Earbuds with biometric sensing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9716937-B2
Application number	US-201514856402-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2015
Priority date	Sep 16, 2015
Publication date	Jul 25, 2017
Grant date	Jul 25, 2017

Abstract

This application relates to earbuds configured with one or more biometric sensors. At least one of the biometric sensors is configured to be pressed up against a portion of the tragus for making biometric measurements. In some embodiments, the housing of the earbud can be symmetric so that the earbud can be worn interchangeably in either a left or a right ear of a user. In such an embodiment, the earbud can include a sensor and circuitry configured to determine and alter operation of the earbud in accordance to which ear the earbud is determined to be sitting in.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An earbud, comprising:
an earbud housing;
a sensor coupled to the earbud housing and configured to generate data related to the position of the earbud housing within an ear of a user of the earbud;
a microphone array disposed within the earbud housing and including a first microphone and a second microphone; and
circuitry configured to determine from at least the data whether the earbud is inserted in a user's left ear or inserted in the user's right ear and to adjust-an operational state of the microphone array in accordance with which of the left or right ear the circuitry determines the earbud is inserted in.

2. The earbud as recited in claim 1 , wherein the microphone array comprises three microphones arranged in a triangular geometry.

3. The earbud as recited in claim 2 , wherein adjusting the operational state of the microphones comprises assigning two of the three microphones to recording audio, the assigned microphones being arranged along a line oriented towards a mouth of the user.

4. The earbud as recited in claim 3 , wherein the circuitry records only a portion of the audio detected by the two microphones, the portion of the audio corresponding to that audio that arrives from a direction of the mouth of the user.

5. The earbud as recited in claim 4 , wherein the circuitry comprises a processor that determines which portion of the audio is arriving in the direction of the mouth of the user by executing a time difference of arrival determination.

6. The earbud as recited in claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is also configured to select an audio channel from a multi-channel audio source in accordance with information provided by the sensor.

7. The earbud as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor is an inertial sensor.

8. The earbud as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises an infrared proximity sensor that generates orientation data by measuring a distance between a surface of the earbud housing of the earbud and the ear of the user.

9. The earbud as recited in claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a temperature sensor that generates orientation data by measuring an exterior temperature of at least two regions of an exterior surface of the earbud housing.

10. An earbud, comprising:
a housing defining an interior cavity and a sound port exiting the interior cavity and including first and second opening extending through the housing to the interior cavity;
a speaker disposed in the interior cavity and aligned with the sound port;
a microphone array disposed within the interior cavity, the microphone array including a first microphone associated with the first opening and a second microphone associated with the second opening;
one or more sensors coupled to the housing and configured to generate sensor data; and
a processor disposed within the housing and operatively coupled to receive the sensor data from the one or more sensors, the processor being configured to determine from the sensor data whether the earbud is inserted in a user's left ear or inserted in the user's right ear and adjust an operational state of the microphone array accordingly.

11. The earbud as recited in claim 10 , wherein the different operational states of the first and second microphones comprise an audio recording state, a disabled state and a noise cancelling state.

12. The earbud as recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise a temperature sensing assembly including one or more sensing surfaces arranged along an exterior surface of the housing.

13. The earbud as recited in claim 12 , wherein the temperature sensing assembly comprises a first temperature sensor and a second temperature sensor, the temperature sensing assembly being configured to determine an orientation of the earbud by determining which of the sensing surfaces are in direct contact with a surface of the ear.

14. The earbud as recited in claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to utilize temperature data received from the temperature sensor contacting the ear to measure core body temperature and temperature data received from the temperature sensor not contacting the ear to measure ambient temperature.

15. The earbud as recited in claim 10 , wherein the one or more sensors comprise a biometric sensor selected from the group consisting of a heart rate sensor, a VO 2 sensor, a GSR (galvanic skin response) sensor, an EKG sensor, and an ICG sensor.

16. The earbud as recited in claim 10 , wherein the shape and size of the device housing is symmetric, the symmetry of the device housing allowing the earbud to be worn in either ear of the user.

17. The earbud as recited in claim 10 wherein the one or more sensors comprise an electronic sensor.

18. The earbud as recited in claim 10 wherein the one or more sensors comprise a mechanical sensor.

19. An audio device, comprising:
a speaker;
a wireless transceiver;
a sensor configured to measure an orientation of the audio device in an ear of a user;
a microphone array;
an energy storage device providing power for the audio device; and
an earbud housing enclosing the speaker, the microphone array, the wireless transceiver, the sensor and the energy storage device
a processor configured to determine which ear of a user of the audio device is inserted in based at least upon the orientation of the audio device measured by the sensor and to change an operational state of the microphone array accordingly.

20. The audio device as recited in claim 19 , wherein the sensor is an inertial sensor.

21. The audio device as recited in claim 19 , wherein the microphone array comprises three microphones arranged in a triangular configuration.

22. The audio device as recited in claim 21 , wherein adjusting the operational state of the microphone array comprises disabling one of the three microphones that data from the sensor indicates is not aligned with another one of the microphones and a mouth of the user.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Qian Phillip
• Andersen Esge B

Classifications

• A61B5/02416 Primary

  using photoplethysmograph signals, e.g. generated by infrared radiation (A61B5/14552 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04R1/1083

  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

• H04R3/005

  for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407) · CPC title

• H04R1/105 Primary

  Earpiece supports, e.g. ear hooks (for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335) · CPC title

• H04R1/406

  microphones · CPC title