US 2014/0211970 A1Published application

Earphone arrangements

AssigneeIncus Laboratories Limited

InventorsAlastair SIBBALD, Robert ALCOCK, Martin HOWLE, David Monteith

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Abstract

The invention provides earphone arrangements for use with electronic host devices, such as cellular telephone handsets and music storage and reproduction devices, and it provides in particular earphone arrangements with ambient noise cancellation (“ANC”). Typically, in prior arrangements, the complex signal processing required for ANC is carried out in the earphones themselves and/or in a pod connected between the earphones and the host device. The invention configures the processing elements such that the ANC signal-processing function is transferred to an ANC processor incorporated into the host device. A non-volatile electronic data storage device, such as an EPROM, provided in the connection path between the earphones and the host device is configured to store calibratory information, indicative of performance criteria of specific microspeaker and microphone components incorporated into the earphones, required to condition the operation of the ANC processor to compensate for departures from predetermined standards of the performance criteria of either or both components. The earphone arrangement is thus simplified and reduced in cost, and moreover can be manufactured, calibrated and supplied independently of any host device.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An earphone arrangement for communication with an electronic host device, said host device being capable of providing and receiving audio signals and being also equipped with an ambient noise cancelling (ANC) processor;

the earphone arrangement comprising:
an earphone supporting a digital microphone mounted to receive ambient noise and a microspeaker mounted to project audio signals, provided by the host device, into the ear of a user of the arrangement;
a communication path connecting the earphone over multiple electrical connections to the host device by way of a connector forming part of said path;
the connector being connectable to and removable from the host device to make and break said path, whereby ambient noise signals from said digital microphone conveyed along said communication path from the earphone to the host device are provided to said ANC processor within the host device for use therein to reduce the effect of said ambient noise on audio signals provided to the earphone by the processor;
and
an electronic data storage device located in said communication path and configured to contain digital information indicative of performance criteria of said microspeaker and said digital microphone thereby to condition the operation of said ANC processor to compensate for departures of said criteria from predetermined standards.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 14/167,046Filed 29 Jan 2014
Priority: GB 1301691.031 Jan 2013
Published: 31 Jul 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

H04R 1/1083
Earpieces; Attachments therefor ; Earphones; Monophonic headphones: reduction of ambient noise
H04R 1/1041
Earpieces; Attachments therefor ; Earphones; Monophonic headphones: mechanical or electronic switches, or control elements
G10K 2210/1081
Communication systems, e.g. where useful sound is kept and noise is cancelled: earphones, e.g. for telephones, ear protectors or headsets
G10K 2210/3214
Physical: architectures, e.g. special constructional features or arrangements of features

Family

No related US applications are recorded in the indexed filing history.

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