Wind noise mitigation in active noise cancelling headphone system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10582293-B2
Application number	US-201715692394-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 31, 2017
Priority date	Aug 31, 2017
Publication date	Mar 3, 2020
Grant date	Mar 3, 2020

Abstract

Headphone systems and methods are provided to mitigate the impact of wind on active noise cancellation. At least one headphone system includes an earpiece with a speaker to convert a signal into acoustic energy in an acoustic volume. A microphone is acoustically coupled to an external environment and detects external noise. A control circuit is configured to detect wind and to adjust a feed-forward audio signal from the microphone based on the wind detection.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A headphone system comprising:
an earpiece configured to define an acoustic volume;
a speaker to provide acoustic energy to the acoustic volume based on a received driver signal;
a feed-forward microphone acoustically coupled to an external environment to detect at least external noise and generate a feed-forward audio signal;
a feedback microphone to detect at least residual noise within the acoustic volume, and generate a feedback audio signal; and
a control circuit including an interface to receive a wind signal and configured to detect wind based at least in part upon the wind signal, the control circuit also configured to adjust the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection, and to adjust the feedback audio signal by adjusting one or more feedback filter coefficients applied to the feedback audio signal based on the wind detection,
wherein the control circuit is configured to detect the wind by at least one of the wind signal being provided by a user indication, the wind signal indicating an equipment setting, detecting a direct current component in the wind signal, detecting a non-linear component in the wind signal, and detecting a whistle component in the wind signal.

2. The headphone system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to adjust the feed-forward audio signal by adjusting one or more feed-forward filter coefficients applied to the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection.

3. The headphone system of claim 2 , further comprising a data store comprising a plurality of feed-forward filter coefficient sets, the control circuit being configured to select a first feed-forward filter coefficient set from among the plurality of feed-forward filter coefficient sets based on the wind detection.

4. The headphone system of claim 1 , wherein the interface is configured to receive the feed-forward audio signal as the wind signal, and the control circuit is configured to detect wind based at least in part on the feed-forward audio signal.

5. The headphone system of claim 4 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to analyze a spectral content of the feed-forward audio signal and to detect wind based at least in part on the spectral content.

6. The headphone system of claim 4 , wherein the feed-forward microphone is a first feed-forward microphone to generate a first feed-forward audio signal and the headphone system further comprises a second feed-forward microphone to generate a second feed-forward audio signal, and the control circuit is configured to detect wind based at least in part on a comparison of the first feed-forward audio signal and the second feed-forward audio signal.

7. The headphone system of claim 1 , further comprising a data store comprising a plurality of feedback filter coefficient sets, the control circuit being configured to select a first feedback filter coefficient set from among the plurality of feedback filter coefficient sets based on the wind detection.

8. The headphone system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is further configured to detect a plurality of wind levels based at least upon the wind signal, and to adjust the feed-forward audio signal based at least in part on the detected wind level.

9. The headphone system of claim 1 , wherein the control circuit is configured to adjust the feed-forward audio signal by disabling the feed-forward audio signal.

10. The headphone system of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is configured to disable the feed-forward audio signal by removing a microphone bias signal from the feed-forward microphone.

11. The headphone system of claim 9 , wherein the control circuit is configured to disable the feed-forward audio signal by applying a filter of zero gain to the feed-forward audio signal.

12. A headphone system comprising:
an earpiece configured to define an acoustic volume;
a speaker to provide acoustic energy to the acoustic volume based on a received driver signal;
a feedback microphone to detect at least residual noise within the acoustic volume and generate a feedback audio signal;
a feed-forward microphone to detect at least external noise and generate a feed-forward audio signal; and
a control circuit including an interface to receive the feed-forward audio signal and configured to detect the presence of wind, and to distinguish between a plurality of levels of detected wind, to adjust a transfer function of a feedback filter applied to the feedback audio signal based on the wind detection, and to adjust the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection.

13. The headphone system of claim 12 , wherein the control circuit is configured to adjust a transfer function of a feed-forward filter applied to the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection.

14. The headphone system of claim 13 , further comprising a data store comprising a plurality of feed-forward filter coefficient sets, the control circuit being configured to select a first feed-forward filter coefficient set from among the plurality of feed-forward filter coefficient sets based on the wind detection.

15. The headphone system of claim 12 , further comprising a data store comprising a plurality of feedback filter coefficient sets, the control circuit being configured to select a first feedback filter coefficient set from among the plurality of feedback filter coefficient sets based on the wind detection.

16. The headphone system of claim 12 , wherein the feed-forward microphone is a first feed-forward microphone to generate a first feed-forward audio signal and the headphone system further comprises a second feed-forward microphone to generate a second feed-forward audio signal, and the control circuit is configured to detect wind based at least in part on a comparison of the first feed-forward audio signal and the second feed-forward audio signal.

17. A method for operating a headphone system comprising:
providing acoustic energy from a speaker of a headphone system to an acoustic volume based on a driver signal received at the speaker;
detecting noise external to the acoustic volume using a feed-forward microphone;
detecting wind by analyzing the noise external to the acoustic volume;
generating a feed-forward audio signal at least partially indicative of the noise;
adjusting the feed-forward audio signal based at least in part on the wind detection, detecting residual noise within the acoustic volume;
generating a feedback audio signal at least partially indicative of the residual noise; and
filtering the feedback audio signal by a feedback filter having a filter coefficient set selected from among a plurality of stored filter coefficient sets based at least in part on the wind detection.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein adjusting the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection comprises adjusting a transfer function of a feed-forward filter applied to the feed-forward audio signal based on the wind detection.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein adjusting the transfer function of the feed-forward filter includes selecting a filter coefficient set from among a plurality of filter coefficient sets based on the wind detection, and applying the selected filter coefficient set to the feed-forward filter.

20. The method of claim 17 , wherein adjusting the feed-forward audio signal comprises disabling the feed-forward audio signal.

21. The method of claim 20 , wherein disabling the feed-forward audio signal comprises removing a microphone

Assignees

• Bose Corp

Inventors

• Yamkovoy Paul

Classifications

• G10K11/17879

  using both a reference signal and an error signal · CPC title

• G10K11/178

  by electro-acoustically regenerating the original acoustic waves in anti-phase · CPC title

• G10K11/17823

  Reference signals, e.g. ambient acoustic environment · CPC title

• H04R1/1083 Primary

  Reduction of ambient noise (active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06) · CPC title

• G10K2210/1081

  Earphones, e.g. for telephones, ear protectors or headsets · CPC title