External Microphone Speech Separation for Noisy Hearables
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional hearing aids and hearables struggle to effectively differentiate between desired sounds and background noise in noisy environments, leading to sub-optimal audio perception and increased cognitive load, especially in multi-participant conversations.
Innovation Solution
Positioning microphones externally on separate devices, such as a user's mobile device or dongle, to capture audio signals with improved signal-to-noise ratio, and using speech separation techniques that utilize acoustic fingerprints to enhance audio output.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If microphones are integrated into hearable devices, then the device can provide audio output directly to the user, but the device cannot effectively differentiate between desired sounds and background noise in noisy environments
Solution Approach 1:
The system separates the audio capture function from the hearable device by using a separate device with its own microphones. This segmentation allows the separate device to capture audio signals with better spatial distribution and fewer constraints, improving the ability to differentiate between desired sounds and background noise while the hearable device focuses on delivering audio output to the user.
2Measurement precision
If multiple microphones are used to improve audio capture in noisy environments, then the signal-to-noise ratio improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces a separate device as an intermediary between the noisy environment and the hearable device. This intermediary device captures audio signals using multiple microphones and processes them through speech separation techniques, thereby improving the signal-to-noise ratio without requiring the hearable device itself to become complex. The intermediary handles the complexity of multi-microphone array configuration and signal processing.
3Measurement precision
If speech separation techniques are applied to isolate target speech, then audio intelligibility improves, but the processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs speech separation and audio processing in advance using the separate device before the audio needs to be delivered to the user. By conducting the computationally intensive speech separation techniques beforehand, the system improves audio intelligibility while minimizing processing delay during actual audio playback. The preliminary processing prepares enhanced audio signals that can be delivered with minimal additional latency.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, product and method comprising: capturing, by two or more microphones of a separate device physically separate from a hearable device of a user, a noisy audio signal from an environment of the user, wherein a plurality of people is present in the environment, the hearable device is used for providing audio output to the user; processing the noisy audio signal, thereby obtaining an enhanced audio signal, said processing comprises applying speech separation on the noisy audio signal to obtain a separate speech segment of a person of the plurality of people, wherein the speech separation utilizes an acoustic fingerprint of the person for extracting the separate speech segment of the person; and outputting the enhanced audio signal to the user via the at least one hearable device.