Bionic Hearing Headset Directional Sound Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional noise-cancelling headphones suppress both directional and diffuse sounds, impairing the user's ability to discern external audio sources, such as speech or music, by blocking all external noises.
Innovation Solution
A bionic hearing headset with dual microphone arrays and a digital signal processor that generates directional signals, suppresses diffuse sounds using noise reduction masks, and applies head-related transfer function (HRTF) models to enhance the perception of external audio sources, allowing for the isolation of directional sounds while reducing unwanted noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If noise-cancelling features suppress all external sounds, then external noise disruption is reduced, but directional sound perception is impaired
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments external sounds into different types (directional sounds from specific locations vs. diffuse sounds from multiple directions) and applies different processing to each type. The microphone array and signal processor separate these sound types spatially, allowing selective suppression of diffuse noise while preserving directional sound information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different noise cancellation characteristics to different spatial locations. Directional sounds from specific directions are preserved with minimal suppression, while diffuse sounds from other directions are suppressed. This creates location-dependent noise cancellation properties rather than uniform suppression.
2Measurement precision
If directional sounds are isolated and enhanced, then sound source discrimination is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces complex mechanical acoustic filtering systems with electronic/digital signal processing. The microphone array combined with digital signal processing algorithms achieves directional sound isolation and enhancement without requiring complex physical acoustic structures, thereby reducing mechanical complexity while maintaining or improving performance.
Data Source
AI summary
A bionic hearing headset for enhancing directional sound from an external audio source. The headset includes a pair of headphones, each having a microphone array that connects listeners to the environment through a plurality of microphones, even while listening to content presented over the headphones from an electronic audio source. The microphone array signals are first converted into beam-formed directional signals. Diffuse signal components may be suppressed using a common, noise-reduction mask. The audio signals may then be converted to binaural format using a plurality of head-related transfer function (HRTF) pairs.