Hearable devices with sound bubbles

Tuochao Chen^*, Malek Itani^*, Emre Sefik Eskimez^{^}, Takuya Yoshioka^†, Shyam Gollakota

Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, USA
^{^} Microsoft, Seattle, WA, USA
^† Assembly AI, San Francisco, CA, USA

^* Equal contribution

Nature Electronics 2024

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Short Demo

Long Video

 

The human auditory system has a limited ability to perceive distance and distinguish speakers in crowded settings. A headset technology that can create a sound bubble in which all speakers within the bubble are audible, but speakers and noise outside the bubble are suppressed, could augment human hearing. However, developing such technology is challenging. Here we report an intelligent headset system capable of creating sound bubbles. The system is based on real-time neural networks that use acoustic data from up to six microphones integrated into noise-cancelling headsets and are run on-device, processing 8 ms audio chunks in 6.36 ms on an embedded central processing unit. Our neural networks can generate sound bubbles with programmable radii between 1 and 2 meters, and with output signals that reduce the intensity of sounds outside the bubble by 49 decibels. With previously unseen environments and wearers, our system can focus on up to two speakers within the bubble with one to two interfering speakers and noise outside the bubble.

[Paper] [Code] [Dataset]

 

End-to-end Integration with Headsets

Noisy Restaurant

Entering Bubble

Multiple Speakers Inside

No Speaker Inside