Automatic turn-on and turn-off control for battery-powered headsets
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Accused Products
Abstract
Some workers wear headsets to protect their hearing from loud persistent noises, such as airplane engines and construction equipment. These headsets are generally passive or active, with the active ones including ear speakers and automatic noise-reduction (ANR) circuitry to cancel or suppress certain types of loud persistent noises. One problem with active headsets, particulary those that are battery-powered, concerns battery life. Workers often take the headset off or store them without turning them off and thus wasting costly battery life. Accordingly, the inventor devised active headsets with automatic turn-on and/or turn-off circuits. One exemplary embodiment senses a condition of the headsets, for example, the light, pressure, or temperature within one earcup, and then turns the headset on or off in response to the sensed condition.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1-8. -8. (Canceled)
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9. An active headset having at least two operating states and comprising:
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one or more earcups;
means for sensing a condition that is within at least one of the earcups; and
means, responsive to a perceived absence of the condition, for changing the operating state of the headset. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. An ANR headset having at least two operating states and comprising:
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one or more earcups;
means for sensing a condition based on user jaw movements or blood movement within a user'"'"'s head; and
means for changing the operating state of the headset from an on state to an off state in response to a perceived absence of the condition. - View Dependent Claims (16)
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17. An ANR headset having at least two operating states and comprising:
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one or more earcups;
means for sensing a condition based on user jaw movements or blood movement, wherein the means for sensing includes a first audio transducer within one of the earcups; and
means, coupled to the means for sensing the condition, for changing the operating state of the headset from an on state to an off or standby state, wherein the means for changing the operating state includes a bandpass filter, a threshold detector, a processor, and a power switch, with the bandpass filter coupled between the threshold detector and the first audio transducer and the processor coupled between the threshold detector and the power switch. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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21. An ANR headset having at least an active operating state and an inactive or standby operating state and comprising:
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one or more earcups;
an ANR microphone for sensing a condition based on user jaw movements or blood movement within the user'"'"'s head;
a timer circuit for measuring duration of a perceived absence of the condition; and
a switch coupled to the timer circuit for switching the ANR headset from one of the active and inactive operating states to the other of the active and inactive operating states. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A method of operating an ANR headset including an audio transducer attached to an earcup for engaging the ear of a user, the method comprising:
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sensing a condition; and
switching at least a portion of the ANR headset from an active state to an inactive or standby state in response to a perceived absence of the condition for at least a predetermined amount of time. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An ANR headset comprising:
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an input node for receiving an electrical signal correlated with a user wearing the headset; and
a digital processor coupled to the input node and configured to issue a turn-off command signal for at least a portion of the ANR headset after perceiving an absence of the electrical signal at the input node for at least a predetermined period of time. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. An ANR headset comprising:
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at least one audio transducer for placement adjacent an ear of a user;
circuitry for sensing a low-frequency electrical signal having a frequency no greater than five Hertz; and
circuitry responsive to a perceived absence of the low-frequency electrical signal to reduce power usage of the headset. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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Specification