Canalphone Audio Link with Multiplexed Cable and External Sound Pickup
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sound reproduction systems, such as headphones or canalphones, face issues with complex hardware and software components, limited customization, acoustic isolation leading to inability to hear external sounds, and the need for multiple wired connections, which hinder the use of class D amplifiers and increase device size and vulnerability.
Innovation Solution
A sound reproduction system utilizing a digital data channel multiplexed into several channels for bidirectional communication, including power, audio, and microphone signals, enabling class D amplifiers within the canalphones, and allowing for user customization and external sound pickup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If multiple wired connections are used to transmit data to the canalphone, then class D amplifiers can be used, but the cable becomes too thick and coarse for convenient use
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate data and power connections into a single integrated cable system. The multiplexed digital data channel consolidates what would otherwise require multiple separate wires, allowing class D amplifiers to be used while maintaining a thin, usable cable form factor suitable for earphone applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The single cable serves multiple functions simultaneously - it transmits power signals, multiplexed digital data channels for multiple transducers, and maintains a compact form factor. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate cables for each function, resolving the contradiction between using class D amplifiers and maintaining cable usability.
2Device complexity
If fixed equalization networks are used for the different transducers, then the system is simpler, but component tolerances cause different acoustic responses even with same components and settings
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces static fixed equalization networks with dynamic, programmable equalization implemented through digital signal processing. The microcontroller can adjust equalization parameters in real-time based on measured acoustic responses, allowing the system to compensate for component tolerances and achieve consistent acoustic performance across different units while maintaining relative structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the equalization parameters digitally rather than through fixed physical components. By using software-controlled parameter adjustment, the patent achieves both simplicity (no complex physical equalization networks) and reliability (consistent acoustic response through programmable compensation for component variations).
3Loss of time
If transducers and amplifiers are placed directly in the canalphone, then audio feedback is handled without delay, but the number of components increases and vulnerability to deterioration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex amplification and signal processing functions from the canalphone and places them in an external audio apparatus. Only the essential transducers remain in the canalphone, minimizing the number of components and their vulnerability to deterioration, while the external apparatus handles audio feedback processing with minimal delay through direct digital connection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a multiplexed digital data channel as an intermediary between the external apparatus and the transducers. This allows sophisticated audio processing and feedback handling to be performed externally while maintaining low-latency control of the in-ear transducers, balancing the trade-off between component count and feedback response time.
4Reliability
If acoustic isolation is provided to block external sounds, then sound reproduction quality is improved, but the user cannot hear distress signals or important conversations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic control of acoustic isolation, allowing the system to adapt between different isolation levels based on situational needs. The microcontroller can adjust equalization and potentially activate feedback mechanisms that allow external sound leakage or transmission, enabling the user to maintain high sound reproduction quality when needed while also being able to hear external sounds in hazardous or important situations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback mechanisms to monitor and adjust the acoustic isolation level. By analyzing the acoustic environment and user needs, the system can dynamically modify the degree of isolation, allowing external sounds to pass through when necessary while maintaining effective isolation for music reproduction during normal use, thus achieving both high sound quality and situational awareness.
Data Source
AI summary
A sound reproduction system of signals having relative customizable parameters, the system including a first canalphone or bonnet suitable for receiving a signal, converting it, and subsequently reproducing it, when in use. Further, the system can include a transceiver connected to the first canalphone adapted to receive and transmit the signal to said canalphone. The embodiments may also relate to a process for sound reproduction using a system.