Selective Audio Suppression via Wireless Reference Signal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio cancellation technologies lack selectivity and cannot suppress specific audio sources, leading to distractions in environments where loud audio broadcasts are intended for general audiences, such as sporting events or crowd control scenarios, as they cancel all sound without prior knowledge of the specific audio signal.
Innovation Solution
An audio suppression system that includes an audio source and user devices, like headsets, which receive reference audio data wirelessly from the source before it is emitted, allowing the system to generate a suppression signal to cancel specific audio signals, enabling users to focus on other sounds in the vicinity while reducing distractions from loud broadcasts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If audio is broadcast at high volume for general audience benefit, then the broadcasted audio becomes audible over other audio in the geographic area, but it creates distractions and prevents selective suppression of specific audio sources
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the audio environment by identifying and separately processing different audio sources. The audio sensor captures multiple audio sources, the processor identifies which source to suppress, and generates targeted suppression signals only for that specific source, allowing other audio to remain audible.
Solution Approach 2:
The suppression effect is applied locally to specific audio sources rather than globally to all sound. The system provides selective suppression where the harmful audio is canceled for the user while other audio sources remain unaffected, creating different audio qualities for different sources.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If existing audio cancellation technologies are used, then all sound is canceled, but they lack selectivity and cannot suppress specific audio sources
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of the audio source to be suppressed before generating the cancellation signal. The processor identifies the target audio source from multiple captured sources, determines its characteristics, and then generates the appropriate suppression signal, enabling selective rather than blanket cancellation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the audio sensor to continuously monitor the audio environment, identify the target source, and adjust the suppression signal accordingly. The processor compares the captured audio with identified source characteristics and modifies the cancellation signal to maintain effective selective suppression.
3Illumination intensity
If loudspeakers are used for crowd control and public safety announcements, then directives become audible over crowd noise, but they cannot be selectively suppressed for specific personnel
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the audio field by spatially and spectrally separating the announcement audio from other sounds. The audio sensor captures the broadband audio environment, the processor identifies the specific announcement source, and generates suppression signals targeted only at that source, enabling selective cancellation for authorized personnel.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters of the suppression signal to match the characteristics of the target announcement audio. By analyzing the frequency spectrum, amplitude, and temporal characteristics of the announcement, the system generates a cancellation signal with matching parameters that effectively suppresses only that specific audio source.
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
The system effectively suppresses specific audio sources, allowing individuals to better communicate and focus on other audio in their environment without affecting other sound sources, enhancing communication and reducing distractions in noisy or broadcast-heavy settings.
Implementation Method 1
an audio sensor configured to obtain audio data representative of audio in the vicinity of the user device
Implementation Method 2
processing the reference audio data and the sensed audio data to generate a suppression signal to suppress the audio signal emitted by the audio source
Implementation Method 3
emitting the suppression signal from a speaker of the user device to cancel the audio signal emitted by the audio source
Data Source
AI summary
Methods, apparatus, systems and articles of manufacture to implement selective suppression of audio emitted from an audio source are disclosed. Example methods disclosed herein include obtaining, at a portable device, data transmitted at a first time by a transmitter associated with an audio source, the data including reference audio data corresponding to a first audio signal to be output by the audio source at a second time after the first time, the data further specifying a time delay corresponding to a difference between the second time and the first time. Disclosed example methods also include generating, based on the reference audio data and the time delay, a suppression audio signal to provide to an audio output driver in communication with a speaker of the portable device to suppress the first audio signal when the first audio signal is output by the audio source at the second time.