Hearing Device Acoustic Processing Circuit Spatial Source Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional personal hearing devices are unable to distinguish and process user-relevant acoustic information from mixed sounds in the external environment, leading to distortion and complications for users, especially those with hearing challenges, as they filter out important sounds along with irrelevant noise.
Innovation Solution
A personal hearing device equipped with a microphone and an acoustic processing circuit that employs voiceprint analysis and sound orientation identification to differentiate and prioritize user-relevant acoustic sources, allowing for independent processing and optimization of specific sounds, such as voices of relatives or friends, and specific devices like fire alarms, to minimize distortion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If conventional hearing devices filter out noise from specific frequency bands, then noise reduction is achieved, but user-relevant acoustic information is distorted or lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the mixed acoustic signal into multiple independent sound sources based on their spatial orientations. By separating sounds according to their direction of origin rather than frequency bands, the system can selectively process different sources independently, preserving user-relevant information while filtering unwanted noise from specific directions.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different processing qualities to different spatial locations. Sounds from certain orientations (e.g., front direction) receive enhanced processing to preserve user-relevant information, while sounds from other orientations (e.g., background noise sources) receive aggressive noise filtering. This localized quality adjustment resolves the contradiction by treating different spatial regions differently.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If frequency bands of human voice are filtered to remove stranger conversations, then noise from strangers is reduced, but conversations with relatives or friends are also affected
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments acoustic signals by spatial orientation rather than frequency alone. This allows the system to identify and separate voice sources based on their direction, enabling selective filtering of strangers' conversations from specific directions while preserving conversations from important directions, even if they occupy overlapping frequency bands.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the processing parameters dynamically based on the identified orientation and type of acoustic source. For sounds identified as strangers from unwanted directions, aggressive filtering parameters are applied. For sounds identified as important conversations from preferred directions, minimal processing parameters are used to maintain integrity. This dynamic parameter adjustment resolves the contradiction between noise reduction and information preservation.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a personal hearing device, an external acoustic processing device and an associated computer program product. The personal hearing device includes:a microphone, for receiving an input acoustic signal, wherein the input acoustic signal is a mixture of sounds coming from a first acoustic source and from other acoustic source(s);a speaker; andan acoustic processing circuit, for automatically distinguishing within the input acoustic signal the sound of the first acoustic source from the sound of other acoustic source(s);wherein the acoustic processing circuit further processes the input acoustic signal by having different modifications to the sound of the first acoustic source and to the sound of other acoustic source(s), whereby the acoustic processing circuit produces an output acoustic signal to be played on the speaker.