Patent ID: 11895465
Assignee: STARKEY LABORATORIES, INC.
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H | IPC H

Claim 0:
1. An ear-worn electronic device configured to be worn by a wearer, comprising:
a housing configured to be supported in, on or about an ear of the wearer;
electronic circuitry disposed in the housing and comprising a processor;
a power source and a receiver or a speaker respectively disposed in or on the housing; and
a microphone array disposed in or on the housing and operatively coupled to the electronic circuitry, the microphone array comprises a plurality of microphones;
wherein the processor is configured to:
operate a set of two or more of the microphones in a directional mode;
detect degradation in performance of any microphone of the microphone set; and
switch microphone operation from the directional mode to a safe mode using at least one non-degraded microphone of the microphone set in response to detecting the microphone performance degradation, wherein the processor discontinues use of a degraded microphone or microphones when operating in the safe mode.