Method and Earpiece for Visual Operational Status Indication
AssigneePersonics Holdings Inc.
InventorsJohn Usher, Steven Goldstein, Marc Boillot
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An earpiece can include an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM), an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR), a transceiver, an illumination element, and a processor to provide visual operational mode indication via the illumination element. The operational mode can correspond to an active phone call, an incoming phone call, a terminated phone, a caller-on-hold condition, a recording mode, a voice mail mode, a mute mode, an audible transparency mode or an ear-plug mode. The intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting can be adjusted according to the operational mode. Other embodiments are disclosed.
Claims25
An earpiece, comprising:
- an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to capture ambient sound;
- an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to deliver audio to an ear canal;
- a transceiver to receive and transmit communication signals from a paired communication device;
- an illumination element to provide light;
- and
- a processor operatively coupled to the ASM, the ECR, transceiver to provide visual operational mode indication of the earpiece or paired communication device via the illumination element.
A method for operating an earpiece, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving ambient sound from an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM);
- delivering audio to an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) directed to an ear canal;
- receiving and transmitting communication signals from a paired communication device;
- determining an operational mode of the earpiece from audio signals received from the ASM, audio signals delivered to the ECR and the communication signals;
- and
- controlling a lighting of an illumination element of the earpiece for visually indicating the operational mode of the earpiece.
An earpiece, comprising:
- an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to capture ambient sound from an ambient environment;
- an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to deliver audio to an ear canal;
- an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) operatively coupled to the processor to monitor a sound pressure level (SPL) within the ear canal and capture bone conducted voice signals within the ear canal;
- a sealing section to attenuate background noise levels passing from the ambient environment to the ear canal by way of the ASM and ECR;
- an illumination element to provide light;
- and
- a processor operatively coupled to the ASM and the ECR to
- analyze sound levels from the ASM, ECM and ECR,
- determine a level of acoustic isolation of the sealing section, and
- control a lighting of the illumination element based on the level of acoustic isolation by adjusting an intensity, frequency, amplitude, color or duration of the lighting.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.