Method and apparatus for tooth bone conduction microphone

• US 20050196008A1
• Filed: 04/06/2005
• Published: 09/08/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adbo J. Babik, Muniswamappa Anjanappa, Russel E. Bogacki, Xia Chen
• Original Assignee: Adbo J. Babik, Muniswamappa Anjanappa, Russel E. Bogacki, Xia Chen
• Inventors: Chen, Xia, Anjanappa, Muniswamappa, Bogacki, Russel E., Babik, Adbo J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,486,798 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/380
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 17/02 Microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/13 Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers
• 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 two-way communication system particularly valuable for noisy environments where a user has a tooth bone conduction microphone in his mouth normally controlled by a tongue switch that transmits an electrical signal representing speech to a retransmit module usually worn on the user'"'"'s body or mounted on an earphone or headset where the speech electrical signal is retransmitted to a second user usually by RF. The retransmit module can also receive signals from the second user and transmit them to the earphone or headset thus providing two-way communication.

Claims

1. A two-way tooth microphone communication apparatus comprising:

a sound transducer element in contact with at least one tooth in a user'"'"'s mouth, said transducer producing an electrical signal in response to speech;

a first transceiver module transmitting said electrical signal to an external apparatus, external apparatus in proximity to said user;

a second transceiver module in said external apparatus retransmitting said electrical signal to a second user.

2. The tooth microphone apparatus of claim 1 wherein said sound transducer is a MEMS accelerometer.

3. The two-way tooth microphone communication system of claim 1 wherein said first transceiver module is coupled to an earphone or headset worn by said user.

4. The two-way tooth microphone communication system of claim 1 wherein said first transceiver transmits and receives on a first set of frequencies and said second transceiver transmits and receives on a second set of frequencies.

5. The two-way tooth microphone communication system of claim 4 wherein said first set of frequencies contains only one frequency.

6. The two-way tooth microphone communication system of claim 4 wherein said second set of frequencies contains only one frequency.

7. The two-way tooth microphone communication system of claim 4 where at least one frequency of said first set of frequencies or said second set of frequencies is in the ISM band.

8. A method for two-way communication in a noisy environment comprising:

placing a sound transducer element in a first user'"'"'s mouth, said sound transducer element in contact with at least one of said first user'"'"'s teeth, said sound transducer producing an electrical signal representative of speech;

coupling an RF transmitter to said sound transducer element so that said electrical signal is transmitted to a retransmission module;

causing said retransmission module to retransmit said electrical signal to a remote station.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said sound transducer element is a MEMS accelerometer.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising

receiving at said retransmission module a second electrical signal representing a speech signal from a second user located at a remote station;

transmitting said second electrical signal from said retransmission module to an earphone or headset worn by said first user.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein said retransmission module transmits into a Wi-Fi network.

12. A microphone apparatus for capturing speech in a noisy environment comprising a tooth bone microphone in contact with at least one tooth in a user'"'"'s mouth, said tooth bone microphone producing an electrical signal representative of speech, said electrical signal being transmitted to a module exterior to said user'"'"'s mouth, said module retransmitting said electrical signal to a remote station.

13. The microphone apparatus of claim 12 further comprising said module receiving a signal from a remote station and transmitting that module to an earphone or headset worn by said user.

14. The microphone apparatus of claim 13 wherein said module is mounted in proximity to said earphone or headset.

15. The microphone apparatus of claim 12 further comprising a tongue controlled switch.

16. The microphone apparatus of claim 12 wherein said tooth conduction microphone is embedded in acrylic.

17. The microphone apparatus of claim 12 wherein said electrical signal representative of speech is transmitted by RF.

18. The microphone apparatus of claim 12 wherein retransmitting said electrical signal representative to said remote station is by RF.

19. The microphone apparatus of claim 17 wherein said RF has a frequency between around 400 MHz and 500 MHz.

20. The microphone apparatus of claim 18 wherein said RF has a frequency between around 2 GHz and 3 GHz.