Method and system for reducing background sounds in a noisy environment

a background sound and noise reduction technology, applied in the field of acoustic signal processing, can solve the problems of difficulty affecting the social life of those who cannot converse effectively, hearing aids cannot typically correct this problem, and it is difficult to hear/discern conversations in a noisy environment, etc., to achieve the effect of effectively cancelling and/or cleaning a noisy background, and high selectivity

Inactive Publication Date: 2017-05-25
JACKSON TIM
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a method and system for reducing noise to a user's ears to enable them to hear a conversation of interest. The method involves using a mobile device with noise-cancellation earphones connected to it to prehear the noise, analyze the preheared noise to create an analyzed noise signal, and process this signal to effect noise cancellation for the user's ears. The system includes the mobile device, the noise-cancellation earphones, and a database of noise recordings to identify and retrieve an entire recording that matches the noise. The technical effect of this patent is to provide a more effective way to reduce noise for users in conversational settings, making it easier to hear the person they are talking to.

Problems solved by technology

However, hearing loss or impairment, especially associated with age-related hearing loss, makes it difficult to hear / discern conversations in a noisy environment.
This difficulty impacts the social life of those who cannot converse effectively in noisy surroundings.
Hearing aids cannot typically correct this problem, as the issue is not to amplify the conversation sound but rather to distinguish the conversation-of-interest from other noise in the surroundings.
In general, active noise cancelation is a complicated problem to address; however cancelling noise in a specific location (such as in or very close to the human ear) is well known.
A strong disadvantage of the prior art is that a conversation-of-interest is generally cancelled / attenuated / removed, along with environmental noise.

Method used

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  • Method and system for reducing background sounds in a noisy environment
  • Method and system for reducing background sounds in a noisy environment
  • Method and system for reducing background sounds in a noisy environment

Examples

Experimental program
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Embodiment Construction

[0027]Embodiments of the present invention relate to acoustic signal processing in general, and specifically to a method and system for silencing music and other background sounds in a noisy environment.

[0028]In one embodiment, a user is located in a noisy environment in which music is playing from loud speakers. The user wants to hear / discern a conversation-of-interest, but cannot do so because of the music. A complete solution to the problem is to directly (and substantially only) cancel the music.

[0029]Reference is made to FIG. 2, which is a schematic representation of an ANC / ARC system 15, similar to that shown in FIG. 1, but having direct cancellation of a noise signal 16 by an anti-noise source / signal 17, yielding a resultant sound signal 19 which substantially represents a conversation signal 18, in accordance with an embodiments of the current invention. In the current figure, system 15 takes advantage of knowing in advance what the noise signal is to be able to more selecti...

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Abstract

A method for reducing noise to a user to enable a conversation-of-interest to be heard, the noise originating from a noise source, the method comprising the steps of: operating at least one first device located at a first distance from the noise source, the user having noise-cancellation earphones connected to a second mobile device, the second mobile device located at a second distance from the noise source, the first distance less than the second distance; prehearing noise from the noise source using the at least one first device; analyzing the preheard noise to yield a respective analyzed noise signal; and processing the respective analyzed noise signal to effect noise cancellation for the noise-cancellation earphones.

Description

[0001]The present application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 260,192, filed 25 Nov. 2015, whose disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF THE INVENTION AND BACKGROUND[0002]The current invention relates to acoustic signal processing in general, and specifically to a method and system for silencing music and other background sounds in a noisy environment.[0003]In the specification and claims which follow below, the term “noisy environment” is intended to have equivalent meaning to “noisy room”, “noisy surroundings”, and / or “noising background”. Examples of noisy surroundings include, but are not limited to: restaurants, public places, and wedding halls.[0004]In the specification and claim which follow below, the term “earpiece” is intended to have the same meaning of words such as, but not limited to: earphone, earphones, earbud, and hearing aid. The meaning of “noise” in the specification and claims which follow below is intended to mean any sp...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & AuthorityApplications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): G10L21/0216G10L25/72
CPCG10L21/0216G10L25/72G10K2210/1081G10K11/1788G10K2210/129G10L2021/02087G10K2210/3014H04R1/1083H04R2410/05H04R2460/01G10K11/17873G10K11/17823G10K11/17837G10K11/17857G10K11/17821G10L15/20
InventorJACKSON, TIMUR, SHMUEL
OwnerJACKSON TIM