NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONE

• US 20090285408A1
• Filed: 03/26/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-technica
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Audio-technica
• Inventors: Kimura, Tominori
• Granted Patent: US 8,045,726 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/71.600
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17827 Desired external signals, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/1785 Methods, e.g. algorithms; Devices G10K11/1781, G10K11/1783 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17873 using a reference signal without an error signal, e.g. pure feedforward
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17885 additionally using a desired external signal, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• 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

Abstract

A noise-cancelling headphone includes a cancel signal generator that receives ambient noise via an electro-acoustic transducer and generates and outputs a cancel signal eliminating the noise and a speaker unit that outputs an audio signal and a cancel signal, and connects the cancel signal generator to a first terminal of two input terminals of the speaker unit and connects a sound source of an audio signal to a second terminal thereof, whereby obtaining the noise-cancelling headphone with which one can enjoy music with high quality without the change in the sound quality and volume between when a noise-cancelling function is activated and when deactivated.

Claims

1. A noise-cancelling headphone comprising:

an electro-acoustic transducer converting ambient noise into a noise signal;

a cancel signal generator generating and outputting a cancel signal to eliminate the noise from the noise signal; and

a speaker unit outputting an audio signal and the cancel signal, wherein

the cancel signal generator is connected to a first terminal of two input terminals of the speaker unit and a sound source of the audio signal is connected to a second terminal.

2. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, further comprising a first switching unit between the first terminal of the speaker unit and the cancel signal generator, wherein

the first switching unit is capable of selecting either to connect the cancel signal generator to the first terminal or to ground the first terminal.

3. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 2, wherein

the first switching unit is composed of a selector switch having a movable contact and a first fixed contact and a second fixed contact selected by the movable contact;

the movable contact is connected to the first terminal of the speaker unit;

the first fixed contact is connected to the cancel signal generator; and

the second fixed contact is grounded.

4. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, further comprising a sound source input terminal that can be attached to/detached from the second terminal of the speaker unit, wherein

the sound source input terminal is a terminal grounded at a signal line side contact thereof when an output terminal of the sound source is not inserted into the sound source input terminal.

5. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, wherein

the second terminal of the speaker unit is grounded via a resistance element having an impedance larger than an output impedance of the sound source and smaller than an impedance of the speaker unit.

6. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 2, functioning as a normal headphone when a movable contact of a first selector switch is on the side of a second fixed contact.

7. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 4, outputting only the cancel signal from the speaker unit when the output terminal of the sound source is not inserted into the sound source input terminal.

8. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, further comprising:

an audio signal detector detecting the audio signal input from the sound source and outputting a control signal;

a second selector switch located between a sound source input terminal and the audio signal detector and working with a first selector switch;

a first electronic switch making a contact by the control signal of the audio signal detector; and

a second electronic switch breaking a contact by the control signal of the audio signal detector, wherein

a movable contact of the second selector switch is connected to the sound source input terminal, a first fixed contact is connected to the audio signal detector, and a second fixed contact bypasses the first electronic switch and is connected to the second terminal of the speaker unit; and

the first electronic switch is connected to the sound source input terminal and the second terminal of the speaker unit, and the second electronic switch is connected between the second terminal of the speaker unit and the ground.

9. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, further comprising:

an audio signal detector detecting the audio signal input from the sound source and outputting a control signal;

a second selector switch located between a sound source input terminal and the audio signal detector and working with a first selector switch; and

an electronic selector switch located between the second terminal of the speaker unit and the sound source input terminal and connecting the second terminal and the sound source input terminal when a movable contact of the first selector switch is on the side of a second fixed contact and the audio signal detector detects the audio signal.

10. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 8, configured such that when an armature of a first switching unit is connected to the first fixed contact, an armature of a second switching unit is connected to the first fixed contact and when the armature of the first switching unit is connected to the second fixed contact, the armature of the second switching unit is connected to the second fixed contact.

11. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 8, configured such that when the audio signal detector detects the audio signal, the first electronic switch makes a contact and the second electronic switch breaks a contact, and thereby the audio signal input from the sound source is input to the second terminal.

12. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sound source input terminal capable of attaching/detaching the sound source;

a headphone amplifier outputting the audio signal input from the sound source; and

a third switching unit between the second terminal of the speaker unit and the headphone amplifier, and between the second terminal of the speaker unit and the sound source input terminal, wherein

the third switching unit can select to connect to the second terminal of the speaker unit either the headphone amplifier or the sound source input terminal.

13. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, wherein

the first terminal of the speaker unit is a positive terminal of the speaker unit;

and

the second terminal of the speaker unit is a negative terminal of the speaker unit.

14. The noise-cancelling headphone according to claim 1, wherein

the first terminal of the speaker unit is a negative terminal of the speaker unit;

and

the second terminal of the speaker unit is a positive terminal of the speaker unit.