Bone Conduction Transducer for Speech Isolation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic devices struggle to isolate user speech from background noise in sound signals, capturing both speech and noise from surroundings, which interferes with phone calls and other applications.
Innovation Solution
An electronic device with both external and internal input transducers processes sound signals by estimating the fundamental frequency of speech from a clean internal signal to separate and filter out noise, using harmonic filtering or beamforming techniques to extract clean speech.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If an external microphone is used to capture user speech, then the speech can be obtained, but background noise from the surroundings is also captured
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the speech capture task into two separate channels: an external microphone for capturing speech and an internal bone conduction sensor for capturing only speech. By segmenting the capture sources, the system can process and compare signals to isolate speech from background noise, resolving the contradiction between capturing speech and avoiding noise.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces bone conduction as an intermediary measurement path. The bone conduction sensor acts as a mediator that captures speech vibrations directly through the skull, bypassing the air conduction path that contains background noise. This intermediary path provides a clean speech reference signal for noise cancellation processing.
2Device complexity
If only external microphones are used, then the device structure is simple, but noise separation capability is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges two different transducer types (external microphone and internal bone conduction sensor) into a unified hearing device. This combination allows the system to leverage the strengths of both transducers: the external mic for general sound capture and the bone conduction sensor for clean speech reference, thereby improving noise rejection performance while maintaining reasonable device complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Effectively isolates user speech from background noise, improving communication by transmitting clear speech signals and reducing noise interference in phone calls and other applications.
Implementation Method 1
an internal input transducer arranged in the ear canal of the user... capturing a second signal, the second signal comprising a second speech part of the user's speech
Data Source
AI summary
An electronic device includes: a first external input transducer configured to capture a first sound signal that comprises a first speech part of a speech of a user and a first noise part of noise from a surrounding; an internal input transducer configured to capture a second signal, the second signal comprising a second speech part of the speech of the user, where the first speech part and the second speech part are of a same speech portion of the speech at a first time interval; and a signal processor configured to: estimate a fundamental frequency of the speech of the user at the first time interval based on the second signal; update the first model based on the estimated fundamental frequency of the speech at the first time interval; and process the first sound signal based on the updated first model to obtain the first speech part.