Systems and methods for suppressing sound leakage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12538083-B2
Application number	US-202117219896-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 1, 2021
Priority date	Jan 6, 2014
Publication date	Jan 27, 2026
Grant date	Jan 27, 2026

Abstract

A speaker comprises a housing, a transducer residing inside the housing, and at least one sound guiding hole located on the housing. The transducer generates vibrations. The vibrations produce a sound wave inside the housing and cause a leaked sound wave spreading outside the housing from a portion of the housing. The at least one sound guiding hole guides the sound wave inside the housing through the at least one sound guiding hole to an outside of the housing. The guided sound wave interferes with the leaked sound wave in a target region. The interference at a specific frequency relates to a distance between the at least one sound guiding hole and the portion of the housing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A bone conduction device comprising:
a housing; a panel fitting human skin and passing vibrations to enable a user to hear sound; a transducer residing inside the housing and configured to drive the panel to vibrate to generate the vibrations, the vibrations producing a first sound wave inside the housing, at least a portion of the housing vibrates along with the transducer to push air outside the housing to generate a second sound wave outside the housing; at least one sound guiding hole located on the housing and configured to guide the first sound wave inside the housing through the at least one sound guiding hole to an outside of the housing, the first sound wave having a phase different from a phase of the second sound wave, the first sound wave interfering with the second sound wave in a target region, and the interference reducing a sound pressure level of the second sound wave in the target region; and a noise reduction assembly configured to receive a target sound and reduce noise of the target sound.

2 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the noise reduction assembly includes a microphone array configured to collect sound signals, and the collected sound signals include the target sound and the noise.

3 . The bone conduction device of claim 2 , wherein the microphone array includes at least one low-frequency microphone and at least one high-frequency microphone, the at least one low-frequency microphone being configured to collect low-frequency signals of the collected sound signals, and the at least one high-frequency microphone being configured to collect high-frequency signals of the collected sound signals.

4 . The bone conduction device of claim 3 , wherein the at least one low-frequency microphone includes a pair of low-frequency microphones, and the at least one high-frequency microphone includes a pair of high-frequency microphones.

5 . The bone conduction device of claim 2 , wherein each microphone of the microphone array processes one of the collected sound signals into at least two sub-band sound signals.

6 . The bone conduction device of claim 5 , wherein each microphone of the microphone array corresponds to a filter, via which the one of the collected sound signals is processed into the at least two sub-band sound signals.

7 . The bone conduction device of claim 5 , wherein the at least two sub-band sound signals have narrower frequency bands than the one of the collected sound signals corresponding to the at least two sub-band sound signals.

8 . The bone conduction device of claim 5 , wherein the noise reduction assembly includes a noise reduction component configured to perform noise reduction on sub-band sound signals corresponding to the collected sound signals.

9 . The bone conduction device of claim 8 , wherein to perform noise reduction on sub-band sound signals corresponding to the collected sound signals, the noise reduction component is further configured to:
for each of the sub-band sound signals,
generate a sub-band noise correction signal according to the sub-band sound signal; and
generate a target sub-band sound signal based on the sub-band sound signal and the sub-band noise correction signal.

10 . The bone conduction device of claim 9 , wherein the noise reduction assembly further includes a synthesis component configured to generate a target signal by combining target sub-band sound signals corresponding to the sub-band sound signals.

11 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sound guiding hole includes two sound guiding holes located on the housing, and the two sound guiding holes are arranged to generate at least two sound waves having different phases to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave.

12 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein a location of the at least one sound guiding hole is determined based on at least one of: a vibration frequency of the transducer, a shape of the at least one sound guiding hole, the target region, or a frequency range within which the sound pressure level of the second sound wave is to be reduced.

13 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sound guiding hole includes two sound guiding holes located on the housing, and the two sound guiding holes are arranged to generate sound waves having a same phase, one of the two sound guide holes generates a third sound wave of a first phase, the first phase is used to interfere with the second sound wave to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave, the other of the two sound guide holes generates a fourth sound wave of a second phase, which is also used to interfere with the second sound wave to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave, and the second chase is equal to the first phase.

14 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the second sound wave whose sound pressure level is reduced is within a range of 1500 Hz to 3000 Hz.

15 . The bone conduction device of claim 14 , wherein the sound pressure level of the at least a portion of the second sound wave is reduced by more than 10 dB on average.

16 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the second sound wave whose sound pressure level is reduced is within a range of 2000 Hz to 2500 Hz, and the sound pressure level of the at least a portion of the second sound wave is reduced by more than 20 dB on average.

17 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sound guiding hole includes one sound guiding hole, different portions of the sound guiding hole are configured to generate sound waves having a same phase, one of the different portions of the sound guiding hole generates a third sound wave of a first phase, the first phase is used to interfere with the second sound wave to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave, the other of the different portions of the sound quidding hole generates a fourth sound wave of a second phase, which is also used to interfere with the second sound wave to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave, and the second phase is equal to the first phase.

18 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one sound guiding hole includes one sound guiding hole, different portions of the sound guiding hole are configured to generate sound waves having different phases to reduce the sound pressure level of the second sound wave.

19 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the sound guiding hole includes a damping layer, the damping layer is configured to adjust the phase of the guided sound wave in the target region.

20 . The bone conduction device of claim 1 , wherein the housing is cylindrical with a sidewall and a bottom, the at least one sound guiding hole includes a plurality of sound guiding holes that are arranged along a circumference of the bottom.

Assignees

• Shenzhen Shokz Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhang Lei
• Fu Junjiang
• Yan Bingyan
• Liao Fengyun
• Qi Xin

Classifications

• H04R2460/13

  Hearing devices using bone conduction transducers · CPC title

• H04R17/00

  Piezoelectric transducers; Electrostrictive transducers (piezoelectric or electrostrictive elements in general H10N30/00; details of piezoelectric or electrostrictive motors, generators or positioners {H10N30/00}) · CPC title

• H04R1/2876

  by means of damping material, e.g. as cladding (damping material for tuning desired resonances H04R1/2807, e.g. in vents H04R1/2823, H04R1/2846) · CPC title

• G10K2210/3216

  Cancellation means disposed in the vicinity of the source · CPC title

• H04R9/066

  using the principle of inertia · CPC title