Headphones that determine head size and ear shape for customized HRTFs for a listener

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9918178-B2
Application number	US-201715728527-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2017
Priority date	Jun 23, 2014
Publication date	Mar 13, 2018
Grant date	Mar 13, 2018

Abstract

Methods and apparatus include headphones that determine a size of a head of a listener and a shape of an ear of the listener. The size of the head and the shape of the ear determine head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that are customized to the listener. The headphones include head tracking, and sound is adjusted so that a location of a source of the sound continues to originate from a fixed sound localization point (SLP) in empty space that is at least one meter away from the head of the listener while the head orientations of the listener change with respect to the fixed location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method executed by headphones that provide binaural sound to a listener wearing the headphones, the method comprising:
determining, with the headphones, a size of a head of the listener;
measuring, with microphones in the headphones and while the listener wears the headphones, sound impulses that determine a shape of an ear of the listener that along with the size of the head of the listener determine head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that are user-specific to physical attributes of the size of the head and the shape of the ear of the listener wearing the headphones;
tracking, in real-time as the head of the listener moves while the listener wears the headphones, head orientations of the listener with one or more of an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer in the headphones;
receiving, at the headphones and from a portable electronic device, sound to be provided to the listener;
adjusting, with a processor in the headphones and based on the head orientations of the listener determined by the headphones, the HRTFs processing the sound so that a location of a source of the sound continues to originate from a fixed sound localization point (SLP) in empty space that is at least one meter away from the head of the listener while the head orientations of the listener change with respect to the fixed location; and
playing, with speakers in the headphones and to the listener while the listener wears the headphones, the sound adjusted with the HRTFs such that the location of the source of the sound that the listener hears continues to originate from the fixed SLP in empty space that is at least one meter away from the head of the listener while the head orientations of the listener change with respect to the fixed location.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
transmitting, by the headphones, the shape of the ear of the listener and the size of the head of the listener to the portable electronic device to enable the portable electronic device to determine the HRTFs that are user-specific to the physical attributes of the listener wearing the headphones.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the headphones measure a distance between two ears of the listener to determine the size of the head of the listener and transmit the distance to the portable electronic device.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, with the microphones in the headphones and while the listener wears the headphones, the sound impulses that are generated by the speakers in the headphones and that are captured by the microphones in the headphones in order for the portable electronic device to determine the HRTFs that are user-specific to the physical attributes of the listener wearing the headphones.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, with the microphones in the headphones and while the listener wears the headphones, the sound impulses that are generated by speakers in the portable electronic device and that are captured by the microphones in the headphones in order for the portable electronic device to determine the HRTFs that are user-specific to the physical attributes of the listener wearing the headphones.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
determining, by the headphones, the head orientations of the listener as a coordinate location that includes an azimuth position (θ) and an elevation position (φ);
receiving, wirelessly from the electronic device, the HRTFs at the headphones; and
storing the HRTFs in a memory in the headphones.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sound impulses are generated from the speakers in the headphones, and the headphones measure the sound impulses with the microphones in order to compute the HRTFs.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, at the headphones, a command from the listener to move the sound originating from the fixed SLP in empty space that is at least one meter away from the head of the listener as the binaural sound to a SLP that is inside the head of the listener as stereo sound.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that electronic devices execute to provide binaural sound to a listener wearing headphones, the method comprising:
determining, with the headphones, a size of a head of the listener and at least one of a shape of an ear of the listener and a size of the ear of the listener in order to determine head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that are user-specific to an anatomy of the listener that includes the size of the head of the listener and at least one of the shape of the ear of the listener and the size of the ear of the listener;
transmitting, to a computer and while the listener wears the headphones, the size of the head of the listener and at least one of the shape of the ear of the listener and the size of the ear of the listener;
determining, with the computer and based on the size of the head of the listener received from the headphones and at least one of the shape of the ear of the listener received from the headphones and the size of the ear of the listener received from the headphones, the HRTFs that are user-specific to the anatomy of the listener that includes the size of the head of the listener and at least one of the shape of the ear of the listener and the size of the ear of the listener;
tracking, with the headphones, head orientations of the listener as the head of the listener moves;
receiving, from the computer and at the headphones while the listener wears the headphones, sound to be played to the listener;
processing, with a digital signal processor in the headphones, the sound with the HRTFs that are selected based on the head orientations tracked with the headphones so that the sound continues to originate from a fixed sound localization point (SLP) in empty space that is at least three feet away from the head of the listener while a head orientation of the listener changes with respect to the fixed SLP; and
providing, through speakers in the headphones and to the listener while the listener wears the headphones, the sound processed by the digital signal processor such that the sound continues to originate from the fixed SLP in empty space that is at least three feet away from the head of the listener while the head orientation of the listener changes with respect to the fixed location.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 storing instructions that the electronic devices execute such that the method further comprises:
increasing a sound intensity of the sound that the listener hears through the headphones when a head orientation of the listener changes such that the head of the listener moves closer to the fixed SLP in empty space.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 storing instructions that the electronic devices execute such that the method further comprises:
capturing, with microphones in the headphones, impulse responses of sounds to capture at least one of the shape of the ear of the listener and the size of the ear of the listener.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the HRTFs are determined by the computer while the listener wears the headphones, the computer is a laptop computer that transmits to the headphones the HRTFs that are user-specific to the anatomy of the listener, and a memory in the headphones stores the HRTFs that are user-specific to the anatomy of the listener.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 9 storing instructions that the electronic devices execute such that the method further comprises

Assignees

• Norris Glen A
• Lyren Philip Scott

Inventors

• Norris Glen A
• Lyren Philip Scott

Classifications

• H04R27/00

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• H04M3/53366

  Message disposing or creating aspects · CPC title

• H04M1/605

  involving control of the receiver volume to provide a dual operational mode at close or far distance from the user · CPC title

• G10L21/028

  using properties of sound source · CPC title

• H04S1/002 Primary

  Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution (control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30) · CPC title