Noise reduction methodology for wearable devices employing multitude of sensors

• US 10,204,637 B2
• Filed: 05/20/2017
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Buildclub, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Buildclub, Inc.
• Inventors: Forte, Stephen P
• Primary Examiner(s): Leland, III, Edwin S
• Application Number:
  US15/600,712
• Publication Number:
  US 20170337933A1
• Time in Patent Office: 633 Days
• Field of Search: 704226
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/03 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response

Abstract

Disclosed is a wearable device for producing noise free communication. The wearable device includes a housing configured to wear by a user, an air conduction microphone configured in the housing to receive voice sound of the user, an accelerometer sensor configured in the housing to receive voice signature, a battery configured in the housing to power the air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor, a printed circuit board configured in the housing to receive power from the battery, a memory unit connected to the printed circuitry board to store plurality of instructions, and a digital signal processor connected to the printed circuit board to process the stored plurality of instructions. The instructions are programmed to achieve a noise free communication. The voice from both air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor are analyzed to filter out noise and resulting in generation of noise free communication.

Claims

1. A wearable device for producing noise free communication, the wearable device comprising:

a housing configured to wear by a user;

an air conduction microphone configured in the housing to receive voice sound of the user;

an accelerometer sensor configured in the housing to receive voice signature;

a battery configured in the housing to power the air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor;

a printed circuitry board configured in the housing to receive power from the battery;

a memory unit connected to the printed circuitry board to store plurality of instructions;

a digital signal processor connected to the printed circuitry board to process the stored plurality of instructions, wherein the instructions comprising the steps of;

storing frequency range and other perceptual characteristic information of human voice range in the memory unit;

receiving voice sound and voice signature from the air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor respectively;

filtering sound from both the air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor to determine different frequency components present in the input from frequency ranges outside the user'"'"'s voice range;

performing equalizing function to balance important frequencies;

detecting the type of noise occurring in the background of the air conduction microphone;

cleaning the air conduction microphone voice sound;

creating a template of the voice signature pattern from the accelerometer sensor;

extracting of the voice signature pattern from the air conduction microphone as per the template to get the voice signature pattern for a pre-determined duration;

raising the same amount of increase in the same frequency range from the air conduction microphone based upon the corresponding band signal level in voice signature from the accelerometer sensor;

cancelling out the inputs from the air conduction microphone for a period where the accelerometer sensor shows no activity; and

blending the filtered signal from the air conduction microphone and the accelerometer sensor into a single voice signal for communication.

2. The wearable device according to claim 1 further comprising a first equalizer to attenuate sound from the air conduction microphone that are not associated with the frequencies of human voice.

3. The wearable device according to claim 2 further comprising a first filter bank to split the sound received from the first equalizer into various frequencies bands, and apply gains reported based on corresponding bands of the voice signature signal.

4. The wearable device according to claim 3 further comprising a second equalizer to block sound from the accelerometer sensor that are not associated with the frequencies of human voice.

5. The wearable device according to claim 4 further comprising a second filter bank to split the sound received from the second equalizer into various frequencies bands, further the second filter bank apply gains used for scaling the respective bands of the first equalizer.

6. The wearable device according to claim 5 wherein the instructions further comprising the step of:

dynamically adjusting the gain of the frequency groups received from the first filter bank based on the gain levels measured of the voice signature gains from the second filter bank; and

processing the voice signals and reassembling the various frequencies into a single output sound.

7. The wearable device according to claim 1 wherein instructions further comprising the step of adjusting and adapting the voice signature parameters, such as bands, sustain, tunable attack and hold patterns to match the user'"'"'s speech characteristics.

8. The wearable device according to claim 1 wherein instructions further comprising the step of discriminating the gain factors between low frequency filter and high frequency filter banks according to SBR property of the speech.