Headphone device, wearing state detection device, and wearing state detection method

• US 9,232,308 B2
• Filed: 06/21/2013
• Issued: 01/05/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Murata, Yasunobu, Asada, Kohei
• Primary Examiner(s): Paul, Disler
• Application Number:
  US13/923,787
• Publication Number:
  US 20140037101A1
• Time in Patent Office: 928 Days
• Field of Search: 381/72, 381/74, 381/71.6, 381/376, 381/381, 381/370
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 2460/03 Aspects of the reduction of energy consumption in hearing devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Provided is a headphone device including an outside microphone attached to a position at which an extraneous sound is picked up without passing through a shield in a state in which a user is wearing the headphone device, an inside microphone attached to a position at which the extraneous sound is picked up via the shield in the state in which the user is wearing the headphone device, a driver unit which performs an acoustic output, and a wearing state detection unit which detects a wearing or non-wearing state using a signal comparison result between sound signals obtained by the outside and inside microphones, respectively, a pre-stored non-wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result when the extraneous sound arrives in the non-wearing state, and a pre-stored wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result when the extraneous sound arrives in the wearing state.

Claims

1. A headphone device comprising:

an outside microphone attached to a position at which an extraneous sound is picked up without passing through a shield in a state in which a user is wearing the headphone device;

an inside microphone attached to a position at which the extraneous sound is picked up via the shield in the state in which the user is wearing the headphone device;

a driver unit configured to perform an acoustic output; and

a wearing state detection unit configured to detect a wearing state or a non-wearing state using a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone, a pre-stored non-wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the non-wearing state, and a pre-stored wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the wearing state.

2. The headphone device according to claim 1, wherein the wearing state detection unit detects the wearing state or the non-wearing state by making similarity determination with each of the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value for the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone.

3. The headphone device according to claim 2, wherein the wearing state detection unit performs, as the similarity determination, a process of comparing frequency characteristics serving as the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone to frequency characteristics serving as the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value.

4. The headphone device according to claim 2, wherein the wearing state detection unit performs, as the similarity determination, a process of comparing a time axis amplitude serving as the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone to time axis amplitudes serving as the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value.

5. The headphone device according to claim 2, wherein the wearing state detection unit outputs a detection result with the non-wearing state for every given cycle when a continuation period or an accumulation time in which a result of the similarity determination is determined to be the non-wearing state has exceeded a threshold value.

6. The headphone device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a noise cancellation processing unit configured to generate a noise canceling signal from a picked-up extraneous sound signal and set the noise canceling signal as a sound signal output from the driver unit,

wherein the extraneous sound signal to be supplied to the noise cancellation processing unit is configured to be obtained by one or both of the outside microphone and the inside microphone.

7. The headphone device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sound signal processing unit configured to process a sound signal input from an external device as a sound signal output from the driver unit.

8. The headphone device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a control unit configured to perform power supply OFF control when the non-wearing state has been detected by the wearing state detection unit.

9. A wearing state detection method of a headphone device including an outside microphone attached to a position at which an extraneous sound is picked up without passing through a shield in a state in which a user is wearing the headphone device, an inside microphone attached to a position at which the extraneous sound is picked up via the shield in the state in which the user is wearing the headphone device, and a driver unit configured to perform an acoustic output, the wearing state detection method comprising:

detecting a wearing state or a non-wearing state using a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone, a pre-stored non-wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the non-wearing state, and a pre-stored wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the wearing state.

10. A headphone device comprising:

an outside microphone attached to a position at which an extraneous sound is picked up without passing through a shield in a state in which a user is wearing the headphone device;

an inside microphone attached to a position at which the extraneous sound is picked up via the shield in the state in which the user is wearing the headphone device;

an acoustic driver; and

circuitry configured to detect a wearing state or a non-wearing state using a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone, a pre-stored non-wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the non-wearing state, and a pre-stored wearing state reference value which is a signal comparison result between a sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and a sound signal obtained by the inside microphone when the extraneous sound arrives in the wearing state.

11. The headphone device according to claim 10, wherein the circuitry is configured to detect the wearing state or the non-wearing state by making similarity determination with each of the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value for the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone.

12. The headphone device according to claim 11, wherein the circuitry is configured to perform, as the similarity determination, a process of comparing frequency characteristics serving as the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone to frequency characteristics serving as the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value.

13. The headphone device according to claim 11, wherein the circuitry is configured to perform, as the similarity determination, a process of comparing a time axis amplitude serving as the signal comparison result between the sound signal obtained by the outside microphone and the sound signal obtained by the inside microphone to time axis amplitudes serving as the non-wearing state reference value and the wearing state reference value.

14. The headphone device according to claim 11, wherein the circuitry is configured to output a detection result with the non-wearing state for every given cycle when a continuation period or an accumulation time in which a result of the similarity determination is determined to be the non-wearing state has exceeded a threshold value.

15. The headphone device according to claim 10, wherein

the circuitry is configured to generate a noise canceling signal from a picked-up extraneous sound signal and set the noise canceling signal as a sound signal output from the acoustic driver, and

the extraneous sound signal is obtained by one or both of the outside microphone and the inside microphone.

16. The headphone device according to claim 10, wherein the circuitry is configured to process a sound signal input from an external device as a sound signal output from the acoustic driver.

17. The headphone device according to claim 10, wherein the circuitry is configured to perform power supply OFF control when the non-wearing state has been detected.