Wireless Earphone Microphone Layout for Beamforming and Wearability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing wireless earphones with beamforming techniques for hands-free calls suffer from reduced wearing comfort and design issues due to the protruding microphone placement, which affects the balance and aesthetics.
Innovation Solution
The wireless earphone design incorporates a housing with a first accommodating portion for the first microphone projectingly provided upward and a second accommodating portion for the second microphone projectingly provided downward from the battery accommodating portion, allowing for effective beamforming without protruding excessively from the ear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the length of the projecting portion is increased to accommodate microphones for beamforming, then call quality is improved, but wearability deteriorates due to protrusion from the ear
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a single-directional projecting portion to a multi-dimensional microphone arrangement. The first microphone is placed in the main body while the second microphone is positioned in a direction different from the main body's longitudinal axis, utilizing spatial dimensions to achieve the required microphone separation distance without increasing the protrusion length, thereby resolving the contradiction between call quality and wearability
2Reliability
If the distance between microphones is increased to achieve effective beamforming, then call quality is improved, but the design complexity and protrusion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the housing into functionally distinct segments: a main body accommodating the driver unit and first microphone, and a separate projecting portion containing the second microphone. This segmentation allows the microphones to be positioned at an optimal distance for beamforming while keeping each segment compact, thus improving call quality without excessive increase in overall 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
This configuration achieves high call quality through effective beamforming while improving wearability by reducing the protrusion of the microphone components, enhancing both functionality and user comfort.
Implementation Method 1
The beamforming technique determines from which direction a transmitted voice of a calling person or external noise reaches based on sounds picked up by each microphone, forms a directivity by signal processing of the sound by using a time difference of the sounds reaching each microphone
Implementation Method 2
The driver unit generates an electrical signal (an audio signal) corresponding to the sound wave picked up by the microphone
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is to achieve high call quality and improve wearability.A wireless earphone 1 includes a driver unit (50), a first microphone (80), a second microphone (90), and a housing (10) that accommodates the driver unit (50), the first microphone (80), and the second microphone (90). The housing (10) includes a first accommodating portion (13) that accommodates the first microphone (80), a second accommodating portion (14) that accommodates the second microphone (90), and a main body (11) that is connected to each of the first accommodating portion (13) and the second accommodating portion (14). The first accommodating portion (13) is projectingly provided from the main body (11). The second accommodating portion (14) is projectingly provided from the main body (11) in a direction different from a projecting direction of the first accommodating portion (13).