Method and apparatus for in-ear canal sound suppression
AssigneeST Portfolio Holdings, LLC
InventorsJason McIntosh, Marc Boillot, John Usher, Steven Goldstein
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system of conferencing can include the steps of initiating a conference call at a communication device with two or more communication devices and selecting to suppress a voice communication of at least one communication device on the conference call where a modified electronic signal is generated with the selected at least one communication device so that the voice communication from the selected at least one communication device is inaudible. The method or system further includes sending the modified electronic signal to at least one other communication device on the conference call. Other embodiments are disclosed.
Claims20
A method for acoustic management control suitable for use in an earphone, the method comprising the steps of:
- measuring an ambient acoustic signal from at least one Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to produce an electronic ambient signal;
- measuring an internal sound from at least one Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) to produce an electronic internal signal;
- generating a background noise level (BNL) from at least one of the electronic ambient signal or the electronic internal signal or a combination of both;
- generating an ambient gain based upon the BNL;
- applying the ambient gain to the electronic ambient signal to generate a modified ambient signal;
- generating an internal gain based upon the BNL;
- applying the internal gain to the electronic internal signal to generate a modified internal signal;
- and
- generating a mixed signal by mixing the modified ambient signal with the modified internal signal.
An earphone comprising:
- an ambient sound microphone;
- an ear canal microphone;
- a memory that stores instructions;
- and
- a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising:
- receiving an electronic ambient signal from an ambient sound microphone;
- receiving an electronic internal signal from an ear canal microphone;
- generating a background noise level (BNL) from at least one of the electronic ambient signal or the electronic internal signal or a combination of both;
- generating an ambient gain based upon the BNL;
- applying the ambient gain to the electronic ambient signal to generate a modified ambient signal;
- generating an internal gain based upon the BNL;
- applying the internal gain to the electronic internal signal to generate a modified internal signal;
- and
- generating a mixed signal by mixing the modified ambient signal with the modified internal signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.