A transducer system includes a panel having one or more piezo-electric enabled foils and an arrangement of electric contacts coupled to the panel. The one or more piezo-electric enabled foils and the arrangement of electric contacts define a plurality of transducers thereon. Each transducer is associated with a respective region of the panel and with at least two electric contacts that are coupled to at least two zones at that respective region of the panel. The electric contacts are adapted to provide an electric field in these at least two zones to cause different degrees of piezo-electric material deformation in these at least two zones and to thereby deform the respective region of the panel in a direction substantially perpendicular to a surface of the panel, and to thereby enable efficient conversion of electrical signals to mechanical vibrations (acoustic waves) and/or vice versa.

The present technology relates to signal processing device and method that make it possible to reproduce sound more effectively. A signal processing device includes a rotation operation unit that rotates a head-related transfer function in a spherical harmonic domain by an operation on the basis of a rotation matrix corresponding to rotation of a head of a listener, the operation in which an order of the rotation matrix is limited, and a synthesis unit that synthesizes the head-related transfer function after rotation obtained by the operation and a sound signal of the spherical harmonic domain to generate a headphone drive signal. The present technology is applicable to an audio processor.

A product for detecting people approaching an isolated user, discouraging the detected people from disturbing the user, and for taking messages from the approaching people. The product may be embodied in noise-canceling headphones that the user is wearing, for example. The product can include a camera and a microphone that can detect approaching people. The product can also include an externally-facing speaker that can play an audio message to the approaching person to attempt to discourage the person from disturbing the user. The product can also prompt the person to leave a message for the user and then record the subsequent message. The user can review the message at a later time.

An audio processing system and method are described. A microphone is arranged to generate a microphone output signal responsive to an acoustic input. A speaker is arranged to generate an acoustic output responsive to a speaker input signal and to generate a speaker output signal responsive to the acoustic input. A wind noise detector is arranged to receive and process the microphone output signal and/or the speaker output signal to detect wind noise. A signal processor is arranged to receive the microphone output signal and is configured to process the speaker output signal when wind noise has been detected. The microphone output signal is modified using a result of processing the speaker output signal to reduce the amount of wind noise in a processed audio signal output by the signal processor.

A housing for a communication device comprises a first housing section with a membrane opening, wherein the first housing section comprises around the circumference of the membrane opening a first membrane support configured to couple to a sound membrane, and a magnet carrying support, which is integrally formed with the first housing section and is configured to support a magnet in the housing and below the membrane opening. Furthermore, the present invention provides a communication device.

An acoustic-electric transducer includes a connection part that has a first connection point able to contact a first contact in a terminal for processing the electrical signal, and a second connection point able to contact a second contact having a potential lower than the potential of the first contact, a microphone that transduces a sound inputted from an external source into an electrical signal, a changeover switch that switches between a non-mute state where the electrical signal is outputted to the terminal and a mute state where the electrical signal is not outputted to the terminal, and a current control circuit that makes a current flow between the first contact and the second contact until a predetermined time passes from the time when the connection part is connected to the terminal and reduces the current flowing between the first contact and the second contact after the predetermined time passes, the current control circuit being provided between the changeover switch and the connection part.

An ultrasonic device includes a substrate, a transmitter disposed over the substrate, the transmitter including an ultrasonic transmitting transducer configured to generate ultrasonic signals, and a receiver disposed over the substrate, the receiver including an ultrasonic receiving transducer configured to sense ultrasonic signals. The ultrasonic device further includes a first horn-shaped acoustic channel, wherein a material of at least one portion of the first horn-shaped acoustic channel is the same as a material of at least one portion of the transmitter or the receiver.

Example embodiments may include one or more of receiving an electrical sound emission signal from a sound controller, interrupting reception of the electrical sound emission signal, by a sound emission interruption circuit connected to a sound emitter, and receiving an electrical ambient sound signal via a sound detection circuit, based on ambient sound sensed by the sound emitter when the reception of the electrical sound emission signal is interrupted by the sound emission interruption circuit.

The disclosure relates in general to on-ear transition detection, and in particular to on-ear transition detection circuitry comprising: a monitoring unit operable to monitor a speaker current flowing through a speaker and/or a speaker voltage induced across the speaker, and to generate a monitor signal indicative of the speaker current and/or the speaker voltage; and an event detector operable to detect a qualifying disturbance in a sensor signal indicative of a qualifying pressure change incident on the speaker caused by the speaker transitioning from an on-ear state to an off-ear state or vice versa, wherein the sensor signal is, or is derived from, the monitor signal.

An audio system comprises an array of transparent piezoelectric transducers on a transparent surface. Each transparent piezoelectric transducer includes one or more piezoelectric layers and one or more conductive layers that are substantially transparent to visible light. A transparent piezoelectric transducer may include, e.g., a first conductive layer, a first piezoelectric layer on the first conductive layer, and a second conductive layer on the first piezoelectric layer. Or in another example, the transparent piezoelectric transducer includes many (e.g., 20-30) piezoelectric layers and many (e.g., 20-30) conductive layers.