Wearable Duplex Audio Layout With Alternating Sampling for Echo Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Echo during duplex communication in wearable devices, such as smartglasses, causes sound distortion and discomfort, rendering calls incomprehensible and painful.
Innovation Solution
The use of a bilateral configuration with microphones and speakers on opposite sides of the wearable device, alternating their activation at a high frequency to reduce echo, utilizing the user's body for occlusion and simulating continuous sound perception.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If all speakers and microphones are activated simultaneously for duplex communication, then communication functionality is improved, but echo and sound distortion increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies periodic action by rapidly alternating the activation of speaker-microphone pairs in a cycling pattern. Each pair is activated for a brief interval, then deactivated while the next pair activates, creating a periodic switching sequence that maintains continuous communication while preventing echo through temporal separation of transmit and receive operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically switches between different speaker-microphone pairs during operation rather than maintaining a static configuration. This dynamic reconfiguration allows the system to adaptively manage echo conditions by ensuring that the active microphone is never on the same side of the user's head as the active speaker, thereby resolving the contradiction between full functionality and echo reduction.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If speakers and microphones are positioned on opposite sides of the wearable device, then echo is reduced through body occlusion, but spatial arrangement complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the audio system into multiple independent speaker-microphone pairs, with each pair assigned to a specific spatial location on the wearable device. This segmentation allows the system to treat each pair as an independent unit that can be selectively activated, simplifying the management of spatial arrangements while effectively utilizing body occlusion to reduce echo for each pair.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If alternating sampling is used to prevent echo, then sound quality is improved, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The alternating sampling implements periodic action through a systematic cycling pattern where different speaker-microphone pairs are activated in sequential intervals. This periodic switching creates predictable temporal patterns that reduce echo while maintaining manageable processing complexity through regular, repeatable activation sequences rather than complex adaptive algorithms.
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
Reduces echo by minimizing sound interference, maintaining clear communication quality and user comfort during duplex calls.
Implementation Method 1
a first speaker of the array of speakers on a first side of the body, at least one microphone on a second side of the body opposite the first side, where the body occludes sound from the first speaker from reaching the at least one microphone
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 1C
AI summary
A wearable device including a body having fasteners and a frame coupled between two fasteners. The frame includes first and second sections. A first portion of the body including the first section of the frame and one fastener and a second portion of the body including the second section of the frame and the other fastener. A speaker and a microphone are connected to the first portion and another speaker and another microphone are connected to the second portion. The body also includes a processor, memory accessible to the processor, and programming in the memory for configuring the processor to selectively activate the speakers and microphones such that a first speaker emits an output sound signal while a first microphone and a second speaker are deactivated and a second microphone captures an input sound signal during the emission of the output sound signal by the first speaker.