Ear-Worn Selective ANC for Annoying Noise Without Losing Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional active noise control systems in ear-worn devices do not effectively distinguish between different noise types and often cancel all noise, which can lead to a lack of awareness of the environment, and they face strict processing delay requirements, making it difficult to selectively attenuate only annoying sounds.
Innovation Solution
An annoyance model driven selective ANC system that identifies and attenuates specific annoying sounds using a psychoacoustic annoyance model, Block Sparse Non-negative Matrix Factorization, and a Kalman filter, allowing for subjective noise cancellation based on user preferences and audiogram data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If traditional active noise control systems cancel all noise, then noise reduction is improved, but environmental awareness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the noise spectrum into multiple frequency bands and applies different processing to each band. The system divides noise into annoying sounds (to be attenuated) and non-annoying sounds (to be preserved), allowing selective noise control that maintains environmental awareness while reducing harmful noise
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by using different attenuation levels for different frequency regions. The annoyance model drives frequency-selective attenuation, where only specific frequency bands corresponding to annoying sounds are attenuated, while other bands remain unchanged to preserve environmental awareness
2Loss of information
If selective noise attenuation is implemented, then environmental awareness is maintained, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses preliminary action by pre-computing annoyance scores for different frequency bands and storing them in a lookup table. This pre-processing allows the system to quickly retrieve and apply appropriate attenuation levels during real-time operation without complex on-the-fly calculations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback through the annoyance model that continuously monitors the acoustic environment and adjusts attenuation levels based on detected sound characteristics. The system uses feedback from the microphone input to dynamically control the attenuation applied to different frequency bands
3Measurement precision
If user-defined noise fingerprints are used, then noise identification accuracy is improved, but device memory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses lightweight, compact representations of noise fingerprints that can be efficiently stored in limited device memory. The annoyance model uses compressed spectral templates and pre-computed lookup tables that provide high identification accuracy while occupying minimal storage space
Data Source
AI summary
A system comprises an ear-worn electronic device configured to be worn by a wearer. The ear-worn electronic device comprises a processor and memory coupled to the processor. The memory is configured to store an annoying sound dictionary representative of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer. A microphone is coupled to the processor and configured to monitor an acoustic environment of the wearer. A speaker or a receiver is coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to identify different background noises present in the acoustic environment, determine which of the background noises correspond to one or more of the plurality of annoying sounds, and attenuate the one or more annoying sounds in an output signal provided to the speaker or receiver.