Sensing Bone-Conducted Speech With Earbuds

Clear capture of the wearer’s own voice (OV) is essential when using earbuds for mobile communication. However, OV capture remains challenging in noisy environments. Bone-conducted speech, which can be sensed as vibrations of the earbud housing, can be used to improve OV capture. However, neither bandwidth nor spatial characteristics of OV-induced earbud vibrations have been analyzed in detail despite both characteristics being relevant (e.g., for sensor choice and placement). This study investigates both characteristics based on measurements with two earbud models. Spectrally, results indicate that OV-induced earbud vibrations exhibit a low-pass characteristic, with a steep roll-off of −93 dB per decade above 400 Hz. Thus, sensors with comparatively low noise floors are required to sense the vibrations above 1 kHz. Spatially, results indicate that the earbuds mainly vibrate in and out of the ear canal entrance, with high consistency between subjects and fits. Simulations confirm that this enables capture of the main vibration components below 400 Hz by a single-axis sensor with less than 1.5-dB mean attenuation averaged across frequencies compared with the vibration power summed over all three spatial axes.