JONES GRAHAM THOMAS (GB)
US5524058A | 1996-06-04 | |||
US5937070A | 1999-08-10 |
8 Figure 7 is a schematic view showing a fixing arrangement in which left and right noise cancelling pouches are fitted into a motorcycle helmet; Figure 8 is a schematic view of another embodiment of wind noise reduction device in accordance with this invention; Figure 9 is a schematic side section view through the ear shell region of a helmet, including a noise cancellation device in accordance with this invention; Figure 10 is a block diagram showing an example of a first embodiment of circuit for use in the invention; Figure 11 is a block diagram showing an example of a second embodiment of circuit for use in the invention, and Figure 12 is a block diagram showing an example of a third embodiment of circuit for use in the invention. The embodiments described herein are intended to provide attenuation of wind noise in a motorcycle helmet or the like, in these embodiments an analogue noise cancellation circuit emits a suitable sound wave in close proximity to the user's left and right ears to attenuate the wind noise component whilst allowing transmission of other noise sounds and in particular sirens etc. used by the emergency services. In particular, in these embodiments, the microphone is located within 10% of the wavelength of highest frequency of interest and the microphone is in the same horizontal or vertical plane as the speaker. Referring to Figure 1 there is shown an embodiment of headgear in the form of a balaclava 1 with microphone/speaker assemblies 2 held by the balaclava in repeatable close proximity to each ear of the user. The balaclava 1 is made of a stretchy moisture control material such as a 'moisture wicking' material which avoids a build-up of heat and perspiration. The balaclava 1 is cut and fashioned so that the assemblies 2 fit closely against each ear. Instead of the full face balaclava, it will be appreciated that other designs could be used such as a simple headband which passes around the temple and the back of the head of the user, a cap such as a skull cap or beanie cap which fits over each ear of the user maintaining the assembly 2 in the required position and so on. Where required, a chin strap may be provided which could be attached by Velcro® or suitable attachments such as a buckle, popper, clip or just a simple tie off. Referring now to Figures 2(a) and (b), each microphone/speaker assembly 2 comprises a foam ring 3 of closed cell material dimensioned to fit against the head of a user around their ear so their ear fits fully inside with the surface of the ring 3 bearing against the side of the head. The assembly 2 is made up of the speaker 4 and an adjacent microphone 5 in a suitable housing 6 which may be rigid or flexible. The assembly is attached to the inside of the balaclava by means of an inner cloth ring 7 stitched around its outside edge. The design is such that the assembly 2 may be prised out of the pocket formed by the cloth ring 7 and the adjacent material of the balaclava 1. The arrangement is such as to place the speaker in close proximity to the ear canal of the wearer, at less than 10% of the wavelength of the highest frequency to be cancelled. The operation of the device is controlled by means of a circuit board 8 and the operation of the circuit may conveniently follow that described with reference to Figure 5 below. T/GB2005/002798
10 Referring now to Figure 3 there is shown a headset 10 designed to fit under the helmet and to position two wind noise cancellation speaker assemblies 12 against the wearer's ears. The headset 10 is powered by a battery pack 14 with a suitable on/off switch 16 and the calibration button 18. Each wind noise cancellation speaker assembly 12 comprises a foam rim 20 designed to seal against the user's head around the ear to define a space within which are located a speaker 22 and a microphone 24. Holes 26 are provided in the shell 28 to allow passage of ambient noise and the shells 28 and headband 30 are designed so that once fitted to the head of a wearer the helmet can be easily passed over the top without disturbing the position of the shells 28 relative to the ear. Referring now to Figure 4, it will be seen that the speaker 22 and the microphone 24 are located side by side so that both are as close as possible to the ear canai 25 when worn. Referring now to Figure 5, there is shown one possible noise cancellation circuit. The output for the microphone 24 passes via a coupling capacitor 26 to a preamplifier 30. The preamplifier 30 is supplied with positive and negative voltage by a power supply unit 32. The gain of the preamplifier may be adjusted during assembly. The output from the preamplifier 30 passes via a coupling capacitor 28 to a power amplifier 34 which is of fixed gain and which again is supplied with positive and negative voltages from the power supply unit 32. The amplifier drives the speaker 22 directly (i.e. without a coupling capacitor) to provide a DC coupled arrangement. This has the advantage that it has good operating characteristics at low frequency although we do not exclude the possibility of capacitor coupling. The speaker 22 is relatively high impedance of at least 16 ohms and typically 32 ohms. Power for the circuit is provided by a battery 34 with an on/off switch 16. The circuit is designed to have good phase shift/phase inversion characteristics for signals in the range of 100Hz to 1.5KHz. Beyond 1.5KHz and particularly from frequencies of 3KHz and higher, there is only a slight phase shift with the result that sounds in the spectrum above 3KHz are only slightly if at all attenuated. Referring now to Figure 6, because of the physiognomy of a typical user's head, the disposition of the wind noise cancellation speaker assembly 12 within the shell 28 may be shifted so that it is aligned with the user's ear. The shell may therefore be narrower at the front end and wider at the rear. An advantage of this arrangement is that it reduces contact with the ear, reducing possible pressure and that the speaker is also more closely directed to the ear. In a variation (not shown), instead of, or in addition to, the headband 30, the wind noise speaker assemblies 12 may be held in proximity to the ear by hook around ear clips of the form of a base clef currently used for personal stereos, hands-free kits etc. Referring now to Figure 7, instead of using a headband 30 or a hook around clip, the wind noise cancellation speaker assemblies 12 could be located within the ear shell of the motorcycle helmet in a resiliently suspended configuration such that they are in a predetermined position with respect to the ear when the helmet is applied. Thus in this arrangement the wind noise cancellation speaker assembly 12 is held in a pouch 40 made up of two layers of 98
12 cloth or other fabric 42 joined around their periphery over the ear cavity 44 of a helmet. When the helmet is applied the speaker assembly 12 is held firmly but resiliently against the ear of the user. The objective of the arrangements shown in Figures 3 and 7 are to ensure that the wind noise cancellation speaker assembly 12 is held adjacent the ear at substantially the same position each time the helmet is applied. Other arrangements may be used to achieve the same effect. Referring now to Figure 8, a further embodiment 110 of noise cancellation device is designed to fit in the ear shell or cavity region 112 of a helmet, as shown in Figure 7. The device 110 comprises a casing housing a microphone 114, a loudspeaker 116, noise cancellation circuitry (not shown), a battery or other power source (not shown), and an on/off switch 118. The microphone 114 may be any suitable microphone for example an electret condenser microphone. The speaker 116 may typically be a small, eiectro-magnetically driven speaker of the form commonly available in electronic equipment, but other suitable speakers may be used for example those using piezo-electro transducers. As seen in Figure 0, the device is designed to fit within the ear shell of a helmet 120, next to the user's ear. The device 110 may be conveniently attached to the outer foam by means of Velcro® or similar. Referring now to this embodiment of noise cancellation circuitry shown in Figure 10, the microphone 110 receives power from a power supply unit 122 (e.g. a battery) which also supplies power to the other elements of the circuit requiring power. The output signal from the microphone 110 is passed to a sound pressure level trigger 124. The trigger operates to maintain the circuitry downstream of it in a standby or quiescent mode until a particular noise pressure level is exceeded. A typical threshold figure is 55 dB(A). If and when this sound pressure level is exceeded, the signal picked up by the microphone is passed to a frequency isolator 126. The frequency isolator 126 therefore searches within the frequency band from about 10 Hz to 20 kHz and then selects it for further processing. The signal containing the isolated frequency is then passed to a non-inverting preamplifier 128. The amplified signal then passes to a unity gain phase inverter 130 which can be bypassed by a bypass switch 132, and then to an inverting headphone amplifier 134. In normal noise cancelling operation the bypass switch 132 is closed so that signal from the non-inverting amplifier 128 is not inverted before it passes to the inverting headphone amplifier 134 and so the sound output by the speaker 116 is substantially in anti-phase with the original noise source picked up by the microphone, and of similar magnitude. !n this embodiment, in a set up mode, the bypass switch 130 may be opened such that the signal from the non- inverting amplifier 128 passes to the phase inverter 132 where it is inverted, and then to the inverting headphone amplifier 134 where it is inverted again. In this condition the signal at the speaker is substantially in phase with the signal detected by the microphone. This allows the circuitry to be tested with the bypass switch open to check for proper operation of the remainder of the circuit components and on passing the check one bypass switch closed to configure the circuitry into noise cancellation mode. The combination of the natural wind noise and the inverted and amplified sound output by the speaker 116 has a nulling effect so that the user experiences a significant reduction of wind noise. The circuit continues to operate in this manner until such time as the sound pressure level falls below the relevant threshold for the trigger 124, whereupon the circuitry ramps down the sound output by the speaker 116 and returns to a standby mode until the level is exceeded again. The circuitry is preferably designed to provide a 'soft' start and stop function so that the sound output from the speaker gradually increases from zero on starting up to avoid an audible thump, and likewise gradually decreases back to zero on stopping. In this way the device operates in a fully automated fashion, only switching itself on when the wind noise level increases beyond a safe and predetermined threshold and so the need for an ON/OFF switch may be obviated. In conjunction with the frequency isolator 128, this provides an effective power saving and fully automated device which reduces power consumption when the device is not needed. Referring to Figures 11 and 12, it will be appreciated that the order in which the frequency isolator 126, pre-amplifier 128, and phase inverter 132 treat the signal may be rearranged to provide a similar effect. The design may be modified to cater for different requirements. For example, for general purpose use, the demands on electrical power, duration of use and noise intensity may be relatively low and so the power consumption means that battery life may be expected to be of many months' continuous use. In another embodiment, designed for high speed use where the intensity and duration of the wind noise is greater, the demands on electrical power, duration of use and noise intensity will tend to be higher, and for this a larger battery may be supplied with a consequent modification of the housing. In yet another example, intended for professional sporting use, the device may be modified to include multiple microphone and multiple speaker arrays to provide, with associated active noise cancellation circuitry, an enhanced level of noise reduction. For a configuration with one microphone and one speaker, there will only be one noise cancellation circuit. However for configurations having multiple microphones and multiple speakers there may be a common noise cancellation circuit or there may be multiple noise cancellation circuits (e.g. in a phased array). It is also possible that the circuits for each configuration may be slightly different, and may well have differing component values (for example to speed up or slow down individual arrays or because the embodiment application may require more or less power, or because of other factors affecting the performance of the device. The design of the housing may also be different. In this arrangement, the demands of battery life are not a major consideration and so a higher power battery may be used. In other arrangements, instead of the device being semi-permanently attached within the helmet, it may be an integral part thereof. In yet other embodiments, where the helmet does not cover the ear of a user (but where wind noise is still a problem) the device may be provided with a temporary clip which fits over the ear of a user to hold the device accurately in position. Likewise in a further modification, the device may be designed to fit within the ear canal of the wearer in a similar fashion to digital hearing aids. Although in many instances the main function of the device is to select and substantially cancel the wind noise component, the device may include an input to allow music, speech, audible alert etc. to be played to the wearer. Also the device may be used to reduce other forms of noise instead of or in addition to wind, such as mechanical noise.