EARSET ASSEMBLY

• US 20070121974A1
• Filed: 11/08/2006
• Published: 05/31/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Think-A-Move Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Think-A-Move Ltd.
• Inventors: Nemirovski, Guerman
• Granted Patent: US 7,983,433 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/312
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02165 Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/1016 Earpieces of the intra-aural type
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/225 for telephonic receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/107 Monophonic and stereophonic headphones with microphone for two-way hands free communication

Abstract

Disclosed is an earset assembly that has a housing having a microphone port and a speaker port. A microphone is enclosed by the housing and has first and second input ports. The first input port is acoustically coupled to the microphone port to detect air pressure changes of the ear of a user. A speaker is enclosed by the housing and has an output port acoustically coupled to the speaker port to broadcast sounds to the user. The output port is acoustically coupled to the second input port of the microphone so that the microphone cancels at least a portion of feedback from the sounds broadcast by the speaker and detected at the first input port of the microphone.

Claims

1. An earset assembly, comprising:

a housing having a microphone port and a speaker port;

a microphone enclosed by the housing and having first and second input ports, the first input port acoustically coupled to the microphone port to detect air pressure changes of the ear of a user; and

a speaker enclosed by the housing and having an output port acoustically coupled to the speaker port to broadcast sounds to the user and the output port acoustically coupled to the second input port of the microphone so that the microphone cancels at least a portion of feedback from the sounds broadcast by the speaker and detected at the first input port of the microphone.

2. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the microphone port is positioned with respect to the housing so as to be communicatively arranged with the ear canal of the user.

3. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the microphone is a unidirectional microphone.

4. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein a first tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the microphone port with the first input port of the microphone, a second tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the speaker port with the output port of the speaker, and a third tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the output port of the speaker with the second input port of the microphone.

5. The earset assembly according to claim 4, wherein the second and third tubes are acoustically coupled with each other.

6. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the input ports of the microphone are vibration receptor knobs and the output port of the speaker is a vibration transmission knob.

7. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the air pressure changes of the ear include sound waves emanating from the ear that correspond to speech of the user.

8. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the acoustic coupling from the output port of the speaker to the second input port of the microphone includes an acoustic resistance.

9. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the microphone includes an acoustic resistance between the second input port and a transducer element.

10. The earset assembly according to claim 1, wherein the housing has a second microphone port acoustically coupled to the second input port of the microphone so that the microphone cancels at least a portion of ambient noise detected at the first input port of the microphone.

11. The earset assembly according to claim 10, wherein the ambient noise includes sounds emanating from the mouth of the user.

12. The earset assembly according to claim 10, wherein a tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the second microphone port with the second input port of the microphone.

13. The earset assembly according to claim 12, wherein the tube is acoustically coupled with another tube that establishes the acoustic coupling between the output port of the speaker and the second input port of the microphone.

14. A communication system comprising the earset assembly of claim 1 and a telephone having a connection to the earset assembly to receive an output signal from the microphone and to transmit an output signal to the speaker.

15. A sound processing system comprising the earset assembly of claim 1 and a sound processing apparatus having a connection to the earset assembly to receive an output signal of the microphone.

16. The sound processing system according to claim 15, wherein the sound processing apparatus executes a logic routine to process the output signal.

17. The sound processing system according to claim 15, wherein the sound processing apparatus is a speech recognition system.

18. The sound processing system according to claim 15, wherein the sound processing apparatus is a medical diagnostic system.

19. The sound processing system according to claim 15, wherein the sound processing apparatus is a control system for a controllable device.

20. An earset assembly, comprising:

a housing having first and second microphone ports; and

a microphone enclosed by the housing and having a first input port acoustically coupled to the first microphone port to detect air pressure changes of the ear of a user and a second input port acoustically coupled to the second microphone port so that the microphone cancels at least a portion of ambient noise detected at the first input port of the microphone.

21. The earset assembly according to claim 20, wherein the first microphone port is positioned with respect to the housing so as to be communicatively arranged with the ear canal of the user.

22. The earset assembly according to claim 20, wherein a first tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the first microphone port with the first input port of the microphone and a second tube is used to establish the acoustic coupling of the second microphone port with the second input port.

23. The earset assembly according to claim 20, wherein the acoustic coupling from the second microphone port to the second input port of the microphone includes an acoustic resistance.

24. The earset assembly according to claim 20, wherein the air pressure changes of the ear include sound waves emanating from the ear that correspond to speech of the user.

25. The earset assembly according to claim 20, wherein the ambient noise includes sounds emanating from the mouth of a user.

26. A sound processing system comprising the earset assembly of claim 20 and a sound processing apparatus having a connection to the earset assembly to receive an output signal of the microphone.