Method and Earpiece for Visual Operational Status Indication

• US 20090264161A1
• Filed: 01/12/2009
• Published: 10/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Staton Techiya, LLC
• Original Assignee: Personics Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Boillot, Marc, Usher, John, Goldstein, Steven
• Granted Patent: US 8,447,031 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/570
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/22 Illumination; Arrangements for improving the visibility of characters on dials
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6066 including a wireless connection
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72412 using two-way short-range wireless interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/82 Line monitoring circuits for call progress or status discrimination for detecting caller identity H04M1/573
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/04 the ringing-current being generated at the substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/048 Arrangements providing optical indication of the incoming call, e.g. flasher circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1041 Mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements switches in general H01H
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2420/07 Applications of wireless loudspeakers or wireless microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/008 Visual indication of individual signal levels visual indication of stereophonic sound image H04S7/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/80 Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication

Abstract

An earpiece can include an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM), an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR), a transceiver, an illumination element, and a processor to provide visual operational mode indication via the illumination element. The operational mode can correspond to an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone, a caller-on-hold condition, a recording mode, a voice mail mode, a mute mode, an audible transparency mode or an ear-plug mode. The intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting can be adjusted according to the operational mode. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Claims

1. An earpiece, comprising:

an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to capture ambient sound;

an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to deliver audio to an ear canal;

a transceiver to receive and transmit communication signals from a paired communication device;

an illumination element to provide light; and

a processor operatively coupled to the ASM, the ECR, transceiver to provide visual operational mode indication of the earpiece or paired communication device via the illumination element.

2. The earpiece of claim 1 where the illumination element is a single color Light Emitting Diode (LED) or a multi-color LED.

3. The earpiece of claim 1 where the operational mode corresponds to an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone, or a caller-on-hold condition.

4. The earpiece of claim 1 where the operational mode corresponds to voice mail or audio content reproduction.

5. The earpiece of claim 1 where the operational mode corresponds to sound signature detection mode whereby the earpiece is monitoring the environment by way of the ASM for specific sounds.

6. The earpiece of claim 5, where the processor detects a warning sound and controls a lighting of the illumination element based on a threat detection level of the warning sound.

7. The earpiece of claim 1, where the operational mode corresponds to recording sounds in the environment by way of the ASM.

8. The earpiece of claim 1, comprising a second earpiece communicatively coupled to the first earpiece and the processor adjusts an illumination element of the second earpiece based on operational mode.

9. The earpiece of claim 1, comprising:

an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) operatively coupled to the processor to monitor a sound pressure level (SPL) within the ear canal and capture bone conducted voice signals within the ear canal.

10. The earpiece of claim 9, where the operational mode corresponds to a do not disturb state.

11. The earpiece of claim 9, where the processor regulates a delivery of ambient sounds in the environment by way of the ASM to the ear canal by way of the ECR to provide audible transparency and controls a lighting of the illumination element based on a level of the audible transparency.

12. The method of claim 11, comprising adjusting an intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting responsive to determining the operational mode.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising decoding the communication signal for identifying if voice mail is received and lighting the illumination element accordingly.

14. The method of claim 12, comprising decoding the communication signal for identifying an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone, or a caller-on-hold condition and lighting the illumination element accordingly.

15. The method of claim 12, comprising identifying sounds in the environment by way of the ASM and lighting the illumination element according to an identified sound.

16. The method of claim 15, comprising detecting a warning sound and controlling the lighting based on a threat detection level of the warning sound.

17. The method of claim 12, comprising

detecting spoken voice within the ear canal by way of an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) of the earpiece from a user using the earpiece, and

adjusting the lighting based on a voice activity level of the spoken voice.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising

recording sounds from the ASM or ECM, and

adjusting the lighting during the recording.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising

detecting a sound pressure level (SPL) within the ear canal by way of the ECM;

regulating a delivery of ambient sounds in the environment by way of the ASM to the ear canal by way of the ECR to provide audible transparency;

controlling the lighting based on the SPL and the audible transparency to indicate a level of situational awareness.

20. The method of claim 17, where the step of controlling the lighting comprises compensating for a user'"'"'s hearing acuity.

11-1. A method for operating an earpiece, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving ambient sound from an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM);

delivering audio to an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) directed to an ear canal;

receiving and transmitting communication signals from a paired communication device;

determining an operational mode of the earpiece from audio signals received from the ASM, audio signals delivered to the ECR and the communication signals; and

controlling a lighting of an illumination element of the earpiece for visually indicating the operational mode of the earpiece.

21. An earpiece, comprising:

an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to capture ambient sound from an ambient environment;

an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to deliver audio to an ear canal;

an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) operatively coupled to the processor to monitor a sound pressure level (SPL) within the ear canal and capture bone conducted voice signals within the ear canal;

a sealing section to attenuate background noise levels passing from the ambient environment to the ear canal by way of the ASM and ECR;

an illumination element to provide light; and

a processor operatively coupled to the ASM and the ECR to

analyze sound levels from the ASM, ECM and ECR,

determine a level of acoustic isolation of the sealing section, and

control a lighting of the illumination element based on the level of acoustic isolation by adjusting an intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting.

22. The earpiece of claim 21, further comprising a touch-sensitive button to establish an operating mode, where the processor provides visual operational mode indication of the illumination element based on the operating mode.

23. The earpiece of claim 21, where the processor

detects warning sounds in the environment;

audibly reports a threat level of the warning sounds; and

visually adjusts the lighting according to the threat level.

24. The earpiece of claim 21, where the processor adjusts the lighting according to an operational mode that is an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone call, a caller-on-hold condition, a recording mode, a voice mail mode, a mute mode, an audible transparency mode or an ear-plug mode.