There are many good reasons to use bone-conduction sensors in in-ear headsets. Testing them holistically and for any real-life scenario helps providing the best performance.
Headset manufacturers increasingly consider noise-free bone conduction to improve speech transmission in their in-ear headsets. Especially in noise-filled environments, the voice of the person talking can be better separated from ambient noise or competing talkers' voices if in-ear headsets detect bone conduction. Bone sound detection, therefore, serves as the basis for optimally suppressing noise and thus improving speech quality, especially in noisy environments.
Sophisticated technologies such as echo cancellation and other signal processing in in-ear headsets also benefit from perfect voice recognition. Assuming a good bone conduction recording, the direct transmission of the bone conduction can lead to a speech signal that has already been optimally suppressed in the low-frequency range.
However, even though some manufacturers of modern in-ear headsets already use bone sound sensors, they are squandering much of the potential that their use offers since, until now, no suitable measurement technology that holistically measures such products has been available for testing and optimization. They have had to perform tests laboriously with test subjects, and the results are difficult to reproduce. Verifying the design under laboratory conditions, especially in test houses, has not been possible – so far.
HEAD acoustics tests holistically
This is where HEAD acoustics comes in: We enable realistic testing of in-ear headsets with bone conduction sensors in the transmitting direction, i.e., the direction in which the user's spoken signal is transmitted. For this purpose, we use our artificial head HMS II.3 ViBRIDGE and excite our artificial ears HEL/HER 4.4 ViBRIDGE with a vibration generator (actuator) – comparable to the average bone sound excitation in humans.
How much bone conduction do you need?
To get to the bottom of the question "Which frequency components of the voice reach the inner ear via the bones, and at what volume?" we have carried out numerous measurements with human talkers. Bone conduction sensors in in-ear headset replicas allow us to measure how bone conduction "sounds." These measurements give us a good overview of the individual differences for each talker and allow us to determine the average bone sound transfer function. We reproduce this with an actuator in the artificial ear of the artificial head and obtain a perfect simulation that corresponds to the results of the measurements from our tests. This means: With HEAD acoustics ViBRIDGE, manufacturers can test their in-ear headsets with structure-borne sound sensors holistically, correctly, reliably, and reproducibly in the lab.
What do you need?
HEAD acoustics offers a complete all-in-one solution for testing, optimizing, and validating appropriate headsets. For the simulations, we use the HMS II.3 ViBRIDGE artificial head and the HEL/HER 4.4 ViBRIDGE artificial ears, as well as:
Only with a standardized, complementary simulation of airborne and structure-borne sound components generated by the human voice is it possible to evaluate and optimize in-ear headsets in various conversational situations objectively, holistically, and reproducibly.
Do you want to learn more about bone conduction and headset testing? Visit our website for more information and a free Whitepaper download!
HEAD acoustics GmbH是全球领先的声音和振动分析解决方案供应商之一。我们在开发用于测量、分析和优化语音和音频质量的硬件和软件，以及客户订制解决方案和服务方面拥有专业的技术和开拓进取的精神，因此在电信领域获得全球认可。HEAD acoustics的服务范围涵盖技术产品的声音工程、环境噪声调研、语音质量工程、咨询、培训和技术支持。HEAD acoustics 位于亚琛附近，在中国、法国、印度、意大利、日本、韩国、英国、美国设有子公司，并在全球拥有众多销售合作伙伴。
