Hearing protection and communication apparatus using vibration sensors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11684516-B2
Application number	US-202117322380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2021
Priority date	Mar 5, 2018
Publication date	Jun 27, 2023
Grant date	Jun 27, 2023

Abstract

Hearing protection and communication apparatus using vibration sensors are disclosed. An example wearable electronic device includes means for transducing vibrations associated with speech into a first signal; means for transducing sound associated with ambient noise into a second signal; and means for processing to cause a speaker to output a signal to reduce the ambient noise; detect an identifier in the speech; and cause audio data representative of the speech to be transmitted to a second device associated with the identifier.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wearable electronic device comprising:
means for transducing vibrations associated with speech into a first signal;
means for transducing sound associated with ambient noise into a second signal; and
means for processing to:
cause a speaker to output a third signal to reduce the ambient noise;
detect an identifier in the speech;
identify one of a second device or a third device as associated with the identifier; and
cause a fourth signal representative of the speech to be transmitted to the identified one of the second device or the third device associated with the identifier, the second device different than the wearable electronic device, the third device different than the second device and different than the wearable electronic device.

2. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further including means for filtering the first signal.

3. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further including glasses, the vibrating transducing means carried by the glasses.

4. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further including headphones, the sound transducing means carried by the headphones.

5. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , further including means for reducing a volume of the ambient noise in response to instructions from the processing means.

6. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing means is to cause establishment of a communication link with the second device or the third device based on the identifier.

7. The wearable electronic device of claim 6 , the processing means is to cause the speaker to output speech received from one or more of the second device or the third device.

8. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the identifier is associated with a user of the second device or the third device.

9. The wearable electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the processing means is to:
identify a sound event in the ambient noise, the sound event different than the speech; and
cause the speaker to output one of the sound event or an alert indicative of the sound event in response to the identification of the sound event.

10. A first device comprising:
memory;
machine-readable instructions; and
processor circuitry to execute the machine-readable instructions to:
identify a first keyword in speech associated with signals output by a vibration sensor;
cause first signals corresponding to the speech to be transmitted to one of a second device or a third device based on the first keyword, the second device different than the first device, the third device different than the first device and different than the second device; and
cause a speaker to output sound corresponding to second signals, the second signals different than the first signals, the second signals corresponding to one or more of (a) speech received from the second device or (b) speech received from the third device, the speech received from the one or more of the second device or the third device including a second keyword, the second keyword associated with the first device.

11. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
execute a neural network model to identify a sound event in the ambient noise, the sound event different than the speech associated with the signals output by the vibration sensor, different than the speech from the second device, and different than the speech from the third device; and
cause the speaker to output the sound event.

12. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the processor circuitry is to:
detect a sound event in the ambient noise, the sound event different than the speech associated with the signals output by the vibration sensor, different than the speech from the second device, and different than the speech from the third device; and

cause the speaker to output (1) another sound to cancel ambient noise, and (2) the sound event.

13. The first device of claim 10 , wherein the first keyword includes an identifier associated with a user of the second device and the processor circuitry is to cause the first signals to be transmitted to the second device.

14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that cause processor circuitry of a first device to at least:
identify a sound event in ambient noise, the ambient noise represented by signals output by a microphone;
cause a speaker to output an alert in response to the identification of the sound event;
identify a keyword in speech, the speech represented by signals output by a vibration sensor, the speech different than the sound event;
select one of a second device or a third device to receive the speech based on the keyword; and
cause first audio data corresponding to the speech to be transmitted to the selected one of the second device or the third device, the second device different than the first device, the third device different than the first device and different than the second device.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause the speaker to output a signal to reduce the ambient noise.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause the speaker to output sound to cancel the ambient noise.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause establishment of a communication link with the second device or the third device in response to the selection.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the sound event is a first sound event, the ambient noise is first ambient noise, and the processor circuitry is to detect a second sound event in second ambient noise based on the first sound event, the second ambient noise represented by signals output by the microphone after the signals associated with the first ambient noise.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the processor circuitry is to cause the speaker to output speech from one of the second device or the third device.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the keyword includes an identifier associated with a user of the second device or the third device.

Assignees

• Intel Corp

Inventors

• Beltman Willem M
• Cordourier Maruri Hector A
• Lopez Meyer Paulo
• Huang Jonathan

Classifications

• A61F11/08

  internal, e.g. earplugs · CPC title

• G10L15/20

  Speech recognition techniques specially adapted for robustness in adverse environments, e.g. in noise, of stress induced speech (G10L21/02 takes precedence) · CPC title

• A61F11/145

  electric, e.g. for active noise reduction · CPC title

• A61F11/06

  Protective devices for the ears · CPC title

• A61F9/029 Primary

  Additional functions or features, e.g. protection for other parts of the face such as ears, nose or mouth; Screen wipers or cleaning devices · CPC title