CN116193315A

CN116193315A - Switching control method and system of wireless earphone and wireless earphone

Info

Publication number: CN116193315A
Application number: CN202310103038.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 童伟峰; 张亮
Original assignee: Heng Xuan Technology Beijing Co ltd
Current assignee: Heng Xuan Technology Beijing Co ltd
Priority date: 2023-01-30
Filing date: 2023-01-30
Publication date: 2023-05-30
Also published as: CN116112839A

Abstract

The application relates to a switching control method and system of a wireless earphone and the wireless earphone. The wireless earphone comprises an external microphone, a transparent transmission module and an active noise reduction module, and the switching control method comprises the following steps: acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone; keyword recognition and/or speaker identification are/is carried out on voice content in the out-of-ear audio signal; and based on the identification result, switching the wireless earphone to be started to the transparent transmission module or the active noise reduction module. By the switching control method, when the user wears the earphone with the active noise reduction function, the user can not miss useful information such as the user and the user calling or the surrounding words associated with the user, and therefore earphone wearing experience of the user is improved.

Description

Switching control method and system of wireless earphone and wireless earphone

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to the field of headphones, and in particular, to a method and a system for switching control of a wireless headset, and a wireless headset.

Background

With the improvement of social progress and the improvement of the living standard of people, the true wireless earphone becomes an indispensable living article for people. Wireless phones with active noise reduction (ANC) capability enable users to enjoy a comfortable noise reduction experience in a variety of noisy environments, such as airports, subways, airplanes, restaurants, etc., which are increasingly widely accepted by markets and customers. The principle is that the earphone actively emits sound waves with opposite phases to counteract residual noise in the ear (feedforward mode) or an acoustic path with feedback is added on a sound path (feedback mode) to reduce noise heard by the ear. In addition, in some situations where signals such as external voice or external environmental noise are required to be received, the earphone needs to have a transparent transmission function, so that the earphone wearer can better receive the external voice or external environmental noise or various external alarm sounds and the like. In addition, for some hearing impaired people, it is also desirable that the earphone be provided with hearing aid (PSAP, personal Sound Amplification Product) functions.

However, in a room, such as at home, when a user wears headphones, the physical shielding of the headphones itself may block the user from listening to various sounds outside, including ambient sounds, and may attenuate the various sounds, including ambient sounds. When the user turns on the active noise reduction function, the sound outside the ear including the sound of the surrounding people speaking with the user is also suppressed, and particularly when the user is playing the audio such as music, the user is more likely to miss the useful voice signals such as the calling and the calling which are useful to the outside.

Disclosure of Invention

The present application is provided to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art.

The first aspect of the present application provides a switching control method of a wireless earphone, where the wireless earphone includes an external microphone, a transparent transmission module and an active noise reduction module, and the switching control method includes: acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone; keyword recognition and/or speaker identification are/is carried out on voice content in the out-of-ear audio signal; and based on the identification result, switching the wireless earphone to be started to the transparent transmission module or the active noise reduction module.

According to the method, the keyword recognition and/or the speaker identification are/is carried out on the collected out-of-ear audio signals, and according to the recognition result, the wireless earphone is judged to be switched to be on the transmission module or the active noise reduction module. By the method, when the user wears the active noise reduction earphone, the user can not miss useful information such as calls made by other people or words related to the user around the user, and therefore earphone wearing experience of the user is improved.

A second aspect of the present application provides a switching control system of a wireless headset, the switching control system including: a pass-through module configured to perform pass-through processing of the wireless headset; an active noise reduction module configured to perform active noise reduction processing of the wireless headset; and a processor configured to perform the handover control method provided according to the various embodiments of the first aspect of the present application.

The third aspect of the present application provides another method for controlling switching of a wireless earphone, where the wireless earphone includes an external microphone, a transparent transmission module, an active noise reduction module and a hearing aid module, and the method for controlling switching includes: acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone; keyword recognition and/or speaker identification are/is carried out on voice content in the external audio signal, and the signal-to-noise ratio and/or signal strength of the external audio signal are/is obtained; and based on the identification result, judging whether the wireless earphone is switched to enable the active noise reduction module to be in a closed state, and based on the signal to noise ratio and/or the signal strength, judging that the wireless earphone is switched to enable the transparent transmission module or the hearing aid module.

According to the method, the key word recognition and the speaker identification are carried out on the collected external audio signals, the signal-to-noise ratio and/or the signal strength of the external audio signals are obtained, whether the active noise reduction module of the wireless earphone is in a closed state or not is judged according to the recognition result, and whether the transmission module or the hearing aid module is started is judged according to the signal-to-noise ratio and/or the signal strength. By the method, when the user wears the earphone with the active noise reduction and hearing aid functions, useful information such as calls made by others or utterances related to the users around the earphone is not missed, whether the hearing aid module needs to be started or not is properly determined according to the signal quality or strength of external voice, and the like, so that the earphone wearing experience of the user is improved under the condition that the earphone processing load is reduced as much as possible.

A fourth aspect of the present application provides another handover control system for a wireless headset, the handover control system including: a pass-through module configured to perform pass-through processing of the wireless headset; an active noise reduction module configured to perform active noise reduction processing of the wireless headset; a hearing aid module configured to perform hearing aid processing of the wireless headset; and a processor configured to perform the handover control method provided according to the respective embodiments of the third aspect of the present application.

A fifth aspect of the present application provides a wireless headset comprising a handover control system according to the second or fourth aspect.

According to the switching control method and system for the wireless earphone and the wireless earphone, when a user wears the active noise reduction earphone, when an external person speaks with the active noise reduction earphone or calls the active noise reduction earphone, the working mode of the earphone can be automatically switched to the transmission mode or the hearing-aid mode, so that the user can hear the content of speaking or calling, and the earphone wearing experience of the user is improved.

Drawings

In the drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, like numerals may describe similar components in different views. The same reference numerals with letter suffixes or different letter suffixes may represent different instances of similar components. The accompanying drawings illustrate various embodiments by way of example in general and not by way of limitation, and together with the description and claims serve to explain the disclosed embodiments. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. Such embodiments are illustrative and not intended to be exhaustive or exclusive of the present apparatus or method.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the working principle of an active noise reduction module according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the working principle of a transparent transmission module according to an embodiment of the application;

fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the working principle of a hearing aid module according to an embodiment of the application;

fig. 4 shows a flowchart of a handover control method of a wireless headset according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 shows a block diagram of a configuration of a handover control system according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 shows a flowchart of a method of handover control of a wireless headset according to another embodiment of the present application; and

fig. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a switching control system of a wireless headset according to another embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to better understand the technical solutions of the present application, the following detailed description of the present application is provided with reference to the accompanying drawings and the specific embodiments. Embodiments of the present application will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific examples, but are not intended to be limiting of the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like, as used herein, do not denote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used to distinguish one element from another. The word "comprising" or "comprises" and the like means that elements preceding the word encompass the elements recited after the word, and not exclude the possibility of also encompassing other elements. The order of the steps shown by the arrows in the drawings of the present application is merely an example, and does not mean that the steps must be performed in the order shown by the arrows. If not specifically indicated, the steps may be combined or the order of execution may be changed to perform them in a different order than indicated by the arrows, so long as the logical relationship of the steps is not affected.

In this context, a wireless headset may include any of an in-ear headset and a semi-in-ear headset. The wireless headset may include at least an out-of-ear microphone, a speaker, and a switching control system 200.

In one embodiment, the switching control system 200 includes an active noise reduction module 210 and a pass-through module 220, as shown in FIG. 5. The input of the feedforward active noise reduction filter of the active noise reduction module 210 is from the audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone, and the output of the feedforward active noise reduction filter is finally output to the loudspeaker; the input of the feedforward pass-through filter of the pass-through module 220 is from the audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone, and the output of the feedforward pass-through filter is finally output to the loudspeaker; the wireless earphone receives a wireless audio signal of another wireless device through a wireless connection and plays the wireless audio signal through a loudspeaker. The external ear microphone can collect external ear audio signals.

First, the working principles of the active noise reduction module 210 and the transparent transmission module 220 included in the wireless earphone provided in the embodiments of the present application will be described with reference to fig. 1-2, where the active noise reduction module 210 is configured to perform active noise reduction control on the wireless earphone, and the transparent transmission module 220 is configured to perform transparent transmission control on the wireless earphone.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the working principle of an active noise reduction module of a wireless headset according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 1, in the active noise reduction module 210, the earphone implements an active noise reduction process through a feedforward path and a feedback path. In some embodiments, on the feedforward path, the feedforward microphone 101a collects ambient noise outside the earpiece, and the ambient noise collected by the feedforward microphone 101a may include, in addition to noise generated by the ambient environment, an audio component that leaks into the ambient environment as the earpiece speaker 107 plays the audio signal, as part of the ambient noise. The collected environmental noise is transmitted to the first low-pass and downsampling filter 104a after being subjected to gain processing of the analog gain 102a and analog-to-digital conversion processing of the first analog-to-digital converter 103 a. The first low-pass and downsampling filter 104a can reduce the filter sampling rate, thereby reducing power consumption and filter order, and further reducing the area of the noise reduction chip and reducing cost. Subsequently, the environmental noise signal passing through the first low-pass and down-sampling filter 104a is filtered by the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 to perform noise reduction processing on the environmental noise collected by the feedforward microphone 101 a. The environment signal after the noise reduction processing is transmitted to the adder 109, and then is played by the speaker 107 after the digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106. The feedforward filtered ambient noise emitted by the speaker 107 and the ambient noise arriving in the ear create an air cancellation to achieve noise reduction.

For the active noise reduction module 210, the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a passes through the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 and finally is played through the speaker 107 to generate an audio signal with opposite phase or approximately opposite phase to the external in-ear incoming sound so as to cancel the external in-ear incoming sound energy. Therefore, the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a is played through the speaker 107 with extremely low delay, otherwise, it is difficult to generate an anti-phase signal, so as to achieve a better active noise reduction effect. This extremely low delay, on the order of tens of microseconds, does not exceed tens of microseconds. In the present application, the whole process from the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a to the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 to the final audio signal played by the speaker 107 is realized by a hardware module, so that extremely low time delay can be realized.

In some embodiments, on the feedback path, the feedback microphone 101b collects in-ear noise at a location inside the earpiece near the ear canal, the in-ear noise including an audio echo signal generated when the audio signal is played and an in-ear residual signal after the air cancellation. The acquired in-ear noise is transmitted to the second low-pass and down-sampling filter 104b after the gain processing of the analog gain 102b and the analog-to-digital conversion processing of the second analog-to-digital converter 103 b. The second low pass and downsampling filter 104b can reduce the filter sampling rate, thereby reducing power consumption and filter order, and further reducing the area of the noise reduction chip and reducing cost. The in-ear noise signal that has passed through the second low-pass and downsampling filter 104b is then transmitted to the adder 110. The audio signal 105 to be broadcast is an audio signal to be transmitted to the speaker 107 for broadcasting, and on the one hand, it is transmitted to the adder 109, and after digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106, it is broadcasted by the speaker 107; on the other hand, it is transmitted to an echo filter 113, the echo filter 113 is used to cancel an audio echo signal generated after the audio signal 105 to be broadcast is played through the speaker 107, and then the audio signal 105 to be broadcast filtered by the echo filter 113 is sent to an adder 110. Adder 110 integrates the in-ear noise processed by second low pass and down-sampling filter 104b with the audio signal processed by echo filter 113 so that the noise signal on the feedback path will no longer be affected by the audio echo signal. Adder 110 then transmits the integrated noise signal to feedback active noise reduction filter 112 for filtering to achieve feedback noise reduction. The noise signal after feedback filtering is transmitted to the adder 109 after passing through the limiter 108, and is played by the speaker 107 after being subjected to digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106.

The above is the theory of operation that the earphone based on this application embodiment was initiatively fallen and is fallen the noise on through feedforward route and the feedback route respectively and carries out the wave filtering, plays again on the speaker, can realize the initiative function of making an uproar of earphone, improves the noise reduction effect of earphone to and promote user's listening experience. In some embodiments of the present application, in the active noise reduction module 210, the earphone implements an active noise reduction function through a feedforward path.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the working principle of a transmission module of a wireless earphone according to an embodiment of the application. As shown in fig. 2, in the pass-through module 220, the earphone implements a pass-through process through a feed-forward path and a feedback path. In some embodiments, the feedforward microphone 101a of the earpiece captures ambient sound outside the earpiece on the feedforward path. The collected ambient sound is transmitted to the first low-pass and downsampling filter 104a after being subjected to gain processing of the analog gain 102a and analog-to-digital conversion processing of the first analog-to-digital converter 103 a. The first low pass and downsampling filter 104a can reduce the filter sampling rate, thereby reducing power consumption and filter order, and thus chip area to reduce cost. The ambient sound signal passing through the first low pass and downsampling filter 104a is then filtered by the feedforward pass filter 114 to simulate the ambient sound collected by the feedforward microphone 101 a. The environment signal after the permeance processing is transmitted to the adder 109, and then is played by the speaker 107 after the digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106. The transmission filtered ambient sound played through speaker 107 approximates the ambient sound outside of the user when the user is not wearing headphones.

For the transparent transmission module 220, the purpose is to make the environmental sound heard by the user in the ear as consistent as possible with the environmental sound when the earphone is not worn, so that the earphone affects the environmental sound of the user as little as possible, and the normal voice communication between the user and other people in the same physical space is facilitated. In order to obtain the sound as natural as possible, the transmission module 220 is similar to the active noise reduction module 210 in this application, and the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a is played through the speaker 107 with a very low time delay. This extremely low delay, on the order of tens of microseconds, does not exceed tens of microseconds. In this way, the external audio signal is physically transmitted to the inside of the auditory canal through the earphone, the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a is to be played in the auditory canal through the speaker 107 through the transmission module, the time delay difference between the external audio signal and the external audio signal is very small, and the hearing experience of the user is improved. In the present application, the whole process from the external audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a to the feedforward pass-through filter 114 to the final audio signal played by the speaker 107 is realized by a hardware module, so that extremely low time delay can be realized.

In some embodiments, on the feedback path, the feedback microphone 101b of the earpiece collects in-ear noise at a location inside the earpiece near the ear canal, the in-ear noise including an audio echo signal generated when the audio signal is played and a residual signal after the air cancellation. The acquired in-ear noise is transmitted to the second low-pass and down-sampling filter 104b after the gain processing of the analog gain 102b and the analog-to-digital conversion processing of the second analog-to-digital converter 103 b. The second low pass and downsampling filter 104b can reduce the filter sampling rate, thereby reducing power consumption and filter order, and thus chip area to reduce cost. The in-ear noise signal that has passed through the second low-pass and downsampling filter 104b is then transmitted to the adder 110. The audio signal 105 to be broadcast is an audio signal to be transmitted to the speaker 107 for broadcasting, and on the one hand, is transmitted to the adder 109, is subjected to digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106, and then is broadcast by the speaker 107; on the other hand, it is transmitted to an echo filter 113, the echo filter 113 is used to cancel an audio echo signal generated after the audio signal 105 to be broadcast is played through the speaker 107, and then the audio signal 105 to be broadcast filtered by the echo filter 113 is sent to an adder 110. Adder 110 integrates the in-ear noise processed by second low pass and down-sampling filter 104b with the audio signal processed by echo filter 113 so that the noise signal on the feedback path will no longer be affected by the audio echo signal. Adder 110 then transmits the integrated noise signal to feedback pass filter 115 for filtering to achieve feedback noise reduction. The noise signal after feedback filtering may be transmitted to the adder 109 after passing through the limiter 108, and played by the speaker 107 after being subjected to digital-to-analog conversion processing by the digital-to-analog converter 106. In some embodiments, the digital-to-analog converter 106 includes up-sampling and filtering circuitry to operate the digital-to-analog conversion process at higher frequencies; for example, when adder 109 operates at 384kHz, the digital-to-analog conversion process of digital-to-analog converter 106 operates at 384×64=24.576 MHz.

The above is based on the theory of operation that carries out the transmission to earphone of this application embodiment, through carrying out the simulation to the ambient sound on the feedforward path respectively and carrying out the filtering to the noise on the feedback path, can realize the transmission function of earphone, improve the listening effect of earphone. In some embodiments of the present application, in the transparent module 220, the earphone implements a transparent process through a feedforward path.

In another embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 7, the switching control system 200 may also include an active noise reduction module 210, a transparent transmission module 220, and a hearing aid module 230, as shown in fig. 7. The configuration and operation principle of the active noise reduction module 210 and the transparent transmission module 220 have been described in detail in conjunction with fig. 1 and 2, and will not be described here. Whereas the input of the hearing aid module 230 in this embodiment is derived from the audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone and/or the out-of-ear microphone, the output of the hearing aid module 230 is finally output to the speaker.

Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the operation of the hearing aid module 230 of the wireless headset according to an embodiment of the present application. The hearing aid module 230 can help the hearing impaired person and also can be used in some situations by the normal hearing person. The hearing aid module 230 generally provides a greater amplification of the external audio signal picked up by the external microphone and finally played by the speaker 107. Therefore, some voice noise reduction processing is often required to be performed on the external audio signal collected by the external microphone, so as to improve the hearing of the user.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 3, x (n) represents an input audio signal, y (n) represents an output audio signal, gain is a Gain, DRC is a dynamic compressor, and limit is a Limiter. The collected input audio signal x (n) is sent to the PSAP system, the analysis filter bank 231 divides the input audio signal x (n) into a plurality of frequency bands, the synthesis filter bank 232 synthesizes the audio signals of the plurality of frequency bands into one audio signal, and an output audio signal y (n) is generated and output by a speaker. In some embodiments, the analysis filter bank 231 and the synthesis filter bank 232 may be implemented by using gamma tone filters, or by using a plurality of sets of cross-over filters.

The hearing aid module 230 may also include noise reduction functions based on various speech noise reduction methods, including beamforming with multiple microphones (which may be multiple feedforward microphones, and may also include talk microphones), spectral subtraction-based speech noise reduction methods, signal subspace-based speech noise reduction methods, and neural network-based speech noise reduction methods. These voice noise reduction processes allow the hearing module 230 to have a large delay, typically over 1ms, even 3ms, 5ms, 10ms, etc. The hearing aid module 230 uses the voice signal collected by the at least one microphone, and then performs a voice noise reduction process (the voice noise reduction process is different from the active noise reduction process in the active noise reduction module 210), and finally plays the voice signal through a speaker.

The active noise reduction module 210 and the transparent transmission module 220 in the present application do not have the function of voice noise reduction, but instead retain the original voice, even the ambient sound, and finally play the voice through a speaker.

In addition, the hearing aid module 230 generally has a larger amplification of the external audio signal, so that although some of the external audio is physically transmitted through the earphone in the form of sound, the external audio arrives in the ear in advance of the audio signal played through the hearing aid module 230, if the hearing aid module is applied to a scene where the external audio signal has a lower amplitude or a lower signal-to-noise ratio, the user has less bad experience, so that the user can hear the external audio better, especially the external voice.

In the wireless earphone of the present application, the active noise reduction module 210 and the transparent transmission module 220 are configured to share a plurality of earphone elements, such as the feedforward microphone 101a, the feedback microphone 101b, and the echo filter 113, and after being switched to the corresponding modules, the elements included in the modules are connected accordingly. Of course, in some embodiments, the active noise reduction module 210 and the transparent transmission module 220 may have separate elements such that the two modules are independent of each other, which is not particularly limited herein.

In some embodiments, the microphone may be a digital microphone, in which case the analog gain, first analog-to-digital converter of fig. 1 is not required. In addition, the feedforward active noise reduction filter, the feedback active noise reduction filter, the feedforward pass-through filter and the feedback pass-through filter can be self-adaptive or fixed filters, and can be of an IIR structure, an FIR structure or a filter structure with a mixture of IIR and FIR.

In addition, in the echo filter of the active noise reduction module and/or the transmission module, the adaptive part is omitted in the figure for simplicity, and it is not excluded that the echo filter is obtained by an adaptive algorithm.

As shown in fig. 4 and 6, the present application provides a schematic flow chart of a method 400 for controlling handover of a wireless headset.

In an embodiment (fig. 5) in which the switching control system 200 includes an active noise reduction module 210 and a transparent transmission module 220, as shown in fig. 4, the switching control method 400 includes:

s410, acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone;

s420, carrying out keyword recognition and/or speaker identification on voice content in the out-of-ear audio signal; and

s430, based on the identification result, switching the wireless earphone to be started to the transparent transmission module or the active noise reduction module.

Next, a specific procedure of the handover control method 400 provided in the present application will be described in detail in connection with the above steps S410 to S430. It should be appreciated that steps S410-S430 described above should all be performed with the user wearing a wireless headset.

In step S410, an external ear microphone may be provided as part of the wireless headset to collect external ear audio signals and transmit the collected external ear audio signals to the processor 240 (as shown in fig. 6). For example, the out-of-ear audio signal is the voice content of a user speaking or calling to him by an outsider while wearing the wireless headset, and may also contain any ambient sounds in the physical space in which the user is located, etc.

After receiving the external audio signal from the external microphone, the processor 240 performs keyword recognition and/or speaker identification on the speech content in the external audio signal in step S420. Herein, "speech content" refers to content related to human speech.

In this embodiment, on the one hand, "keyword recognition" is a process of detecting and determining whether or not a predetermined keyword is included in the voice content, wherein the predetermined keyword is different according to users and may be preset in advance by the users, for example, the name, common name, number, etc. of the user, or may be determined according to the family member situation of the user and the role of the user at home, for example, user 1 may have a keyword "dad", user 2 may have a keyword "mom", etc. After the predetermined key is preset, it may be written into a memory module (not shown) of the wireless headset; when the processor 240 performs keyword recognition on the voice content, the keyword in the voice content is first detected and extracted, and compared with a predetermined keyword in the storage module, and if there is a matching keyword, it is determined that the voice content is a content that the user needs or is interested in listening to.

On the other hand, "speaker identification" is a process of detecting and determining whether a speaker of voice content belongs to a predetermined speaker group, which may be preset by a user, for example, including family, colleagues, friends, and the like in the predetermined speaker group, and storing in advance a voice or a feature quantity of a voice of each person in the group in a memory module of the wireless headset. When the processor 240 performs speaker identification on the voice content, firstly, the voice feature quantity of the voice content is detected and extracted, and compared with the preset voice feature quantity in the storage module, and if the matched voice feature quantity exists, the voice content is judged to be the content which the user needs or is interested in listening to.

It should be appreciated that any speech recognition technique in the art may be used to designate the detection and recognition of speech content, and this application is not repeated here.

In one embodiment, the processor 240 may perform one of keyword recognition and speaker identification on the voice content, that is, if either of the keyword recognition and the speaker identification is successfully recognized, the switch is started, so as to avoid misjudgment (that should be switched but not switched), and reduce power consumption of the wireless earphone. In the preferred embodiment, the keyword recognition and the speaker identification are both performed, that is, the keyword recognition and the speaker identification are both successfully recognized, and the switching is started, so that the recognition accuracy of the voice content can be improved, and the situation of misjudgment (the switching is started instead of the switching) is avoided.

In step S430, the processor 240 switches the wireless headset to turn on the transparent transmission module 220 or the active noise reduction module 210 based on the identification result in step S420.

In some embodiments, in a state where the active noise reduction module 210 of the wireless headset is on (such as the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is on), when a predetermined keyword is identified and/or when a speaker is identified as belonging to a predetermined speaker group, that means that the voice content is a content that the user needs or is interested in listening, the processor 240 initiates a switch, turns off the active noise reduction module 210 (such as the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is turned off) and turns on the pass-through module 220 (the feedforward pass-through filter 114 is turned on); while in the state where the active noise reduction module 210 is off (feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is off), the processor keeps the active noise reduction module 210 off (feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is off) and turns on the pass-through module 220 (feedforward pass-through filter 114 is on) when a predetermined keyword is identified and/or when a speaker is identified as belonging to a predetermined speaker group.

For example, the processor 240 recognizes a keyword "dad" in the voice content of the out-of-ear audio signal, which matches one of the predetermined keywords stored in the memory module, and determines that the voice content is user-related content, and initiates a switch: under the condition that the active noise reduction mode of the wireless earphone is started by the user initially, the active noise reduction mode is closed, and the wireless earphone is switched to a transmission mode; and under the condition that the active noise reduction mode of the wireless earphone is not started by the user initially, the active noise reduction mode is kept closed, and the wireless earphone is switched to the transparent transmission mode. Alternatively, when the processor 240 recognizes from the speech content that it is from one of the members of the predetermined group of speakers, then it is determined that the speaker is associated with the user and one of the pre-set speakers (e.g., the user's child) initiates the same handoff as described above. Alternatively, the processor 240, upon recognizing the keyword "dad" in the speech content of the out-of-ear audio signal and recognizing from the speech content that it is from one of the members of the predetermined speaker group, may further determine that the user needs or is interested in talking to that speaker, initiate the above-mentioned handoff, so that false positives may be avoided.

In one embodiment, when a wireless audio signal from another device is being played through speaker 107 in a wireless headset (the signal is obtained by wireless transmission by the wireless headset and is an audio signal, such as music or other audio), the wireless audio signal is turned off (stopped playing) or the wireless audio signal is turned off (reduced in playing volume) while the pass-through module 220 is switched on by the processor 240. Thus, in the transmission mode, only the sound outside the ear is received, and the sound is not or little disturbed by the played wireless audio signal. It should be understood that the wireless device herein may be a cell phone, tablet, desktop, router, etc. Wireless communication between the wireless device and the headset may be via bluetooth, wiFi, etc. The wireless device may obtain the wireless audio signal from a remote server.

In a preferred embodiment, the representative value of the signal strength of the external audio signal is obtained as the first threshold when the active noise reduction module 210 is turned on by the wireless earphone, and the wireless earphone is switched to turn on the transparent transmission module based on the identification result when the signal strength of the external audio signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold. In other words, the wireless headset does not initiate a handoff when the detected speech content of the out-of-ear audio signal is recognized to a predetermined keyword and/or when the speaker is recognized to belong to a predetermined speaker group at any time, but rather initiates a handoff when the signal strength of the out-of-ear audio signal is additionally required to exceed a threshold strength, where "exceeding the threshold strength" indicates that the speaker may be speaking right to the user in an attempt to establish a conversation, or that the speaker is close to the user, or that the speaker speaks loudly, etc., which avoids initiating a handoff caused by erroneous decisions caused by the speaker unintentionally speaking aloud or speaking aloud, avoiding or reducing interference to the user, and simultaneously reducing the power consumption of the wireless headset.

In another embodiment (fig. 7) where the switching control system 200 includes the active noise reduction module 210, the transparent transmission module 220, and the hearing assistance module 230, as shown in fig. 6, the switching control method 400 may further include:

s410, acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone;

s440, carrying out keyword recognition and/or speaker identification on voice content in the external audio signal, and acquiring a signal-to-noise ratio and/or signal strength of the external audio signal; and

s450, judging whether the wireless earphone is switched to enable the active noise reduction module to be in a closed state or not based on the identification result, and judging whether the wireless earphone is switched to enable the transparent transmission module or the hearing aid module based on the signal to noise ratio and/or the signal strength.

The above is described in detail with respect to S410, and will not be described here.

The difference between S440 and S420 is that the processor 240 needs to obtain the signal-to-noise ratio and/or the signal strength of the external audio signal in addition to the keyword recognition and/or the speaker identification of the speech content in the external audio signal collected by the external microphone in S410.

In S450, based on the keyword recognition and/or speaker identification result determined in S440, the recognition result, the processor 240 determines whether the wireless headset is switched to put the active noise reduction module 210 in the off state, and the processor 240 determines whether to switch the wireless headset to turn on the transparent transmission module 220 or the hearing aid module 230 based on the acquired signal-to-noise ratio and/or signal strength.

Specifically, in keyword recognition and/or speaker identification for voice content, if the processor 240 recognizes a predetermined keyword and/or recognizes that the speaker belongs to a predetermined speaker group, it is determined that the voice content is content that is needed or interesting by the user, and the wireless headset is switched to put the active noise reduction module 210 in the off state: if the active noise reduction module 210 is in an on state (the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is on) at this time, the active noise reduction module 210 is turned off (the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is turned off), and if the active noise reduction module 210 is in an off state (the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is turned off) at this time, the active noise reduction module 210 is kept off (the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is kept off). If the predetermined keyword is not recognized and/or if the speaker is not recognized as belonging to the predetermined speaker group, no processing is performed (specifically, in an embodiment in which only the keyword recognition processing is configured, no switching is started if the predetermined keyword is not recognized, in an embodiment in which only the speaker identification processing is configured, no switching is started if the speaker is recognized as not belonging to the predetermined speaker group, and in an embodiment in which both the keyword recognition and the speaker identification processing are configured, no switching is started if the predetermined keyword is not recognized and the speaker is recognized as not belonging to the predetermined speaker group).

Also, in a preferred embodiment, a representative value of the signal strength of the external audio signal is obtained as the first threshold value when the active noise reduction module 210 is turned on by the wireless headset, and the wireless headset is switched to keep the active noise reduction module 210 in the off state based on the identification result when the signal strength of the external audio signal is greater than or equal to the first threshold value.

In addition, in the preferred embodiment, in the case that the processor 240 causes the wireless earphone to switch to the active noise reduction module 210 to be in the off state, it is determined whether the transparent transmission module or the hearing aid module needs to be turned on according to whether the signal-to-noise ratio and/or the signal strength of the acquired external ear audio signal exceed the respective threshold values.

Specifically, when the signal-to-noise ratio is greater than or equal to a second threshold and/or the signal strength is greater than or equal to a third threshold, causing the wireless headset to switch to turn on the pass-through module 220 (turn on the feed-forward pass-through filter 114); and when the signal-to-noise ratio is less than the second threshold and/or the signal strength is less than the third threshold, causing the wireless headset to switch to turn on the hearing aid module 230. By the method, the advantages of the transmission mode and the hearing-aid mode are combined, user experience is improved, namely, in the hearing-aid mode, a user can clearly hear voice signals with longer distance, weaker signal strength or poorer signal-to-noise ratio, and voice signals with shorter distance, stronger signal strength or better signal-to-noise ratio are clearly heard, in the transmission mode, the voice signals have smaller time delay, and interference caused by external audio signals of the wireless earphone passing through the auditory canal from physical space is reduced.

Here, the transparent-transmitting module 220 is turned on by turning on the feedforward transparent-transmitting filter 114, that is, turning on the feedforward transparent-transmitting filter 114 means turning on the transparent-transmitting module 220. However, in some embodiments, the feedback channel (i.e., feedback pass-through filter 115) may be open at this time, while in other embodiments, the feedback channel (i.e., feedback pass-through filter 115) may be closed at this time. Similarly, the active noise reduction module 210 is turned on by turning on the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111, i.e., turning on the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 means turning on the active noise reduction module 210. However, in some embodiments, the feedback channel (i.e., the feedback active noise reduction filter 112) may be open at this time, while in other embodiments, the feedback channel (i.e., the feedback active noise reduction filter 112) may be closed at this time.

In one embodiment, a location where the wireless earphone performs mode switching may be further defined, that is, when the user wears the wireless earphone at a predetermined location and the wireless earphone is activated, the external audio signal collected by the external microphone is acquired and keyword recognition and/or speaker identification is performed, which may also avoid a situation that switching is started under a situation that the user is not in a target location, reduce switching caused by misjudgment, and also reduce power consumption of the wireless earphone. Specifically, the method 400 further includes determining whether a user wearing the wireless headset is located at a predetermined location, and if it is determined that the user is not located at the predetermined location, disabling the switching process of the processor 240; conversely, if it is determined that the user is located at a predetermined location, the processor 240 obtains the out-of-ear audio signal captured by the out-of-ear microphone and performs keyword recognition and/or speaker identification, based on which a decision is made not to switch. The predetermined location may be any location preset by the user, such as a home or office, and the preset location is written into the memory module of the headset.

Alternatively, the user's smart device (e.g., a cell phone) may obtain location information via, for example, a positioning system (e.g., GPS) and send the location information to the processor 240 of the wireless headset via wireless communication (e.g., bluetooth, wi-Fi) between the smart device and the wireless headset, and the processor 240 may determine whether the user is located at a predetermined location based on the location information after receiving the location information. It should be understood herein that since the user is wearing the wireless headset, the location information of the user's smart device is equivalent to the location information of the wireless headset, i.e., both are in substantially the same ambient environment, such as a home or office.

In this embodiment, when the user presets the predetermined location, the same location means may be used to store the location of the predetermined location (e.g., home or office) in the form of a location address (coordinates) in the storage module.

Because of many venues, such as homes or offices, there are often some wireless devices (e.g., smart televisions, smart refrigerators, smart sweeping robots, etc.) with some short-range wireless communication equipment (e.g., wiFi, bluetooth, etc.), which correspond to unique and fixed MAC addresses and do not move with the movements of the user. Thus, the processor 240 may optionally determine whether the wireless headset is located at a predetermined location by determining the MAC address of the wireless device to which the wireless headset is connected. The MAC address of the wireless device at the predetermined location may be pre-stored by the user in the memory module of the wireless headset. When the user is located in a predetermined location, the wireless earphone worn by the user is connected with the wireless device in the location, so that the MAC address of the connected wireless device is determined, and compared with the pre-stored MAC address, if the matching is successful, the user is indicated to be located in the predetermined location.

Preferably, the predetermined keywords and/or members of the speaker group stored in the storage module may be different for different predetermined locales. For example, for the case where the predetermined location is home, keywords "dad", "mom" and the like may be preset, and the members of the speaker group may include son, daughter, dad, mom and the like; while for the case where the predetermined location is an office, keywords "Wang Zong", "director" etc. may be preset, and the predetermined speaker group members may include king, xiao Li, etc.

Therefore, by limiting the switching control of the wireless earphone to the preset place, the error switching caused by the interference of external sound on the user in the non-preset place can be avoided, the user experience is improved, and meanwhile, the power consumption of the wireless earphone can be reduced.

In the embodiment of the present application, the external ear microphone and the feedforward microphone 101a in fig. 1 and 2 may be the same microphone, and the audio signal collected by the feedforward microphone 101a is the external ear audio signal. The feedforward microphone 101a may be a group of a plurality of microphones. The feedforward microphone 101a is typically located in an off-ear position and may be used to collect ambient sounds outside the ear. The out-of-ear microphone may be the same microphone as the feedforward microphone 101a, and may include other out-of-ear microphones, such as headphones, and possibly other conversation microphones, as well as being part of or as part of the out-of-ear microphone. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the out-of-ear microphone may be a separate microphone other than the feedforward microphone 101a or the talk microphone.

In addition, in the process that the processor 240 switches the active noise reduction module 210 from the on state to the off state and switches the transparent transmission module 220 or the hearing aid module 230 from the off state to the on state, the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111, the feedforward transparent transmission filter 114 or the hearing aid module 230 operate simultaneously, and in the time T1 of the switching process, the outputs of the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 and the feedforward transparent transmission filter 114 or the hearing aid module 230 are weighted and finally output to the speaker 107. For example, during time T1, the weight of the output of the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 monotonically decreases from 1 to 0, and the weight of the output of the feedforward pass-through filter 114 or the hearing aid module 230 correspondingly monotonically increases from 0 to 1, thereby completing the switching process, and eventually the feedforward active noise reduction filter 111 is turned off and the pass-through module 220 or the hearing aid module 230 is turned on. In the time T1, the change of the weight may be linear, or may be other function curves, or may be configured in a table form, but it is necessary to ensure monotone, so that the switching process is gradually and smoothly performed, and subjective experience of the earphone wearer is improved.

In some embodiments, various RISC (reduced instruction set computer) processors may be utilized as the processor 240 of the switching control system of the present application to perform corresponding functions, with embedded systems (e.g., without limitation, SOCs) to enable processing of the out-of-ear audio signals and wireless audio signals. In particular, there are many modules available on the market (IP), such as, but not limited to, memory (memory may be memory or expansion memory may be externally connected to the IP), various communication modules (e.g., bluetooth modules), codecs, buffers, etc. Other devices such as an antenna, microphone, speaker, etc. may be external to the chip. The interface may be used to external a microphone for capturing audio signals. The user can implement various communication modules, codecs, and various steps of the method of the present application, etc. by constructing an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) based on purchased IP or autonomously developed modules, in order to reduce power consumption and cost. Note that "handover control system" in this application is intended to mean a system that handles a target device in which it is located, which may generally represent, for example, a chip, such as an ASIC implemented based on an SOC, but is not limited thereto, and any hardware circuitry, software-processor configuration, and soft-hard combined firmware capable of handling may be used to implement the control system. For example, the processing performed by the processor 240 may be implemented as executable instructions executed by a RISC processor, may be formed as different hardware circuit modules, or may be formed as soft-hard combined firmware, which is not described herein.

Furthermore, although exemplary embodiments have been described herein, the scope thereof includes any and all embodiments having equivalent elements, modifications, omissions, combinations (e.g., of the various embodiments across), adaptations or alterations as pertains to the present application. Elements in the claims are to be construed broadly based on the language employed in the claims and are not limited to examples described in the present specification or during the practice of the present application, which examples are to be construed as non-exclusive. It is intended, therefore, that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit being indicated by the following claims and their full scope of equivalents.

The above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. For example, other embodiments may be used by those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the above description. In addition, in the above detailed description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the application. This is not to be interpreted as an intention that the features of the non-claimed application are essential to any claim. Rather, the subject matter of the present application is capable of less than all features of an embodiment of a particular application. Thus, the claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description as examples or embodiments, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment, and it is contemplated that these embodiments may be combined with one another in various combinations or permutations. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

The above embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present application and are not intended to limit the present invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims. Various modifications and equivalent arrangements may be made to the present invention by those skilled in the art, which modifications and equivalents are also considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. The switching control method of the wireless earphone is characterized by comprising an external microphone, a transparent transmission module and an active noise reduction module, and comprises the following steps:

acquiring an external audio signal acquired by the external microphone;

keyword recognition and/or speaker identification are/is carried out on voice content in the out-of-ear audio signal; and

based on the identification result, the wireless earphone is switched to be started to the transmission module or the active noise reduction module.

2. The switching control method according to claim 1, wherein keyword recognition and/or speaker identification of the speech content in the out-of-ear audio signal comprises:

it is determined whether a predetermined keyword is included in the speech content and/or whether the speaker belongs to a predetermined speaker group.

3. The switching control method according to claim 2, wherein if the predetermined keyword is included in the voice content and/or the speaker belongs to the predetermined speaker group, the wireless headset is caused to switch to put the active noise reduction module in an off state and turn on the passthrough module.

4. The switching control method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising determining a signal strength of the out-of-ear audio signal,

based on the identification result, the wireless earphone is switched to be started to the transparent transmission module or the active noise reduction module, and the method further comprises the following steps:

and under the condition that the signal strength is greater than or equal to a first threshold value, based on the identification result, switching the wireless earphone into the transparent transmission module.

5. A switching control method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the external audio signal acquired by the external microphone is acquired while the wireless earphone is worn by a user at a predetermined place.

6. The handover control method according to claim 5, further comprising:

Receiving position information sent by intelligent equipment of the user in a state that the user wears the wireless earphone; and

determining whether the user is located at the predetermined location based on the location information;

or alternatively

Determining the MAC address of a wireless device connected with the wireless earphone in a state that the wireless earphone is worn by the user; and

and judging whether the user is positioned at the preset place or not based on the MAC address.

7. The switching control method according to claim 3, wherein the wireless headset further includes a speaker, and

the switching control method further includes cutting off or attenuating the wireless audio signal when the wireless earphone plays the wireless audio signal from another device through the speaker.

8. A switching control method according to claim 3, wherein in the switching process, the output weight of the transparent transmission module increases monotonically from 0 to 1, and the output weight of the active noise reduction module decreases monotonically from 1 to 0, respectively.

9. A switching control system for a wireless headset, the switching control system comprising:

a pass-through module configured to perform pass-through processing of the wireless headset;

An active noise reduction module configured to perform active noise reduction processing of the wireless headset; and

a processor configured to perform the handover control method according to any one of claims 1-8.

10. A wireless headset comprising a handover control system according to claim 9.