OPTICAL MICROPHONE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING BODY CONDUCTED SOUND SIGNALS

• US 20140072146A1
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Published: 03/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: BoneTone Communications Limited (Synaptics Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: DSP Group Incorporated (Synaptics Incorporated)
• Inventors: Itkin, Yuval, Haiut, Moshe, Mark, Raifel
• Application Number:
  US13/612,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20140072146A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/111
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 23/008 using optical signals for detecting or generating sound
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/603 of mechanical or electronic switches or control elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones

Abstract

A method and an optical microphone that may include a transmitter; and a sensor; wherein the transmitter is arranged, when facing an external auditory canal of a user, to direct optical signals towards an area of the external auditory canal; wherein the sensor is arranged to generate sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that reflected from the external auditory canal; wherein the reflected radiation conveys information about body conducted signals that propagate through a body of the user and cause the external auditory canal to vibrate.

Claims

1. An optical microphone, comprising:

a transmitter; and

a sensor;

wherein the transmitter is arranged, when facing an external auditory canal of a user, to direct optical signals towards an area of the external auditory canal;

wherein the sensor is arranged to generate sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that reflected from the external auditory canal;

wherein the reflected radiation conveys information about body conducted signals that propagate through a body of the user and cause the external auditory canal to vibrate.

2. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is coupled to a processor that is arranged to process the sensing signals to provide output signals indicative of the body conducted sound signals.

3. The optical microphone according to claim 1, further comprises a processor that is arranged to process the sensing signals to provide output signals indicative of body conducted sound signals that cause the external auditory canal to vibrate.

4. The optical microphone according to claim 2, wherein the processor comprises an amplitude analyzer that is arranged to perform an amplitude based analysis of the detection signals to extract information about the body conducted sound signals.

5. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein at a certain point in time the optical signals form a beam of radiation.

6. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the optical signals form multiple beams of radiation.

7. The optical microphone according to claim 6, wherein the multiple beams of radiation comprise at least two beams of radiation that differ from each other by frequency.

8. The optical microphone according to claim 7, wherein the multiple beams of radiation comprise a visible light beam of radiation and an infra red beam.

9. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is arranged to generate sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that is reflected from the area of the external auditory canal.

10. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is arranged to generate sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that is reflected multiple times from multiple areas of the external auditory canal.

11. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the processor comprises a user motion reduction module that is arranged to suppress information attributed to physical movements of the user.

12. The optical microphone according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter is arranged to direct optical signals towards the area during time windows that are spaced apart in time.

13. The optical microphone according to claim 1, comprising a housing that at least partially surrounds the transmitter, the sensor and the processor.

14. The optical microphone according to claim 1, comprising multiple sensors.

15. The optical microphone according to claim 14, wherein the multiple sensors comprise at least two sensors that are arranged to sense radiation from different areas of an ear of the user.

16. A method for detecting body conducted signals, the method comprises:

transmitting, by a transmitter that faces the external auditory canal of a user, optical signals towards an area of the external auditory canal;

generating, by a sensor, sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that is reflected from the external auditory canal;

wherein the reflected radiation conveys information about body conducted signals that propagate through a body of the user and cause the external auditory canal to vibrate.

17. The method according to claim 16, comprising processing the sensing signals to provide output signals indicative of the body conducted sound signals cause the external auditory canal to vibrate.

18. The method according to claim 16 comprising performing an amplitude based analysis of the detection signals to extract information about the body conducted sound signals.

19. The method according to claim 16, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting at a certain point in time optical signals that form a beam of radiation.

20. The method according to claim 16, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting multiple beams of radiation.

21. The method according to claim 16, comprising transmitting multiple beams of radiation that comprise at least two beams of radiation that differ from each other by frequency.

22. The method according to claim 16, comprising transmitting multiple beams of radiation that comprise a visible light beam of radiation and an infra red beam.

23. The method according to claim 16, comprising generating sensing signals that are indicative of reflected radiation that is reflected multiple times from multiple areas of the external auditory canal.

24. The method according to claim 16, comprises suppressing information attributed to physical movements of the user.

25. The method according to claim 16, comprising directing optical signals towards the area during time windows that are spaced apart in time.

26. The method according to claim 16, comprising generating the sensing signals by multiple sensors.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the multiple sensors comprise at least two sensors that are arranged to sense radiation from different areas of an ear of the user.