Method and Device for Sound Detection and Audio Control

• US 20080267416A1
• Filed: 02/22/2008
• Published: 10/30/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Staton Techiya, LLC
• Original Assignee: Personics Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Goldstein, Steven W., Usher, John, Zotkin, Dmitry N.
• Granted Patent: US 8,194,865 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/56
• 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 2430/03 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/07 Use of position data from wide-area or local-area positioning systems in hearing devices, e.g. program or information selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/15 Determination of the acoustic seal of ear moulds or ear tips of hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/007 Protection circuits for transducers

Abstract

At least one exemplary embodiment is directed to a listening device (100) can include a receiver (102) and means for directing a sound produced by the receiver into an ear of the user, a microphone (104) and means for mounting the microphone so as to receive the sound in an environment, detecting means for detecting an auditory signal in the sound received by the microphone, and alerting means for alerting the user to the presence of the auditory signal, whereby the user'"'"'s personal safety is enhanced due to the user being alerted to the presence of the auditory signal, which otherwise may be unnoticed by the user due to loud sound level created at the ear of the user by the receiver.

Claims

1. A listening device, comprising:

a) means for directing a sound produced by a receiver into an ear;

b) means for mounting a microphone so as to receive the sound in an environment;

c) detecting means for detecting an auditory signal in the sound received by said microphone; and

d) alerting means for alerting said user to the presence of said auditory signal detected by said detecting means.

2. The listening device of claim 1 wherein said alerting means comprises a controllable electronic valve arranged to shut off the said receiver upon detection of said auditory signal by said detecting means.

3. The listening device of claim 1 wherein said detecting means comprises:

a) first means for detecting whether the volume of the sound received by said microphone is more than a predetermined level;

b) second means for detecting whether the spectral pattern of the sound received by said microphone is characteristic of said auditory signal;

c) third means for detecting whether the temporal pattern of the sound received by said microphone is characteristic of said auditory signal,

d) fourth means for detecting whether sound received by said microphone is approaching to or receding from the device; and

e) fifth means for combining the outputs of said first, second, third, and fourth means.

4. The listening device of claim 3 wherein said predetermined level is set at least to about 65 dB.

5. The listening device of claim 3 wherein said second means consist of:

a) means for detecting whether the signal-to-noise ratio is more than about 13 dB in at least one one-third-octave-wide frequency band;

b) means for detecting whether the signal-to-noise ratio is more than about 10 dB in at least one one-octave-wide frequency band; and

c) means for detecting whether the signal-to-noise ratio is more than about 15 dB, all enjoined by the logical OR operator.

6. The listening device of claim 3 wherein said third means comprises periodicity detector and pitch detector arranged to activate upon detection of a sound with period between about 0.5 and about 4 Hz and pitch between about 500 and about 1000 Hz, respectively.

7. The listening device of claim 3 wherein said fourth means is arranged to operate by analyzing sound level over time and by analyzing Doppler shifts in the sound spectrum.

8. A listening device, comprising:

a) means for directing a sound produced by a receiver into an ear of a user;

b) means for mounting a microphone so as to receive the sound in an environment surrounding said user;

c) recognition means for recognizing predetermined environmental sounds; and

d) action means for performing predetermined actions upon recognition of said environmental sounds.

9. The listening device of claim 8 wherein said recognition means comprise:

a) first means for computing a sound signature of an environmental sound consisting of a vector of numerical values identifying said environmental sound;

b) second means for storing a plurality of said sound signatures; and

c) third means for comparing the sound signature of said environmental sound with said plurality of sound signatures stored by said second means, where the means for comparing determines a best-matching sound signature.

10. The listening device of claim 9 wherein said vector of numerical values comprises at least one among total power of said environmental sound, powers of said environmental sound in predetermined frequency bands, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients of said environmental sound, a pitch of said environmental sound, a bandwidth of said environmental sound, and a brightness of said environmental sound.

11. The listening device of claim 9 wherein said third means is arranged to operate using distance between said plurality of sound signatures, using support vector machine (SVM) classifier, using neural network classifier, or using mixture of Gaussians classifier.

12. The listening device of claim 9, further including fourth means for directing said sound signature produced by first means into the sound signature storage provided by second means.

13. The listening device of claim 8, further including localization means for determining at least one among a location, direction and distance of said environmental sound with respect to said user.

14. The listening device of claim 13 wherein said localization means is arranged to operate using one or more acoustic cues selected from the group comprising:

a) level (intensity) differences between the signals received at left and right ears;

b) phase differences between the signals received at left and right ears;

c) level (intensity) variation over time for the signals received at left and right ears; and

d) phase variation over time for the signals received at left and right ears.

15. The listening device of claim 8 wherein said action means comprise one or more means selected from the group comprising:

a) first means of selectively amplifying said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means;

b) second means of selectively attenuating said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means;

c) third means of alerting said user to said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means by reciting a textual label pre-associated with said environmental sound to said user by means of text-to-speech synthesizer;

d) fourth means of alerting said user to said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means by rendering a specific sound pre-associated with said environmental sound to said user;

e) fifth means of alerting said user to said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means by reciting information indicative of how far and in which direction said environmental sound is located;

f) sixth means of alerting said user to said environmental sound recognized by said recognition means by discontinuing the playback of any audio content being played over said listening device; and

g) seventh means of associating an indicator of which particular action or actions, from the list above, can be executed upon detection of said environmental sound.

16. A method for constructing a audio listening device, comprising:

a) providing means for directing a sound produced by a receiver into an ear of said user;

b) providing means for mounting a microphone so as to receive the sound in an environment surrounding said user;

c) providing detecting means for detecting an auditory signal in the sound received by said microphone; and

d) providing alerting means for alerting said user to the presence of said auditory signal detected by said detecting means.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein said alerting means comprises a controllable electronic valve arranged to shut off the said receiver upon detection of said auditory signal by said detecting means.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein said detecting means comprises:

a) first means for detecting whether the volume of the sound received by said microphone is more than a predetermined level;

b) second means for detecting whether the spectral pattern of the sound received by said microphone is characteristic of said auditory signal;

c) third means for detecting whether the temporal pattern of the sound received by said microphone is characteristic of said auditory signal;

d) fourth means for detecting whether sound received by said microphone is approaching to or receding from said user; and

e) fifth means for combining the outputs of said first, second, third, and fourth means.

19. A method for constructing an audio listening device, comprising:

a) providing a receiver and means for directing a sound produced by said receiver into an ear of said user;

b) providing means for mounting a microphone so as to receive the sound in an environment;

c) providing recognition means for recognizing predetermined environmental sounds; and

d) providing action means for performing predetermined actions upon recognition of said environmental sounds.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein said recognition means comprise:

a) first means for computing a sound signature of said environmental sound consisting of a vector of numerical values identifying said environmental sound;

b) second means for storing a plurality of said sound signatures; and

c) third means for comparing the sound signature of said environmental sound with said plurality of sound signatures stored by said second means and for determining the best-matching sound signature.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein said vector of numerical values comprises total power of said environmental sound, powers of said environmental sound in predetermined frequency bands, mel-frequency cepstral coefficients of said environmental sound, a pitch of said environmental sound, a bandwidth of said environmental sound, and a brightness of said environmental sound.

22. The method of claim 20 wherein said third means is arranged to operate using distance between said sound signatures, using support vector machine (SVM) classifier, using neural network classifier, or using mixture of Gaussians classifier.

23. The method of claim 20, further including fourth means for directing said sound signature produced by first means into the sound signature storage provided by second means, whereby the listening device can query the sound signature storage to recognize, and act upon recognition of new sound signatures.

24. The method of claim 19, further including localization means for determining at least one among a location, direction, and distance of said environmental sound with respect to said user,

wherein said localization means is arranged to operate using one or more acoustic cues selected from the group comprising:

a) level (intensity) differences between the signals received at left and right ears;

b) phase differences between the signals received at left and right ears;

c) level (intensity) variation over time for the signals received at left and right ears; and

d) phase variation over time for the signals received at left and right ears.

25. A method for acute sound detection and reproduction, the method comprising:

measuring an external ambient sound level in an ear canal at least partially occluded by an earpiece;

monitoring a change in the external ambient sound level for detecting a sound;

determining whether a sound source producing the sound is approaching or departing; and

reproducing the sound within the ear canal responsive to detecting the sound based on the step of determining.