Adaptive Hearing Equalization for Loudness and Spectral Balance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing listening experiences in loud environments, such as music concerts and noisy public spaces, are often suboptimal due to excessive loudness and spectral imbalance, which current solutions fail to adequately address, particularly in terms of preserving high-frequency content and adapting to individual preferences.
Innovation Solution
The integration of passive sound suppression and adaptive sound equalization in personal hearing devices, which use external and internal microphones, audio processors, and transducers to monitor and adjust audio signals in real-time, allowing for customizable loudness and spectral balance based on user preferences or environmental conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If foam earplugs are used to attenuate sound reaching the eardrum, then loudness is reduced and hearing protection is provided, but high-frequency content is disproportionately attenuated causing spectral imbalance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the passive mechanical attenuation mechanism of foam earplugs with an active electronic system. Microphones capture the incoming sound, processors analyze and equalize the spectral content, and transducers deliver the adjusted sound to the listener. This substitution allows precise control over frequency response while maintaining overall loudness reduction, thereby preserving spectral balance that passive earplugs cannot achieve.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts spectral parameters through active equalization. By analyzing the incoming sound spectrum and applying frequency-dependent gain adjustments, the system compensates for the high-frequency attenuation inherent in passive earplug designs. This parameter control enables simultaneous loudness reduction and spectral balance maintenance.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If passive sound suppression is used to reduce loudness, then hearing protection is achieved, but spectral balance and high-frequency content are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces passive mechanical sound suppression with an active electronic system that uses microphones, digital processors, and transducers. This substitution enables selective frequency management where high-frequency content can be preserved through equalization while overall loudness is reduced, preventing the information loss that occurs with passive attenuation methods.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where microphones continuously monitor the incoming sound environment, processors analyze the spectral content in real-time, and transducers deliver adjusted output. This closed-loop feedback enables dynamic preservation of high-frequency content while maintaining loudness reduction, as the system continuously adapts to maintain spectral balance based on the actual acoustic environment.
3Manufacturing precision
If adaptive sound equalization is implemented to preserve spectral balance, then high-frequency content is maintained, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent integrates multiple functions into a single wearable device system. The same microphones, processors, and transducers that provide loudness reduction and hearing protection also perform spectral analysis and equalization. This multi-functionality approach achieves spectral balance without proportionally increasing device complexity, as the core components serve multiple purposes simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges passive sound suppression and active sound equalization into a unified approach. Rather than implementing separate systems for loudness control and spectral management, the patent combines these functions into an integrated audio processing pipeline where microphones capture sound, processors simultaneously manage loudness and spectral content, and transducers deliver the combined output, thereby reducing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments of systems and methods for adaptive sound equalization in personal hearing devices are disclosed. In some embodiments a microphone in a personal hearing device receives sound from the listener's environment. The sound then is analyzed to determine one or more desired targets, for instance loudness level or spectral balance. The determined targets then are used to control adaptive processing of the sound received by the microphone to generate a perceptually improved sound to render to the listener.