Hearing protection earphone, hearing protection method and computer program storage medium for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10674247-B2
Application number	US-201916416616-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 20, 2019
Priority date	Jun 19, 2018
Publication date	Jun 2, 2020
Grant date	Jun 2, 2020

Abstract

The present invention provides a hearing protection earphone, a hearing protection method and a computer program storage medium, comprising a sound control system including a wearing-status sensing module for monitoring a current wearing status of the hearing protection earphone, sending a first monitoring signal when it is determined that the hearing protection earphone is in a wearing state, and sending a second monitoring signal when it is determined that the hearing protection earphone is in a non-wearing state; and a main control module for enabling a play function corresponding to a play mode which is adapted to the hearing protection earphone currently when the first monitoring signal sent from the wearing-status sensing module is received, and counting a stand-by time of the protection earphone and turning off the hearing protection earphone after a preset stand-by time elapses when the second monitoring signal sent from the wearing-status sensing module is received.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A hearing protection earphone, comprising an earphone housing, a speaker disposed inside the earphone housing and a sound control system, the sound control system including:
a wearing-status sensing module for monitoring a current wearing status of the hearing protection earphone, sending a first monitoring signal when it is determined that the hearing protection earphone is in a wearing state, and sending a second monitoring signal when it is determined that the hearing protection earphone is in a non-wearing state; and
a main control module for enabling a play function corresponding to a play mode which is adapted to the hearing protection earphone currently when the first monitoring signal sent from the wearing-status sensing module is received, and counting a stand-by time of the protection earphone and turning off the hearing protection earphone after a preset stand-by time elapses when the second monitoring signal sent from the wearing-status sensing module is received;
wherein the play functions of the play mode includes:
determining whether to enable a denoising function of the hearing protection earphone according to loudness of noise of noise signals in the external environment of the earphone housing;
turning off the hearing protection earphone when the play volume of audio from the hearing protection earphone reaches a first volume threshold and/or the play time of the audio reaches a first time threshold, no matter whether the denoising function s enabled or disabled; and

increasing or decreasing the preset first volume threshold according to the stored information about the play volume of the hearing protection earphone associated with the current user before the determination about whether the play volume of the audio reaches the preset first volume threshold, in the self-adaptive mode.

2. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 1 , wherein the sound control system further includes:
a play mode setting module for setting the play mode to be a special group mode as a default, or setting the play mode to a self-adaptive mode upon receiving a mode switching instruction;
a collection module for collecting and sending user identity information;
a storage module for storing user recognition information for verifying a user's identity, information about play functions corresponding to each play mode, and information about play volume of the hearing protection earphone associated with each user;
a user identification module for matching the user identity information with the user recognition information in the storage module in the self-adaptive mode, and sending successful-match information to the main control module when the information are successfully matched such that the main control module adjusts the play mode to a play mode matched with the user.

3. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 2 , wherein the user identity information includes user voice information; and
wherein, in the special group mode, the play volume and/or the play time of the hearing protection earphone are in conformity with medical requirements for elder people, children, and hearing impaired people.

4. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 3 , wherein the collection module is a sound collection module, and the sound control system further includes a denoising module, and
wherein the sound collection module collects noise signals in the external environment, and sends the noise signals to the main control module;
the main control module sends a denoising enable instruction signal to the denoising module when the main control module determines that the loudness of noise in the external environment reaches a preset noise threshold according to the noise signals;
the denoising module receives the denoising enable instruction signal, and executes a denoising operation on the audio from the speaker.

5. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 4 , wherein the main control module includes:
a main control unit for performing digital-to-analogue conversion on the noise signals and the current audio signals from the speaker, and sending them to a signal processing unit, and controlling the denoising module to adjust denoising parameters; and
the signal processing unit connected to the main control unit and the denoising module, respectively, for performing a signal amplification process on the noise signals and the audio signals that have been subjected to the digital-to-analogue conversion and sending them to the denoising module.

6. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 5 , wherein the sound control system further includes:
a denoising manually-enabling module connected to the main control module, for receiving a denoising function enable/disable operation instruction from the main control module or sending it to the main control module,
wherein when the main control module receives the denoising function enable/disable operation instruction, the main control module sends an enable signal or a disable signal to the denoising module.

7. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 5 , wherein the denoising module includes:
a denoising unit for adjusting the denoising parameters under control of the main control unit, and performing a denoising operation on the noise signals and the audio signals sent from the signal processing unit; and
an audio mixing unit for mixing the noise signals with the audio signals that have been subjected to the denoising operatic and outputting denoised audio.

8. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 7 , wherein the denoising parameters include a denoising depth, volume of the denoised audio and an adjustment time interval,
wherein, the main control unit controls the denoising module to adjust the denoising depth to a corresponding preset range according to the loudness of noise in the environment, and
when the main control unit determines that the play time of the hearing protection earphone reaches a second time threshold, the main control unit sequentially reduces the volume of the denoised audio at the adjustment time interval according to the loudness of noise and the denoising depth, and
wherein the second time threshold is less than the first time threshold.

9. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 7 , wherein the sound control system further includes:
a noise threshold adjusting module connected to the main control unit and configured to set the noise threshold; and
a denoising parameter adjusting module connected to the main control unit and configured to set the denoising parameters.

10. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 9 , wherein the noise threshold adjusting module and the denoising parameter adjusting module are disposed on a mobile communication terminal communicatively connected with the earphone in a wireless manner.

11. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 7 , wherein the denoising module integrated with the denoising unit and the audio mixing unit further includes a denoising unit control circuit connected to the denoising unit, and
the user identification module includes a voice waking-up and identification unit connected to the main control unit.

12. The hearing protection earphone according to claim 11 , wherein the denoising unit is provided with a CSCL interface, a CSDA interface, a LINR interface, a LINT interface, a BPR interface, a BPL interface, and audio output left and right channels,
wherein the denoising unit control circuit includes a group of bipolar duplex switching circuits which includes two bipolar switches connected in parallel, one polar of an input terminal

Assignees

• Merry Electronics Suzhou Co

Inventors

• Song Guoming
• Zhu Ming
• Cheng Feilong
• Hu Chunyan
• Zhou Jiawei

Classifications

• 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

• G06K9/00362

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F3/165

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title

• G10L17/005

  Physics · mapped topic

• A61B5/117

  Identification of persons (methods or arrangements for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints, G06F18/00, G06V40/00; identification of persons by analysing their voice or speech G10L17/00) · CPC title