Method and device for acoustic management control of multiple microphones

• US 8,315,400 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2008
• Issued: 11/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cases2Tech, LLC
• Original Assignee: Personics Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Goldstein, Steven Wayne, Usher, John, Boillot, Marc Andre, McIntosh, Jason
• Primary Examiner(s): Paul, Disler
• Application Number:
  US12/135,816
• Publication Number:
  US 20090016542A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,625 Days
• Field of Search: 381 56- 57, 381/23.1, 381/94.1, 381 91- 92, 381/74, 381/72, 381/317, 381/320, 381/328
• US Class Current: 381/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An earpiece (100) and a method (640) for acoustic management of multiple microphones is provided. The method can include capturing an ambient acoustic signal from an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to produce an electronic ambient signal, capturing in an ear canal an internal sound from an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) to produce an electronic internal signal, measuring a background noise signal, and mixing the electronic ambient signal with the electronic internal signal in a ratio dependent on the background noise signal to produce a mixed signal. The mixing can adjust an internal gain of the electronic internal signal and an external gain of the electronic ambient signal based on the background noise characteristics. The mixing can account for an acoustic attenuation level and an audio content level of the earpiece.

Claims

1. An earpiece comprising:

at least one Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) configured to convert an ambient sound to an ambient sound signal;

at least one Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) configured to convert an internal sound from an ear canal of a user to an internal sound signal and where the internal sound signal includes an internal voice of the user; and

a processor operatively coupled to the at least one ASM and the at least one ECM and which receives the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal, and where the processer is configured to;

determine a background noise level from at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal, and to adjust an amplitude of one or more frequencies of the internal sound signal and the ambient sound signal based on the background noise level, to filter the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal.

2. The earpiece of claim 1 further including an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) for delivering audio content to the ear canal of the user where user speech delivered by the ECR is filtered to provide a natural sounding voice to the user.

3. The earpiece of claim 2 where the ambient sound signal includes an external voice signal, where the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal are mixed to form a mixed signal, and where the mixed signal is provided to the ECR.

4. The earpiece of claim 3 where the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal are mixed in a ratio dependent on characteristics of the background noise level of the ambient sound signal.

5. The earpiece of claim 4 where at low background noise levels the ambient sound signal from the ASM is amplified relative to the internal sound signal from the ECM, where at medium background noise levels low frequencies of the ambient sound signal are attenuated and high frequencies of the internal sound signal are attenuated, and where at high background noise levels the internal sound signal from the ECM is amplified relative to the ambient sound signal from the ASM.

6. The earpiece of claim 1 where a filter characteristic for filtering the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal is selected based on a level of the background noise level.

7. The earpiece of claim 1 where a filter characteristic for filtering the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal is selected based on a spectral profile of the background noise level.

8. The earpiece of claim 1 where a filter characteristic for filtering the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal is selected based on an envelope fluctuation of the background noise level.

9. The earpiece of claim 1 where an analog circuit is used to filter at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal.

10. The earpiece of claim 1 where a time domain transversal filter is used to filter at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal.

11. The earpiece of claim 1 where an IIR-type filter is used to filter at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal.

12. The earpiece of claim 1 where frequency-domain multiplication is used to filter at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal.

13. The earpiece of claim 1 where an adaptive filter is used to filter at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal.

14. A method for acoustic management control comprising the steps of:

providing an acoustic barrier to an ear canal of a user;

capturing an ambient sound from at least one Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to produce an ambient sound signal that includes an external voice signal of the user;

capturing in the ear canal of the user an internal sound from the at least one Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) to produce an internal sound signal that includes an internal voice signal of the user;

determining a background noise signal from at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal; and

adjusting an amplitude of one or more frequencies of the internal sound signal and the ambient sound signal based on the background noise signal, to filter the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal.

15. The method of claim 14 further including a step of mixing the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal in a ratio dependent on the background noise signal to produce a mixed signal.

16. The method of claim 15 further including:

decreasing an internal gain of the internal sound signal as background noise levels decrease, while

increasing an external gain of the ambient sound signal as the background noise levels decrease.

17. The method of claim 14, where the step of adjusting further includes filtering the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal based on a characteristic of the background noise signal where the characteristic includes at least one of a level of the background noise signal, a spectral profile, or an envelope fluctuation.

18. An earpiece comprising:

a sealing section in an ear canal of a user;

at least one Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) configured to convert an ambient sound to an ambient sound signal and where the ambient sound signal includes an external voice signal of the user;

at least one Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) configured to convert an internal sound from the ear canal of the user to an internal sound signal and where the internal sound signal includes an internal voice signal of the user; and

a processor operatively coupled to the at least one ASM and the at least one ECM and which receives the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal, where the processor is configured to;

determine a background noise signal from at least one of the ambient sound signal or the internal sound signal, and to adjust an amplitude of one or more frequencies of the internal sound signal and the ambient sound signal based on the background noise signal, to filter the internal sound signal relative to the ambient sound signal; and

at least one Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) operatively coupled to the processor for receiving an output signal and configured to deliver audio content to the ear canal of the user.

19. The earpiece of claim 18 where the output signal comprises the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal mixed as a function of the background noise signal.

20. The earpiece of claim 19 where the processor is configured to filter the ambient sound signal and the internal sound signal based on a characteristic of the background noise signal where the characteristic includes at least one of a level of the background noise signal, a spectral profile, or an envelope fluctuation.