Private electronic device enhancing privacy of telephone call

Abstract

To provide a private electronic device capable of enhancing the privacy of a telephone call.SOLUTION: A private electronic device 10 includes a main sound generation device SPDmain which generates an intended sound for an intended user, and an auxiliary sound generation device SPDaux which generates a masking sound signal or a counter sound to lower the articulation of utterance by an onlooker nearby the intended user of the private electronic device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a personal electronic device, and more particularly to a personal electronic device capable of enhancing call privacy. [Background technology]

[0002] Unless otherwise stated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims of this application and are not admitted as prior art by inclusion in this section.

[0003] For mobile phone users, the privacy of their calls is of great importance, especially in confined public spaces such as elevators. In such environments, the risk of unintended eavesdropping is greatly increased. Close proximity to others means that private conversations involving sensitive financial, health, or professional matters can easily be overheard.

[0004] Lack of privacy can have serious repercussions. Overheard information can potentially be used for identity theft, targeted scams, or corporate espionage. Unintentional disclosure of confidential information can lead to social awkwardness, professional consequences, and even security breaches. Furthermore, the perception of being overheard can have serious implications for freedom of expression and discourage open discussion of important matters. Ultimately, robust call privacy measures are essential to ensure the security and confidentiality of mobile conversations, regardless of the physical environment.

[0005] Therefore, there is a need to enhance the privacy of calls. Summary of the Invention

[0006] Therefore, the main objective of this application is to provide a personal electronic device that remedies the shortcomings of the prior art.

[0007] One embodiment of this application provides a personal electronic device. The personal electronic device a main sound producing device configured to produce an intended sound for an intended user; and an auxiliary sound producing device configured to generate a masking sound or an anti-sound to reduce speech intelligibility of a bystander within a neighborhood of the intended user of the personal electronic device.

[0008] One embodiment of this application provides a personal electronic device. The personal electronic device a plurality of auxiliary sound producing devices configured to perform an acoustic beamforming operation and to form at least one acoustic beam; The at least one acoustic beam is configured to nullify or minimize acoustic energy toward an angular direction of a bystander to reduce the intelligibility of the bystander's speech.

[0009] These and other objects of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those skilled in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 2]1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 3] 1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 4] A hearing threshold and spectrum of a masking sound / noise are shown. [Figure 5] 1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 6] 1 illustrates a scenario of a voice sound and an anti-sound generated by an auxiliary sound generating device. [Figure 7] 1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 8] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a voice extraction circuit according to one embodiment of the present application. [Figure 9] 1 is a schematic diagram of a masking sound generator according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 10] 1 is a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 11] 1 is a schematic diagram of a reverberation generator according to an embodiment of the present application; [Figure 12] 1 illustrates a timing diagram of consonant or vowel segments according to one embodiment of the present application. [Figure 13] 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device according to an embodiment of the present application; DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic view of a front side (1(a)), a side edge (1(b)), and a back side (1(c)) of a personal electronic device 10 according to one embodiment of the present application. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the personal electronic device 10 is a telephone. The personal electronic device 10 includes a main sound producing device (SPD) main and a plurality of auxiliary sound producing devices (SPDs) aux In one embodiment, the primary or secondary sound generating device may produce sound via generating a plurality of air pulses. In other words, the primary or secondary sound generating device may be implemented by an air-pulse generating (APG) device, which has the advantage of being compact, such as, but not limited to, the air-pulse generating devices taught in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 18 / 321,759 and 18 / 829,245.

[0012] Tonic generation device SPD main is commonly known as the telephone receiver, which is typically located on the front of the telephone and generates the voice sound of the other party on a phone call. The voice sound of the other party is perceived as an intended sound to an intended user, and the intended user in this application typically refers to the phone holder / user, and vice versa.

[0013] Auxiliary Sound Generation Device SPD auxmay be located at a bottom edge or a side edge of the personal electronic device (as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b)) or at the back side of the personal electronic device (as shown in FIG. 1(c)) to generate sound around the personal electronic device 10. Auxiliary Sound Generating Device SPD aux The auxiliary sound generating device SPD is configured to generate a sound to destroy or reduce the speech intelligibility of a bystander. aux The sound produced by may be or may include an anti-sound (corresponding to the intended sound of the intended user), a masking sound (described in more detail below), or a combination of both.

[0014] In this application, a bystander may refer to an unintended listener within a neighborhood of the intended user of a personal electronic device (e.g., 10).

[0015] It should be noted that in the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, the personal electronic device 10 includes, but is not limited to, multiple auxiliary sound-generating devices. The number, locations, and / or arrangement of the auxiliary sound-generating devices may be designed according to actual requirements. As long as the personal electronic device includes at least one auxiliary sound-generating device and the auxiliary sound-generating device is configured to generate a masking or countering sound to neutralize or reduce the intelligibility of the speech of bystanders present in the vicinity of the user of the personal electronic device, the personal electronic device falls within the scope of the present invention.

[0016] It should be noted that the personal electronic device is not limited to a telephone. The personal electronic device may be a personal computer, a tablet computer, a smart wearable device such as a smart watch, a smart band, smart glasses, etc. As long as the personal electronic device performs voice telephone calls, the personal electronic device falls within the scope of the present invention.

[0017] 2 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device 20 according to one embodiment of the present application. The personal electronic device 20 illustrates one embodiment for generating a counter sound corresponding to an intended sound for an intended user. The personal electronic device 20 includes a primary sound generating device (SPD) main and auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux In addition, it includes a polarity inversion circuit 22 and a gain adjustment circuit 24.

[0018] Tonic generation device SPD main is a voice call signal S vc The intended sound p(t) is generated according to the vc may be obtained from a modem (not shown in FIG. 2) of the personal electronic device 20 (which bridges the personal electronic device and the communication network system).

[0019] In contrast, the polarity inversion circuit 22 and the gain adjustment circuit 24 are connected to the auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux act together to generate an opposing tone −a·p(t), where the negative sign “−” is contributed from polarity reversal circuit 22 and the gain factor or amplitude “a” is contributed from gain adjustment circuit 24.

[0020] The objective of the opponent -a·p(t) is to ideally generate a tonic signal from the SPD mainThe objective of the present invention is to cancel the intended sound p(t) emitted from the microphone, or at least to destructively interfere with the intended sound p(t), thereby reducing the intended sound p(t) or voice call signal S perceived by a bystander. vc Furthermore, the objective of the counter-sound -a·p(t) is to reduce the sound energy perceived by a bystander below a certain level so that the bystander's perceived sound energy is inaudible to the bystander.

[0021] The amplitude "a" may be determined according to the actual situation, for example, the amplitude "a" of the counter sound may be determined according to the propagation decay, the 1 / r path loss, and / or the auxiliary sound generating device SPD. aux The gain adjustment block / circuit 24 may be estimated by considering passageway blockage between the ear canal opening of the phone and the ear canal opening of the phone user. In one embodiment, the phone may include a (proximity) sensor 26 to detect whether the phone is placed at the ear of the phone user. The gain adjustment block / circuit 24 may determine a=a1 if the (proximity) sensor 26 detects positive (for path loss and blockage) or may determine a=a2 if the (proximity) sensor 26 detects negative (for path loss only).

[0022] As an alternative to sound cancelling, sound masking may be used to reduce the intelligibility of speech.

[0023] Sound masking and sound cancellation are different concepts. Sound cancellation involves generating an opposing sound (e.g., -a·p(t)) with the opposite polarity to the sound being canceled (e.g., p(t)), thereby reducing the aggregated acoustic result and making it less discernible. In contrast, sound masking may involve, for example, reducing the intelligibility of speech by adding a specially engineered sound that matches the frequency of human speech. Furthermore, sound masking, or auditory masking (in the field of psychoacoustics), refers to the concept that one sound is no longer perceived due to the presence of another sound.

[0024] Auxiliary Sound Generating Device (SPD) to reduce speech intelligibility aux may generate a masking noise or a jamming noise as the masking sound.

[0025] 3 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device 30 according to an embodiment of the present application. Auxiliary Sound Generating Device SPD aux Unlike the personal electronic device 20, which generates a counter sound, the auxiliary sound generating device SPD in the personal electronic device 30 auxgenerates a masking sound ms(t) based on a masking sound signal MS. In one embodiment, the masking sound ms(t) is a masking noise. In one embodiment, the masking noise is a tuned noise engineered to match the frequency of human speech. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the personal electronic device 30 includes a masking sound generator 32 including a filter 320, configured to generate a tuned noise T N as the masking sound signal MS based on a wideband noise or a white noise N.

[0026] It should be noted that human voice contains vowels and consonants. Consonant frequencies are typically higher than vowel frequencies, but consonant acoustic energy is typically lower than vowel frequencies. Nevertheless, consonant discrimination plays a critical role in speech intelligibility. For example, the words "top," "pop," and "bob" share the same vowel but have different consonants, each of which carries a different meaning.

[0027] Human auditory sensitivity is typically high in the consonant spectrum band, which ranges from 2 to 4 kHz. This sensitivity is evidenced by the plot of hearing thresholds (in a quiet room) shown in Figure 4, where it is observed that the hearing threshold is lower in the 2 to 4 kHz spectrum band, where some or most of the consonant frequencies are located.

[0028] For the purpose of explaining in more detail, Figure 4 illustrates the hearing threshold Hth0 in a quiet room in terms of SPL (sound pressure level) versus frequency. The hearing threshold is known as the minimum sound level of a pure tone that an average human ear with normal hearing can hear in a given environment.

[0029] The hearing threshold Hth0 is low in the 800 Hz to 6.3 kHz range, and human auditory sensitivity is highest in this spectral band. In other words, a 2.5 kHz single tone with an SPL of about 40 dB can be clearly heard in a quiet room. In contrast, in the presence of noise with a shaped spectrum, such as spectrum SM1 or SM2 shown in FIG. 4, the hearing threshold rises in response to spectrum SM1 / SM2, such as Hth1 / Hth2, and these thresholds will be greater than 40 dB around 2.5 kHz. In other words, when noise with an SM1 / SM2 spectrum is present, even if a 2.5 kHz tone with an SPL of 40 dB is also present, the 2.5 kHz tone with an SPL of 40 dB will no longer be audible to human hearing.

[0030] Inspired by FIG. 4, the purpose of the masking sound ms(t) or the tuned noise TN is to increase the human hearing threshold within a specific spectral band, thereby making the telephone user's voice (such as at least the telephone user's consonants) undiscernible or undecodable; such an increase in hearing threshold is known as spectral masking or simultaneous masking. The masking sound ms(t) or the tuned noise TN may have a spectrum similar to SM1 or SM2. This means that the masking sound ms(t) may include band-limited noise with noise power concentrated in a noise band (similar to SM1), and the noise band may cover a spectrum of human voice or a spectrum of consonants of human voice. That is, the masking sound ms(t) may include a plurality of narrow band sounds in a plurality of masking frequency tones (similar to SM2), which span the consonant band (e.g., 2 kHz to 4 kHz) or the voice band (e.g., 250 Hz to 8 kHz).

[0031] In this application, several intelligibility indices may be used to evaluate or quantify speech intelligibility, including, but not limited to, the speech intelligibility index (SII), the speech transmission index (STI), and the common intelligibility scale (CIS).

[0032] In one embodiment, an auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux may generate both the countering sound and the masking sound. For example, Figure 5 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device 40 according to one embodiment of the present application. Personal electronic device 40, including a masking sound generator 42, may be considered to be an integration of device 20 and device 30, and for the sake of brevity, the details of their operation will not be described here.

[0033] In the personal electronic device 20, the counter sounds may be generated by, but are not limited to, a primary sound generating device (SPD) main It should be noted that the auxiliary sound generating device (SPD) is used to eliminate the sound generated by the aux may generate counter tones to drown out the phone user's voice.

[0034] FIG. 6 shows the voice V of the telephone user and the auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux 1 illustrates several scenarios of a counter sound U generated by a personal electronic device, which is intended to cancel or eliminate a sound V. The sound V may first be captured by a sound sensing device SSD (e.g., a microphone), and the personal electronic device may perform signal processing operations on the captured sound and generate the counter sound U accordingly.

[0035] It should be noted that the SSD shown in Figure 6 will recognize an aggregation sound of the anti-sound and the voice sound, shown as U + V. Therefore, it is necessary to extract the voice sound V from the aggregation sound U + V.

[0036] 7 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device 50 according to one embodiment of the present application. The personal electronic device 50 includes a voice extraction circuit 54 and a voice cancelling circuit 52. According to the collective sound U+V, the voice extraction circuit 54 generates a voice signal V corresponding to the voice sound V. d may be extracted, and the audio signal V d may be speech sound V in digital or electrical form / format or may represent speech sound V in digital or electrical form / format. The purpose of speech cancellation circuit 52 is generally to minimize the acoustic energy of aggregate sound U+V, and such minimization of acoustic energy is achieved by (by speech cancellation circuit 52) ​​minimizing the counter signal U d generating or (auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux This may be achieved by generating an opposing sound U (by means of a filter) to cancel or reduce the acoustic energy of the speech sound V. An adaptive cancellation algorithm may be utilized in the speech cancellation circuit 52. Additionally, adaptive prediction operations known in the art of adaptive signal processing may be performed in / by the speech cancellation circuit 52 to compensate for the latency or phase lag of the opposing sound U relative to the speech sound V.

[0037] 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of a voice extraction circuit 64 according to one embodiment of the present application. The voice extraction circuit 64 may be used to implement the voice extraction circuit 54. The voice extraction circuit 64 includes a channel simulator 640′ and a subtractor 642.

[0038] The audio extraction circuit 64 extracts the counter-signal U d Receive the counter signal U d is assumed here to be a digital signal and experiences an actual equivalent channel 640. The actual equivalent channel 640 includes a digital-to-analog converter (D / A), an auxiliary sound generating device (SPD), aux , auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux The real equivalent channel 640 includes (or is a collection of) an acoustic channel from V to the sound sensing device SSD, the sound sensing device SSD, and an analog-to-digital converter (A / D). The real equivalent channel 640 has a transfer function S. The output of the analog-to-digital converter is mathematically expressed as V d +S·U d It can also be expressed as: V d +S·U d The output signal expressed as may be considered to be an aggregate signal.

[0039] In contrast, the channel simulator 640' is designed so that the transfer function S' approaches or simulates the actual equivalent channel 640 or transfer function S, such that S-S'→0 or |S-S'|→0, where |·| represents the norm or energy-related metric of the input argument, and "→" refers to "approaching." The channel simulator 640' calculates the counter signal U d Receive and mathematically S' U d The output signal is expressed as S'·U d may be considered to be a simulated opposing signal corresponding to the opposing sound perceived at the sound sensing device SSD.

[0040] The subtractor 642 subtracts the signal V d +S·U d The above simulated counter signal S'·U d The subtraction result is V d +(S-S')·U d And that V d +(S-S')·U d Since S-S'→0, V d (i.e., V d +(S-S')·U d ≒V d Therefore, the collective sound U+V is converted into the audio signal V d It is possible to extract

[0041] In one embodiment, the channel simulator 640′ having a transfer function S′ may be implemented by an IIR (infinite impulse response) digital filter, the coefficients of which may be obtained by a software simulation tool such as, but not limited to, the “system identification” function in MATLAB®.

[0042] Briefly, an auxiliary sound generating device (SPD) is used to reduce the speech intelligibility of bystanders. aux generates counter sounds and the primary sound generating device SPD main The auxiliary sound generating device SPD may either filter out the sounds generated by the auxiliary sound generating device SPD or the voice sounds of a user (e.g., a telephone user). aux may also generate a masking sound (e.g., a noise with a particular shaped / tuned spectrum).

[0043] As an alternative to spectral masking as introduced in Figures 3, 4, and the associated paragraphs, temporal masking may be used to secure or maintain speech privacy. Temporal masking refers to an increase in hearing threshold before a masking sound (also known as pre-masking) and / or an increase in hearing threshold after a masking sound (also known as post-masking).

[0044] One embodiment of temporal masking generates an artificial reverberation of human voice and is implemented by an auxiliary sound generating device (SPD). aux The artificial reverberation generated by the personal electronic device is broadcast into the ambient air around the device, which seriously disturbs speech recognition in the brain of a bystander, who will be unable to discern what the user is saying. Therefore, the intelligibility of the bystander's speech will be significantly reduced.

[0045] 9 illustrates a schematic diagram of a masking sound generator 72 according to one embodiment of the present application. The masking sound generator 72 includes a reverberation generator 720. The reverberation generator 720 includes a plurality of filters c1,...,c K In one embodiment, the filter c k may be a comb filter (e.g., k=1,...,K), and the comb filter c k is, h k (τ k ,α k ) The impulse response h k (τ k ,α k ) is calculated by the delay factor τ as shown in Figure 9. k and attenuation / gain factor α k More specifically, the impulse response h(τ,α) is parameterized by h(τ,α)=α·δ(t-τ)+α 2 δ(t-2τ)+α 3δ(t-3τ)+α 4 δ(t-4τ)+…….(Eq. 1), where the impulse response h(τ,α) can be finite length or infinite length, and in the above equation, the index k is omitted for brevity. (Comb) filter c k is a reverberation component r k and generate the reverberant components r1,…,r K may be combined as a reverberation signal y, where y is given by y=w1·r1+...+w K ·r K It is expressed as w k denotes a weighting factor. The source / input signal x may come from the telephone user's own voice, the voice of others, or a combination of the telephone user's voice and the voice of others.

[0046] Auxiliary Sound Generation Device SPD aux will generate a reverberation sound U' according to the reverberation signal y. The reverberation sound U' will disturb the bystander's brain's recognition of the phone user's speech V, making it nearly impossible for the bystander to identify / decode the phone user's speech. As a result, the bystander's speech intelligibility will be reduced.

[0047] From one point of view, the auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux The masking sound produced by includes a reverberant sound U'.

[0048] 10 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device 80 according to an embodiment of the present application. The personal electronic device 80 includes a voice extraction circuit 84 and a masking sound generator 82. The voice extraction circuit 84 may be realized by the voice extraction circuit 64. The masking sound generator 82 includes a reverberation generator 820, which may be realized by the reverberation generator 720 shown in FIG. 9 or may have a configuration similar to that of the reverberation generator 720. The reverberation generator 820 generates a reverberation signal R d and thereby the auxiliary sound generating device SPD aux can generate the reverberation sound U' to reduce the intelligibility of the bystander's speech. In the personal electronic device 80, the source signal / input signal of the reverberation sound generator 820 is the phone user's own voice. Thus, the bystander will recognize the phone user's own reverberation sound sequence, which may be less annoying than the narrow band masking noise shown in FIG. 4, but the reverberation sound U' will still make it difficult for the bystander to identify the phone user's speech content.

[0049] Optionally, the reverberation generator 820 may receive a reverberation control signal 822. In one embodiment, the reverberation control signal 822 may control a volume of the reverberation U' so that it will be loud enough to neutralize the intelligibility of bystanders' speech, while not being overly distracting.

[0050] Furthermore, to reduce a bad / unpleasant experience for bystanders when generating reverberation sounds, the reverberation generator parses the speech into vowel segments (or vowel phonemes) and consonant segments (or consonant phonemes), where the vowel segments and consonant segments correspond to various delay times and / or various repetition times, and may re-mix the vowel segments and consonant segments using the various delay times and / or various repetition times. Furthermore, each of the phoneme segments may include a ramp-up portion and, optionally, a ramp-down portion, which may reduce annoyance for bystanders when perceiving reverberation sounds.

[0051] 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of a reverberation generator 920 according to an embodiment of the present application. The reverberation generator 920 includes a parsing element 903, delay elements 904 and 905, and a mixing element 906. A speech sound SS may be converted into a speech signal 902 by a converting element 901, which may include a sound sensing device (e.g., a microphone) and / or an analog-to-digital converter. The analysis element 903 analyzes the speech signal 902 into consonant segments CNS and vowel segments VWL. In one embodiment, the analysis element 903 analyzes a speech signal 902 having a center frequency f cCentered at a central frequency f c ) a 2-way crossover filter, f c The frequency of the vowel / consonant segments may be (but is not limited to) 900-1,200 Hz, facilitating the analysis of vowels and consonants. Delay elements 904 and 905 are configured to impose time delays according to time delay factors Td_C (for consonant segments) and Td_V (for vowel segments), respectively. The time-delayed vowel / consonant segments are remixed by a mixing element 906, which may include a suitable mixer or adder to facilitate the mixing operation, to generate a masking signal / reverberation signal 907. A masking sound 909 is generated by a transformation element 908 according to the masking signal / reverberation signal 907, which is implemented by an auxiliary sound generation device SPD. aux and / or digital-to-analog converters. Finally, the masking / reverberant sounds 909 and the speech sounds SS (via an acoustic path 910) combine as an overall sound OS near the bystander's ear, reducing the intelligibility of the bystander's speech relative to the speech sounds SS.

[0052] In one embodiment, delay elements 904 and 905 may be implemented by a storage device such as a FIFO (First-In, First-Out) queue or buffer, and the time delay factors Td_C and Td_V may simply be related to the index of the FIFO buffer (similar to an address in memory).

[0053] Figure 12(a) illustrates a timing diagram for a single segment according to an embodiment of the present application, and Figure 12(b) illustrates a timing diagram for multiple segments according to an embodiment of the present application. The vertical axis shown in Figure 12 may relate to sound intensity (e.g., SPL, i.e., sound pressure level) corresponding to one or more particular segments. The S in Figure 12(a) may represent a C (for a consonant) or a V (for a vowel).

[0054] Data stored in the FIFO may be retrieved by addresses C#x and V#y, where x and y range from 0 to the length of the FIFO minus 1. For example, if the length of the FIFO is 4096, the valid range for x and y is 0 to 4095.

[0055] It should be noted that address C#x (V#y) retrieves data corresponding to the current state of FIFO 904 (905), i.e., whenever new data is pushed into the FIFO, the retrieved data is also updated simultaneously. Due to the nature of this FIFO, the data read by address C#x (V#y) will correspond to the CNS (VWL) generated x (y) cycles ago. For example, C#0 (V#0) reads the CNS (VWL) of the current cycle without delay, C#1 (V#1) reads the CNS (VWL) of the last cycle (meaning a one-cycle delay), and C#m (V#m) reads the CNS (VWL) m cycles ago (meaning a m-cycle delay).

[0056] Each segment (or one segment) has a rise time t r , fall time t f , start time t s , end time t e , and total length t Letc. These timing parameters mean that each segment (or a given segment) may optionally have a ramp-up portion and a ramp-down portion.

[0057] 12(a), it can be seen that each phonemic segment includes a ramp-up portion and optionally a ramp-down portion, where the ramp-down portion is configured to minimize / prevent popping / clicking noise. The timing parameters may be kept constant or may be adjusted periodically or aperiodically whenever needed.

[0058] It should be noted that in Figure 12(b), each VWL is followed by one or two segments of CNS with different delays. The rationale is that moving the CNSs of English words like "s," "z," "f," "v," "th," and "sh" and remixing them with the VWLs of multiple different words would significantly disrupt the human brain's speech comprehension process, resulting in a significant reduction in speech intelligibility.

[0059] For example, time slice t x In time slice t, segment C#a4 begins ramping down, segments V#a2, C#a3, V#a5, C#a6, and V#a7 reach maximum intensity, and segment C#a8 is near the end of ramping up. y In Figure 1, segment C#a9 is in the middle of ramping down, and segments V#a5, V#a7, V#a10, C#a11, and C#a12 have reached maximum intensity (C#aN, V#aN are FIFO addresses for a particular cycle N, which may be based on a random number generator or a heuristic algorithm).

[0060] Furthermore, t in Figure 12(b) w represents a waiting time between multiple subsequent segments, which may be determined according to actual requirements.

[0061] In one embodiment, a segment (preferably a consonant segment) may be repeated multiple times (not shown in FIG. 12). For example, the consonant segment C#a6 may appear (or be repeated) five or six times in the reverberant signal 907.

[0062] The key emphasis of the above rationale concerns the shuffling of the relationship / placements of CNS relative to VWL, so that there are more CNS segments compared to VWL segments in Figure 12(b). The intention is to further disrupt the speech comprehension process in the bystander's brain by juxtaposing copies of constants around vowels randomly.

[0063] In addition to the counter or masking sound, the compactness of the sound generating device allows for multiple auxiliary sound generating devices (SPDs) to be used in a single personal electronic device. auxmay be positioned in the direction of speech and may utilize acoustic direction control (similar to beamforming). The personal electronic device can identify a position or a certain angular direction of a bystander and then form an acoustic beam to nullify or minimize acoustic energy directed toward that particular angular direction of the bystander, achieving the effect of reducing the intelligibility of the bystander's speech.

[0064] 13 illustrates a schematic diagram of a personal electronic device A0 according to an embodiment of the present application. The personal electronic device A0 includes a plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices SPD aux and a directional controller A02. One or more auxiliary sound generating devices SPD aux may be realized by or may include an APG device. The directional controller A02 may be configured to control a plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices SPD aux The personal electronic device A0 is configured to perform acoustic beamforming, or generate a weighting vector comprising a plurality of weights, to form multiple acoustic beams A01. The beamforming algorithm may be referred to as EM (electromagnetic) wave beamforming, which is known in the art and will not be described herein for brevity. In one embodiment, forming the acoustic beam A01 can nullify acoustic energy directed toward a particular angular direction of a bystander A03 relative to the personal electronic device A0, thereby reducing the intelligibility of the bystander's speech.

[0065] In addition, the personal electronic device A0 may also include a plurality of sound sensing devices SSD, which may be formed as a microphone array and configured to identify the angular direction of a bystander relative to the personal electronic device.

[0066] FIG. 13 shows a plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices SPD aux It should be noted that the illustration is merely for illustrative purposes of a personal electronic device having a plurality of sound sensing devices SSD. aux And the arrangement of SSDs may be designed according to actual requirements, but is not limited to these.

[0067] Briefly, this application utilizes one or more auxiliary sound generating devices to generate counter, masking, or reverberant sounds or to perform acoustic beamforming, thereby reducing the intelligibility of bystander speech.

[0068] Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that numerous modifications and variations of the devices and methods may be made while retaining the teachings of the present invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the bounds of scope set forth in the appended claims.

Claims

1. 1. A personal electronic device, the personal electronic device comprising: a primary sound generating device configured to generate an intended sound for an intended user; an auxiliary sound generating device configured to generate a masking or counter-sound to reduce the intelligibility of speech of bystanders in the vicinity of the intended user of the personal electronic device; Personal electronic devices.

2. 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary sound generating device is located at a bottom or side edge of the personal electronic device.

3. 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary sound generating device is located on a back side of the personal electronic device.

4. 2. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary sound generating device generates the masking sound or the counter sound in the vicinity of the personal electronic device.

5. 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary sound generating device generates the masking sound, the masking sound comprising band-limited noise.

6. The noise power of the band-limited noise is concentrated within a noise band; 6. The personal electronic device of claim 5, wherein the noise band covers the spectrum of consonants of the human voice.

7. the auxiliary sound generating device generates the masking sound, the masking sound including a plurality of narrowband sounds at a plurality of masking frequency tones; 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the plurality of masking frequency tones span a consonant band or a voice band.

8. The personal electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the auxiliary sound generating device generates the masking sound, the masking sound comprising a reverberation of a user's voice.

9. 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, comprising a masking sound generator configured to generate the masking sound.

10. the masking sound generator includes a filter configured to generate band-limited noise as or as part of the masking sound; the band-limited noise is concentrated within a noise band; 10. The personal electronic device of claim 9, wherein the noise band covers the spectrum of consonants of the human voice.

11. the masking sound generator includes a reverberation sound generator, the reverberation sound generator configured to generate reverberations of the sound; 10. The personal electronic device of claim 9, wherein the masking sound comprises the reverberant sound.

12. the reverberation generator includes a plurality of filters configured to generate a plurality of reverberation components; The personal electronic device of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of reverberant sound components are combined as a reverberant sound signal, whereby the auxiliary sound generating device generates the reverberant sound according to the reverberant sound signal.

13. The reverberation generator an analysis element configured to receive a speech signal and analyze the speech signal into a plurality of consonant segments and a plurality of vowel segments; a first delay element configured to impose a first time delay on the plurality of consonant segments; a second delay element configured to impose a second time delay on the plurality of vowel segments; a mixing element configured to mix the consonant segments with the first time delay imposed thereon and the vowel segments with the second time delay imposed thereon to form a reverberant sound signal.

14. 14. The personal electronic device of claim 13, wherein the segments of the plurality of consonant segments and the plurality of vowel segments include a ramp-up portion and a ramp-down portion.

15. 12. The personal electronic device of claim 11, wherein the reverberation generator receives a reverberation control signal to control a volume of the reverberation.

16. 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the auxiliary sound generating device includes a sound cancellation circuit configured to generate a counter signal for generating the counter sound.

17. 17. The personal electronic device of claim 16, wherein an adaptive prediction operation is performed by the voice cancellation circuit to generate the countersignal.

18. 17. The personal electronic device of claim 16, further comprising an audio extraction circuit coupled between a sound sensing device and the audio cancellation circuit and configured to extract an audio signal corresponding to a speech sound according to an aggregate sound perceived by the sound sensing device.

19. the audio extraction circuit includes a channel simulator and a subtractor; 20. The personal electronic device of claim 18, wherein the channel simulator is configured to generate a simulated counter signal, and the subtractor is configured to subtract the simulated counter signal from an aggregate signal.

20. the auxiliary sound generating device includes an air pulse generating device; 10. The personal electronic device of claim 1, wherein the air pulse generating device generates the masking sound or the counter sound by generating a plurality of air pulses at an ultrasonic pulse rate.

21. a sensor configured to detect whether the personal electronic device is worn by a user; The personal electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the amplitude of the counter sound is determined according to the detection result of the sensor.

22. 1. A personal electronic device, the personal electronic device comprising: a plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices configured to perform an acoustic beamforming operation and to form at least one acoustic beam; the at least one acoustic beam is configured to nullify or minimize acoustic energy directed in an angular direction of a bystander to reduce the intelligibility of the bystander's speech. Personal electronic devices.

23. 23. The personal electronic device of claim 22, wherein the plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices includes a directional controller configured to generate a weighting vector for forming the at least one acoustic beam.

24. 23. The personal electronic device of claim 22, comprising a plurality of sound sensing devices configured to identify the angular orientation of the bystander relative to the personal electronic device.

25. 23. The personal electronic device of claim 22, wherein one of the plurality of auxiliary sound generating devices includes an air pulse generating device.

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