US 12,413,920 B2
System and method to perform in-ear noise dosimetry and personal attenuation rating under an electro-acoustic earplug while excluding wearer-induced disturbances and separating exposure sources
Jeremie Voix, Montreal (CA); Antoine Bernier, Montreal (CA); and Fabien Bonnet, Montreal (CA)
Assigned to ECOLE DE TECHNOLOGIE SUPERIEURE, Montreal (CA)
Appl. No. 17/758,988
Filed by ECOLE DE TECHNOLOGIE SUPERIEURE, Montreal (CA)
PCT Filed Nov. 1, 2020, PCT No. PCT/CA2020/051481
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Jul. 18, 2022,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/081671, PCT Pub. Date May 6, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/929,368, filed on Nov. 1, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0035275 A1, Feb. 2, 2023
Int. Cl. H04R 29/00 (2006.01); A61F 11/08 (2006.01); G10K 11/178 (2006.01)
CPC H04R 29/00 (2013.01) [A61F 11/08 (2013.01); G10K 11/17854 (2018.01)] 15 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system to measure noise reduction and evaluate contributions of various sound sources to a sound dose, the system comprising:
a hearing protection device (HPD) comprising:
a passive attenuation device adapted to reduce ambient sound present outside an ear of a wearer of the HPD;
an inner ear microphone (IEM) adapted to capture a general sound pressure level (SPL) of the sound dose present in the ear canal;
at least one of an outer ear microphone (OEM) adapted to capture the ambient sound; and
an in-ear loudspeaker (IELS) configured to emit a playback signal in an ear canal of a wearer according to at least one sound source;
a processor in signal communication with the IEM and with at least one of the OEM and the IELS, the processor being configured to:
estimate at least one specific SPL corresponding to an identified sound component of the sound dose in the ear canal using at least one model of a transfer function between the IEM and at least one of the OEM and the IELS; and
subtract each of the at least one estimated specific SPL from the general SPL and wherein a remainder of the subtraction is an estimation of a wearer-induced disturbances (WID) SPL present in the ear canal.