METHOD FOR TUNING A NOISE CANCELLATION ENABLED AUDIO SYSTEM AND NOISE CANCELLATION ENABLED AUDIO SYSTEM

Abstract

In a method for tuning at least one parameter of a noise cancellation enabled audio system with an ear mountable playback device comprising a speaker and a feedforward microphone the playback device is placed onto a measurement fixture, the speaker facing a test microphone located within an ear canal representation. The parameter is varied between a plurality of settings while a test sound is played. A measurement signal from the test microphone is received and stored in the audio system at least while the parameter is varied. A power minimum in the stored measurement signal and a tune parameter associated with the power minimum are determined in the audio system from the plurality of settings of the varied parameter.

Claims

1. A method for tuning at least one parameter of a noise cancellation enabled audio system with an ear mountable playback device comprising a speaker and a feedforward microphone, the method comprising: placing the playback device onto a measurement fixture, wherein the speaker faces an ear canal representation of the measurement fixture and a test microphone located within the ear canal representation; varying the parameter between a plurality of settings while a test sound is played from an ambient sound source; receiving and storing, in the audio system, a measurement signal from the test microphone at least while the parameter is varied; determining, in the audio system, a power minimum in the stored measurement signal; and determining, in the audio system, from the plurality of settings of the varied parameter a tune parameter associated with the power minimum.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising setting the tune parameter or a parameter derived from the tune parameter as the at least one parameter.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one parameter is a gain factor of a feedforward filter for the noise cancellation of the audio system.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the at least one parameter is varied by varying the gain factor between a minimum value and a maximum value in a continuous or stepwise manner.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one parameter determines the shape or response of a feedforward filter for the noise cancellation of the audio system.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method is performed for two or more ANC enabled audio systems concurrently, in particular while the same test sound is played from the ambient sound source.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the measurement signal is received over an audio input of the audio system.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the test sound comprises, in particular consists of, a predefined number of sinusoidal waves of different frequencies with respective predefined amplitudes and wherein determining the power minimum comprises filtering the stored measurement signal with bandpass filters at the frequencies of the sinusoidal waves of the test sound to achieve a first intermediate signal; smoothing the first intermediate signal to achieve an absolute power signal; and determining a minimum of the absolute power signal.

9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising determining, in the audio system, a noise cancellation performance of the audio system based on the tune parameter and the stored measurement signal.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the playback device comprises a further speaker and a further feedforward microphone associated with the further speaker; the measurement fixture comprises a further ear canal representation and a further test microphone located within the further ear canal representation; and placing the playback device onto the measurement fixture comprises that the further speaker faces the further ear canal representation and the further test microphone; the method further comprising varying a further parameter of the audio system between a plurality of settings while the test sound is played; receiving and storing, in the audio system, a further measurement signal from the further test microphone at least while the further parameter is varied; determining, in the audio system, a further power minimum in the stored further measurement signal; and determining, in the audio system, from the plurality of settings of the varied further parameter a further tune parameter associated with the further power minimum.

11. A noise cancellation enabled audio system with an audio processor and an ear mountable playback device comprising a speaker and a feedforward microphone, the audio system being configured to be operated in a regular mode of operation and in a calibration mode of operation, wherein the audio processor is configured for, in the calibration mode of operation, varying a parameter, which is associated with the noise cancellation at the speaker, between a plurality of settings while a test sound is played from an ambient sound source and the playback device is placed onto a measurement fixture, the speaker facing an ear canal representation of the measurement fixture and a test microphone located within the ear canal representation; receiving and storing a measurement signal from the test microphone at least while the parameter is varied; determining a power minimum in the stored measurement signal; and determining from the plurality of settings of the varied parameter a tune parameter associated with the power minimum.

12. The audio system according to claim 11, wherein the audio processor is further configured for, in the calibration mode of operation, setting the tune parameter or a parameter derived from the tune parameter as the parameter for the regular mode of operation.

13. The audio system according to claim 11, wherein the parameter is a gain factor of a feedforward filter for the noise cancellation or determines the shape or response of the feedforward filter.

14. The audio system according to claim 11, further comprising an audio input for receiving a useful audio signal to be played over the speaker during the regular mode of operation and for receiving the measurement signal during the calibration mode of operation.

15. The audio system according to claim 11, the ear mountable playback device further comprising a further speaker and a further feedforward microphone associated with the further speaker, wherein the audio processor is further configured for, in the calibration mode of operation, varying a further parameter, which is associated with a noise cancellation at the further speaker, between a plurality of settings while the test sound is played, the further speaker facing a further ear canal representation of the measurement fixture (MF) and a further test microphone located within the further ear canal representation; receiving and storing a further measurement signal from the further test microphone at least while the further parameter is varied; determining a further power minimum in the stored further measurement signal; and determining from the plurality of settings of the varied further parameter a further tune parameter associated with the further power minimum.

16. The audio system according to claim 12, wherein the audio processor is further configured for, in the regular mode of operation, performing noise cancellation depending on the parameter.

17. The method according to claim 1, further comprising setting the tune parameter or a parameter derived from the tune parameter as the at least one parameter; and performing noise cancellation depending on the at least one parameter.

18. The method according to claim 1, wherein, during a calibration mode of operation of the audio system, the measurement signal is received over an audio input of the audio system, and wherein the audio system is configured to be operated in a regular mode of operation, during which the audio system is configured for receiving, via the audio input, a useful audio signal to be played over the speaker.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0045] The improved tuning concept will be described in more detail in the following with the aid of drawings. Elements having the same or similar function bear the same reference numerals throughout the drawings. Hence their description is not necessarily repeated in following drawings.

[0046] In the drawings:

[0047] FIG. 1 shows an example headphone worn by a user with several sound paths from an ambient sound source;

[0048] FIG. 2 shows an example implementation of a measurement configuration according to the improved tuning concept;

[0049] FIG. 3 shows a further example implementation of a measurement configuration according to the improved tuning concept;

[0050] FIG. 4 shows an example implementation of a method according to the improved tuning concept;

[0051] FIG. 5 shows example signals in a tuning process;

[0052] FIG. 6 shows an example flow diagram for the evaluation of a measurement signal;

[0053] FIG. 7 shows example signals during processing of a measurement signal;

[0054] FIG. 8 shows further example signals in a tuning process; and

[0055] FIG. 9 shows an example implementation of a noise cancellation enabled audio system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0056] A feed-forward noise cancellation system usually comprises of one or more microphones located on the outside of a headphone and a speaker located near the user's ear. It attenuates the ambient sound by measuring the ambient noise before it enters the ear, and processing that signal so that the acoustical signal leaving its speaker is equal and opposite to the ambient noise entering the ear, thus interfering destructively.

[0057] FIG. 1 shows an example configuration of a headphone HP worn by a user with several sound paths. The headphone HP shown in FIG. 1 stands as an example for any ear mountable playback device of a noise cancellation enabled audio system and can e.g. include in-ear headphones or earphones, on-ear headphones or over-ear headphones. Instead of a headphone, the ear mountable playback device could also be a mobile phone or a similar device.

[0058] The headphone HP in this example features a loudspeaker SP, a feedforward microphone FF_MIC and, optionally, a feedback microphone FB_MIC. Internal processing details of the headphone HP are not shown here for reasons of a better overview.

[0059] In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, several sound paths exist, of which each can be represented by a respective acoustic response function or acoustic transfer function. For example, a first acoustic transfer function AFFM represents the acoustic sound path between an ambient sound source and the feedforward microphone FF_MIC, and may be called an ambient-to-feedforward response function. An acoustic transfer function DE represents the acoustic sound path between the headphone's speaker SP, potentially including the response of the speaker SP itself, and a user's eardrum ED being exposed to the speaker SP, and may be called a driver-to-ear response function. A further acoustic transfer function AE represents the acoustic sound path between the ambient sound source and the eardrum ED through the user's ear canal EC, and may be called an ambient-to-ear response function.

[0060] If the feedback microphone FB_MIC is present, an acoustic transfer function DFBM represents a sound path between the speaker SP and the feedback microphone FB_MIC, and may be called a driver-to-feedback response function. The transfer function DFBM may include the response of the speaker SP itself. In such configuration, an acoustic transfer function AFBM represents the acoustic sound path between the ambient sound source and the feedback microphone FB_MIC, and may be called an ambient-to-feedback response function.

[0061] Response functions or transfer functions of the headphone HP, in particular between the microphones FF_MIC and FB_MIC and the speaker SP, can be used with a feedforward filter function and feedback filter function, respectively, which may be parameterized as noise cancellation filters during operation. The feedforward filter function is indicated in FIG. 1 with the transfer function F.

[0062] The path AE can also be called a direct path from the ambient sound source to the eardrum ED. An indirect path from the ambient sound through the noise cancellation is composed of three parts. The first part is denoted by the acoustic transfer function AFFM. The second part is denoted F which represents the transfer function through the noise cancellation accessory. It comprises e.g. the accessory's microphone response and the feedforward ANC filter, which, for a digital system, is composed of the ADC, DAC, ANC filter and any associated processing delay. The third part of the indirect path is given by the driver-to-ear response function DE.

[0063] The headphone HP as an example of the ear-mountable playback device may be embodied with both the microphones FB_MIC and FF_MIC being active or enabled such that hybrid ANC can be performed, or as a FF ANC device, where only the feedforward microphone FF_MIC is active and a feedback microphone FB_MIC is not present or at least not active.

[0064] Any specific details on processing of the microphone signals or any signal transmission are left out in FIG. 1 for reasons of a better overview. However, processing of the microphone signals in order to perform ANC may be implemented in an audio processor located within the headphone or other ear-mountable playback device or externally from the headphone in a dedicated processing unit. If the processing unit is integrated into the playback device, the playback device itself forms a noise cancellation enabled audio system. If processing is performed externally, the external device or processor together with the playback device forms the noise cancellation enabled audio system. For example, processing may be performed in a mobile device like a mobile phone or a mobile audio player, to which the headphone is connected with or without wires.

[0065] The objective of feedforward calibration is to find a parameter, e.g. the gain, of the feedforward system that causes the amplitude of the direct path AE from the ambient sound source to the ear-drum ED to be equal to the indirect path, i.e. a combination of paths AM, F and DE from the ambient sound source through the feedforward ANC to the ear-drum ED. One can find this parameter by playing a noise source from an ambient speaker, then adjusting the parameter, e.g. gain, of the feedforward ANC channel and monitoring the signal at the ear canal. One can expect to see a minimum in the signal at the ear canal when the parameter to be calibrated of the feedforward channel is ideal.

[0066] FIG. 2 shows an example implementation of a measurement configuration that may be used with the improved tuning concept. The measurement configuration includes an ambient sound source ASS comprising an ambient amplifier ADR and an ambient speaker ASP for playing a test sound TST. The noise cancellation enabled audio system including the headphone HP comprises the microphones FB_MIC, FF_MIC, whose signals are processed by an audio processor PROC and output via the speaker SP. The audio processor PROC may feature a control interface CI, over which processing parameters or operating modes of the audio processor PROC can be set. In some implementations, the audio processor PROC may be implemented as an ARM microprocessor, e.g. with a programmable firmware. This e.g. allows to change or adapt the respective filter algorithms and/or the calibration algorithms described below in more detail.

[0067] The headphone HP is placed onto a measurement fixture MF, which may be an artificial head with an ear canal representation EC, at the end of which a test microphone ECM is located for recording a measurement signal MES via a microphone amplifier MICAMP. The measurement signal MES is transmitted to the audio system or headphone HP via an audio input of the audio system and can be stored by the audio processor PROC for further evaluation.

[0068] It should be noted that at least a measurement fixture MF and ambient sound source ASS are represented in their basic functions, namely playing a test signal TST and recording a measurement signal MES without excluding more sophisticated implementations.

[0069] FIG. 3 shows a further example implementation of a measurement configuration according to the improved tuning concept. The configuration includes a personal computer as an example for a device providing the test signal, including the ambient amplifier ADR, and the ambient speaker ASP. The audio system is shown implemented with a circuit board including the audio processor, and a headphone HP connected to an output of the circuit board. The headphone HP is implemented as a stereo headphone with two loudspeakers and two feedforward microphones, each associated to one of the channels, respectively speakers. Accordingly, the measurement fixture MF features two ear canal representations with respective microphones (not shown) which are connected to a stereo microphone amplifier MICAMP, whose output is connected to the audio input of the audio system respectively circuit board. Although a wired connection is shown from the measurement fixture MF to the audio input, this connection could be replaced fully or partially with a wireless connection.

[0070] As can be seen both from FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, playback of the test sound via the ambient speaker ASP is completely independent from audio system and measurement fixture in terms of control, signals, etc.

[0071] Referring back to FIG. 3, a measurement setup for a single stereo audio system with ANC function is shown. Optionally, denoted with several dashed boxes with further setups of audio systems on measurement fixtures, tuning can be performed concurrently for a greater number of audio systems.

[0072] Referring now to FIG. 4, an example block diagram showing a method flow of a method for tuning a parameter of a noise cancellation enabled audio system with an ear mountable playback device is shown. As shown in block 410, the playback device is placed on the measurement fixture, like that shown in FIG. 2 or FIG. 3, such that a speaker or the speakers face respective ear canal representations of the measurement fixture and respective test microphones located within the ear canal representations. Block 410 may include making the respective connections between the test microphones to the audio device, e.g. an audio input of the audio device.

[0073] In block 420, playing of a test sound is started or continued. For example, the test sound comprises or consists of a predefined number of sinusoidal waves of different frequencies with respective predefined amplitudes. The test sound may be a sum of a limited number of sine waves, for example one to eight sine waves, wherein three or four sine waves have been found to deliver good results. The amplitudes may be weighted to achieve equal loudness at the ear canal, respectively ear canal representation.

[0074] In block 430, at least one noise cancellation related parameter is started to vary while the test sound is played from the ambient sound source. Referring to FIG. 5, the top signal, labelled ambient speaker signal, represents an example of the test sound consisting of three sinusoidal waves. For example, control of the variation of the parameter takes place from within the audio system, e.g. without being controlled from an external device.

[0075] Referring again to FIG. 5, the bottom signal, labelled feedforward ANC gain, represents an example of the varied parameter, which here is the gain factor of a feedforward filter for the noise cancellation of the audio system. For example, while the gain is kept at a zero value, effectively muting the ANC function of the audio system, between time instants t2 and t5, the gain factor is linearly increased between time instants t5 and t6, remaining at the maximum value after t6. In other embodiments, varying the parameter to be tuned in a different way, like some predetermined pattern or a predetermined sequence of parameter values is still possible.

[0076] Referring now back to FIG. 4, block 440, which is performed concurrently with block 430, a measurement signal or several measurement signals are received and stored from the test microphone at least while the parameter is varied or the test sound is played. In block 450, a power minimum in the stored measurement signal is determined. Such determination may include the process of determining a power, for example a residual means square, RMS, of the measurement signal. Referring again to FIG. 5, the middle signal, labelled acoustical signal power at ear canal, represents such a power signal as an example. As can be seen from FIG. 5, the signal power has a constant, high level during muting of the ANC function, that is between time instants t2 and t5, in particular between t4 and t5, the latter interval excluding transient portions at the beginning of the measurement. In the time interval between t5 and t6, the signal power first decreases up to a minimum value at a time instant tmin and from thereon increasing up to the time instant t6 again. The time instant tmin can be determined with respective signal processing techniques, which will be explained in more detail later.

[0077] Referring back to FIG. 4, in block 460 a tune parameter is determined from the plurality of settings of the varied parameter such that the tune parameter is associated with the power minimum. Referring again to FIG. 5, the tune parameter may correspond to the setting of the feedforward ANC gain at the time instant tmin or a value derived thereof. Referring back to FIG. 4, the tune parameter may be applied to the playback device or the audio system in block 470.

[0078] Alternatively, a parameter derived from the tune parameter may be set in the playback device or audio system. As a further optional step, in block 480 an ANC performance, for example at the set parameter, may be determined. This will be explained below in more detail.

[0079] Referring now to FIG. 6, a flow diagram for the processing of the stored measurement signal is shown. For example, after recording from the test microphone in the ear canal representation, bandpass filters are used to extract the frequencies of the test sound. For example, peak filters are used for this purpose that have a Q factor of approximately 10 and reject all frequencies other than the frequencies included in the test sound. In a next processing step, an absolute value of the filtered signal is formed and subsequently smoothed to extract power amplitudes at the ear canal. For example, smoothing is performed with a number of top-hat filters, the number being determined by the number of sine waves included in the test sound. The length of each of these filters may match the period of the corresponding sine wave. The output of this filtering, for example, corresponds to the middle signal in the diagram of FIG. 5.

[0080] In subsequent steps shown in the upper processing flow of FIG. 6, the respective data for evaluation are selected, in particular the data during the time interval which had a variation of the parameter or gain factor. For example, the portion(s) between time instants t5 and t6 is (are) selected from the smoothed power signal. A minimum of the power signal is determined, e.g. a position of the minimum of the smoothed signal. The algorithm to find the minimum may be a simple minimum method or may include a polynomial fit. Assuming a linearly increased parameter like in the diagram of FIG. 5, the expected shape for a polynomial fit is the square root of a quadratic. The position of the minimum is the time in which the best ANC occurred, that is with the lowest signal power.

[0081] In the lower processing flow of FIG. 6, another selection of data of the power signal is made. On the one hand, the signal power, e.g. RMS, with the ANC being muted is to be determined as a basis for an absolute ANC performance. For example, the signal is selected between time instants t4 and t5. On the other hand, based on the identified position of the minimum, the power, e.g. RMS, of the measurement signal at the optimum ANC parameter or gain is selected. A ratio between the power at the power minimum and the power with ANC turned off results in the ANC performance.

[0082] It should be noted that evaluation of the measurement signal or the power of the measurement signal, respectively, can be used to determine other properties of the audio system as well. For example, if ANC is not working correctly due to some reasons like manufacturing errors during production, the measurement signal can have a different shape, in particular between time instants t5 and t6. For example, the signal shape may have not the curved form like shown in the middle signal of FIG. 5, but may show an increasing signal power with an increasing gain factor. In such situation, the minimum of the power signal may be at the time instant t5. Accordingly, if such behavior is detected during determination of the power minimum, this may be seen as an indication of a system error and/or malfunction. In other words, a system error and/or malfunction may be detected based on the determination of the power minimum in the measurement signal.

[0083] Referring now to FIG. 7, a signal diagram of the measurement signal after different processing stages is shown. For example, the top signal, labelled a), represents the unfiltered measurement signal as received from the test microphone. The middle signal, labelled b), represents the processed measurement signal after bandpass filtering as explained in conjunction with FIG. 6. The bottom signal, labelled c), represents the processed signal after absolute determination and smoothing.

[0084] Referring now to FIG. 8, further example signals of a tuning process are shown, being similar to that of FIG. 5 but representing the process of a stereo playback device with two independent speakers and feedforward microphones. The top and bottom signals correspond to those of FIG. 5, assuming identical gain settings for both channels. The two middle signals showing the acoustic signal power at the ear canal are divided into a left channel signal L and a right channel signal R. As can be seen from these signals, the left channel signal has a power minimum at the time instant tmin_l and the right channel power signal has its minimum at the time instant tmin_r. Hence a first gain is determined for the left channel and a second gain is determined for the right channel.

[0085] The two different gains can be set in the audio system or playback device as determined from their respective power minimums. However, in order to have comparable acoustical behavior and loudness at both channels, deviations of the determined tune parameters could also be envisaged to achieve a better user experience. Another consideration could be that the ANC performance for the left and right channels should be similar. One option for dealing with the situation where this is not the case is to adjust the gain of the higher performing channel so that its ANC performance becomes close to that of the lower performing channel. Knowing the expected shape of the measurement signal or its power signal derived thereof, the skilled person is enabled to calculate a gain where this condition is satisfied.

[0086] In various implementations described above, the variation of the parameter to be calibrated has been exemplified with tuning of a gain factor of the feedforward filter. However, it will be apparent to the skilled reader that any other parameter, in particular ANC related parameter can be calibrated as well, e.g. parameters that determine the shape or response of the feedforward filter.

[0087] Referring now to FIG. 9, another example of a noise cancellation enabled audio system is presented. In this example implementation, the system is formed by a mobile device like a mobile phone MP that includes the playback device with speaker SP, feedback microphone FB_MIC, feedforward microphone FF_MIC and a processor PROC for performing the ANC during operation.

[0088] In a further implementation, not shown, a headphone HP, e.g. like that shown in FIG. 1, can be connected to the mobile phone MP wherein signals from the microphones FB_MIC, FF_MIC are transmitted from the headphone to the mobile phone MP, in particular the mobile phone's processor PROC for generating the audio signal to be played over the headphone's speaker. For example, depending on whether the headphone is connected to the mobile phone or not, ANC is performed with the internal components, i.e. speaker and microphones, of the mobile phone or with the speaker and microphones of the headphone, thereby using different sets of filter parameters in each case.