Apparatus and methods for bone conduction context detection

• US 10,455,324 B2
• Filed: 01/12/2018
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Klemme, Beverly, Baskaran, Rajashree, Sian, Sergio E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jerez Lora, William A
• Application Number:
  US15/870,043
• Publication Number:
  US 20190045298A1
• Time in Patent Office: 648 Days
• Field of Search: 381 56, 381 58, 381151, 381324, 381326, 381380
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/11 Measuring movement of the entire body or parts thereof, e.g. head or hand tremor, mobility of a limb for measuring pulse A61B5/02 ;A61B5/1038 takes precedence; motion detection to correct for motion artifacts in physiological signals A61B5/721
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1123 Discriminating type of movement, e.g. walking or running A61B5/1116, A61B5/112 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/12 Audiometering
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4504 Bones A61B5/4547 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4803 Speech analysis specially adapted for diagnostic purposes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/486 Bio-feedback A61B5/375 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/6803 Head-worn items, e.g. helmets, masks, headphones or goggles
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/721 using a separate sensor to detect motion or using motion information derived from signals other than the physiological signal to be measured
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 11/04 Methods or devices for enabling ear patients to achieve auditory perception through physiological senses other than hearing sense, e.g. through the touch sense electronic stimulation of auditory nerves A61N1/36036
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0232 Processing in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/028 associated with devices performing functions other than acoustics, e.g. electric candles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/46 Special adaptations for use as contact microphones, e.g. on musical instrument, on stethoscope throat mountings H04R1/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/001 for loudspeakers H04R29/007 takes precedence

Abstract

Apparatus and methods for bone conduction detection are disclosed herein. An example wearable device includes a first sensor positioned to generate first vibration information from a bone structure of a user and a second sensor positioned to generate second vibration information from the bone structure of the user. The first vibration information and the second vibration information include sound data and motion data. The motion data is indicative of a motion by the user. The example wearable device includes a signal modifier to generate a modified signal including the sound data based on the first vibration information and the second vibration information. The example wearable device includes a communicator to transmit the modified signal for output via a speaker.

Claims

1. A wearable device comprising:

a first sensor to generate first vibration information from a bone structure of a user;

a second sensor to generate second vibration information from the bone structure of the user, the first vibration information and the second vibration information including sound data and motion data, the motion data indicative of motion by the user;

a signal modifier to generate a modified signal including the sound data based on the first vibration information and the second vibration information, the signal modifier to sum the first vibration information and the second vibration information to generate the modified signal; and

a communicator to transmit the modified signal to a speaker.

2. The wearable device as defined in claim 1, wherein the first sensor and the second sensor are carried by a frame of the wearable device, the first sensor proximate to a first side of a nasal bridge of the user and the second sensor proximate to a second side of the nasal bridge of the user opposite the first side when the frame is worn by the user.

3. The wearable device as defined in claim 2, wherein the motion data is associated with motion of a head of the user.

4. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the speaker is a bone conduction speaker.

5. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the speaker is carried by the wearable device.

6. The wearable device of claim 1, wherein the signal modifier is to identify a difference between the first vibration information and the second vibration information to generate the modified signal.

7. The wearable device of claim 2, wherein at least a portion of the first sensor is in contact with skin of the user when the user wears the frame.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a phase comparator to compare a phase of a portion of first bone vibration information from a first sensor to a phase of a portion of second bone vibration information from a second sensor, the first and second bone vibration information including sound data and motion data, the first sensor and the second sensor to monitor a user, the motion data indicative of motion by the user;

a signal modifier to;

separate the sound data from the motion data based on the first bone vibration information and the second bone vibration information; and

generate modified signal data based on the separation of the sound data and the motion data; and

a communicator to transmit the modified signal data to a user device.

9. The apparatus as defined in claim 8, wherein if the phases of the respective portions of the first and second bone vibration information are in-phase, the portions are associated with the sound data.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the user device is a bone conduction speaker.

11. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the phase comparator is to align the portion of the first bone vibration information and the portion of the second bone vibration information based on time.

12. An apparatus comprising:

a signal modifier to;

separate sound data from motion data based on first bone vibration information from a first sensor and second bone vibration information from a second sensor, the first and second bone vibration information including the sound data and the motion data, the first sensor and the second sensor to monitor a user, the motion data indicative of motion by the user, the signal modifier to separate the sound data from the motion data by one of (a) adding the first bone vibration information and the second bone vibration information or (b) subtracting the first bone vibration information and the second bone vibration information, and

generate modified signal data based on the separation of the sound data and the motion data; and

a communicator to transmit the modified signal data to a user device.

13. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, further including a sound source identifier to identify the sound data as associated with a vocal activity performed by the user.

14. The apparatus as defined in claim 13, wherein the vocal activity is speech by the user.

15. The apparatus as defined in claim 12, wherein the first bone vibration information is indicative of nasal bone vibrations.

16. A wearable device comprising:

a first sensor to generate first vibration information from a bone structure of a user;

a second sensor to generate second vibration information from the bone structure of the user, the first vibration information and the second vibration information including sound data and motion data, the motion data indicative of motion by the user;

a signal modifier to generate a modified signal including the sound data based on the first vibration information and the second vibration information, the signal modifier to generate the modified signal based on a phase difference between the first vibration information and the second vibration information; and

a communicator to transmit the modified signal for output to a speaker.