OWN VOICE BODY CONDUCTED NOISE MANAGEMENT

• US 20150256949A1
• Filed: 11/18/2014
• Published: 09/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2014
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Cochlear Limited
• Original Assignee: Cochlear Limited
• Inventors: VANPOUCKE, Filiep J., MILLER, Scott Allen
• Granted Patent: US 10,257,619 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02087 the noise being separate speech, e.g. cocktail party
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/453 electronically
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/606 acting directly on the eardrum, the ossicles or the skull, e.g. mastoid, tooth, maxillary or mandibular bone, or mechanically stimulating the cochlea, e.g. at the oval window

Abstract

A system, including an adaptive noise cancellation sub-system, wherein the system is configured to adjust operation of the sub-system from a first operating state to a second operating state upon a determination that operation of the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system will be effectively affected by an own voice body conducted noise phenomenon.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an adaptive noise cancellation sub-system, wherein the system is configured to adjust operation of the sub-system from a first operating state to a second operating state upon a determination that operation of the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system will be affected by an own voice body conducted noise phenomenon.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first operating state is an operating state in which the system operates while the recipient of the system is speaking, the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system cancels at least a portion of the own voice body conducted noise resulting from the speaking, and the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system is not significantly affected by an own voice body conducted noise phenomenon.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system includes a signal filter sub-system, wherein the system is configured to control a filter coefficient of the signal filter sub-system to affect noise cancellation according to a first control regime when in the second operating state.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the sub-system is configured to change to the first control regime from a second control regime upon the determination that operation of the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system will be affected by the own voice body conducted noise phenomenon, thereby adjusting operation of the adaptive noise cancellation from the first operating state to the second operating state, wherein the second control regime is different from the first control regime.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the first control regime at least one of:

freezes the filter coefficient;

or

adjusts the filter coefficient to a different setting from that which would be the case in the absence of the control regime.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the first operating state is an operating state in which the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system operates according to a first algorithm; and

the second operating state is an operating state in which the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system operates in a deviant manner from the first algorithm.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the deviant manner includes at least one of suspension of execution of the first algorithm or exiting from the algorithm.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein:

the first algorithm includes a sub-algorithm that controls the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system to operate in the deviant manner.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the system is configured such that the sub-algorithm is executed only upon the determination that the operation of the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system will be impacted by an own voice body conducted noise phenomenon.

10. The system of claim 4, wherein:

wherein the control regime adjusts the filter coefficient to a different setting by at least one of;

adjusting the filter coefficient to a predetermined value;

or

extrapolating a value of the filter coefficient.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the sub-system includes a signal filter sub-system, wherein the system is configured to control a filter coefficient of the signal filter sub-system to effect noise cancellation according to a first algorithm when the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system is in the first operating state; and

the system is configured to control the filter coefficient of the signal filter sub-system that affects noise cancellation according to a control regime different from that of the first algorithm, thereby adjusting operation of the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system from the first operating state to the second operating state.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the second operating state is a state in which the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system cancels noise to a lesser degree than that of the first operating state.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the second operating state is a state in which the adaptive noise cancellation sub-system cancels at least body noise to a lesser degree than that of the first operating state

14. A method, comprising:

outputting first signals from an implanted transducer while a recipient is vocally silent that are based at least in part on non-own-voice body conducted noise, and subsequently outputting second signals from the implanted transducer while a recipient thereof is vocalizing that are based at least in part on own-voice body conducted noise, the body noises being conducted through tissue of the recipient of the implanted transducer;

processing the outputted signals; and

evoking respective hearing percepts based on the processed outputted signals over a temporal period substantially corresponding to the outputs of the first signals and the second signals, wherein the processing of the second signals is executed in a different manner from that of the first signals.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining that an own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon has commenced; and

adjusting the processing of the outputted signals from that which was the case prior to the determination of the commencement of the own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon based on the determination of the commencement of the own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon such that the processing of the second signals is executed in a different manner from that of the first signals.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the action of determining that an own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon has commenced is based on at least one of respective energies of the implanted transducer and a second implanted transducer isolated from ambient noise.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein:

the action of determining that an own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon has commenced includes analyzing a spectral content of signals from the implanted transducer and determining that an own-voice body conducted noise phenomenon has commenced based on the spectral content.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the first signals or the second signals are based in part on ambient noise conducted through tissue of the recipient.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

outputting third signals from the implanted transducer in close temporal proximity to the outputted first signals that are based at least in part on ambient noise conducted through tissue of the recipient and not based on non-own-voice body conducted noise;

processing the outputted third signals; and

evoking a hearing percepts based on the processed outputted third signals, wherein the processing of the third signals is executed in the same manner as that of the first signals.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

outputting third signals from the implanted transducer in close temporal proximity to the outputted first signals that are based at least in part on ambient noise conducted through tissue of the recipient and based at least in part on non-own-voice body conducted noise;

processing the outputted third signals; and

evoking a hearing percepts based on the processed outputted third signals, wherein the processing of the third signals is executed in a different manner from that of the first signals.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein:

the third signals from the implanted transducer are not based on own-voice body conducted noise.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the outputted first signals are based totally on non-own voice body conducted noise.

23. The method of claim 14, wherein the action of outputting second signals from the implanted transducer while the recipient is vocalizing is executed in close temporal proximity to the action of outputting the first signals.

24. A device, comprising:

a hearing prosthesis including a transducer sub-system configured to transduce energy originating from an acoustic signal and from body noise, and further including a control unit configured to identify the presence of an own voice body conducted noise event based on the transduced energy, wherein

the hearing prosthesis is configured to cancel body conducted noise energy from a transducer signal including energy originating from the acoustic signal at least in the absence of an identification of the presence of the own voice body conducted noise event.

25. The device of claim 24, wherein the hearing prosthesis is configured to cancel body noise energy from the transducer signal including energy originating from the acoustic signal upon an identification of the presence of the own voice body conducted noise event differently from that which would be the case in the absence of the identification of the presence of the own voice body conducted noise event.

26. The device of claim 24, wherein the hearing prosthesis is configured to compare a parameter related to transduced energy originating from the acoustic signal to a parameter related to transduced energy originating from the body noise, and identify the presence of an own voice body conducted noise event based on the comparison.

27. The device of claim 24, wherein the prosthesis comprises:

a first implantable transducer configured to transduce energy originating at least in part from the acoustic signal;

a second implantable transducer configured to transduce energy originating from body noise, the second implantable transducer being effectively insulated from energy originating from the acoustic signal; and

a noise cancellation system configured to affect the cancellation of the body noise energy from the transducer signal including energy originating from the acoustic signal, wherein

the prosthesis is configured to adjust a cancellation system mixing ratio of output from the first transducer and output from the second transducer upon the identification of the own voice body conducted noise event.

28. The device of claim 24, wherein the prosthesis is configured to adjust the mixing ratio such that output from the second transducer has less influence on the cancellation system.

29. A device, comprising:

a hearing prosthesis including a transducer sub-system configured to transduce energy originating from an acoustic signal and from body conducted noise, and output a signal based on the acoustic signal and on the body conducted noise, wherein the hearing prosthesis is configured to;

determine that at least one of own voice content is present or own voice content is absent in the output;

evoke a hearing percept having a significant body conducted noise content upon at least one of the determination that own voice content is present in the output or failure to determine that own voice content is absent from the output, and

evoke a hearing percept having substantially no body conducted noise content upon at least one of a determination that own voice content is absent from the output or upon failure to determine that own voice content is present in the output.

30. The device of claim 29, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis includes a noise cancellation sub-system configured to cancel own voice body conducted noise from the output, wherein the hearing prosthesis curtails noise cancellation to evoke the hearing percept having the significant body conducted noise.

31. The device of claim 30, wherein:

the hearing prosthesis includes a noise cancellation sub-system configured to cancel own voice body conducted noise from the output, wherein the hearing prosthesis halts noise cancellation to evoke the hearing percept having the significant body conducted noise.