Active acoustic filter with automatic selection of filter parameters based on ambient sound

• US 10,466,957 B2
• Filed: 12/16/2016
• Issued: 11/05/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (Dolby Laboratories Incorporated)
• Inventors: Kraft, Noah, Lanman, III, Richard Fritz, Wiggins, Daniel C., Baker, Jeffrey
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhang, Leshui
• Application Number:
  US15/382,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20170099538A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,054 Days
• Field of Search: 381 72, 381 731, 381 74, 381 92, 381 26, 381 61, 381 63, 381 66, 381 714, 381 716, 381 718, 381 719, 381 7111, 381 7112, 381 98, 381 99, 381100, 381101, 381102, 381103, 381312-331, 381 231, 381 60, 4554141, 4554142, 4554042, 4554041, 455440, 4554221, 4554561, 4554562, 4554563, 4554564, 4554566, 455457, 700 94
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 11/145 electric, e.g. for active noise reduction
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1016 Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1083 Reduction of ambient noise active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1091 Details not provided for in groups H04R1/1008 - H04R1/1083
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/01 Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/01 Hearing devices using active noise cancellation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/33 for indoor environments, e.g. buildings
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/50 Service provisioning or reconfiguring

Abstract

Active acoustic filter systems and methods are disclosed. An active acoustic filter system includes a memory storing one or more stored sound profiles and a respective set of processing parameters associated with each of the one or more stored sound profiles. A processor coupled to the memory generates processed sound by processing ambient sound in accordance with a set of processing parameters retrieved from the memory based on results from comparing an ambient sound profile to at least one of the one or more stored sound profiles.

Claims

1. An active acoustic filter system, comprising:

a housing;

an active acoustic filter configured to convert ambient sound into digitized ambient sound, wherein the active acoustic filter comprises a microphone, a preamplifier, an analog to digital converter, a digital to analog converter, an amplifier, and a speaker that are disposed within the housing;

a memory storing one or more stored sound profiles and a respective set of processing parameters associated with each of the one or more stored sound profiles;

one or more processors, at least one of the one or more processors being enclosed by the housing and configured for communication with the memory, the at least one of the one or more processors being configured to;

analyze the digitized ambient sound to create an ambient sound profile;

determine whether or not the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles; and

when the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles;

retrieve the set of processing parameters associated with the stored sound profile that matches the ambient sound profile, and

generate digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with the set of processing parameters retrieved from the memory; and

when the ambient sound profile does not match one of the one or more stored sound profiles, generate digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with processing parameters established by a user of the active acoustic filter, wherein the processing parameters adjust one or more decibel levels associated with frequency ranges of the digitized ambient sound, wherein the active acoustic filter is configured to convert the digitized processed sound into processed output sound.

2. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to determine whether or not the ambient sound profile matches one or more of the stored sound profiles by calculating a similarity metric between the ambient sound profile and the stored sound profile.

3. The active acoustic filter system of claim 2, wherein each of the one or more stored sound profiles and the ambient sound profile is expressed as an n-dimensional vector, where n is a integer greater than one, and the similarity metric is an Euclidean distance between the respective vectors.

4. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the housing is configured to interface with a user'"'"'s ear by fitting in, on, or over the user'"'"'s ear.

5. The active acoustic filter system of claim 4, wherein the housing is configured to exclude most ambient sound from reaching the user'"'"'s ear canal.

6. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the housing is an earbud housing configured to fit, at least partially, within and be supported by a user'"'"'s ear.

7. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the memory is disposed within the housing.

8. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, further comprising a personal computing device configured for communication with the processor via a wireless communications link.

9. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein processing the digitized ambient sound includes one or more of amplification, attenuation, equalization, reverberation, and noise suppression.

10. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein each set of processing parameters includes parameters to cause the processor to perform one or more of amplification, attenuation, equalization, reverberation, and noise suppression.

11. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the ambient sound profile comprises a plurality of n characteristics and is represented as a vector of the plurality of n characteristics, wherein each of the plurality of n characteristics is a different type of characteristic of ambient sound experienced by the active acoustic filter system.

12. The active acoustic filter system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of n characteristics include two or more of an overall loudness level, normalized acoustic power within predetermined frequency bands, absolute acoustic power within predetermined frequency bands, normalized and/or absolute power level of dominant narrow-band sounds and/or random noise, beat frequency, or onset frequency.

13. The active acoustic filter system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to add a secondary audio feed to the digitized processed sound.

14. A method, comprising:

converting, by an active acoustic filter, ambient sound into digitized ambient sound, wherein the active acoustic filter comprises a microphone, a preamplifier, an analog to digital converter, a digital to analog converter, an amplifier, and a speaker that are disposed within a housing;

storing, in a memory, one or more stored sound profiles and a respective set of processing parameters associated with each of the one or more stored sound profiles;

analyzing the digitized ambient sound to create an ambient sound profile;

determining whether or not the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles;

generating digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with whether the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles; and

converting the digitized processed sound into processed output sound wherein;

the converting, analyzing, determining and generating are performed by a processor disposed within the housing;

when the ambient sound profile does not match one of the one or more stored sound profiles, the method further comprises generating, by the processor, the digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with processing parameters established by a user of the active acoustic filter; and

the processing parameters adjust one or more decibel levels associated with frequency ranges of the digitized ambient sound.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether or not the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles comprises calculating a similarity metric between the ambient sound profile and the stored sound profile.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein

each of the one or more stored sound profiles and the ambient sound profiles is expressed as an n-dimensional vector, where n is a integer greater than one, and

the similarity metric is an Euclidean distance between the respective vectors.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the housing is configured to fit, at least partially, within and be supported by a user'"'"'s ear.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the memory is disposed within the housing.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein, when the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles, the method further comprises:

retrieving the set of processing parameters associated with the stored sound profile that matches the ambient sound profile, and

generating, by the processor, digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with the set of processing parameters retrieved from the memory.

20. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the steps of:

converting ambient sound into digitized ambient sound, wherein the ambient sound is converted into digitized ambient sound by an active acoustic filter that comprises a microphone, a preamplifier, an analog to digital converter, a digital to analog converter, an amplifier, and a speaker that are disposed within a housing;

storing, in a memory, one or more stored sound profiles and a respective set of processing parameters associated with each of the one or more stored sound profiles;

analyzing the digitized ambient sound to create an ambient sound profile;

determining whether or not the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles;

when the ambient sound profile matches one of the one or more stored sound profiles;

retrieving the set of processing parameters associated with the stored sound profile that matches the ambient sound profile, and

generating digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with the set of processing parameters retrieved from the memory; and

when the ambient sound profile does not match one of the one or more stored sound profiles;

generating the digitized processed sound by processing the digitized ambient sound in accordance with processing parameters established by a user of the active acoustic filter, wherein the processing parameters adjust one or more decibel levels associated with frequency ranges of the digitized ambient sound; and

convert the digitized processed sound into processed output sound, wherein the converting, analyzing, determining and generating are performed by a processor disposed within the housing.