Headset playback acoustic dosimetry
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorsJakub Mazur, Tyrone T. Chen, Hang Zhang
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In-ear sound pressure level, SPL, is determined that is caused by output audio being converted into sound by a headset worn by a user. The in-ear SPL is converted into a sound sample having units that are suitable for evaluating sound noise exposure. These operations are repeated to produce a sequence of sound samples during playback. This sequence of sound samples is then written to a secure database. Access to the database is authorized by the user. Other aspects are also described and claimed.
Claims20
A digital signal processing method for acoustic dosimetry, the method comprising:
- receiving an ambient sound measurement made using a microphone that is integrated in an audio device of a user;
- receiving a first context input being an output of a wind detector;
- determining whether to reject or reduce weighting of the ambient sound measurement based on the output of the wind detector;
- and
- converting the ambient sound measurement into in-ear sound pressure level, SPL, and appending the in-ear SPL to a stored time sequence;
- and
- analyzing the stored time sequence to determine whether a total sound exposure for the user exceeds a threshold level over a threshold time interval.
An audio device with acoustic dosimetry capability, the audio device comprising:
- a microphone;
- a processor;
- and
- memory having stored therein instructions that configure the processor to
- receive an ambient sound measurement made using the microphone,
- receive a first context input being an output of a wind detector,
- determine whether to reject or reduce weighting of the ambient sound measurement based on the output of the wind detector,
- convert the ambient sound measurement into in-ear sound pressure level, SPL, and append the in-ear SPL to a stored time sequence, and
- analyze the stored time sequence to determine whether a total sound exposure for a user exceeds a threshold level over a threshold time interval.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.