Ear-mountable listening device having a microphone array disposed around a circuit board

• Main Authors: Rugolo, Jason, Carlile, Simon
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 25.04.2023
• Subjects: ACOUSTICS; ACOUSTICS NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; BANDAGES, DRESSINGS OR ABSORBENT PADS; BASIC ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY; DEAF-AID SETS; DEVICES PROVIDING PATENCY TO, OR PREVENTING COLLAPSING OF,TUBULAR STRUCTURES OF THE BODY, E.G. STENTS; ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE; ELECTRICITY; FILTERS IMPLANTABLE INTO BLOOD VESSELS; FIRST-AID KITS; FOMENTATION; GENERATION OF NOISE BY SUCH CIRCUITS; GENERATION OF OSCILLATIONS, DIRECTLY OR BY FREQUENCY-CHANGING,BY CIRCUITS EMPLOYING ACTIVE ELEMENTS WHICH OPERATE IN ANON-SWITCHING MANNER; HUMAN NECESSITIES; HYGIENE; LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKEACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; MEDICAL OR VETERINARY SCIENCE; METHODS OR DEVICES FOR PROTECTING AGAINST, OR FOR DAMPING,NOISE OR OTHER ACOUSTIC WAVES IN GENERAL; MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ORTHOPAEDIC, NURSING OR CONTRACEPTIVE DEVICES; PHYSICS; PROSTHESES; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS; SOUND-PRODUCING DEVICES; TREATMENT OR PROTECTION OF EYES OR EARS

An ear-mountable listening device includes an array of microphones physically arranged into a ring pattern to capture sounds from an environment and output first audio signals that are representative of the sounds captured by the microphones. A speaker is arranged to emit audio into an ear in response to a second audio signal. Electronics are coupled to the array of microphones and the speaker and configured to capture the sounds with the array of microphones to generate the first audio signals and generate the second audio signal that drives the speaker based upon one or more of the first audio signals.