Sound enhancement for mobile phones and other products producing personalized audio for users

• US 20050260978A1
• Filed: 07/28/2005
• Published: 11/24/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: K/S HIMPP
• Original Assignee: Sound Id
• Inventors: Puria, Sunil, Menzel, Christoph, Johansen, Benny B., Rader, R. Scott, Edwards, Brent W.
• Granted Patent: US 7,529,545 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/418
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/12 Audiometering
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2205/041 Adaptation of stereophonic signal reproduction for the hearing impaired
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/43 Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2225/55 Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/505 using digital signal processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 25/70 Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 5/04 Circuit arrangements, e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S

Abstract

A mobile phone or other personal communication device includes resources applying measures of an individual'"'"'s hearing profile, personal choice profile, and induced hearing loss profile, separately or in combination, to build the basis of sound enhancement. A personal communication device thus comprises a transmitter/receiver coupled to a communication medium for transmitted receiving audio signals, control circuitry that controls transmission, reception and processing of call and audio signals, a speaker, and a microphone. The control circuitry includes logic applying one or more of a hearing profile of the user, a user preference related hearing, and environmental noise factors in processing the audio signals. The control circuitry may includes instruction memory and an instruction execution processor such as a digital signal processor.

Claims

1. A personal communication device comprising:

a transmitter and a receiver which transmits and receives communication signals encoding audio signals;

an audio transducer which renders audio signals audible;

a microphone; and

control circuitry coupled to the transmitter, the receiver, the audio transducer and the microphone, including logic applying multiband compression to the audio signals, including generation of parameters for the multiband compression based on stored user data and based on environmental data determined while controlling the transducer to render the audio signals audible.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said control circuitry includes instruction memory and an instruction execution processor.

3. The device of claim 1, wherein said control circuitry includes a digital signal processor.

4. The device of claim 1, including an input device adapted to indicate a volume level for said audio transducer, and wherein said environmental data comprises the volume level.

5. The device of claim 1, wherein said control circuitry generates said parameters of the multiband compression based on said stored user data and on said environmental data independently and in parallel in processing the audio signals.

6. The device of claim 1, wherein said control circuitry generates said parameters of the multiband compression based on said stored user data and on said environmental data independently and in series in processing the audio signals.

7. The device of claim 1, including a sensor which detects environmental noise, for providing said environmental data.

8. The device of claim 1, including logic to process environmental noise picked up by the microphone, for providing said environmental data.

9. The device of claim 1, including resources to obtain a hearing profile for a user from a remote source.

10. The device of claim 1, including resources to prompt a user to provide information specifying a hearing profile of the user.

11. The device of claim 1, including resources to prompt a user to provide information specifying a hearing profile of the user and a user preference.

12. The device of claim 1, including resources to prompt a user to provide information specifying a user preference.

13. The device of claim 1, including resources to prompt a user to provide information for use in defining a hearing profile of the user.

15. The device of claim 1, wherein the stored user data comprises one or more of a hearing profile of a user and a user preference related to hearing, and the environmental data comprises environmental noise factors.

14. The device of claim 16, including a display, and wherein said resources include logic prompting with at least one of said audio transducer and said display, the user through a hearing test based upon user reaction to sounds, and in which said sounds are produced using said audio transducer.