Method and device for acute sound detection and reproduction

• US 10,535,334 B2
• Filed: 11/16/2018
• Issued: 01/14/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 01/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Staton Techiya, LLC
• Original Assignee: Staton Techiya, LLC
• Inventors: Goldstein, Steven Wayne, Usher, John, Boillot, Marc Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Sniezek, Andrew L
• Application Number:
  US16/193,568
• Publication Number:
  US 20190147845A1
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/002 Devices for damping, suppressing, obstructing or conducting sound in acoustic devices G10K1/06 - G10K1/10 take precedence; for electro-mechanical transducers for communication H04R3/002
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17827 Desired external signals, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• 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 2225/41 Detection or adaptation of hearing aid parameters or programs to listening situation, e.g. pub, forest
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/05 Electronic compensation of the occlusion effect
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/001 for loudspeakers H04R29/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/002 Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Earpieces and methods for acute sound detection and reproduction are provided. A method can include measuring an external ambient sound level (xASL), monitoring a change in the xASL for detecting an acute sound, estimating a proximity of the acute sound, and upon detecting the acute sound and its proximity, reproducing the acute sound within an ear canal, where the ear canal is at least partially occluded by an earpiece. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a microphone;

a memory that stores instructions;

a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising;

estimating a background noise level (BNL) of an environment;

identifying a peak level (SPL) stored in an audio buffer including an external ambient sound, wherein the SPL is of the external ambient sound;

generating a SPL-BNL difference by subtracting the BNL from the SPL identified in the audio buffer;

comparing the SPL-BNL difference to a threshold to determine if a sound has been detected; and

detecting the sound when the SPL-BNL difference is greater than the threshold.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise storing the external ambient sound in the audio buffer.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise detecting a proximity of the sound to determine whether the sound is generated by a user.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise providing the sound to an ear canal receiver if the sound was not generated by the user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise providing the sound to the ear canal receiver by replicating the external ambient sound to an ear canal of the user via the ear canal receiver.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the operations further comprise applying a transfer function of the ear canal to the external ambient sound to provide a reproduction of the external ambient sound within the ear canal.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the operations further comprise not providing the sound to an ear canal receiver if the sound was generated by the user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise detecting the sound based on a temporal and spectral characteristic detected in the external ambient sound.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise performing a correlation analysis on the microphone and at least one other microphone.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining a time lag in the sound between the microphone and at least one other microphone.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprise determining a direction of the sound based on the time lag.

12. A method, comprising:

estimating a background noise level (BNL) of an environment;

identifying a peak level (SPL) stored in an audio buffer including an external ambient sound, wherein the SPL is of the external ambient sound;

generating, by utilizing instructions from a memory that are executed by a processor, a SPL-BNL difference by subtracting the BNL from the SPL identified in the audio buffer;

comparing the SPL-BNL difference to a threshold to determine if a sound has been detected; and

detecting the sound when the SPL-BNL difference is greater than the threshold.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining whether the sound is from a location indicative of user-generated speech.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a time lag of a maximum absolute peak for a pair of input signals comprising an ambient sound microphone signal and an ear canal microphone signal associated with a headset.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining a left lag of a peak of a left cross correlation of a left headset and a right lag of a peak of a right cross correlation of a right headset.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining if the left lag and the right lag are greater than zero.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising activating a pass-through mode if the left lag and the right lag are determined to be greater than zero.

18. The method of claim 12, further comprising applying analog and discrete time signal processing to condition the external ambient sound.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising estimating a proximity of the acute sound.

20. A device, comprising:

a memory that stores instructions;

a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising;

estimating a background noise level (BNL) of an environment;

identifying a peak level (SPL) stored in an audio buffer including an external ambient sound, wherein the SPL is of the external ambient sound;

generating a SPL-BNL difference by subtracting the BNL from the SPL identified in the audio buffer;

comparing the SPL-BNL difference to a threshold to determine if a sound has been detected;

detecting the sound when the SPL-BNL difference is greater than the threshold; and

passing the sound to an ear canal receiver if the sound is determined to not be user-generated.