Wearable Audio Phase Reconstruction for Background Noise Reduction
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable devices often produce suboptimal output audio due to background noise captured by microphones, which can include unwanted sounds from other speakers and ambient noise, leading to distorted and unnatural audio output.
Innovation Solution
Utilize a combination of external and internal sensors to receive audio signals with different noise and distortion levels, where the external sensor captures additive noise and the internal sensor is shielded from background noise, allowing for phase reconstruction to produce a cleaner output audio signal.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If microphones are used to capture user speech, then speech capture capability is improved, but background noise is also captured leading to degraded audio quality
Solution Approach 1:
The audio capture function is segmented across multiple sensors positioned at different locations within the wearable device. External microphones capture speech with ambient noise, while internal sensors (such as bone conduction sensors or feedback microphones) capture speech with different noise characteristics. This segmentation allows the system to process and combine signals from multiple sources to improve overall speech capture while managing background noise interference.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If multiple sensors are used to reduce background noise, then audio quality is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines signals from multiple sensors with different noise characteristics to achieve background noise reduction. By merging the audio signals from external microphones and internal sensors, along with their respective phase information, the system creates an enhanced output that reduces background noise while managing the complexity through integrated signal processing.
3Loss of information
If phase information from noisy sensors is used, then signal completeness is improved, but audio naturalness deteriorates due to distortion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different quality criteria to different components of the audio signal. Phase information from sensors with lower noise levels is weighted more heavily in the output reconstruction, while magnitude information is combined from all sensors. This local quality approach ensures that the most reliable phase information is used to maintain audio naturalness, while still achieving signal completeness through comprehensive sensor utilization.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques, including devices and systems implementing the techniques, for internal sensor phase reconstruction. One example system generally includes a device of a user, a first sensor coupled to the device, a second sensor coupled to the device, and one or more processors coupled to the device. The one or more processors, individually or collectively, are generally configured to receive, at the first sensor, a first audio signal, receive, at the second sensor, a second audio signal, and determine an output audio signal using at least a portion of at least one of a magnitude of the first audio signal or a magnitude of the second audio signal and using at least a portion of at least one of a phase of the first audio signal or a phase of the second audio signal.