Patent ID: 9438985
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: H04R

Claim Text:
1. A method of detecting a user's voice activity in a headset comprising: generating by a voice activity detector (VAD) a VAD output based on (i) acoustic signals received from at least one microphone included in a pair of earbuds and (ii) data output by at least one accelerometer that is included in the pair of earbuds, the at least one accelerometer to detect vibration of the user's vocal chords, wherein the headset includes the pair of earbuds, wherein the VAD generates a microphone VAD (VADm) output based on the acoustic signals and generates an accelerometer VAD (VADa) output based on the data output by the at least one accelerometer, wherein the VAD output is based on the VADm output and the VADa output, wherein generating the VAD output comprises: detecting speech included in the acoustic signals, and setting the VADm output to indicate that speech is detected in the acoustic signals, detecting the vibration of the user's vocal chords from the data output by the at least one accelerometer, and setting the VADa output to indicate that the user's voiced speech is detected, computing the coincidence of the VADm output being set to indicate detected speech in acoustic signals and the VADa output being set to indicate detected vibration of the user's vocal chords, and setting the VAD output to indicate that the user's voiced speech is detected if the coincidence is detected and setting the VAD output to indicate that the user's voiced speech is not detected if the coincidence is not detected.