Granted Patent B2

US 8,295,506 · App. 12/175,240 · Granted Oct 23, 2012

Abstract

Claims (25)

1. A communication device, comprising:

a. a mouth wearable communicator to communicate sound with a remote unit, the mouth wearable communicator positioned inside an oral cavity; and

b. one or more intra-oral microphones coupled to the mouth wearable communicator such that the one or more intra-oral microphones are positioned on one or more teeth to face soft tissue of the cheek inside the oral cavity and where the one or more microphones contacting the soft tissue in the oral cavity are configured to capture sound outside of the oral cavity through the soft tissue, and wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones comprise a cardioid-type directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone.

2. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones comprise one or more noise canceling microphones.

3. The communication device of claim 1 , comprising a first intra-oral microphone pointed toward a mouth cavity and a second intra-oral microphone arranged to receive sound outside of the mouth cavity.

4. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones perform spatial and temporal filtering to enhance the sound from a predetermined direction and over a predetermined frequency band, and suppress signals from other directions.

5. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones are tissue mounted.

6. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the mouth wearable communicator comprises a bone conduction device.

7. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the mouth wearable communicator comprises a custom oral device.

8. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the mouth wearable communicator comprises one or more medical sensors embedded therein.

9. The communication device of claim 1 , wherein the mouth wearable communicator comprises a data storage device.

10. A method for capturing speech, comprising:

a. intra-orally mounting one or more microphones on one or more teeth such that the one or more microphones face and contact intra-oral soft tissue of the cheek, wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones comprise a cardioid-type directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone;

b. capturing speech from outside an oral cavity and conducted through the soft tissue via the one or more microphones;

c. removing noise from the captured speech; and

d. transmitting the captured speech.

11. A method to capture sound for communication, comprising:

a. mounting one or more intra-oral microphones on one or more teeth such that the one or more microphones face and contact soft tissue of the cheek in an oral cavity, wherein the one or more intra-oral microphones comprise a cardioid-type directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone;

b. capturing sound conducted through the soft tissue from outside the oral cavity via the one or more microphones; and

c. mounting a mouth wearable communicator in the oral cavity to communicate the sound with a remote unit.

12. The method of claim 11 , comprising canceling noise from the captured sound.

13. The method of claim 11 , comprising pointing a first intra-oral microphone toward the oral cavity and a second intra-oral microphone away from the oral cavity.

14. The method of claim 11 , comprising performing spatial and temporal filtering to enhance the sound from a predetermined direction and over a predetermined frequency band, and suppress signals from other directions.

15. The method of claim 11 , comprising mounting the one or more intra-oral microphones on tissue.

16. The method of claim 11 , comprising generating sound output using a bone conduction device.

Assignments (6)