that includes at least one switch that senses physical contact with an end user operating the apparatus. The contact triggers an application to be initiated for the apparatus. In more specific embodiments, one or more additional switches are provided to sense physical contact from the end user and trigger the application based on at least two of the switches sensing the contact. In still other embodiments, a microphone is provided and is coupled to a body element and operable to receive voice data from the end user. | 06-17-2010 |
20100166203 | Headset - There is provided an earphone comprising a first housing (LK, AK, IK) for receiving an electroacoustic transducer and a second housing (RK, AK, IK) for receiving an electroacoustic reproduction transducer, at least one outer microphone (M | 07-01-2010 |
20100166204 | Headphone set - A headphone set is equipped with left- and right-ear headphone units. Each unit includes a housing body having a first plane section and a second plane section that faces the first section, the sections being almost perpendicular to a cross section of a cavum conchae of a user's ear when the housing body is fit in the cavum conchae, a speaker and a microphone aligned between the sections, the speaker being located at the first section side, the microphone being located at the second section side. A sound output section is provided at the first section, to give off sounds output by the speaker to an outer space of the housing body. A sound pick-up hole is provided at the second section, through which the outer space communicates with an inner space of the housing body created between a sound pick-up section of the microphone and the second section. | 07-01-2010 |
20100166205 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD - An information processing apparatus includes a jack, a noise-canceling section, a judgment section, and a first regulation section. The jack is connectable with a plug of a headphone including a microphone, outputs a first signal to the headphone, and inputs a second signal from the microphone. The noise-canceling section generates a third signal that cancels a noise component around the headphone based on the second signal input from the jack and enables an operation of superposing the third signal on the first signal. The judgment section judges whether at least one of the first signal and the second signal exceeds a predetermined level. The first regulation section regulates an operation of the noise-canceling section when the judgment section detects that the predetermined level is exceeded. | 07-01-2010 |
20100166206 | DEVICE FOR AND A METHOD OF PROCESSING AUDIO DATA | 07-01-2010 |
20100172510 | Adaptive noise cancelling - Disclosed herein is an apparatus. The apparatus includes electronic circuitry and a noise cancelling system. The noise cancelling system is connected to the electronic circuitry. The noise cancelling system includes a positioning interface. The noise cancelling system is configured to provide a noise cancelling signal based on, at least partially, the positioning interface. | 07-08-2010 |
20100177904 | Noise Reducing Earphone - A noise reducing earphone includes a body, a speaker, a microphone and a signal processor. The body includes a cavity and a sound tunnel. The speaker and the microphone are both disposed in the cavity. The speaker is configured for outputting audio signals through the sound tunnel. The microphone is disposed besides the speaker and configured for receiving the audio signals in the cavity. The signal processer is electrically connected to the speaker and the microphone and configured for providing an electrical signal to the speaker so that the electrical signal is converted to an audio signal by the speaker. The microphone is configured for converting the received audio signals to an electrical signal, and sending the electrical signal to the signal processor. The signal processor is configured for outputting to the speaker an anti-phase signal with respect to the noise component defined by the signal processor in the audio signal. | 07-15-2010 |
20100195842 | AMBIENT NOISE REDUCTION ARRANGEMENTS - A feedforward ambient noise reduction arrangement ( | 08-05-2010 |
20100208909 | ACOUSTIC TRANSDUCER DEVICE - An acoustic transducer device is provided. The device includes a body, a speaker, a microphone, and a processor. The body has a cavity, a sound exit, and a sound entrance. The cavity interflows with the sound exit and accommodates the speaker. The microphone is disposed within the body beside the speaker. The microphone interflows selectively with the cavity or the sound entrance. The processor is electrically connected to the speaker and the microphone. When the microphone interflows with the cavity, the microphone receives a sound signal generated from the cavity and transmits the sound signal to the processor for cancelling noise in the cavity. When the microphone interflows with the sound exit, the microphone receives an external sound signal and transmits the external sound signal to the processor for cancelling noise from the external. | 08-19-2010 |
20100220867 | Active Cancellation Hearing Assistance Device - An apparatus and method for active cancellation of interference at a hearing assistive devices are presented. The apparatus includes an interference cancellation circuit for cancelling an interference component of a composite signal, and an activator circuit for enabling interference cancellation circuit. The interference cancellation circuit generates an estimated replica of the interference from an interference profile, inverts the replica to form a cancellation waveform, then adds the cancellation waveform to the composite signal to cancel the interference component. An interference profile can be provided by performing a training sequence on a composite signal to detect a repetitive signal and building a profile using its parameters, retrieving a profile stored in memory, or using an antenna to capture an RF signal. The activator circuit may enable the interference cancellation circuit when RF energy is detected, when composite signal characteristics match one or more stored profiles, or in response to user input. | 09-02-2010 |
20100226505 | NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONE - A noise canceling headphone includes; a microphone that converts an ambient noise into an electrical signal; a canceling signal generating unit that generates a canceling signal by inverting a phase of a noise signal obtained by the conversion in the microphone; and a speaker that mixes and outputs an audio signal and the canceling signal. The noise canceling headphone further includes: a standard signal generating unit that generates a standard signal of a certain level; and a comparing unit that outputs a control signal according to a result of comparing the noise signal with the standard signal. The canceling signal generating unit starts operating with the control signal output from the comparing unit. With the noise canceling headphone, a noise canceling headphone can be obtained in which whether the canceling process is required is controlled according to a level of an ambient noise. | 09-09-2010 |
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 |
20100266136 | Apparatus, method and computer program - An apparatus, method and computer program, the apparatus including:
| 10-21-2010 |
20100266137 | NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM WITH GAIN CONTROL BASED ON NOISE LEVEL - A noise cancellation system is provided, for generating a noise cancellation signal to be added to a wanted signal to mitigate the effects of ambient noise. The system comprises: an input, for receiving an input signal representing ambient noise; a detector, for detecting a magnitude of said input signal; and a voice activity detector, for determining voiceless periods when said input signal does not contain a signal representing a voice. The detector is adapted to detect the magnitude of said input signal during said voiceless periods, and the system is adapted to operate in a first mode when said input signal is above a threshold value, and a second mode when said input signal is below the threshold value. The first mode comprises generating a noise cancellation signal with a first magnitude for at least partially cancelling the ambient noise. The second mode comprises generating a noise cancellation signal with a second magnitude that is less than the first magnitude. | 10-21-2010 |
20100272275 | ANR Settings Boot Loading - At initialization of an ANR circuit (i.e., at so-called boot time), attempts are made to alternately obtain ANR settings from an external storage device by operating the ANR circuit as a master of a bus and from an external processing device by operating the ANR circuit as a slave of the bus. Such alternating attempts may be repeated until the ANR settings are loaded. | 10-28-2010 |
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 |
20100272277 | Dynamically Configurable ANR Signal Processing Topology - In an ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device, each of a feedback ANR pathway in which feedback anti-noise sounds are generated from feedback reference sounds, a feedforward ANR pathway in which feedforward anti-noise sounds are generated from feedforward reference sounds, and a pass-through audio pathway in which modified pass-through audio sounds are generated from received pass-through audio sounds incorporate at least a block of filters to perform those functions; and may each incorporate one or more VGAs and/or summing nodes. For each of these pathways, ANR settings for interconnections of each of the pathways, coefficients of each of the filters, gain settings of any VGA, along with still other ANR settings, are dynamically configurable wherein dynamic configuration is performed in synchronization with the transfer of one or more pieces of digital data along one or more of the pathways. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272278 | Dynamically Configurable ANR Filter Block Topology - In an ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device, each of a feedback ANR pathway in which feedback anti-noise sounds are generated from feedback reference sounds, a feedforward ANR pathway in which feedforward anti-noise sounds are generated from feedforward reference sounds, and a pass-through audio pathway in which modified pass-through audio sounds are generated from received pass-through audio sounds incorporate at least a block of filters to perform those functions; and may each incorporate one or more VGAs and/or summing nodes. For each of these pathways, ANR settings for selections of quantities and types of filters for each filter block, bit sizes of coefficients and/or coefficient values of each of the filters, along with still other ANR settings, are dynamically configurable wherein dynamic configuration is performed in synchronization with the transfer of one or more pieces of digital data along one or more of the pathways, at least within one or more of the filter blocks. | 10-28-2010 |
20100272279 | Feedback-Based ANR Adjustment Responsive to Environmental Noise Levels - An ANR circuit, possibly of a personal ANR device, monitors a sound level of environmental sounds detected by a microphone external to an earpiece in which the ANR circuit is providing feedback-based ANR, and increases or decreases the degree of feedback-based ANR provided in response to the external microphone detecting a higher or lower sound level, respectively. Increasing and decreasing the degree of feedback-based ANR provided may be carried out by changing a variable loop gain of the ANR circuit and/or a range of frequencies of environmental sounds attenuated by the feedback-based ANR. | 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 |
20100272282 | ANR Settings Triple-Buffering - An ANR circuit employs first, second and third buffers to buffer ANR settings in preparation for configuring one or more components of the ANR circuit during operation and in synchronization with the transfer of at least one piece of digital data within the ANR circuit. The first and second buffers are alternately used to carry out such configuring, while the third buffer stores a “failsafe” ANR settings to be automatically used in configuring the one or more components of the ANR circuit in response to an indication of instability in the provision feedback-based ANR, feedforward-based ANR and/or pass-through audio being detected. | 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 |
20100296666 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR NOISE CANCELLATION IN VOICE COMMUNICATION - The present invention provides an apparatus and method for noise cancellation of voice communication. The apparatus includes a main body, loudspeaker, in-ear microphone, speaking microphone and adaptive control system. The method includes an external noise microphone arranged externally onto the main and used to acquire the noise outside of the ear drum, which is taken as the reference noise signal of adaptive control system. The in-ear anti-noise is estimated, so that the noise disturbance can be reduced when the receiving end receives remote voices. After noises and near-end voices are separated from near-end voices subjecting to noise disturbance, so that the accuracy of estimating anti-noise and the applicability of active noise cancellation is increased. | 11-25-2010 |
20100310084 | CANCELLATION OF BONE-CONDUCTING SOUND IN A HEARING PROSTHESIS - An hearing prosthesis configured to cancel received bone-conducted sound. The hearing prosthesis comprises: first and second matched microphones configured to be implanted in a recipient in a spaced arrangement such that the first microphone receives air-conducted sound signals and bone-conducted sound signals substantially simultaneously, and wherein the second microphone receives bone-conducted sound signals at substantially the same time as the first microphone and receives the air-conducted sound signals after a time delay. The time delay results in a relative phase difference between the air-conducted sound signals and the bone-conducted sound signals received by the second microphone. The prosthesis also comprises a noise cancellation system configured to cancel, based on the phase difference, the bone-conducted sound signals received by the first and second microphones. | 12-09-2010 |
20110002474 | Active Noise Reduction System Control - An active noise reduction system for use with an ear piece uses an ultrasonic signal to determine the acoustic coupling between a speaker and a sensor microphone of the noise reduction system. The determination of the acoustic coupling may be used to adjust the game of the system to provide a closed loop game which optimises performance of the system. | 01-06-2011 |
20110002475 | EARMUFF AND HEADPHONE - An earmuff and a headphone includes: a headband; an ear cup attached to the headband; a baffle board fixed on the ear cup; an ear pad engaged to the baffle board. An air-permeable member provided between the baffle board and the ear pad. | 01-06-2011 |
20110002476 | AMBIENT NOISE REMOVAL DEVICE - An ambient noise removal device includes: a sound signal output section that outputs a sound signal to thereby drive a speaker; a noise detection section that detects an electromotive force produced in the speaker by ambient noise; and a noise cancellation section that generates, on the basis of the electromotive force, a signal of an opposite phase from the ambient noise and adds the generated signal to the sound signal to thereby cancel the ambient noise. | 01-06-2011 |
20110019834 | HEARING PROTECTOR - A hearing protector comprises two protective muffs ( | 01-27-2011 |
20110033060 | MODE SWITCHING NOISE CANCELLATION FOR MICROPHONE-SPEAKER COMBINATIONS USED IN TWO WAY AUDIO COMMUNICATIONS - An audio host device has an electrical interface having a speaker contact, a microphone contact, and a reference contact. The reference contact is shared by a microphone and a speaker. The reference contact is also directly coupled to a power return plane of the audio host device. A difference amplifier is provided, having a cold input and a hot input. The hot input is coupled to the microphone contact. A switched attenuator circuit is also provided that has first and second states. In the first state, the attenuator circuit couples a sense point of the reference contact to the cold input, while in the second state the cold input is isolated from the reference sense point. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 02-10-2011 |
20110044463 | DEVICE TO ENHANCE AN EAR BUD - The present invention relates to a device to enhance an ear bud including a headband coupled to one or more ear pads. The ear pad being formed of a material for providing dampening of ambient sound and physiologic compression. For example, the pad can be formed of a visco-elastic foam having a thickness to provide noise reduction and sufficient comfort by avoiding excessive compression on any one part of the ear. The headband and the ear pad provide a force for compressing the tragus and antitragus to partially isolate the ear bud in the external auditory canal. | 02-24-2011 |
20110044464 | FEEDFORWARD ANR DEVICE ACOUSTICS - An earpiece of an ANR device incorporates one or more of feedforward-based ANR; feedback-based ANR; passive noise reduction (PNR) of environmental noise sounds in the environment external to the casing of the earpiece in higher audible frequencies; a controlled leak acoustically coupling the front cavity to the environment external to the casing of the ANR device where the coupling may be through another cavity that is closable to the environment external to the casing with a leaky cover; a combination of an acoustically resistive port and a mass port coupling a rear cavity to the environment external to the casing where the coupling may be through another cavity that is closable to the environment external to the casing with a leaky cover; a feedforward microphone given acoustic access to the environment external to the casing through an aperture that is overlain with a leaky cover or that is enclosed within a cavity that is acoustically coupled to the environment external to the casing with a leak. | 02-24-2011 |
20110044465 | FEEDFORWARD ANR DEVICE COVER - An earpiece of an ANR device incorporates one or more of feedforward-based ANR; feedback-based ANR; passive noise reduction (PNR) of environmental noise sounds in the environment external to the casing of the earpiece in higher audible frequencies; a controlled leak acoustically coupling the front cavity to the environment external to the casing of the ANR device where the coupling may be through another cavity that is closable to the environment external to the casing with a leaky cover; a combination of an acoustically resistive port and a mass port coupling a rear cavity to the environment external to the casing where the coupling may be through another cavity that is closable to the environment external to the casing with a leaky cover; a feedforward microphone given acoustic access to the environment external to the casing through an aperture that is overlain with a leaky cover or that is enclosed within a cavity that is acoustically coupled to the environment external to the casing with a leak. | 02-24-2011 |
20110051947 | ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT FOR HEADSET - An electronic circuit ( | 03-03-2011 |
20110064238 | MICROPHONE/SPEAKER DEVICE - Embodiments provide a microphone/speaker assembly such as a headphone or headset which comprises a mechanical acoustical low pass filter between the microphone and the speaker so as to effectively attenuate higher frequencies fed back to the microphone. The low pass filter may comprise a hole or tunnel which connects a front volume of the microphone with a front volume of the speaker, providing a reliable and effective stable structure. An attenuation material may be provided for adjusting the attenuation of the low pass filter. Other embodiments provide side-by-side microphone and speaker so that the microphone does not distort the speaker acoustic path. | 03-17-2011 |
20110116646 | ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND EXTERNAL EQUIPMENT WITH DIGITAL NOISE CANCELLATION AND DIGITAL AUDIO PATH - Electronic devices and accessories are provided that may communicate over wired communications paths. The electronic devices may be portable electronic devices such as cellular telephones or media players and may have audio connectors such as 3.5 mm audio jacks. The accessories may be headsets or other equipment having mating 3.5 mm audio plugs and speakers for playing audio. Microphones may be included in an accessory to gather voice signals and noise cancellation signals. Analog-to-digital converter circuitry in the accessory may digitize the microphone signals. Digital voice signals and voice noise cancellation signals can be transmitted over the communications path and processed by audio digital signal processor circuitry in an electronic device. Digital-to-analog converter circuitry in the accessory may convert digital audio signals to analog speaker signals. Digital noise cancellation signals may use digital noise signals to cancel noise from digital audio signals that have been received from an electronic device. | 05-19-2011 |
20110116647 | EQUIPMENT WITH OPTICAL PATHS FOR NOISE CANCELLATION SIGNALS - Electronic devices are provided that communicate over cables and other communications paths that include optical and electrical paths. A cable may include wires for forming an electrical path and one or more optical fibers for forming an optical path. Connectors at one or both ends of the cable may include electrical contacts and an optical coupling structure associated with the optical path. Optical paths may be included in connectors such as tip-ring-sleeve connectors and connectors of other types. Interface circuitry may be included in a connector to convert between optical and electrical signaling schemes. Wavelength-division-multiplexing may be used to support bidirectional communications. Breakout boxes and other equipment may be connected using the cables. Digital signals such as digital noise cancellation signals may be conveyed over the optical paths. Power and other electrical signals may be conveyed over the electrical paths. | 05-19-2011 |
20110129097 | System, Device, and Method Utilizing an Integrated Stereo Array Microphone - The invention relates to an audio device for use proximate a user's ears. The audio device includes first and second audio transmitting/receiving devices that are capable of operating in stereo. The audio device may be used within a system for manipulating audio signals received by the device. The manipulation may include processing received audio signals to enhance their quality. The processing may include applying one or more audio enhancement algorithms such as beamforming, active noise reduction, etc. A corresponding method for manipulating audio signals is also disclosed. | 06-02-2011 |
20110135106 | METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING SIGNALS - A system for processing sound, the system including: (a) a processor, configured to process a first input signal that is detected by a first microphone at a detection moment, a second input signal that is detected by a second microphone at the detection moment, and a third input signal that is detected by a bone-conduction microphone at the detection moment, to generate a corrected signal that is responsive to the first, second, and third input signals; and (b) a communication interface, configured to provide the corrected signal to an external system. | 06-09-2011 |
20110142249 | BATTERY RECEIVING MECHANISM FOR NOISE CANCELLATION HEADPHONE - Housings on the right/left of the noise cancellation headphone, where a speaker unit is incorporated, are connected to each other with a headband, and a battery receiving portion is provided on a side surface of at least one of the right and left housings, the battery receiving mechanism comprising: a battery receiving portion provided in the side surface of the housing; a battery lid opening and closing the battery receiving portion; and a flexible connecting member preventing the battery lid from dropping off from the housing in a state where the battery lid opens the battery receiving portion; wherein the housing and the battery lid each include an engagement part which engages with each other by pushing in the battery lid in a direction intersecting with the side surface of the housing, and wherein the battery lid occupies a part of the side surface of the housing. | 06-16-2011 |
20110150233 | DEVICE FOR AND A METHOD OF PROCESSING A SIGNAL | 06-23-2011 |
20110158420 | STAND-ALONE EAR BUD FOR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION - An ear bud and noise reduction system actively reduce noise in one ear while the user listens with the other ear to an audio sound wave produced by the speaker of an electronic device (e.g., a cell phone or a wireless headset attachable to a single ear). The ear bud includes a microphone, an active noise reduction unit, and an audio speaker. The active noise reduction unit produces a noise reduction signal based on ambient noise sensed by the microphone in the vicinity of a first ear while an electronic device produces a first audio sound wave in the vicinity of a second ear. The audio speaker produces a second audio sound wave in the vicinity of the first ear based on the noise reduction signal to reduce or substantially cancel the ambient noise. The first and second audio sound waves may be produced independently of each other. | 06-30-2011 |
20110170700 | ACOUSTIC SIGNAL COMPENSATOR AND ACOUSTIC SIGNAL COMPENSATION METHOD - According to one embodiment, an acoustic signal compensator includes an acoustic signal receiving module, a compensator, and an output module. The acoustic signal receiving module receives an acoustic signal. The compensator performs compensation on the acoustic signal, as compensation of acoustic characteristics of an ear including an ear canal having a first-order resonance characteristic and a second-order resonance characteristic, to suppress a first-order frequency of ear resonance and a second-order frequency lower than double of the first-order frequency. The output module outputs the acoustic signal compensated by the compensator. | 07-14-2011 |
20110188665 | CONVERTIBLE FILTER - Apparatus and method for implementing a convertible filter in differing ones of its delay and weighting elements are powered through different power conductors, thereby enabling the convertible filter to be dynamically configured to be operable as different types of digital filter through selective provision of power to differing ones of the power conductors. | 08-04-2011 |
20110206214 | ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION SYSTEM - A system for actively reducing noise at a listening point, includes an earphone housing, a transmitting transducer, a receiving transducer and a controller. The transmitting transducer converts a first electric signal into a first acoustic signal, and radiates the first acoustic signal along a first acoustic path having a first transfer characteristic and along a second acoustic path having a second transfer characteristic. The receiving transducer converts the first acoustic signal and ambient noise into a second electrical signal. The controller compensates for the ambient noise by providing a noise reducing electrical signal to the transmitting transducer. The noise reducing electrical signal is derived from a filtered electrical signal that is provided by filtering the second electrical signal with a third transfer characteristic. The second and the third transfer characteristics together model the first transfer characteristic. | 08-25-2011 |
20110216909 | High Transmission Loss Cushion - A headset including an earcup having a front opening adapted to be adjacent to the ear of a user, the earcup extending in a radial direction and an axial direction and defining an earcup volume; and a bellows cushion extending around the periphery of the front opening of the earcup and sized to engage the ear of the user, the bellows cushion comprising a plurality of folded segments located at an outer radial portion of the bellows cushion, and configured to be substantially compliant along an axial direction. | 09-08-2011 |
20110222700 | ADAPTIVE ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM - A system includes a noise detector configured to identify undesirable noise components in an acoustic signal and a noise energy profiler configured to analyze the identified undesirable noise components and generate a noise energy profile. In the system, a cancelation profile generator is configured to generate a noise cancelation profile based at least in part on information in the noise energy profile, and a cancelation profile effector is configured to translate the noise cancelation profile into values for a programmable circuit. | 09-15-2011 |
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 |
20110243344 | ANR INSTABILITY DETECTION - Apparatus and method of an ANR circuit detecting instances of instability in at least the provision of feedback-based ANR, monitoring audio that includes feedback anti-noise sounds for acoustic output by an acoustic driver for a sound having characteristics indicative of instability including at least a frequency within a range of frequencies and an amplitude reaching at least a predetermined minimum amplitude, and perhaps also a sinusoidal waveform. | 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 |
20110261971 | Sound Signal Compensation Apparatus and Method Thereof - According to one embodiment, a sound signal compensation apparatus includes an input module, a compensation module, and an output module. The input module receives identification information identifying a first frequency with regard to a resonance of an ear closed by an earphone or headphone. The compensation module performs first compensation emphasizing a second frequency on a sound signal, the second frequency being determined based on the identification information or the first frequency. The output module outputs the compensated sound signal. The compensation module is configured to perform the first compensation emphasizing the second frequency, at which emphasis is greater than or equal to 2 dB and less than or equal to 12 dB. | 10-27-2011 |
20110280411 | Noise Reduction Circuit With Monitoring Functionality - A noise reduction circuit | 11-17-2011 |
20110286607 | NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONE - Noise canceling headphones designed so that external noise coming from all directions can be effectively concerned by means of a canceling sound before being heard by a user. These feed-forward noise canceling headphones use noise canceling headphones ( | 11-24-2011 |
20110299695 | ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION DECISIONS IN A PORTABLE AUDIO DEVICE - Active noise cancellation (ANC) circuitry is coupled to the input of an earpiece speaker in a portable audio device, to control the ambient acoustic noise outside of the device and that may be heard by a user of the device. A microphone is to pickup sound emitted from the earpiece speaker, as well as the ambient acoustic noise. Control circuitry deactivates the ANC in response to determining that an estimate of how much sound emitted from the earpiece speaker has been corrupted by noise indicates insufficient corruption by noise. In another embodiment, the ANC decision is in response to determining that an estimate of the ambient noise level is greater than a threshold level of an audio artifact that could be induced by the ANC. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 12-08-2011 |
20110311069 | RECEIVER ASSEMBLY FOR AN INFLATABLE EAR DEVICE - A diaphonic valve utilizing the principle of the Synthetic Jet is disclosed herein. A diaphonic valve pump is provided for the inflation of an in-ear balloon. More complex embodiments of the present invention include stacks of multiple synthetic jets generating orifices as well as an oscillating, thin polymer membrane. In one or more embodiments of the present invention, a novel application is provided for the creation of static pressure to inflate or to deflate an inflatable member (balloon). In addition, sound can be utilized to inflate or deflate an inflatable member in a person's ear for the purpose of listening to sound. | 12-22-2011 |
20110317844 | Small Stereo Headset - A wireless headset device has left a left ear piece, a right ear piece, a control box, and first and second cables. Each of the ear pieces comprises its own speaker and battery. The control box includes circuitry including a short-range radio transceiver, a codec, and a power management unit. The left ear piece battery is connected to supply power to the power management unit by means of the first cable; and the right ear piece battery is connected to supply power to the power management unit by means of the second cable. The power management unit in the control box regulates the supplied battery power and supplies regulated power to control box circuitry. | 12-29-2011 |
20120014532 | NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONE - A noise-canceling headphone that cancels external noise with a feedforward system includes a driver unit disposed in a housing, a microphone unit that is outwardly disposed in the housing and collects the external noise, and canceling signal generator that generates a noise-canceling signal having a phase opposite to the noise entering through the headphone. The noise-canceling headphone includes an error detecting microphone unit that detects error noise uncanceled by the feedforward system, and error noise-canceling signal generator that generates an error correction signal to cancel the error noise with a feedback system. | 01-19-2012 |
20120033822 | EARPHONE HAVING SOUND INSULATION MEANS - The present invention relates to an inexpensive environmental noise reduction type inner earphone which allows a user to listen music with high quality of sound and with a small volume under noisy environments making noise of 86 dB or more such as in aircraft seats, subways, trains and so on, and particularly which is capable of blocking a high level of environmental noise and regeneration sound passing through the inner earphone by filling a space formed between an ear and the inner earphone with a sound insulation element made of porous soft plastic. The earphone includes a frequency characteristic correction circuit which serves to correct a sound insulation characteristic of the sound insulation element between a voice coil of the earphone and a plug of the earphone and includes a resistor and a capacitor. | 02-09-2012 |
20120057717 | Noise Suppression for Sending Voice with Binaural Microphones - Noise-suppressing techniques using a dual-microphone headset include methods in which first and second audio input signals are generated from first and second microphones placed in or near a user's ears, or on each side of the user's throat. These audio input signals are correlated, to produce a correlation signal, and are also combined, to produce an intermediate audio signal. An output audio signal is generated by selectively adjusting the amplitude of the intermediate audio signal, based on the correlation signal, to emphasize correlated components of the first and second audio input signals, relative to uncorrelated components. | 03-08-2012 |
20120057718 | Noise Reduction Circuit and Method Therefor - Noise cancellation is effected for audio devices. In connection with various embodiments, a forward leakage transfer function is determined using a signal corresponding to detected portions of the generated sound that has leaked out of the user's ear canal with the proximate end of the earphone inserted in (or otherwise fitted to) the ear. This forward leakage transfer function can be used to characterize ambient noise entering a user's ear canal. A signal corresponding to ambient noise is processed with the forward leakage transfer function to generate and output a noise-cancelling signal for canceling at least a portion of the detected ambient noise. | 03-08-2012 |
20120063611 | NOISE CANCELING HEADPHONE AND NOISE CANCELING EARMUFF - A noise canceling headphone includes a microphone provided in a headphone housing, collecting external sound, a canceling signal generating circuit generating a canceling signal in response to a signal output from the microphone which cancels external sound passing through the housing without being attenuated by a sound insulating characteristic of the headphone, a compensating signal generating circuit generating a compensating signal that compensates for the external sound attenuated by the sound insulating characteristic of the headphone, an adding circuit that adds a musical signal input from the exterior to the compensating signal, and a speaker unit that outputs an output signal from the adding circuit and the canceling signal. | 03-15-2012 |
20120093331 | EARPHONE - Provided is an earphone, including an earphone body and an earphone cap. The earphone body includes an earphone shell forming a sound cavity and disposing a sound-guiding pipe. The sound-guiding pipe disposes at least one through hole. The earphone cap is rotatably mounted on the earphone body and includes a main body and a barrel. The barrel is located on the inside of the main body and arranged to encompass the sound-guiding pipe. The barrel disposes at least one opening, which is arranged to be aligned or misaligned with the part or whole of the through hole. The earphone of the present invention can make the opening be aligned or misaligned with and the part or whole of the through hole by rotating the earphone cap, thereby varying the pressure of the sound cavity to attain the object of adjusting sound effect. | 04-19-2012 |
20120093332 | ADJUSTABLE AUDIO HEADPHONE - Provided is an adjustable audio headphone, including a headphone body, a damping object and a pressing mechanism. The headphone body includes a headphone shell, which forms a sound cavity in inside thereof and a receiving chamber on one end thereof. A bottom surface of the receiving chamber forms a through hole communicated with the sound cavity. The damping object is made of compressible material such as sponge, elastic plastic, textile and so on and. The damping object is placed into the receiving chamber of the headphone shell. The pressing mechanism is mounted on the headphone shell and is capable of pressing the damping object. The adjustable audio headphone of the present invention can compress the damping object to change the density of the damping object by employing the pressing mechanism, thereby varying the pressure of the sound cavity and realizing the object of adjusting the audio thereof. | 04-19-2012 |
20120099736 | NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM - A method of controlling a noise cancellation system, for use in an audio device, comprises: generating an ambient noise signal representative of ambient noise; filtering and applying gain to the ambient noise signal to generate a noise cancellation signal; passing the noise cancellation signal to a speaker; and generating an error signal from an error microphone, wherein the gain applied to the ambient noise signal is controlled based on the error signal, and the method further comprises: determining from the error signal whether the audio device is in an off-ear position, and controlling the noise cancellation system based on said determination as to whether the audio device is in the off-ear position. | 04-26-2012 |
20120140941 | HEADSET AND HEADPHONE - There is provided a headset having at least one microphone for detecting ambient noises, at least one electroacoustic reproduction transducer and a control unit for controlling the headset. The headset also has a digital active noise reduction unit for performing digital active noise reduction based on the ambient noises recorded by the microphone. The headset further has a data interface for receiving data and/or parameters for the headset and for outputting data and/or parameters stored in the headset. | 06-07-2012 |
20120148061 | EARPHONE - An earphone has a casing, containing a speaker, the casing being adapted to fit within the outer ear of a user at the entrance to the ear canal of the user. The earphone can be used in a noise cancelling earphone system, with signal processing circuitry connected to the microphone and to the speaker. The signal processing circuitry is adapted to receive the ambient noise signal from the microphone, and to apply the ambient noise signal to a filter having a controllable amount of gain, for generating a noise cancellation signal for transmission to the speaker. The result is that, however the earphone is worn within the outer ear of a user, an amount of sound leakage lies within a predetermined range, such that the amount of gain to be applied by the signal processing circuitry falls within a relatively narrow range. | 06-14-2012 |
20120148062 | AUDIO DEVICE - Existing ANC headsets have active noise reduction circuitry and a power supply in the headset. Alternate ANC headsets rely on ANC circuitry in the player and have non-standard connectors meaning that they cannot be used with any other players. An audio headset ( | 06-14-2012 |
20120155666 | ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION - In some embodiments a noise cancellation system includes a first digital microphone to detect ambient noise, a first sigma delta modulator coupled to an output of the first digital microphone, a second digital microphone located near an earpiece speaker to detect an output of the earpiece speaker, a second sigma delta modulator coupled to an output of the second digital microphone, a decimator coupled to the second sigma delta modulator, and an adaptive digital filter to adaptively adjust an output of the earpiece speaker in response to the decimator and the first sigma delta modulator so that the output of the earpiece speaker includes a desired audio and an acoustic signal to cancel some or all of the ambient noise. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 06-21-2012 |
20120155667 | ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION - In some embodiments a noise cancellation system includes a first digital microphone to detect ambient noise, a first sigma delta modulator coupled to an output of the first digital microphone, a second digital microphone located near an earpiece speaker to detect an output of the earpiece speaker, a second sigma delta modulator coupled to an output of the second digital microphone, a decimator coupled to the second sigma delta modulator, and an adaptive digital filter to adaptively adjust an output of the earpiece speaker in response to the decimator and the first sigma delta modulator so that the output of the earpiece speaker includes a desired audio and an acoustic signal to cancel some or all of the ambient noise. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 06-21-2012 |
20120155668 | Noise Canceling Earphone and a Driving Circuit - The present invention is related to a noise canceling earphone and driving circuit. The driving circuit integrates onto a single chip through system-on-a-chip (SOC) technology, an analog active noise cancellation (ANC) device ( | 06-21-2012 |
20120170765 | DIGITAL CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR AMBIENT NOISE-REDUCTION - A digital circuit arrangement for an ambient noise-reduction system affording a higher degree of noise reduction than has hitherto been possible. The arrangement converts the analog signals into N-bit digital signals at sample rate f | 07-05-2012 |
20120177213 | ACTIVE NOISE-CANCELLATION FEEDBACK SIGNAL TRANSMISSION - A noise-cancelling system includes headset for generating a feedback signal for noise-cancellation in response to sound externally generated from the headset. An encoded microphone signal is generated in response to the first feedback signal. An audio generator can be used to generate a noise-cancellation signal in response to the encoded microphone signal and to generate an electronic audio signal in response to the encoded microphone signal and a first output audio signal. An audio connector is provided to couple the encoded microphone signal from the headset to the audio generator and to couple the first electronic audio signal to the headset. | 07-12-2012 |
20120207317 | EAR-COUPLING DETECTION AND ADJUSTMENT OF ADAPTIVE RESPONSE IN NOISE-CANCELING IN PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICES - A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. A processing circuit determines a degree of coupling between the user's ear and the transducer and adjusts the adaptive cancellation of the ambient sounds to prevent erroneous and possibly disruptive generation of the anti-noise signal if the degree of coupling lies either below or above a range of normal operating ear contact pressure. | 08-16-2012 |
20120207318 | SOUND SIGNAL OUTPUT APPARATUS, SPEAKER APPARATUS, AND SOUND SIGNAL OUTPUT METHOD - A sound signal output apparatus includes: a wearing state determination unit which determines whether or not a connected speaker apparatus is fitted to an ear of a user; a volume adjustment unit which adjusts volume of a sound signal to be supplied to the speaker apparatus; and an accumulative computation unit which computes an accumulative value of output volume in accordance with a volume level and sound output time of the sound signal, causes the volume adjustment unit to execute volume regulation when the accumulative value reaches a regulatory value, and does not compute the accumulative value during a period in which the wearing state determination unit determines that the speaker apparatus is not fitted to the ear. | 08-16-2012 |
20120250873 | ADAPTIVE FEED-FORWARD NOISE REDUCTION - In an aspect, the invention features an active noise reduction device including an electronic signal processing circuit. The electronic signal processing circuit includes a first input for accepting a first signal, a second input for accepting a second signal, an output for providing a third signal, a feed-forward path from the first input to the output, and a feed-forward controller for determining the control parameter by calculating a control signal using the first signal and the second signal and then using the control signal to determine the control parameter. The feed-forward path includes a fixed compensation linear filter and a variable compensation filter having an input for receiving a control parameter that applies a selected linear filter from a family of linear filters that vary in both gain and spectral shape and are selectable by the control parameter. | 10-04-2012 |
20120300956 | SOUND OUTPUTTING DEVICE - According to an aspect, a sound outputting device includes a front unit, a first side unit, a second side unit, a sound transmitting portion, and a piezoelectric speaker. The first side unit is coupled to one end portion of the front unit. The second side unit is coupled to another end portion of the front unit. The sound transmitting portion is provided in the first side unit for transmitting a sound via cartilage conduction. The piezoelectric speaker vibrates the sound transmitting portion. | 11-29-2012 |
20120314882 | PRODUCTION OF AMBIENT NOISE-CANCELLING EARPHONES - The invention is intended to facilitate the production of ambient noise- cancelling earphones and, to that end, provides a module ( | 12-13-2012 |
20130003983 | HEADPHONE - A headphone includes: a pair of earphone units each of which includes a speaker and a plurality of microphones which are arranged at a back side of the speaker in a given pattern and through which external sounds are picked up; a sound pickup signal generator configured to generate a plurality of sound pickup signals, each of which has a given directivity, by using a plurality of signals outputted from the plurality of microphones; an external source sound input section through which an external source sound signal from an external source is inputted; and a sound emission signal generator configured to generate sound emission signals, which are to be inputted to the speakers of the earphone units and each of which has a directivity, by using the external source sound signal and the plurality of sound pickup signals. | 01-03-2013 |
20130022213 | DIGITAL NOISE-CANCELLATION - This invention relates to a device for and method of implementing an ambient noise-cancellation (ANC) circuit that uses digital processing whereby a signal indicative of the ambient noise is converted to digital form, filtered, using a fixed or adaptive digital filter, and then converted back to analogue before sending it to an ear-proximate speaker. In order to address the time delays associated with such processing operations, the analogue-to-digital converter used is associated with a down-sampler, and the arrangement is such that a first part of the filtering is implemented by the down-sampler, and a second part of the filtering is implemented by the digital filter. This reduces group delay by configuring a down-sampler associated with the front end of the analogue-to-digital converter to incorporate selected filter characteristics of the overall ANC filter response, and modifying the subsequent filtering processing stage to compensate for this. | 01-24-2013 |
20130028434 | EARPHONE ARRANGEMENTS - The present invention relates to earphone arrangements configured to accommodate an acoustically-resistant couple within the compact dimensions of ear-bud type earphones, and aims to incorporate a front volume to rear volume acoustic couple into an earphone without requiring significant addition to the lateral dimensions of the earphone. The earphone has an elongate sound outlet port that locates into a listener's ear canal and bears an internal support surface which is apertured and communicates with the outlet port. A microspeaker is supported on the support surface and projects sound through the aperture and toward the outlet port. Furthermore, the housing includes a front cavity in front of the microspeaker and in communication with the outlet port, and a rear cavity behind the microspeaker. The support surface bears a recess that communicates with the front cavity, and an acoustic resistor is accommodated in the recess. | 01-31-2013 |
20130028435 | NOISE REDUCING SOUND-REPRODUCTION - An active noise reduction system includes an earphone with a cup-like housing, and a transmitting transducer, which converts electrical signals into acoustical signals and is arranged at an aperture of the housing. A receiving transducer converts acoustical signals into electrical signals, and is arranged proximate the transmitting transducer. A duct includes an end acoustically coupled to the receiving transducer, another end located proximate the transmitting transducer. An acoustical path extends from the transmitting transducer to a listener's ear, and has a first transfer characteristic. Another acoustical path extends from the transmitting transducer through the duct to the receiving transducer, and has a second transfer characteristic. A control unit generates a noise reducing electrical signal that is supplied to the transmitting transducer. This signal is derived from the receiving-transducer signal and filtered with a third transfer characteristic. The second and third transfer characteristics together model the first transfer characteristic. | 01-31-2013 |
20130039506 | HEADPHONE DEVICE - There is provided a headphone device including a first housing and a second housing; a headband connected to the first and second housings; a first headphone unit and a second headphone unit disposed in the first and second housings, respectively; a first microphone and a second microphone arranged in the vicinity of the first and second headphone units; and a signal processing unit disposed in the first housing for processing input audio signals from the outside and microphone signals detected by the first and second microphones, and generating first and second noise-canceled audio signals to be supplied to the first and second headphone units. | 02-14-2013 |
20130039507 | ELECTRONIC DEVICES FOR CONTROLLING NOISE - An electronic device for controlling noise is described. The electronic device includes a force sensor for detecting a force on the electronic device. The electronic device also includes noise control circuitry for generating a noise control signal based on a noise signal and the force. Another electronic device for controlling noise is also described. The electronic device includes a speaker that outputs a runtime ultrasound signal, an error microphone that receives a runtime ultrasound channel signal and noise control circuitry coupled to the speaker and to the error microphone. The noise control circuitry determines at least one calibration parameter and determines a runtime channel response based on the runtime ultrasound channel signal. The noise control circuitry also determines a runtime placement based on the runtime channel response and the at least one calibration parameter and determines at least one runtime active noise control parameter based on the runtime placement. | 02-14-2013 |
20130058493 | IN-EAR DEVICE INCORPORATING ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION - An in-ear device incorporating active noise reduction has a housing adapted for location in or adjacent to an auditory canal. The housing contains a driver and an acoustic path is provided from the driver to an outlet of the device. A microphone and an acoustic impedance are provided in the acoustic path. The impedance increases the stability of the device. | 03-07-2013 |
20130089212 | Method and System for Hybrid Noise Cancellation - From a first microphone, first microphone signals are received that represent first sound waves. From a second microphone, second microphone signals are received that represent second sound waves. In response to the first microphone signals, analog processing is performed to estimate noise in the first sound waves, and first analog signals are generated for cancelling at least some of the estimated noise in the first sound waves. In response to the second microphone signals, digital processing is performed to estimate noise in the second sound waves, and digital information is generated for cancelling at least some of the estimated noise in the second sound waves. The digital information is converted into second analog signals that represent the digital information. The first and second analog signals are combined into third analog signals for cancelling at least some of the estimated noise in the first and second sound waves. | 04-11-2013 |
20130094657 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR IMPROVING THE AUDIBILITY, LOCALIZATION AND INTELLIGIBILITY OF SOUNDS, AND COMFORT OF COMMUNICATION DEVICES WORN ON OR IN THE EAR - A method and device are provided for maintaining or improving the audibility, localization and/or intelligibility of sounds from electro-acoustic devices worn on the head or in the ear, such as headphones, headsets, hearing protectors, earplugs, and earbuds, as well as in combination with or built into hard hats and helmets, and for improving their comfort to the user. | 04-18-2013 |
20130114821 | Apparatus, Method and Computer Program for Adjustable Noise Cancellation - An apparatus including: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, allow the apparatus to perform at least the following: receiving a background audio signal from an earpiece microphone, the earpiece microphone configured to convert sound from a surrounding environment into the background audio signal; and allow a user of the apparatus to control the generation and characteristics of a noise cancellation signal, the noise cancellation signal configured to interfere destructively with the background audio signal to alter the amplitude of the background audio signal. | 05-09-2013 |
20130129105 | AUDIO HEADSET WITH ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL OF THE NON-ADAPTIVE TYPE FOR LISTENING TO AN AUDIO MUSIC SOURCE AND/OR FOR "HANDS-FREE" TELEPHONY FUNCTIONS - The headset comprises two earpieces each having a transducer for playing back the sound of an audio signal and received in an acoustic cavity defined by a shell having an ear-surrounding cushion. The active noise control comprises, in parallel, a feedforward bandpass filter receiving the signal from an external microphone, a feedback bandpass filter receiving as input an error signal delivered by an internal microphone, and a stabilizer bandpass filter locally increasing the phase of the transfer function of the feedback filter in an instability zone, in particular a waterbed effect zone around 1 kHz. A summing circuit delivers a weighting linear combination of the signal delivered by these filters together with the audio signal to be played back. Control is non-adaptive, with the parameters of the filters being static. | 05-23-2013 |
20130129106 | Adjusting Noise Reduction in Headphones - A headset includes first and second earcups each having a front opening adapted to be adjacent to a respective ear of a user and including an electroacoustic transducer, a headband coupled to each of the earcups, and an active noise reduction circuit coupled to the electroacoustic transducers. The headband is configurable between at least two configurations that each press the earcups against the head of the user with different amounts of force. The active noise reduction circuit is configured to determine which of the at least two configurations the headband may be configured in, to provide a different amount of noise reduction when the headband may be configured in each of the different amounts of force, and to automatically transition between the different amounts of noise reduction in response to a change in the configuration of the headband between the at least two configurations. | 05-23-2013 |
20130156214 | Method and System for Active Noise Cancellation According to a Type of Noise - Microphone signals are received from a microphone. The microphone signals represent first sound waves. A determination is made about a type of noise that likely exists in the first sound waves. In response to the type of noise, cancellation signals are generated by filtering the microphone signals with at least one of: a first filter in response to the type of noise indicating that a first type of noise likely exists in the first sound waves; and a second filter in response to the type of noise indicating that a second type of noise likely exists in the first sound waves. In response to the cancellation signals, second sound waves are output from a speaker for cancelling at least some noise in the first sound waves. | 06-20-2013 |
20130163775 | Communications Headset Speech-Based Gain Control - A gain of a signal representing sounds detected by a talk-through and/or feedforward ANR microphone of a talk-through function provided by a communications headset is reduced in response to a user of the communications headset speaking. | 06-27-2013 |
20130188801 | Diaphonic Acoustic Transduction Coupler and Ear Bud - The disclosed methods and devices incorporate a novel expandable bubble portion which provides superior fidelity to a listener while minimizing listener fatigue. The expandable bubble portion may be expanded through the transmission of low frequency audio signals or the pumping of a gas to the expandable bubble portion. In addition, embodiments of the acoustic device may be adapted to consistently and comfortably fit to any ear, providing for a variable, impedance matching acoustic seal to both the tympanic membrane and the audio transducer, respectively, while isolating the sound-vibration chamber within the driven bubble. This reduces the effect of gross audio transducer vibration excursions on the tympanic membrane and transmits the audio content in a manner which allows the ear to utilize its full inherent capabilities. | 07-25-2013 |
20130208907 | Noise masking communications apparatus - A communications headset has a microphone boom that is moveable through various distances from the user's mouth, in which movement of the boom operates electrical, mechanical or acoustic mechanisms to adjust the transmit sensitivity of the headset such that the ratio of the amplitude of the output signal of the headset to the amplitude of the sound pressure at the vicinity of the user's mouth is maintained relatively constant, independently of the position of the microphone boom. | 08-15-2013 |
20130208908 | Active Noise Control Arrangement, Active Noise Control Headphone and Calibration Method - An active noise control arrangement has a signal input (SI), a microphone input (MI), a signal output (SO) and a digital interface (DI). A signal processing block (SP) coupled to the microphone input (MI) by means of an amplifier (MA) has a digitally adjustable gain and comprises combining means (CM) and a filter (TP). The signal processing block (SP) is configured to generate an output signal at the signal output (SO) as a function of an input signal at the signal input (SI) and an amplified microphone signal. A control block (CB) is coupled to the digital interface (DI) and configured to adjust the gain of the amplifier (MA). | 08-15-2013 |
20130208909 | DYNAMIC HEARING PROTECTION METHOD AND DEVICE - A dynamic hearing protection method and device with which a hearing protection device specific differential head related transfer function corresponding to the difference between an open ear resonance measurement of the user's ear canal or an ear canal approximating the user's ear canal without the hearing protection device being worn in the ear canal and an open ear resonance measurement with the hearing protection device being worn in the ear canal as a function of the angle of sound incidence is determined and when using the hearing protection device, a frequency-dependent gain function to the captured audio signals selected according to the presently determined angle of sound incidence with each of the gain functions is determined by inverting the previously determined HPD specific differential HRTF for the respective sound incidence angle, to compensate for the effect of the presence of the hearing protection device on the open ear resonance. | 08-15-2013 |
20130216060 | NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM - An earphone comprises an earphone body, containing a speaker, and a projection, extending from a first surface of the earphone body, for location in the entrance to the user's ear canal. The earphone body comprises a sound outlet in the first surface, for allowing sounds generated by the speaker to leave the earphone body. The projection extends from the first surface of the earphone body, adjacent to the sound outlet, and contains a sound inlet port, connected to a microphone for detecting sounds entering the ear canal. A noise cancellation system includes noise cancellation circuitry, for applying a frequency dependent filter characteristic and applying a gain to an input signal representing ambient noise, at least one of the frequency dependent filter characteristic and the gain being adaptive. The earphone then has an ambient noise microphone, and an error microphone connected to the sound inlet port. | 08-22-2013 |
20130243214 | ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM - A noise cancellation system generates a noise cancellation signal from a signal representing ambient noise by signal processing. The signal processing applies a controllable gain value, and includes a high pass filter with a controllable cut-off frequency. A control block detects a wind amplitude. The cut-off frequency of the high pass filter is controlled based on the detected wind amplitude. A low pass function is applied to the detected wind amplitude, and the controllable gain is adjusted based on the output of the low pass function. | 09-19-2013 |
20130259250 | PRE-SHAPING SERIES FILTER FOR ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION ADAPTIVE FILTER - A feed forward active noise cancellation (ANC) system for use in a portable audio device has an adaptive digital filter and a reference microphone. A non-adaptive pre-shaping digital filter has an input coupled to the reference microphone and is in series with, and in front of, the adaptive filter. The pre-shaping filter is minimum phase and presents at least 2 dB more gain over a low audio frequency band than over a high audio frequency band. This may help compensate for low frequency band difficulties, and may thereby extend ANC bandwidth at the low end without a worsening impact on the high end. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 10-03-2013 |
20130266150 | ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING EAR PHONE SYSTEM - An earphone has a casing, containing a speaker, the casing being adapted to fit within the outer ear of a user at the entrance to the ear canal of the user. The casing has a guide, protruding from the front surface of the casing, and suitable for locating in the ear canal of the user. The casing is also adapted to allow sound to pass through a sound-permeable portion of the front surface. The casing has sound channels, leading across the front surface of the casing from the sound-permeable portion to a periphery of the first surface of the casing. The earphone can be used in a noise cancelling earphone system, with signal processing circuitry connected to the microphone and to the speaker, wherein the signal processing circuitry is adapted to receive the ambient noise signal from the microphone, and to apply the ambient noise signal to a filter having a controllable amount of gain, for generating a noise cancellation signal for transmission to the speaker. The result is that, however the earphone is worn within the outer ear of a user, an amount of sound leakage lies within a predetermined range, such that the amount of gain to be applied by the signal processing circuitry falls within a relatively narrow range. | 10-10-2013 |
20130287218 | LEAKAGE-MODELING ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELING FOR EARSPEAKERS - A personal audio device, such as a headphone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal that measures the ambient audio, and the anti-noise signal is combined with source audio to provide an output for a speaker. The anti-noise signal causes cancellation of ambient audio sounds that appear at the reference microphone. A processing circuit uses the reference microphone to generate the anti-noise signal, which can be generated by an adaptive filter. The processing circuit also models an acoustic leakage path from the transducer to the reference microphone and removes elements of the source audio appearing at the reference microphone signal due to the acoustic output of the speaker. Another adaptive filter can be used to model the acoustic leakage path. | 10-31-2013 |
20130287219 | COORDINATED CONTROL OF ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION (ANC) AMONG EARSPEAKER CHANNELS - A personal audio device including earspeakers, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal for each earspeaker from at least one microphone signal that measures the ambient audio, and the anti-noise signals are combined with source audio to provide outputs for the earspeakers. The anti-noise signals cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds at the respective earspeakers. A processing circuit uses the microphone signal(s) to generate the anti-noise signals, which can be generated by adaptive filters. The processing circuit controls adaptation of the adaptive filters such that when an event requiring action on the adaptation of one of the adaptive filters is detected, action is taken on the other one of the adaptive filters. Another feature of the ANC system uses microphone signals provided at both of the earspeakers to perform processing on a voice microphone signal that receives speech of the user. | 10-31-2013 |
20130301845 | EAR PLUG DEVICES, METHODS AND KITS FOR THE INDUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF QUALITY OF SLEEP - An ear plug system according to various embodiments can include an ear plug device and an electronic control unit. The ear plug device can be configured to include a white noise component, an ear cover, acupuncture nodes and a headband. The white noise component masks select external noises. The ear cover covers a portion of the user's ear. At least one acupuncture nodules is provided in the ear cover to apply pressure, without penetrating the user's skin. The headband extends at least partially around the user's head and applies compressive force to the ear plug device and the acupuncture nodes to ensure a proper fit and comfort. The electronic control unit wirelessly or directly connects to the ear plug device for controlling the operation of the ear plug device. | 11-14-2013 |
20130308786 | EAR-WORN SPEAKER-CARRYING DEVICES - An ear-worn speaker carrying device (“ESD”) incorporating active ambient noise reduction circuitry provided with a seal intended to contact or surround the ear of a user. The seal is intended to present a substantial impedance to inward or outward transmission of sound to or from the ear. At least one acoustic channel of predetermined dimensions bypasses the seal, providing an acoustic leakage path of known characteristics, thereby permitting predetermined levels of sound to enter and exit by way of the channel, such that minor variations in leakage are rendered relatively unimportant. In a preferred embodiment, the device further includes an acoustic conduit connected to vent the speaker's rear surface to the external ambient, and respective exit apertures for the acoustic channel and the acoustic conduit are relatively located so that sounds exiting from them tend to cancel each other, reducing sound emissions from the device. | 11-21-2013 |
20130315410 | IN-EAR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION EARPHONE - An active noise reduction earphone. The earphone includes structure for positioning and retaining the earphone in the ear of a user without a headband, active noise reduction circuitry including an acoustic driver with a nominal diameter greater than 10 mm oriented so that a line parallel to, or coincident with, an axis of the acoustic driver and that intersects a centerline of the nozzle intersects the centerline of the nozzle at angle θ>±30 degrees. A microphone is positioned adjacent an edge of the acoustic driver. The earphone is configured so that a portion of the acoustic driver is within the concha of a user and another portion of the acoustic driver is outside the concha of the user when the earphone is in position. An opening coupling the nozzle to the environment includes impedance providing structure in the opening. | 11-28-2013 |
20130315411 | IN-EAR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION EARPHONE - An active noise reduction earphone. The earphone includes structure for positioning and retaining the earphone in the ear of a user without a headband, active noise reduction circuitry including an acoustic driver with a nominal diameter greater than 10 mm oriented so that a line parallel to, or coincident with, an axis of the acoustic driver and that intersects a centerline of the nozzle intersects the centerline of the nozzle at angle θ>±30 degrees. A microphone is positioned adjacent an edge of the acoustic driver. The earphone is configured so that a portion of the acoustic driver is within the concha of a user and another portion of the acoustic driver is outside the concha of the user when the earphone is in position. An opening coupling the nozzle to the environment includes impedance providing structure in the opening. | 11-28-2013 |
20130315412 | IN-EAR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION EARPHONE - An active noise reduction earphone. The earphone includes structure for positioning and retaining the earphone in the ear of a user without a headband, active noise reduction circuitry including an acoustic driver with a nominal diameter greater than 10 mm oriented so that a line parallel to, or coincident with, an axis of the acoustic driver and that intersects a centerline of the nozzle intersects the centerline of the nozzle at angle θ>±30 degrees. A microphone is positioned adjacent an edge of the acoustic driver. The earphone is configured so that a portion of the acoustic driver is within the concha of a user and another portion of the acoustic driver is outside the concha of the user when the earphone is in position. An opening coupling the nozzle to the environment includes impedance providing structure in the opening. | 11-28-2013 |
20130322641 | FREQUENCY-DEPENDENT ANR REFERENCE SOUND COMPRESSION - An active noise reduction (ANR) circuit includes a digital feed-forward ANR pathway coupled to a feed-forward microphone, to detect environmental sounds in an environment external to a casing, and to a first acoustic driver to output sounds within the casing. The digital feed-forward ANR pathway applies a plurality of filters using a first set of coefficients to convert signals from the feed-forward microphone to feed-forward anti-noise sounds to reduce environmental sounds within the casing. In response to a stimulus, the digital feed-forward ANR pathway applies the plurality of filters using a second set of coefficients, which reduce the degree of feed-forward ANR to enable human speech sounds in the environment external to the casing to be conveyed from the feed-forward microphone to the acoustic driver with less reduction than provided by the first plurality of filters. | 12-05-2013 |
20130322642 | HEADSET AND HEADPHONE - An earphone including at least one microphone, an analog pre-emphasis filter for pre-emphasis of the microphone signal, an AD-converter for digitizing the output signal of the pre-emphasis filter, an active noise compensation unit for performing active noise compensation based on the pre-emphasized and digitized output signal of the microphone and for outputting a counter sound signal, and a DA-converter for performing analog/digital conversion of the counter sound produced by the active noise compensation unit. | 12-05-2013 |
20130343557 | HEADPHONE FOR ACTIVE NOISE SUPPRESSION - The disclosed active noise suppression headphone system is directed to a headphone system that is capable of substantially suppressing high or low frequency interfering noise that penetrate through a headphone earpiece from multiple directions. An external microphone mounted with a housing of a headphone earpiece senses ambient noise outside of the earpiece. The sensed ambient noise may be processed through at least one parallel filter bank arranged in at least one headphone earpiece. Each parallel filter bank may include adaptively linked filters. The output of these filters may be amplified based on weighting factors that are dependent upon the sensed ambient noise and that are generated by a filtered x least mean square circuit. The amplified filtered outputs may be summed to generate an antinoise signal that is in input to a loudspeaker within the headphone earpiece that substantial suppresses the ambient noise before it can be perceived by an end user of the headphones. | 12-26-2013 |
20140003613 | AMBIENT NOISE REDUCTION ARRANGEMENTS | 01-02-2014 |
20140044275 | ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL WITH COMPENSATION FOR ERROR SENSING AT THE EARDRUM - A personal listening system has an active noise control (ANC) controller that produces an anti-noise signal. A head worn audio device for a user has a speaker to convert the anti-noise signal into anti-noise, an error microphone, and a reference microphone. The controller uses signals from the error and reference microphones to produce the anti-noise signal in accordance with an adaptive filter algorithm that has an adjustable parameter which changes so as to move the point at which acoustic cancellation occurs from the error microphone and closer to the user's eardrum. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 02-13-2014 |
20140064508 | SYSTEM FOR ADAPTIVE AUDIO SIGNAL SHAPING FOR IMPROVED PLAYBACK IN A NOISY ENVIRONMENT - Provided is a system for adaptively enhancing an end-user's perceived quality, or quality of experience (QoE), of speech and other audio under ambient noise conditions. The system comprises the steps of determining the ambient noise characteristics on a continuous basis to capture the time varying nature of ambient noises, and adaptively determining the most optimal signal shaping to be applied to the audio/speech signal to produce the most appropriate enhancement to compensate for the ambient noise impairment. The system also comprises a signal shaping technique by using an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter that performs the signal modification with a low delay; a multi-level automatic gain control (AGC); and a controlled amplitude clipping module that assures samples are below a certain limit; and outputs the modified signal for playback through a loudspeaker or the like. | 03-06-2014 |
20140072133 | DECISIONS ON AMBIENT NOISE SUPPRESSION IN A MOBILE COMMUNICATIONS HANDSET DEVICE - A method in a communications device includes the following operations. During a call, a process automatically detects that the device has moved from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position. Based on the detection, a noise suppressor that operates upon an uplink signal for the call is signaled to change its noise suppression performance. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 03-13-2014 |
20140079234 | NOISE SUPPRESSION DEVICE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD - A noise-suppression assembly of a mechanical drive system having a rotational frequency includes an audio filter unit configured to receive a first audio signal and a timing signal of the mechanical drive system. The audio filter unit generates a noise-cancellation signal based on a frequency of the timing signal to suppress a noise generated by the mechanical drive system and to apply the noise-cancellation signal to the first audio signal to produce a filtered first audio signal. The frequency of the timing signal is based on the rotational frequency of the mechanical drive system. | 03-20-2014 |
20140079235 | Configurable Noise Cancelling System - Systems, devices, and methods for customizable reduction of perceived ambient sounds are disclosed. Customizable reduction can be achieved via an application operable in conjunction with an audio player or a headset having a microphone. | 03-20-2014 |
20140079236 | HEADSET POWER SOURCE MANAGING - A power management system and method for a noise reducing headset. The power management system adjusts the operations of the noise reducing headset based on the characteristics of the power sources available to the noise reducing headset. | 03-20-2014 |
20140105412 | USER DESIGNED ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION (ANC) CONTROLLER FOR HEADPHONES - Embodiments are directed towards enabling headphones to perform active noise cancellation for a particular user. Each separate user may enable individualized noise canceling headphones for one or more noise environments. When the user is wearing the headphones in a quiet environment, a user may employ a computer to initiate determination of a plant model of each ear cup specific to the user. When the user is wearing the headphones in a target noise environment, the user may utilize the computer to initiate determination of operating parameters of a controller for each ear cup of the headphones. The computer may provide the operating parameters of each controller to the headphones. And the operation of each controller may be updated based on the determined operating parameters. The updated headphones may be utilized by the user to provide active noise cancellation. | 04-17-2014 |
20140112491 | Method and Apparatus for a Configurable Active Noise Canceller - A method and apparatus for active noise canceling. The method includes retrieving an input sample from at least one of a feedback or feedforward microphone digitized through the sigma-delta converter, retrieving the input sample and a related filter, wherein the filter is customized to the particular headset, outputting a filtered signal through a speaker without any interpolation and reducing order of CIC filters, and outputting a response sharply tapered down. | 04-24-2014 |
20140112492 | DIGITAL CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS FOR AMBIENT NOISE-REDUCTION - A digital circuit arrangement for an ambient noise-reduction system affording a higher degree of noise reduction than has hitherto been possible. The arrangement converts the analog signals into N-bit digital signals at sample rate f | 04-24-2014 |
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 |
20140126734 | Providing Ambient Naturalness in ANR Headphones - In an active noise reducing headphone, a signal processor applies filters and control gains of both the 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, and to 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. | 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 |
20140126737 | NOISE SUPPRESSING MULTI-MICROPHONE HEADSET - A new type of headset that employs adaptive noise suppression, multiple microphones, a voice activity detection (VAD) device, and unique mechanisms to position it correctly on either ear for use with phones, computers, and wired or wireless connections of any kind is described. In various embodiments, the headset employs combinations of new technologies and mechanisms to provide the user a unique communications experience. | 05-08-2014 |
20140126738 | Sleep Aide Device - In one aspect, the invention is a sleep device. The sleep-aide device includes a soft housing adapted to be disposed over a user's head, a microphone positioned on the housing to receive an ambient sound signal, a suppression circuit that receives the ambient sound signal and produces a suppression sound signal, and a set of transducers, arranged in the soft housing, which receive the suppression sound signal. The suppression sound signal has a magnitude and phase to substantially cancel the ambient sound signal at the user's ear. | 05-08-2014 |
20140146976 | Ear Presence Detection in Noise Cancelling Earphones - An electronic device may be coupled to an accessory such as a pair of earphones. The earphones may have noise cancellation features that may be implemented using noise cancellation circuitry in the earphones or in the electronic device. The earphones may have ear presence sensor structures that determine whether speakers in the earphones are present at the ears of a user. In one suitable embodiment, control circuitry in the earphones may be used to adjust noise cancellation circuitry in the earphones based on information from the ear presence sensor structures. For example, the control circuitry may deactivate noise cancellation circuitry in response to receiving information from the ear presence sensor structures indicating that the earphones have been removed from a user's ears. In another suitable embodiment, control circuitry in the electronic device may adjust noise cancellation circuitry in the electronic device based on information from the ear presence sensor structures. | 05-29-2014 |
20140153733 | EARPHONE - An earphone has a housing, with a speaker mounted within the housing. A cable inlet contains a cable that includes a wire connected to the speaker. The cable and the cable inlet have different cross-sectional shapes, such that the cable is in contact with the inner surface of the cable inlet over a substantial portion of their length, while a rear volume of the speaker is vented through the cable inlet. This ensures that the cross-sectional area through which the rear volume is vented through the cable inlet remains relatively constant. The earphone may further comprise a microphone, positioned to detect ambient noise approaching the ear of a wearer of the earphone, and the cable may then further include a wire connected to the microphone. | 06-05-2014 |
20140169579 | HYBRID ADAPTIVE HEADPHONE - An adaptive noise-cancelling headphone including an earcup housing having a driver for outputting sound to a user positioned therein. The headphone further including an active noise control assembly. The active noise control assembly may include an ambient microphone capable of detecting an ambient noise outside of the housing and an error microphone capable of detecting an earcup noise inside of the housing. Based on the detected noise, active noise cancellation within the headphone is either enabled or disabled. The headphone may further include a passive noise control assembly. The passive noise control assembly may include an acoustic valve associated with an acoustic vent formed within the earcup housing. The acoustic valve is capable of being modified between an open configuration to decrease sound attenuation and a closed configuration to increase sound attenuation in response to the detected ambient noise so as to improve an acoustic performance of the earcup. | 06-19-2014 |
20140169580 | BROADBAND ACTIVE QUIET PILLOW - An active noise cancellation system is provided in a head support to cancel noise for a supine user, lying on a bed. | 06-19-2014 |
20140185819 | Handset and Headset - Thus there is provided an earphone or headset comprising a housing, an internal microphone, an external microphone and a signal processing unit. The signal processing unit is connected to the internal microphone and the external microphone. The signal processing unit serves for signal processing of an audio signal of the external microphone and for adding the signal-processed audio signal to an audio signal from the internal microphone. The signal processing unit is adapted to perform band pass limitation of the audio signal of the external microphone and to output the added signal as an output signal. | 07-03-2014 |
20140192994 | Noise Cancelling Headphone - A noise cancelling headphone includes a headphone body, a audio player and a central processing unit. The headphone body includes a headband, a first speaker unit and a second speaker unit. The elongated headband is bent and shaped to fittedly and adjustably wear on a user's head, wherein the headband has a first and a second end portion. The first speaker unit and the second speaker unit are attached on the first and the second end portion of the headband respectively. The audio player is provided on the headphone body, and is arranged to read a predetermined kind of audio signals. The central processing unit is received in the headphone body, and is arranged to process the audio signals outputted from the audio player and drive the first speaker unit and the second speaker unit to generate corresponding audible sound. | 07-10-2014 |
20140198924 | HEADSET WITH AUXILIARY INPUT(S) FOR CELL PHONE AND/OR OTHER DEVICES - An active-noise-reduction (ANR) headset includes at least one auxiliary connection to an output of at least one device, such as a personal communications, computing, and/or entertainment device. An exemplary headset also includes a primary connection to a two-way radio or public-address system and circuitry for automatically suppressing or muting the volume of an auxiliary input signal relative to that of a primary input signal. Other exemplary features include a headset power supply, a microphone, a microphone preamplifier, and a device-detection circuit. The device-detection circuit selectively couples the power supply to the microphone preamplifier, enabling it to provide audio signals to the microphone input of the auxiliary device. | 07-17-2014 |
20140198925 | ANC FOR BT HEADPHONES - An active noise cancellation controller for performing noise attenuation in a system over a predetermined frequency rang. The controller comprises several components: a first input for a reference signal indicative of a noise level; a second input for receiving an error signal indicative of a remnant noise level; an output for providing a noise cancellation signal; a fixed feedback controller for processing the error signal; a fixed feed-forward controller for processing the reference signal; and an adaptive feed-forward controller having a digital adaptive finite impulse response filter arranged for operation on the reference signal the error signal. | 07-17-2014 |
20140233749 | EARPHONE MICROPHONE - An earphone microphone includes a single speaker, a microphone having first and second sound input holes, and a main body casing in which an acoustic space is formed. The acoustic space includes a sound output path in which output sound propagates, a first sound input path communicating with outside, in which sound to be input to the first sound input hole propagates, and a second sound input path in which sound to be input to the second sound input hole propagates. The sound output path branches into one path communicating with outside of the main body casing and the other path communicating with the second sound input path. Input sound from a sound source outside the main body casing is input while input of output sound is suppressed by acoustic resistance of the acoustic space. | 08-21-2014 |
20140270221 | Sealing Wiring Holes in Electronic Devices - A wall separates a first volume from a second volume and has a hole allowing passage between the first volume and the second volume. A wire passes through the hole, and a gasket surrounds the wire at the hole. The gasket includes a first section including a groove between a first flange and a second flange, the groove has an outer diameter matched to the diameter of the hole and the flanges have outer diameters greater than the diameter of the hole. A second section adjacent the first flange includes a tubular portion having a diameter less than the diameter of the hole and a tapered section smoothly transitioning from the diameter of the tubular portion to the diameter of the first flange. The gasket prevents flow of fluid through the hole between the first volume and the second volume. | 09-18-2014 |
20140270222 | LOW-LATENCY MULTI-DRIVER ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELING (ANC) SYSTEM FOR A PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICE - A personal audio device including multiple output transducers for reproducing different frequency bands of a source audio signal, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal for each of the transducers from at least one microphone signal that measures the ambient audio to generate anti-noise signals. The anti-noise signals are generated by separate adaptive filters such that the anti-noise signals cause substantial cancellation of the ambient audio at their corresponding transducers. The use of separate adaptive filters provides low-latency operation, since a crossover is not needed to split the anti-noise into the appropriate frequency bands. The adaptive filters can be implemented or biased to generate anti-noise only in the frequency band corresponding to the particular adaptive filter. The anti-noise signals are combined with source audio of the appropriate frequency band to provide outputs for the corresponding transducers. | 09-18-2014 |
20140270223 | ADAPTIVE-NOISE CANCELING (ANC) EFFECTIVENESS ESTIMATION AND CORRECTION IN A PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICE - Techniques for estimating adaptive noise canceling (ANC) performance in a personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, provide robustness of operation by triggering corrective action when ANC performance is low, and/or by saving a state of the ANC system when ANC performance is high. An anti-noise signal is generated from a reference microphone signal and is provided to an output transducer along with program audio. A measure of ANC gain is determined by computing a ratio of a first indication of magnitude of an error microphone signal that provides a measure of the ambient sounds and program audio heard by the listener including the effects of the anti-noise, to a second indication of magnitude of the error microphone signal without the effects of the anti-noise. The ratio can be determined for different frequency bands in order to determine whether particular adaptive filters are trained properly. | 09-18-2014 |
20140270224 | AMBIENT NOISE-BASED ADAPTATION OF SECONDARY PATH ADAPTIVE RESPONSE IN NOISE-CANCELING PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICES - An adaptive noise canceller adapts a secondary path modeling response using ambient noise, rather than using another noise source or source audio as a training source. Anti-noise generated from a reference microphone signal using a first adaptive filter is used as the training signal for training the secondary path response. Ambient noise at the error microphone is removed from an error microphone signal, so that only anti-noise remains. A primary path modeling adaptive filter is used to modify the reference microphone signal to generate a source of ambient noise that is correlated with the ambient noise present at the error microphone, which is then subtracted from the error microphone signal to generate the error signal. The primary path modeling adaptive filter is previously adapted by minimizing components of the error microphone signal appearing in an output of the primary path adaptive filter while the anti-noise signal is muted. | 09-18-2014 |
20140270225 | NOISE-CANCELLATION SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR NOISE CANCELLATION - A noise-cancellation system for a headphone (HP) that comprises a speaker ( | 09-18-2014 |
20140307884 | EARHOLE-WEARABLE SOUND COLLECTION DEVICE, SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE, AND SOUND COLLECTION METHOD - The present technique relates to an earhole-wearable sound collection device, a signal processing device, and a sound collection method for realizing sound collection at a high S/N ratio with reduced noise influence, regardless of noise reduction methods such as the SS method. | 10-16-2014 |
20140314242 | Ambient Sound Enablement for Headsets - Methods and apparatuses for ambient sound enablement in headsets are disclosed. In one example, an ambient sound signal from a microphone is received. A pre-determined interrupt condition is identified from the ambient sound signal. The ambient sound signal is output at a headset speaker responsive to identifying the pre-determined interrupt condition. | 10-23-2014 |
20140314243 | CLICK AND POP NOISE REDUCTION IN HEADPHONES - A method and an apparatus are provided. The apparatus reduces noise in headphones due to a change in a current or a voltage in headphones while determining an impedance of the headphones. The apparatus generates a digital waveform that reduces noise in the headphones when applied for an impedance determination. The apparatus converts the digital waveform to an analog waveform. The apparatus applies the analog waveform to an input of the headphones while reducing the noise in the headphones due to the application of the analog waveform for the impedance determination. The apparatus determines the impedance of the headphones based on the applied analog waveform. A first derivative of the analog waveform may be continuous. In particular, the analog waveform may be “s” shaped. The digital waveform may be generated based on a ramp digital waveform. The ramp digital waveform may be generated based on a step digital waveform. | 10-23-2014 |
20140314244 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION BY BIASING ANTI-NOISE LEVEL - A processing circuit may comprise an adaptive filter having a response generating an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal, a secondary path estimate filter modeling an electro-acoustic path of a source audio signal, a biasing portion that generates a scaled anti-noise signal by applying a scaling factor and the response of the secondary path estimate filter to the anti-noise signal, and a coefficient control block that shapes the response of the adaptive filter in conformity with the reference microphone signal and a modified playback corrected error signal by adapting the response of the adaptive filter to minimize ambient audio sounds in the error microphone signal, wherein the playback corrected error is based on a difference between the error microphone signal and the source audio signal and the modified playback corrected error signal is based on a difference between the playback corrected error signal and the scaled anti-noise signal. | 10-23-2014 |
20140314245 | HEADPHONE DEVICE, TERMINAL DEVICE, INFORMATION TRANSMITTING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND HEADPHONE SYSTEM - This disclosure relates to a headphone device, a terminal device, an information transmitting method, a program, and a headphone system capable of reducing a process burden of parameter control in a noise canceling process of the headphone device. | 10-23-2014 |
20140341386 | NOISE REDUCTION - An apparatus comprising a controller, a first acoustic sensor and a second acoustic sensor, wherein said first acoustic sensor is arranged remote from said second acoustic sensor, and wherein said controller is configured to receive a main signal from said first acoustic sensor, receive a probe signal from said second acoustic sensor, generate a noise signal by subtracting with a first filter filtered said main signal from said probe signal, and generate a noise reduced voice signal by subtracting with a second filter filtered noise signal from said main signal, wherein said first filter is adapted based on a voice component of the main signal and the probe signal in the absence or near absence of noise and said second filter is adapted based on the noise components of said main signal and said probe signal when no voice input is present. | 11-20-2014 |
20140341387 | PROVIDING AMBIENT NATURALNESS IN ANR HEADPHONES - In an active noise reducing headphone, a signal processor applies filters and control gains of both the 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, and to 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. | 11-20-2014 |
20140363010 | Controlling Stability in ANR Devices - Stability is provided in an active noise reduction (ANR) headphone by measuring a sound field to generate an input signal, filtering and applying a variable gain to the input signal to produce a first filtered signal using a first filter and a variable gain amplifier in an ANR signal pathway, outputting the filtered signal, and simultaneously with outputting the first filtered signal, sampling a signal at a point in the ANR signal pathway and filtering the sampled signal using a second filter to produce a second filtered signal. The second filtered signal is compared to a threshold, and if the comparison finds that the second filtered signal is greater than the threshold signal, the gain of the variable gain amplifier is changed to attenuate the first filtered signal. The second filter applies different gains, different by at least 10 dB, in different frequency ranges between 10 Hz and 10 kHz. | 12-11-2014 |
20140376734 | HANDHELD ELECTRONIC DEVICE AND CORRESPONDING NOISE-CANCELING HEADPHONES - A handheld electronic device including a connection interface, a voltage supply unit and a baseband circuit is provided. When headphones are connected to the handheld electronic device, the baseband circuit can determine the type of the headphones by controlling the operation of the voltage supply unit. Furthermore, when the headphones are noise-canceling headphones, the baseband circuit can control the operation of the voltage supply unit to provide operation power to the noise-canceling headphones. In addition, corresponding noise-canceling headphones including a connection interface, at least one switch circuit, a switch control unit, a communication microphone, two speakers, a noise-canceling circuit and two noise-canceling microphones is also provided. | 12-25-2014 |
20150010164 | METHOD OF ADJUSTING AN ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING SYSTEM - A method of adjusting an ANC system is disclosed in which a microphone is acoustically coupled to a loudspeaker via a secondary path and the loudspeaker is electrically coupled to the microphone via an ANC filter. The method includes measuring phase characteristics of the secondary path in various modes of operation; determining from the measured phase characteristics a statistical dispersion of the phase characteristics in the various modes of operation; determining from the statistical dispersion a minimum phase margin; adjusting the ANC filter to exhibit in any one of the modes of operation phase characteristics that are equal to or greater than the minimum phase margin; and adjusting the ANC filter to exhibit in any one of the modes of operation amplitude characteristics that are equal to or smaller than a maximum gain margin. | 01-08-2015 |
20150023515 | Earphone With Noise Reduction - The present invention relates to an earphone ( | 01-22-2015 |
20150030173 | Headphone and Headset - A headphone or earphone is provided which includes a housing with an open end and at least one defined dominant acoustic opening, an acoustically sealing earpad arranged at the open end of the housing, and at least one microphone arranged adjacent to common ear or in the vicinity of the dominant acoustical opening for detecting noise. The dominant acoustic opening is arranged within a radius of 2 cm around a midpoint of the at least one microphone. The headphone or earphone also includes an active-noise-compensation unit for performing an active noise compensation based on the output of the microphone and for generating a compensation signal. The headphone or earphone also includes an electro-acoustical transducer inside the housing for reproducing the compensation signal. | 01-29-2015 |
20150055789 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ACQUIRING CONFIGURATION DATA - A method includes detecting an accessory device at a master device. The method also includes receiving, at the master device, active noise cancellation (ANC) coefficients associated with the accessory device in response to detecting the accessory device. The method also includes modifying audio content, at the master device, based on the ANC coefficients. | 02-26-2015 |
20150063583 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION - From at least a first microphone, first microphone signals are received that represent first sound waves. From at least a second microphone, second microphone signals are received that represent second sound waves. In response to the first microphone signals, first noise in the first sound waves is estimated, and first cancellation signals are output for causing a speaker array to generate first additional sound waves via at least a first acoustic beam for cancelling at least some of the first noise. In response to the second microphone signals, second noise in the second sound waves is estimated, and second cancellation signals are output for causing the speaker array to generate second additional sound waves via at least a second acoustic beam for cancelling at least some of the second noise. | 03-05-2015 |
20150063584 | Assisting Conversation - A portable system for enhancing communication between at least two users in proximity to each other includes first and second noise-reducing headsets, each headset including an electroacoustic transducer for providing sound to a respective user's ear and a voice microphone for detecting sound of the respective user's voice and providing a microphone input signal. A first electronic device integral to the first headset and in communication with the second headset generates a first side-tone signal based on the microphone input signal from the first headset, generates a first voice output signal based on the microphone input signal from the first headset, combines the first side-tone signal with a first far-end voice signal associated with the second headset to generate a first combined output signal, and provides the first combined output signal to the first headset for output by the first headset's electroacoustic transducer. | 03-05-2015 |
20150078570 | Handset or Headset - There is provided a headphone or headset comprising at ;east one housing ( | 03-19-2015 |
20150092951 | HEADPHONE WITH ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING AND AUTO-CALIBRATION METHOD THEREOF - A headphone with active noise cancelling and auto-calibration method thereof is disclosed. The headphone includes a first gain-amplifier, an active noise cancelling module, a speaker, a measurement circuit, a calibration control circuit and USB driving circuit. Auto-calibration of the headphone is by means of a USB interface in the instant disclosure, so as to significantly reduce calibration time and then improve production efficiency. | 04-02-2015 |
20150092952 | Audio Device and Control Method - According to one embodiment, an audio device includes a first driver, a first acoustic cylinder, a body temperature sensor, and a corrector. The first driver outputs a sound. The first acoustic cylinder includes a first pathway configured to be passed through by a sound. The first pathway includes an opening configured to face an eardrum of a wearer. The body temperature sensor is provided substantially in an center of the opening or outside of a plane of the opening. The corrector corrects first audio data to suppress resonance in the first pathway. The first driver outputs corrected first sound according to corrected first audio data. | 04-02-2015 |
20150092953 | EAR-COUPLING DETECTION AND ADJUSTMENT OF ADAPTIVE RESPONSE IN NOISE-CANCELING IN PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICES - A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. A processing circuit determines a degree of coupling between the user's ear and the transducer and adjusts the adaptive cancellation of the ambient sounds to prevent erroneous and possibly disruptive generation of the anti-noise signal if the degree of coupling lies either below or above a range of normal operating ear contact pressure. | 04-02-2015 |
20150098579 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AN INTEGRATED HEADSET SWITCH WITH REDUCED CROSSTALK NOISE - An integrated audio signal processing circuit is described for reducing crosstalk noise in an integrated headset switch for a headset having two speakers, a microphone sharing a common ground. The audio signal processing circuit includes two audio amplifiers and also has two terminals configured to be either a microphone connection terminal or a headset ground connection terminal, respectively, depending on the type of the headset. An audio amplifier reference node is coupled to inputs of the audio amplifiers. The audio signal processing circuit has a first switch device responsive to a headset ground selection signal and configured to connect the audio amplifier reference node to the detected headset ground connection terminal. The audio signal processing circuit also has a second switch device responsive to the headset ground selection signal and configured to couple the detected headset ground connection terminal to a ground terminal of the audio processing circuit. | 04-09-2015 |
20150104031 | LIMITING ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION OUTPUT - In general, techniques are described for limiting active noise cancellation output. As one example, an apparatus comprising one or more processors may perform the techniques. The one or more processors may be configured to, when an estimated noise level increases, dynamically lowering application of active noise cancellation to at least a portion of an audio signal to obtain at least a portion of an active noise cancelled version of the audio signal. | 04-16-2015 |
20150139434 | COMMUNICATION APPARATUS WITH AMBIENT NOISE REDUCTION - Noise reduction circuitry for a communication apparatus can apply different noise reduction transfer functions, depending on whether a listening device is connected to the apparatus. If no listening device is connected, the noise reduction transfer function can be adapted for use with microphones and speakers that form an integral part of the communication apparatus, which may be a cellular telephone. If a listening device is connected, the noise reduction transfer function can be adapted for use with microphones and speakers that form a part of the listening device. This allows the noise reduction circuitry to provide improved noise reduction performance. | 05-21-2015 |
20150146878 | SELECTIVE SUPPRESSION OF AUDIO EMITTED FROM AN AUDIO SOURCE - Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture (e.g., physical storage media, such as storage devices and/or storage disks) to implement selective suppression of audio emitted from an audio source are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein for audio suppression include obtaining, at a first time, reference audio data corresponding to a first audio signal, the first audio signal to be output by an audio source at a second time later than the first time. Such example methods can also include processing the reference audio data to generate a suppression signal to be output by a speaker associated with a user device to suppress the first audio signal when received at the user device at a third time later than the first time. Such example methods can further include providing the suppression signal to an audio output driver in communication with the speaker. | 05-28-2015 |
20150294662 | Selective Noise-Cancelling Earphone - An earphone adapted to fit within a human ear that generates sound via the propagation of one or more diaphragms aligned to fit the structure and shape of the earphone. The earphone allows ambient sound to pass through the device in order to be heard by the user. The earphone includes a variety of sensors adapted to characterize the surrounding acoustic environment and actively negate undesired sounds by generating a cancelling signal specific to the undesired sound or sounds. The earphone allows users to select particular sounds to cancel or to negate all of the surrounding noise. The earphone itself can be used to characterize repetitive environmental sounds that are predictable by the system. Additionally, the earphone can be used in conjunction with a buffering device in communication with a source of non-repetitive, unpredictable sounds in order to characterize and negate those sounds. | 10-15-2015 |
20150296286 | AUDIO ACCESSORY COMMUNICATION WITH ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION - This document discusses, among other things, an advanced slave circuit and method configured to transfer power from a master device to a battery through an advanced slave circuit in a first mode using a load switch in a first state, to isolate the battery from the master device using the load switch in a second state, and to selectively couple a microphone to the master device using the advanced slave circuit in a second mode using a microphone switch. | 10-15-2015 |
20150296287 | EAR-HUGGING NOISE-REDUCING HEADPHONES - Ear-hugging noise-reducing headphones include a protective body, a speaker assembly, and a microphone unit. The protective body includes a first convex portion, a second convex portion, and a third convex portion. The first convex portion and the second convex portion are protruded from a first surface of the protective body. The third convex portion is protruded from a second surface of the protective body. The first convex portion and the third convex portion define a first accommodating space. The second convex portion defines a second accommodating space. The speaker assembly is disposed in the first accommodating space. The microphone unit is disposed in the second accommodating space. The speaker assembly includes a circuit component and a speaker unit. Audio lines are connected to the speaker unit and the microphone unit by the circuit component. The microphone unit is close to an ear canal of user. | 10-15-2015 |
20150296297 | ANC ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL AUDIO HEADSET WITH REDUCTION OF THE ELECTRICAL HISS - The headset includes an active noise control system, with an ANC microphone delivering a signal including an acoustic noise component. A digital signal processor DSP ( | 10-15-2015 |
20150304771 | IN-EAR ACTIVE NOISE REDUCTION EARPHONE - An active noise reduction earphone includes structure for positioning and retaining the earphone in the ear of a user and, active noise reduction circuitry including an acoustic driver with a nominal diameter greater than 10 mm oriented so that a line parallel to, or coincident with, an axis of the acoustic driver and that intersects a centerline of the nozzle intersects the centerline of the nozzle at angle Σ>±30 degrees. A microphone is positioned adjacent an edge of the acoustic driver. The earphone is configured so that a portion of the acoustic driver is within the concha and another portion of the acoustic driver is outside the concha. | 10-22-2015 |
20150310846 | OFF-EAR DETECTOR FOR PERSONAL LISTENING DEVICE WITH ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL - In a personal listening device, an ANC system can benefit from a mechanism to detect an off-ear condition, which may be a situation in which the user of the personal listening device has moved an earphone or handset housing away from her ear. A detector may detect such a condition using signals from a touch sensor and/or a vibration sensor that are integrated in the earphone or handset housing, and in response power down the ANC system, or in the case of an adaptive ANC system slow down, or even freeze, the adaptation of one or more adaptive filters. The detector may operate during for example a phone call or during media file playback. Other embodiments are also described. | 10-29-2015 |
20150310847 | HEARING AID COMPATIBLE AUDIO DEVICE WITH ACOUSTIC NOISE CANCELLATION - A portable audio device, which includes active noise cancellation circuitry, a hearing aid compliant magnetic radiator, and a speaker/earpiece, is surrounded by ambient acoustic noise. The active noise cancellation circuitry provides an anti-noise signal at an input of the speaker to control/reduce the ambient acoustic noise outside of the device. In addition, the active noise cancellation circuitry provides an inverse anti-noise signal to an input of the magnetic radiator. The magnetic fields produced by the speaker driven by the anti-noise signal and the magnetic radiator driven by the inverse anti-noise signal cancel each other out through phase cancellation such that a hearing aid using a telecoil coupled to the audio device does not produce significant audio waves based on either of these signals. Other embodiments are also described. | 10-29-2015 |
20150312671 | PASSIVE ACOUSTICAL FILTERS WITH FILLED EXPANSION CHAMBER - A passive acoustical filter includes a first opening to receive ambient sound, a second opening to output filtered sound, and a first low pass filter element coupled between the first opening and the second opening. The first low pass filter element includes a first expansion chamber filled with a material in which a speed of sound is lower than a speed of sound in air. | 10-29-2015 |
20150319518 | System and Apparatus for Delivering Selectable Audio Content - A system and method are disclosed for a viewer to dynamically select a dialogue track corresponding to a video. Audio channels are synced with the video and transmitted to the viewer's listening device. The user is able to dynamically switch between the audio channels, which may correspond to dialogue in various languages or dialects. Noise cancellation signals are used to improve the viewer's experience. Viewers can adjust the volume of the audio channel and the noise cancellation. A viewer's usage of the disclosed features is optionally monitored and analyzed. | 11-05-2015 |
20150319522 | SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD - A signal processing device includes a noise analysis unit for analyzing a frequency component of a noise signal obtained by converting a collected sound into an electrical signal, a plurality of filtering units for carrying out predetermined filtering operations on the noise signal on the basis of an analysis result, and an output control unit for temporally varying a synthesis rate of outputs of the plurality of filtering units according to a change in the analysis result of the noise analysis unit. When the analysis result of the noise analysis unit changes, one filtering unit starts a predetermined filtering operation by characteristics different from those of other filtering units that carry out predetermined filtering operations on the noise signal according to the change in the analysis result of the noise analysis unit. | 11-05-2015 |
20150325229 | Dynamically Configurable ANR Filter Block Topology - An active noise reduction (ANR) circuit includes a digital feed-forward ANR pathway coupled to a feed-forward microphone, to detect environmental sounds in an environment external to a casing, and to a first acoustic driver to output sounds within the casing. The digital feed-forward ANR pathway applies a plurality of filters using a first set of coefficients to convert signals from the feed-forward microphone to feed-forward anti-noise sounds to reduce environmental sounds within the casing. In response to a stimulus, the digital feed-forward ANR pathway applies the plurality of filters using a second set of coefficients, which reduce the degree of feed-forward ANR to enable human speech sounds in the environment external to the casing to be conveyed from the feed-forward microphone to the acoustic driver with less reduction than provided by the first plurality of filters. | 11-12-2015 |
20150332662 | ANC NOISE ACTIVE CONTROL AUDIO HEADSET WITH PREVENTION OF THE EFFECTS OF A SATURATION OF THE FEEDBACK MICROPHONE SIGNAL - The headset includes an active noise control, with an internal ANC microphone ( | 11-19-2015 |
20150334489 | MICROPHONE PARTIAL OCCLUSION DETECTOR - Digital signal processing for microphone partial occlusion detection is described. In one embodiment, an electronic system for audio noise processing and for noise reduction, using a plurality of microphones, includes a first noise estimator to process a first audio signal from a first one of the microphones, and generate a first noise estimate. The electronic system also includes a second noise estimator to process the first audio signal, and a second audio signal from a second one of the microphones, in parallel with the first noise estimator, and generate a second noise estimate. A microphone partial occlusion detector determines a low frequency band separation of the first and second audio signals and a high frequency band separation of the first and second audio signals to generate a microphone partial occlusion function that indicates whether one of the microphones is partially occluded. | 11-19-2015 |
20150348529 | ANTI-NOISE HEADSET DEVICE AND SOUND PROCESSING METHOD THEREOF - An anti-noise headset device and a sound processing method thereof are provided. The anti-noise headset device includes an audio receiving module and a control module. The audio receiving module is configured to receive several audio signals in several periods. The control module is electrically coupled to the audio receiving module. The control module is configured to store the audio signals received from a first period to an Nth period as sound data. The control module compares the audio signal received in an (N+1)th period with the sound data so as to generate a relevance value, N is an integer larger than zero. When the relevance value is smaller than a threshold value, the control module filters out a portion of the audio signal received in the (N+1)th period, in which the portion of the audio signal received in the (N+1)th period is relevant to the sound data. | 12-03-2015 |
20150365760 | Rechargeable Hearing Protector Having Multi-function Noise Cancellation Earphone - Disclosed is a multi-function, rechargeable noise cancellation earphone or hearing protector having AM/FM radio, Bluetooth and MP-3 audio player. | 12-17-2015 |
20150365761 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR SELECTIVELY ENABLING AND DISABLING ADAPTATION OF AN ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION SYSTEM - In accordance with the present disclosure, an adaptive noise cancellation system may include a controller. The controller may be configured to determine a degree of convergence of an adaptive coefficient control block for controlling an adaptive response of the adaptive noise cancellation system. The controller may enable adaptation of the adaptive coefficient control block if the degree of convergence of the adaptive response is below a particular threshold and disable adaptation of the adaptive coefficient control block if the degree of convergence of the adaptive response is above a particular threshold, such that when the adaptive noise cancellation system is adequately converged, the adaptive noise cancellation system may conserve power by disabling one or more of its components. | 12-17-2015 |
20160007111 | MAGNETIC EARPHONES HOLDER - A set of earphones enable a user to automatically activate and/or deactivate an electronic device. The earphones comprise an electronic device controller which controls the operation of an electronic device. The controller is configured to send a signal to an electronic device activation circuit which operates the electronic device based upon a coupling status of the earbuds with the one or more magnetically attractable surfaces and/or one or more magnets. The earphones are usable with an electronic device that is able to be customized to blend in with its background such as when worn with specific clothing. | 01-07-2016 |
20160012816 | SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE, HEADPHONE, AND SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD | 01-14-2016 |
20160044424 | AUDIO DEVICE WITH A VOICE COIL CHANNEL AND A SEPARATELY AMPLIFIED TELECOIL CHANNEL - A portable audio device has a voice coil audio signal processor in which a desired audio content signal is combined with an anti-noise signal produced by an active noise cancellation block. A voice coil amplifier receives a volume setting and is coupled to an output of the voice coil audio signal processor. A speaker is coupled to an output of the voice coil amplifier. In addition, a telecoil audio signal processor also receives the desired audio content, and feeds a telecoil amplifier that receives a telecoil coupling strength setting, followed by a telecoil. Other embodiments are also described and claimed. | 02-11-2016 |
20160050484 | Assisting Conversation in Noisy Environments - A portable system for enhancing communication between at least two users in proximity to each other includes first and second noise-reducing headsets, each headset including an electroacoustic transducer for providing sound to a respective user's ear and a voice microphone for detecting sound of the respective user's voice and providing a microphone input signal. A first electronic device integral to the first headset and in communication with the second headset generates a first side-tone signal based on the microphone input signal from the first headset, generates a first voice output signal based on the microphone input signal from the first headset, combines the first side-tone signal with a first far-end voice signal associated with the second headset to generate a first combined output signal, and provides the first combined output signal to the first headset for output by the first headset's electroacoustic transducer. | 02-18-2016 |
20160063986 | EARPHONE ACTIVE NOISE CONTROL - A method of active noise reduction. The method comprises instructing a microphone electronically coupled by a client terminal to record a nonaural noise signal, instructing a circuit of the client terminal to record an aural noise signal using at least one electroacoustic transducer of an earphone, calculating a noise reduction signal based on a function combining nonaural noise signal and the aural noise signal, calculating a noise reduced signal based on a combination of a content signal prepared to be played by the at least one electroacoustic transducer and the noise reduction signal, and instructing the circuit to play the noise reduced signal via the at least one electroacoustic transducer. The nonaural noise signal and the aural noise signal are recorded at least partly simultaneously. | 03-03-2016 |
20160063988 | OVERSIGHT CONTROL OF AN ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELER IN A PERSONAL AUDIO DEVICE - A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to measure the ambient sounds and transducer output near the transducer, thus providing an indication of the effectiveness of the noise canceling. A processing circuit uses the reference and/or error microphone, optionally along with a microphone provided for capturing near-end speech, to determine whether the ANC circuit is incorrectly adapting or may incorrectly adapt to the instant acoustic environment and/or whether the anti-noise signal may be incorrect and/or disruptive and then take action in the processing circuit to prevent or remedy such conditions. | 03-03-2016 |
20160078855 | NOISE CANCELLATION - A noise cancellation signal is generated by generating an ambient noise signal, representing ambient noise, and generating a noise cancellation signal, by applying the ambient noise signal to an feedforward filter, where the feedforward filter comprises a high-pass filter having an adjustable cut-off frequency, and by applying a controllable gain. The noise cancellation signal is then applied to a loudspeaker, to generate a sound to at least partially cancel the ambient noise. An error signal is generated, representing unwanted sound in the region of the loudspeaker. The phase of the ambient noise signal is compared to a phase of the error signal, and the gain is controlled on the basis of a result of the comparison, taking account of a phase shift introduced by the high-pass filter when performing the comparison. | 03-17-2016 |
20160080856 | DUAL OMNIDIRECTIONAL MICROPHONE ARRAY (DOMA) - A dual omnidirectional microphone array noise suppression is described. Compared to conventional arrays and algorithms, which seek to reduce noise by nulling out noise sources, the array of an embodiment is used to form two distinct virtual directional microphones which are configured to have very similar noise responses and very dissimilar speech responses. The only null formed is one used to remove the speech of the user from V | 03-17-2016 |
20160086594 | NOISE REDUCTION AUDIO REPRODUCING DEVICE AND NOISE REDUCTION AUDIO REPRODUCING METHODS - A noise reduction audio reproducing method includes the steps of: generating, from an audio signal of collected and obtained noise, an audio signal for noise cancellation to cancel the noise by synthesizing the audio signal for noise cancellation and the noise in an acoustic manner, reproducing the audio signal for noise cancellation acoustically to synthesize this with the noise in an acoustic manner; emphasizing an audio component to be listened to, of collected audio; synthesizing an audio signal with the audio component to be listened to being emphasized, and the audio signal for noise cancellation to supply the synthesized signal thereof to an electro-acoustic converting unit; and controlling so as to supply an audio signal, with the audio component to be listened to having been emphasized, to a synthesizing unit, regarding only a section based on a control signal. | 03-24-2016 |
20160086595 | FILTER CIRCUIT FOR NOISE CANCELLATION, NOISE REDUCTION SIGNAL PRODUCTION METHOD AND NOISE CANCELING SYSTEM - Provided is a filter circuit for producing a noise reduction signal for reducing a noise signal collected by a microphone, including: a digital section including an analog/digital conversion section configured to convert the noise signal into a digital noise signal, a digital filter section configured to produce a digital noise reduction signal based on the digital noise signal, and a digital/analog conversion section configured to convert the digital noise reduction signal into an analog noise reduction signal; an analog path connected in parallel to said digital section and configured to output the noise signal as it is or after processed by an analog filter; and a synthesis section configured to synthesize the analog noise reduction signal outputted from said digital/analog conversion section of said digital section and the analog signal outputted from said analog path to produce a noise reduction signal to be used for noise reduction. | 03-24-2016 |
20160098982 | METHOD FOR NOISE CANCELLATION - A method for noise cancellation. The method includes providing a sound signal output device having a listening device output, a microphone input, and signal processing circuitry. The signal processing circuitry is adapted for causing the sound signal output device to perform in a noise-cancellation mode, including making available to the sound signal output device, at the microphone input, a noise-containing signal which is representative of ambient acoustical noise, deriving a noise-cancelling signal from the noise-containing signal, and making available to the personal listening device, at the listening device output, the noise-cancelling signal. | 04-07-2016 |
20160105755 | ROBUST NOISE CANCELLATION USING UNCALIBRATED MICROPHONES - Disclosed is a method for optimizing noise cancellation in a headset, the headset comprising a headphone and a microphone unit comprising at least a first microphone and a second microphone, the method comprising:
| 04-14-2016 |
20160118035 | ACTIVE CANCELLATION OF NOISE IN TEMPORAL BONE - A noise-canceling device includes a processing circuit configured to detect vibrational noise sound waves near a listener's ear using a vibration sensor, generate a vibrational noise-canceling signal, and control operation of a speaker to provide a desired sound signal and the vibrational noise-canceling signal to at least partially cancel the vibrational noise sound waves. | 04-28-2016 |
20160125869 | HEADSET WITH USER CONFIGURABLE NOISE CANCELLATION vs AMBIENT NOISE PICKUP - A system comprises automatic noise cancellation circuitry and interface circuitry operable to provide an interface via which a user can configure which sounds said automatic noise cancelling circuitry attempts to cancel and which sounds said automatic noise cancelling circuitry does not attempt to cancel. The interface circuitry may be operable to provide an interface via which a user can select a sound to whitelist or blacklist. The interface circuitry may be operable to provide an interface via which a user can increase or decrease an amount of noise cancellation that is desired. The interface circuitry may be operable to provide an interface via which a user can select from among three or more levels of noise cancellation. | 05-05-2016 |
20160140947 | Apparatus, Method, and Computer Program for Adjustable Noise Cancellation - From inputs received at one or more processors, a background audio signal representing background sound is separated from a primary audio signal. The primary audio signal is output with the background audio signal or an altered version thereof according to a user selection between noise cancellation and ambient sound reproduction. More specifically, when the user selection is for noise cancelation, the primary and background audio signals are output with a first altered version of the background audio signal (for example, having inverted phase so as to destructively interfere with the background audio signal); and when the user selection is for ambient sound reproduction, the primary audio signal is output with the background audio signal or a second altered version of the background audio signal (such as a pseudo-acoustic representation of the background sound). One example embodiment is a headset with microphones and speakers for the respective inputs and outputs. | 05-19-2016 |
20160171962 | Active Noise Reduction Earcup With Speaker Array | 06-16-2016 |
20160171963 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM FOR REMOVING ACTIVE NOISE OF CAR | 06-16-2016 |
20160171966 | ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLING DEVICE AND METHOD OF ACTIVELY CANCELLING ACOUSTIC NOISE | 06-16-2016 |
20160171969 | VOLTAGE SUPPLY CIRCUIT INCLUDED IN TERMINAL EQUIPMENT | 06-16-2016 |
20160180830 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY CONTROL FOR FEEDBACK ADAPTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION | 06-23-2016 |
20160192054 | ACTIVE EARPHONE AUTHENTICATION METHOD - An active earphone authentication method includes a recognition step of recognizing insertion of an earphone by a terminal control unit; a voltage supply step of transmitting a voltage supply command to the power supply unit by the terminal control unit if insertion of the earphone is recognized at the recognition step; an authentication step of receiving a signal from the earphone and authenticating whether or not the earphone is an active earphone by a reception unit; and a circuit implementation step of implementing a circuit of the terminal equipment according to an authentication result of the authentication step. | 06-30-2016 |
20160196818 | SOUND ZONE ARRANGEMENT WITH ZONEWISE SPEECH SUPPRESSION | 07-07-2016 |
20160381453 | NECK-WEARABLE COMMUNICATION DEVICE WITH MICROPHONE ARRAY - A wearable electronic device includes a neck-wearable housing, generally U-shaped, with an electrical connector; two in-ear earphones; two cords, with one end connected to one of the earphones and the other end connected to the connector. The two cords are mechanically connected to the housing. Points of connection of the cords to the housing are close to each other and form a dorsal node, and the two cords are mechanically connected to each other in their portions between the in-ear earphones and the dorsal node to form a suboccipital node. A microphone is placed in the housing on a front (chest) side of the user. A microphone is placed in the dorsal and/or in the suboccipital node. The microphones are used for determination of correlated and non-correlated components of audio signals. The correlated components are treated as a noise signal and the non-correlated components are a target signal. | 12-29-2016 |
20170238084 | SELF-CONFIGURATION OF A DEVICE IMPLEMENTING AN AMBIENT NOISE CANCELLATION MECHANISM | 08-17-2017 |
20180025718 | ACTIVE NOISE AND AWARENESS CONTROL FOR A HELMET | 01-25-2018 |
20180025719 | Low-Power-Consumption Active Noise-Reduction In-Ear Music Earphone and Method for Noise Reduction | 01-25-2018 |