Virtual Reality Headset Voice Filtering for Real-World Awareness
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing virtual reality headsets lack the ability to maintain situational awareness of the real world while providing immersive audio and visual experiences, as users are typically isolated from their surroundings.
Innovation Solution
An alert system for virtual reality headsets that uses voice recognition and audio processing to identify the current wearer and selectively relay ambient sounds from non-wearer voices, allowing situational awareness and communication with the real world.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the user wears a virtual reality headset with stereoscopic display and headphones, then immersive experience is improved, but situational awareness of the real world deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The audio output is segmented into two distinct channels: immersive audio content delivered through headphones for virtual reality immersion, and ambient real-world sounds selectively transmitted through bone conduction transducers for situational awareness. This segmentation allows both functions to operate simultaneously without interfering with each other.
Solution Approach 2:
Bone conduction transducers serve as an intermediary mechanism that delivers real-world ambient sounds directly through the skull bone to the inner ear, bypassing the ear canal. This intermediary approach allows ambient sound transmission without blocking the ear canal, maintaining both immersion and awareness.
2Reliability
If the user is completely isolated from real world sounds and vision, then virtual reality immersion is improved, but safety and communication with the real world deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system proactively captures and processes ambient sounds before they reach the user's awareness, using microphones to record environmental audio and bone conduction transducers to pre-deliver relevant sounds. This preliminary action ensures the user is prepared for real-world events without breaking immersion.
Solution Approach 2:
The traditional air conduction method of sound transmission is replaced with bone conduction, using mechanical vibration through skull bones to deliver ambient sounds. This substitution allows sound transmission through a different physical pathway that does not interfere with ear canal occlusion for immersion.
3Loss of information
If ambient sounds are relayed to the user through traditional audio output, then situational awareness is improved, but immersion in virtual reality audio content deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The audio system is segmented into separate transmission pathways: headphones deliver virtual reality audio content through air conduction to the ear canal, while bone conduction transducers deliver ambient real-world sounds through skull vibration. This segmentation prevents mixing of audio sources and maintains distinct auditory experiences for each channel.
Solution Approach 2:
Bone conduction transducers act as an intermediary that delivers ambient sounds through a separate physiological pathway (skull bone vibration) from the primary audio delivery system (headphones through ear canal). This intermediary approach allows simultaneous operation of both audio systems without mutual interference.
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
Enables users to communicate with others in the real world while immersed in virtual reality by identifying and filtering ambient voices, maintaining situational awareness and allowing selective muting of unwanted sounds.
Implementation Method 1
a bone conduction transducer, configured to deliver audio to a user's inner ear through skull bone vibration
Data Source
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AI summary
An alert method for a head mounted display comprises the steps of identifying the current user of the head mounted display, retrieving a speaker recognition profile for the current user, detecting audio using one or more microphones, estimating whether the detected audio comprises speech corresponding to that of the current user based on the retrieved speaker recognition profile, and if not, then relaying the detected audio comprising the speech to the current user of the head mounted display.