Audio Profile Creation Using Self-Service Hearing Tests
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for generating personalized audio profiles are costly, inconvenient, and often underutilized due to the need for audiologist visits and compatibility issues with various devices, which do not accurately account for real-world audio rendering environments and speaker variability.
Innovation Solution
A system that allows users to perform hearing tests on consumer devices, generating audio profiles that account for device-specific frequency responses and environments, enabling self-generated profiles that can be easily switched and shared across multiple devices, including TVs, headphones, and smartphones, using a content player and decoder application to modify audio content before delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If hearing tests are performed in an audiologist's office using headphones and test booth, then measurement precision is improved, but ease of operation and accessibility deteriorate due to cost and inconvenience
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables users to perform their own hearing tests using consumer devices they already possess. The mobile application guides users through the testing process independently, eliminating the need for professional audiologist assistance while maintaining adequate measurement precision for generating useful audio profiles.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a virtual copy of the audiologist's office testing environment by implementing the same hearing test methodology and audio profile generation algorithms in a mobile application. This digital replica allows users to access professional-grade hearing test capabilities through their personal devices without visiting a clinic.
2Measurement precision
If audio profiles are generated in an audiologist's office, then measurement precision is improved, but adaptability to real-world listening environments deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary characterization of the user's actual listening environment (home, car, workplace) during the hearing test setup. By capturing environmental acoustic properties in advance, the audio profile can be pre-adjusted to compensate for room acoustics, furniture, and other environmental factors that would otherwise degrade the effectiveness of the profile in real-world use.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention tailors the audio profile not only to the user's hearing characteristics but also to the specific acoustic properties of their local listening environment. Different environments (carpeted room vs. tiled room, quiet home vs. noisy workplace) receive customized environmental compensation parameters, ensuring optimal performance in each specific context.
3Adaptability or versatility
If hearing tests are performed on the playback device itself, then adaptability to real-world environments is improved, but measurement precision deteriorates due to speaker variability
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary calibration process where the mobile application plays test tones through the device's speaker and uses the device's microphone to capture the actual output. This intermediary measurement allows the system to characterize the speaker's frequency response and create a correction profile that compensates for the speaker's imperfections, thereby maintaining measurement accuracy despite speaker variability.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention implements a feedback loop where the device's own speaker and microphone are used to measure the actual acoustic output. The system compares the played test tone with the captured response, identifies frequency response deviations, and automatically adjusts the audio profile to compensate. This closed-loop feedback mechanism enables accurate measurements using the playback device itself.
4Manufacturing precision
If audio profiles are customized for each device and environment, then sound fidelity is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mobile application serves multiple functions: it performs hearing tests, characterizes the listening environment, generates audio profiles, and manages profile deployment across multiple devices. By consolidating these functions in a single universal platform, the system avoids the complexity of implementing separate specialized tools for each function, making the overall system easier to manage despite the sophistication of the audio profile customization.
Data Source
AI summary
To enable a person to quickly and easily establish an audio profile for a TV, speaker, or other audio device, an audio profile is downloaded to the TV or speaker (and stored, if desired). The profile in the recipient device can be one of many that can be interchanged quickly on-the-fly. A voice assistant may enable the person to pick an audio profile from a list of audio profiles or user interface, either on the TV or the device the profile was created on. Using either method, voice assistant or UI, the profile can be downloaded from a mobile or PC device where the profile was created, or from the cloud where a previously created profile was uploaded and stored. A dual UI using voice and visual on-screen options makes the profiles accessible to most people.