Ausculsciences, Inc.

Blackberry Corporation

Brady Nicholas Laska

Simon Martin

Sergey A Telenkov

Daniel Labonté

Md Shahidul Islam

Jikang Zeng

James David Gordy

Jun Zhou

Michael Tetelbaum

Robert J Griffin

Chris Forrester

Camilla Jastrzebski

Malay Gupta

Mark W Armstrong

Steven P Morton

Sylvain Angrignon

Sean Bartholomew Simmons

Andre John Van Schyndel

David Gloag

Anthony Dewar

Adam Sean Love

At least one sound generator operatively coupleable to a corresponding at least one auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor provides for generating a corresponding at least one sound signal that is applied to the corresponding at least one auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor. For each sound generator and corresponding auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor operatively coupled thereto, a communications interface provides for receiving a corresponding auscultatory sound signal from the corresponding auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor, and at least one computer processor operatively coupled to the communications interface provides for either generating, or causing to be generated, an electronic audio signal that drives the sound generator, causing a corresponding at least one sound signal to be generated thereby, and at least one computer processor provides for analyzing the auscultatory sound signal from the corresponding auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor responsive thereto for determining whether or not the corresponding at least one auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor is functioning properly.

Coronary artery disease detection signal processing system and method

A metallic diaphragm disk incorporating a piezoelectric material bonded thereto and operatively coupled to a base rim of a housing provides for closing an open-ended cavity at the first end of the housing. At least one inertial mass is either incorporated in or attached to the housing. A plastic film adhesively bonded to at least one of an outer rim of the housing or an outer-facing surface of the disk provides for receiving an adhesive acoustic interface material to provide for coupling the housing to the skin of a test subject.

Auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor

An auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor electronic test signal applied to a sound generator generates an acoustic sound signal, responsive to which an auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor in proximity to the sound generator generates a corresponding auscultatory sound signal. The auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor electronic test signal incorporates a plurality of frequency components, each frequency component of which incorporates an integral number of wavelengths and is terminated following a duration of time corresponding to the integral number of wavelengths after that frequency component is applied to the corresponding sound generator. A determination of whether or not the auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor is functioning properly is made responsive to an analysis of a Fourier Transform of the auscultatory sound signal.

At least one of at least one data-dependent scale factor or at least one data-dependent detection threshold is determined responsive to at least one block of time-series data of an auscultatory-sound signal generated by an auscultatory-sound sensor operatively coupled to a portion of the skin of a test-subject, wherein the at least one data-dependent scale factor or at least one data-dependent detection threshold provides a measure of a range of values of the at least one block of time-series data in relation to a predetermined metric, and is used to determine whether or not the auscultatory-sound sensor is either debonded or detached from the skin of the test-subject.

System and method for detecting decoupling of an auscultatory sound sensor from a test-subject

An auscultatory sound signal acquired by a recording module is coupled through a high-pass filter having a cut-off frequency in the range of 3 to 15 Hz and subsequently filtered with a low-pass filter, and optionally subject to variable-gain amplification under external control&#x2014;via a USB or wireless interface&#x2014;of an associated docking system, responsive to the resulting processed auscultatory sound signal. A sound generator in the docking system generates an associated test signal having an integral number of wavelengths for each of a plurality of frequencies. The test signal is applied to a corresponding auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor to test the integrity thereof. Resulting sound signals recorded by the recording module are analyzed using a Fourier Transform to determine sensor integrity.

A time-series array of noise data is generated from an inverse frequency transform of the product of the frequency spectrum of an auscultatory sound signal with an associated noise filter generated responsive to a cross-correlation of frequency spectra of auscultatory sound signals from adjacent auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensors on the torso of a test subject. Noise power within at least one range of frequencies of average of frequency spectra from a plurality of windows of the time-series array of noise data is compared with a threshold to determine whether or not the associated auscultatory sound-or-vibration sensor is excessively noisy. In one embodiment, the noise filter is generated by subtracting from unity, a unity-normalized cross-correlation of frequency spectra of the auscultatory sound signals, wherein the resulting values are clipped so as to be no less than an associated noise floor.

Method of detecting noise in auscultatory sound signals of a coronary-artery-disease detection system

A metallic diaphragm disk incorporating a piezoelectric material bonded thereto and operatively coupled to a base rim of a housing provides for closing an open-ended cavity at the first end of the housing. In one aspect, plastic film adhesively bonded to at least one of an outer rim of the housing or an outer-facing surface of the disk provides for receiving an adhesive acoustic interface material to provide for coupling the housing to the skin of a test subject. In another aspect, an outer-facing surface of a base portion of the housing provides for receiving an adhesive acoustic interface material to provide for coupling the housing to the skin of a test subject, at least one inertial mass is operatively coupled to a central portion of the metallic diaphragm disk, and the opening in the first end of the housing is closed with a cover.

A mobile communication device and a method of mitigating wind noise in a speech signal generated at a microphone of the mobile communication device. A primary microphone of the mobile communication device receives speech and wind noise and generates a first speech signal based on the speech and the wind noise that is received. A secondary microphone of the mobile communication device receives attenuated speech and generates a second speech signal based on the attenuated speech that is received. The secondary microphone is shielded from the wind noise when the primary microphone receives speech and the wind noise. A processor of the mobile communication device processes the first speech signal to replace a low frequency portion of the first speech signal with the second speech signal in order to mitigate the wind noise in the first speech signal.

Method and device for mitigating wind noise in a speech signal generated at a microphone of the device

A method, system and apparatus for loudspeaker excursion domain processing are provided. At a device comprising: a processor, a loudspeaker comprising a voice coil, one or more devices for determining loudspeaker voltage and current as a function of time, t, and a memory storing a Bl product for the loudspeaker, loudspeaker currents I(t) and corresponding voltages V(t) are received at the processor from the one or more devices. A current-from-voltage transfer function H(&#x3c9;) is derived from the loudspeaker currents I(t) and voltages V(t), as a function of frequency, &#x3c9;. A Fourier space excursion-from-voltage transfer function H(&#x3c9;) is determined, whose form is constrained by parameters H(&#x3c9;), Bl, R, and L, where: Rcomprises a resistance of the voice coil; and Lcomprises an inductance of the voice coil. Filter coefficients are determined using H(&#x3c9;), which are used in a filter applied to an input signal for the loudspeaker.

Method, system and apparatus for loudspeaker excursion domain processing

Techniques for use in improving audio quality with use of an acoustic leak compensation (ALC) system in a mobile device are described. The mobile device includes a receiver and a microphone which is acoustically coupled to the receiver. A change in a signal power of signals received at the microphone is detected. In response to the detecting, a probe signal is enabled, and a frequency response between the receiver and the microphone is estimated using the probe signal as an input. Filter coefficients of a filter are calculated based on the estimated frequency response, and the calculated filter coefficients are applied to the filter. The filter type may be selected from a plurality of filter types based on an estimated signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the microphone signal.

Methods and apparatus for improving audio quality using an acoustic leak compensation system in a mobile device

Audio input may be received at one or more microphones of a mobile device. Based on the audio input, a change in an acoustic environment of the device, such as a change in a direction of arrival of the audio input or a degradation in a quality of acoustic echo cancellation being performed upon the audio input, may be detected. A determination may be made that the detected change coincides with a non-acoustic physical event detected using an auxiliary sensor at the mobile device. The event may for example be device motion, a new proximate object, a change in a proximity of an object, a new heat source or a change in a heat level from a known heat source. Based on the determining, a signal processor, possibly comprising an audio beamformer or echo canceller, may be recalibrated, e.g. the audio beamformer or echo canceller may be caused to reconverge.

Using an auxiliary device sensor to facilitate disambiguation of detected acoustic environment changes

A telephonic device having a speakerphone function has a loudspeaker and a plurality of microphones. The plurality of microphones are coupled to a plurality of beamformers which produce a first beamform having a spatial null in the direction of the loudspeaker and a second beamform having a spatial null in the direction of near-end signals. The two beamforms are then processed to facilitate echo reduction. By comparing the beamform powers, a state of double-talk can be determined and the determination can be used to enhance echo reduction associated with speakerphone functionality.

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Ottawa, Canada

Brady Nicholas Laska