Granted Patent B2

US 8,213,629 · App. 12/394,604 · Granted Jul 3, 2012

Abstract

Claims (55)

1. An earpiece, comprising:

an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to deliver audio content to an ear canal; and

a processor operatively coupled to the ECR to reduce over time a level of the audio content delivered to the ECR responsive to detecting intermittent manual increase gain adjustments by a user of the earpiece.

2. The earpiece of claim 1 , where the processor reduces over time the level of the audio content as a function of time differences between the intermittent manual increase gain adjustments and level differences of the intermittent manual increase gain adjustments.

3. The earpiece of claim 1 , further comprising:

an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) configured to measure a sound pressure level (SPL) within the ear canal, where the processor in view of the SPL adjusts a gain decay envelope of the audio content to a safe listening level according to an SPL Dose chart.

4. The earpiece of claim 3 , where the SPL Dose chart receives as input at least one of an inter-event time, an ambient sound level, or an audio content level, and maps the input to a gain level reduction of the audio content.

5. The earpiece of claim 1 , further comprising:

an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) to capture ambient sound; and

a sealing section to partially occlude the ear canal and suppress the ambient sound from entering the ear canal,

where the processor regulates a pass-through of the ambient sound through the sealing section to the ear-canal by way of the ECR.

6. The earpiece of claim 5 , where the sealing section is a foam ear insert.

7. The earpiece of claim 5 , where the sealing section is an inflatable balloon.

8. The earpiece of claim 1 , further comprising:

a transceiver to receive and transmit the audio content from a paired communication device.

9. The earpiece of claim 1 , further comprising a media player communicatively coupled to the earpiece to deliver or adjust the audio content responsive to each manual increase gain adjustment.

10. A method to automatically adjust listening levels, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a level of audio content delivered to an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) of an earpiece;

monitoring a sound pressure level within an ear-canal, due in part to ambient sound and the audio content; and

modifying the audio content responsive to detecting intermittent manual increase gain adjustments of the audio content.

11. The method of claim 10 , where the step of modifying the audio content includes reducing a gain of the audio content over time after a manual gain change is detected.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

identifying a first event time at which a first manual gain change is detected;

identifying a second event time at which a second manual gain change is detected;

calculating a time difference between the first event time and the second event time to produce an inter-event time; and

reducing a magnitude of the audio content as a function of the inter-event time, where smaller inter-event times produce smaller changes in a reduction of audio content gain.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

identifying a first level difference responsive to the first manual gain change;

identifying a second level difference responsive to the second manual gain change;

calculating a level difference ratio between the first level difference and the second level difference; and

reducing the magnitude of the audio content as a function of the inter-event time and the level difference ratio.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

detecting a sound pressure level (SPL) change in an ambient environment by way of an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM); and

adjusting a pass-through of the ambient sound through a sealing section of the earpiece to the ear-canal by way of the ECR to maintain a constant ratio of an audio content SPL and a residual ambient sound SPL in the ear-canal.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising:

reducing the pass-through of the ambient sound to the ear-canal responsive to detecting the intermittent manual increase gain adjustments so as to perceptually enhance an audio content loudness relative to the ambient sound.

16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

using a first slow weighted average of a sound pressure level (SPL) measured within the ear-canal and a second slow weighted average of an ambient sound SPL to produce a gain decay envelope with which to modify the audio content.

17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

measuring an ambient sound level by way of an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM); and

estimating a residual ambient sound level in the ear-canal by compensating the ambient sound level for a noise reduction rating of the earpiece.

18. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

estimating a sound pressure level (SPL) of the audio content within the ear-canal by applying an Ear Canal Transfer Function (ECTF) to the audio content delivered to the ECR; and

estimating a residual ambient sound level in the ear-canal by subtracting the estimated SPL of the audio content from a measured SPL within the ear-canal.

19. A method for perceptual reduction of audio content volume, the method suitable for use in a mobile device or an earpiece and comprising the steps of:

monitoring a music listening level within an ear canal;

reporting if the music listening level is within or exceeds a safe listening level;

monitoring volume gain increases by a user of the mobile device or the earpiece;

gradually reducing the audio content volume over time responsive to intermittent volume gain increases so as to minimize a change in perceptual loudness associated with the gradual reducing of the audio content volume.

20. The method of claim 19 , where the audio content volume is reduced in increments of a Just Noticeable Difference (JND) as a function of time differences between the intermittent volume gain increases and level differences of the intermittent volume gain increases.

21. The method of claim 19 , further comprising:

estimating a first gain difference associated with a first user gain increase;

identifying a time difference between the first user gain increase and a second user gain increase;

estimating a second gain difference associated with the second user gain increase; and

reducing the audio content volume as a function of the time difference and a ratio of the first gain difference to the second gain difference.

Assignments (11)